[Comparative study of two treatment methods for acute periodontal abscess].

PubMed

Jin, Dong-mei; Wang, Wei-qian

2012-10-01

The aim of this short-term study was to compare the clinical efficacy of 2 different methods to treat acute periodontal abscesses. After patient selection, 100 cases of acute periodontal abscess were randomly divided into two groups. The experimental group was treated by supra- and subgingival scaling, while the control group was treated by incision and drainage. A clinical examination was carried out to record the following variables: subjective clinical variables including pain, edema, redness and swelling; objective clinical variables including gingival index(GI), bleeding index(BI), probing depth(PD),suppuration, lymphadenopathy and tooth mobility. The data was analyzed with SPSS 19.0 software package. RESULES: Subjective clinical variables demonstrated statistically significant improvements with both methods from the first day after treatment and lasted for at least 30 days(P<0.05), but the results of experimental group showed much better than the control group 1 day and 7 days after treatment. 30 days after treatment, there was no significant difference between the two groups in pain and swelling improvement(P>0.05), but the experimental group showed more improvement in edema and redness than the control group(P<0.05).On improving objective variables, the experimental group showed significant improvement in GI,BI,PD and suppuration 1 day after treatment(P<0.05).After 7 days, all objective clinical variables in the experimental group improved significantly(P<0.05) in the control group, there were significant improvements in GI,suppuration,lymphadenopathy and tooth mobility(P<0.05) but the four variables of the experimental group showed more improvement than the control group(P<0.05).After 30 days, all objective clinical variables improved significantly in both groups as compared to baseline, but in the experimental group, improvements were more significant regarding to GI,BI,PD,suppuration and tooth mobility(P<0.05). The method of supra- and subgingival scaling was rapid and effective in treatment of acute periodontal abscesses.

Accuracy of tree diameter estimation from terrestrial laser scanning by circle-fitting methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koreň, Milan; Mokroš, Martin; Bucha, Tomáš

2017-12-01

This study compares the accuracies of diameter at breast height (DBH) estimations by three initial (minimum bounding box, centroid, and maximum distance) and two refining (Monte Carlo and optimal circle) circle-fitting methods The circle-fitting algorithms were evaluated in multi-scan mode and a simulated single-scan mode on 157 European beech trees (Fagus sylvatica L.). DBH measured by a calliper was used as reference data. Most of the studied circle-fitting algorithms significantly underestimated the mean DBH in both scanning modes. Only the Monte Carlo method in the single-scan mode significantly overestimated the mean DBH. The centroid method proved to be the least suitable and showed significantly different results from the other circle-fitting methods in both scanning modes. In multi-scan mode, the accuracy of the minimum bounding box method was not significantly different from the accuracies of the refining methods The accuracy of the maximum distance method was significantly different from the accuracies of the refining methods in both scanning modes. The accuracy of the Monte Carlo method was significantly different from the accuracy of the optimal circle method in only single-scan mode. The optimal circle method proved to be the most accurate circle-fitting method for DBH estimation from point clouds in both scanning modes.

Study of pharmacological activities of methanol extract of Jatropha gossypifolia fruits

PubMed Central

Apu, Apurba Sarker; Hossain, Faruq; Rizwan, Farhana; Bhuyan, Shakhawat Hossan; Matin, Maima; Jamaluddin, A.T.M

2012-01-01

Objective: The present study was carried out to investigate the possible in vivo analgesic, neuropharmacological and anti-diarrheal activities of the methanol extract of Jatropha gossypifolia fruits. Materials and Methods: The analgesic activity was measured by acetic acid induced writhing inhibition test. The neuropharmacological activities were evaluated by hole cross, hole-board, and elevated plus-maze (EPM) tests and the anti-diarrheal activity was assessed by castor oil induced diarrhea inhibition method. Findings: The extract showed highly significant (P < 0.001) analgesic activity with % inhibitions of writhing response at doses 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight were 77.86% and 71.25%, respectively. The extract at both doses showed significant (P < 0.05) sedative effect in-hole cross test. In-hole board test, the extract showed highly significant (P < 0.001) anxiolytic activity at lower dose whereas this activity was observed at higher dose in EPM test. The extract also showed highly significant (P < 0.001) anti-diarrheal activity. Conclusion: The findings of the study clearly indicate the presence of significant analgesic, neuropharmacological and anti-diarrheal properties of the plant, which demands further investigation including, compound isolation. PMID:24808665

Evaluation of microtensile and tensile bond strength tests determining effects of erbium, chromium: yttrium-scandium-gallium-garnet laser pulse frequency on resin-enamel bonding.

PubMed

Yildirim, T; Ayar, M K; Yesilyurt, C; Kilic, S

2016-01-01

The aim of the present study was to compare two different bond strength test methods (tensile and microtensile) in investing the influence of erbium, chromium: yttrium-scandium-gallium-garnet (Er, Cr: YSGG) laser pulse frequency on resin-enamel bonding. One-hundred and twenty-five bovine incisors were used in the present study. Two test methods were used: Tensile bond strength (TBS; n = 20) and micro-TBS (μTBS; n = 5). Those two groups were further split into three subgroups according to Er, Cr: YSGG laser frequency (20, 35, and 50 Hz). Following adhesive procedures, microhybrid composite was placed in a custom-made bonding jig for TBS testing and incrementally for μTBS testing. TBS and μTBS tests were carried out using a universal testing machine and a microtensile tester, respectively. Analysis of TBS results showed that means were not significantly different. For μTBS, the Laser-50 Hz group showed the highest bond strength (P < 0.05), and increasing frequency significantly increased bond strength (P < 0.05). Comparing the two tests, the μTBS results showed higher means and lower standard deviations. It was demonstrated that increasing μTBS pulse frequency significantly improved immediate bond strength while TBS showed no significant effect. It can, therefore, be concluded that test method may play a significant role in determining optimum laser parameters for resin bonding.

3-D localization of virtual sound sources: effects of visual environment, pointing method, and training.

PubMed

Majdak, Piotr; Goupell, Matthew J; Laback, Bernhard

2010-02-01

The ability to localize sound sources in three-dimensional space was tested in humans. In Experiment 1, naive subjects listened to noises filtered with subject-specific head-related transfer functions. The tested conditions included the pointing method (head or manual pointing) and the visual environment (VE; darkness or virtual VE). The localization performance was not significantly different between the pointing methods. The virtual VE significantly improved the horizontal precision and reduced the number of front-back confusions. These results show the benefit of using a virtual VE in sound localization tasks. In Experiment 2, subjects were provided with sound localization training. Over the course of training, the performance improved for all subjects, with the largest improvements occurring during the first 400 trials. The improvements beyond the first 400 trials were smaller. After the training, there was still no significant effect of pointing method, showing that the choice of either head- or manual-pointing method plays a minor role in sound localization performance. The results of Experiment 2 reinforce the importance of perceptual training for at least 400 trials in sound localization studies.

The Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman method for random effects meta-analysis is straightforward and considerably outperforms the standard DerSimonian-Laird method

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The DerSimonian and Laird approach (DL) is widely used for random effects meta-analysis, but this often results in inappropriate type I error rates. The method described by Hartung, Knapp, Sidik and Jonkman (HKSJ) is known to perform better when trials of similar size are combined. However evidence in realistic situations, where one trial might be much larger than the other trials, is lacking. We aimed to evaluate the relative performance of the DL and HKSJ methods when studies of different sizes are combined and to develop a simple method to convert DL results to HKSJ results. Methods We evaluated the performance of the HKSJ versus DL approach in simulated meta-analyses of 2–20 trials with varying sample sizes and between-study heterogeneity, and allowing trials to have various sizes, e.g. 25% of the trials being 10-times larger than the smaller trials. We also compared the number of “positive” (statistically significant at p < 0.05) findings using empirical data of recent meta-analyses with > = 3 studies of interventions from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Results The simulations showed that the HKSJ method consistently resulted in more adequate error rates than the DL method. When the significance level was 5%, the HKSJ error rates at most doubled, whereas for DL they could be over 30%. DL, and, far less so, HKSJ had more inflated error rates when the combined studies had unequal sizes and between-study heterogeneity. The empirical data from 689 meta-analyses showed that 25.1% of the significant findings for the DL method were non-significant with the HKSJ method. DL results can be easily converted into HKSJ results. Conclusions Our simulations showed that the HKSJ method consistently results in more adequate error rates than the DL method, especially when the number of studies is small, and can easily be applied routinely in meta-analyses. Even with the HKSJ method, extra caution is needed when there are = <5 studies of very unequal sizes. PMID:24548571

Size consistent formulations of the perturb-then-diagonalize Møller-Plesset perturbation theory correction to non-orthogonal configuration interaction

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yost, Shane R.; Head-Gordon, Martin, E-mail: mhg@cchem.berkeley.edu; Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720

2016-08-07

In this paper we introduce two size consistent forms of the non-orthogonal configuration interaction with second-order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory method, NOCI-MP2. We show that the original NOCI-MP2 formulation [S. R. Yost, T. Kowalczyk, and T. VanVoorh, J. Chem. Phys. 193, 174104 (2013)], which is a perturb-then-diagonalize multi-reference method, is not size consistent. We also show that this causes significant errors in large systems like the linear acenes. By contrast, the size consistent versions of the method give satisfactory results for singlet and triplet excited states when compared to other multi-reference methods that include dynamic correlation. For NOCI-MP2 however, the numbermore » of required determinants to yield similar levels of accuracy is significantly smaller. These results show the promise of the NOCI-MP2 method, though work still needs to be done in creating a more consistent black-box approach to computing the determinants that comprise the many-electron NOCI basis.« less

A comparison study of different facial soft tissue analysis methods.

PubMed

Kook, Min-Suk; Jung, Seunggon; Park, Hong-Ju; Oh, Hee-Kyun; Ryu, Sun-Youl; Cho, Jin-Hyoung; Lee, Jae-Seo; Yoon, Suk-Ja; Kim, Min-Soo; Shin, Hyo-Keun

2014-07-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate several different facial soft tissue measurement methods. After marking 15 landmarks in the facial area of 12 mannequin heads of different sizes and shapes, facial soft tissue measurements were performed by the following 5 methods: Direct anthropometry, Digitizer, 3D CT, 3D scanner, and DI3D system. With these measurement methods, 10 measurement values representing the facial width, height, and depth were determined twice with a one week interval by one examiner. These data were analyzed with the SPSS program. The position created based on multi-dimensional scaling showed that direct anthropometry, 3D CT, digitizer, 3D scanner demonstrated relatively similar values, while the DI3D system showed slightly different values. All 5 methods demonstrated good accuracy and had a high coefficient of reliability (>0.92) and a low technical error (<0.9 mm). The measured value of the distance between the right and left medial canthus obtained by using the DI3D system was statistically significantly different from that obtained by using the digital caliper, digitizer and laser scanner (p < 0.05), but the other measured values were not significantly different. On evaluating the reproducibility of measurement methods, two measurement values (Ls-Li, G-Pg) obtained by using direct anthropometry, one measurement value (N'-Prn) obtained by using the digitizer, and four measurement values (EnRt-EnLt, AlaRt-AlaLt, ChRt-ChLt, Sn-Pg) obtained by using the DI3D system, were statistically significantly different. However, the mean measurement error in every measurement method was low (<0.7 mm). All measurement values obtained by using the 3D CT and 3D scanner did not show any statistically significant difference. The results of this study show that all 3D facial soft tissue analysis methods demonstrate favorable accuracy and reproducibility, and hence they can be used in clinical practice and research studies. Copyright © 2013 European Association for Cranio-Maxillo-Facial Surgery. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparison of heuristic and cognitive walkthrough usability evaluation methods for evaluating health information systems.

PubMed

Khajouei, Reza; Zahiri Esfahani, Misagh; Jahani, Yunes

2017-04-01

There are several user-based and expert-based usability evaluation methods that may perform differently according to the context in which they are used. The objective of this study was to compare 2 expert-based methods, heuristic evaluation (HE) and cognitive walkthrough (CW), for evaluating usability of health care information systems. Five evaluators independently evaluated a medical office management system using HE and CW. We compared the 2 methods in terms of the number of identified usability problems, their severity, and the coverage of each method. In total, 156 problems were identified using the 2 methods. HE identified a significantly higher number of problems related to the "satisfaction" attribute ( P  = .002). The number of problems identified using CW concerning the "learnability" attribute was significantly higher than those identified using HE ( P  = .005). There was no significant difference between the number of problems identified by HE, based on different usability attributes ( P  = .232). Results of CW showed a significant difference between the number of problems related to usability attributes ( P  < .0001). The average severity of problems identified using CW was significantly higher than that of HE ( P  < .0001). This study showed that HE and CW do not differ significantly in terms of the number of usability problems identified, but they differ based on the severity of problems and the coverage of some usability attributes. The results suggest that CW would be the preferred method for evaluating systems intended for novice users and HE for users who have experience with similar systems. However, more studies are needed to support this finding. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

Simultaneous Validation of Seven Physical Activity Questionnaires Used in Japanese Cohorts for Estimating Energy Expenditure: A Doubly Labeled Water Study.

PubMed

Sasai, Hiroyuki; Nakata, Yoshio; Murakami, Haruka; Kawakami, Ryoko; Nakae, Satoshi; Tanaka, Shigeho; Ishikawa-Takata, Kazuko; Yamada, Yosuke; Miyachi, Motohiko

2018-04-28

Physical activity questionnaires (PAQs) used in large-scale Japanese cohorts have rarely been simultaneously validated against the gold standard doubly labeled water (DLW) method. This study examined the validity of seven PAQs used in Japan for estimating energy expenditure against the DLW method. Twenty healthy Japanese adults (9 men; mean age, 32.4 [standard deviation {SD}, 9.4] years, mainly researchers and students) participated in this study. Fifteen-day daily total energy expenditure (TEE) and basal metabolic rate (BMR) were measured using the DLW method and a metabolic chamber, respectively. Activity energy expenditure (AEE) was calculated as TEE - BMR - 0.1 × TEE. Seven PAQs were self-administered to estimate TEE and AEE. The mean measured values of TEE and AEE were 2,294 (SD, 318) kcal/day and 721 (SD, 161) kcal/day, respectively. All of the PAQs indicated moderate-to-strong correlations with the DLW method in TEE (rho = 0.57-0.84). Two PAQs (Japan Public Health Center Study [JPHC]-PAQ Short and JPHC-PAQ Long) showed significant equivalence in TEE and moderate intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC). None of the PAQs showed significantly equivalent AEE estimates, with differences ranging from -547 to 77 kcal/day. Correlations and ICCs in AEE were mostly weak or fair (rho = 0.02-0.54, and ICC = 0.00-0.44). Only JPHC-PAQ Short provided significant and fair agreement with the DLW method. TEE estimated by the PAQs showed moderate or strong correlations with the results of DLW. Two PAQs showed equivalent TEE and moderate agreement. None of the PAQs showed equivalent AEE estimation to the gold standard, with weak-to-fair correlations and agreements. Further studies with larger sample sizes are needed to confirm these findings.

Comparisons of topological properties in autism for the brain network construction methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Min-Hee; Kim, Dong Youn; Lee, Sang Hyeon; Kim, Jin Uk; Chung, Moo K.

2015-03-01

Structural brain networks can be constructed from the white matter fiber tractography of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and the structural characteristics of the brain can be analyzed from its networks. When brain networks are constructed by the parcellation method, their network structures change according to the parcellation scale selection and arbitrary thresholding. To overcome these issues, we modified the Ɛ -neighbor construction method proposed by Chung et al. (2011). The purpose of this study was to construct brain networks for 14 control subjects and 16 subjects with autism using both the parcellation and the Ɛ-neighbor construction method and to compare their topological properties between two methods. As the number of nodes increased, connectedness decreased in the parcellation method. However in the Ɛ-neighbor construction method, connectedness remained at a high level even with the rising number of nodes. In addition, statistical analysis for the parcellation method showed significant difference only in the path length. However, statistical analysis for the Ɛ-neighbor construction method showed significant difference with the path length, the degree and the density.

Interpretation of biological and mechanical variations between the Lowry versus Bradford method for protein quantification.

PubMed

Lu, Tzong-Shi; Yiao, Szu-Yu; Lim, Kenneth; Jensen, Roderick V; Hsiao, Li-Li

2010-07-01

The identification of differences in protein expression resulting from methodical variations is an essential component to the interpretation of true, biologically significant results. We used the Lowry and Bradford methods- two most commonly used methods for protein quantification, to assess whether differential protein expressions are a result of true biological or methodical variations. MATERIAL #ENTITYSTARTX00026; Differential protein expression patterns was assessed by western blot following protein quantification by the Lowry and Bradford methods. We have observed significant variations in protein concentrations following assessment with the Lowry versus Bradford methods, using identical samples. Greater variations in protein concentration readings were observed over time and in samples with higher concentrations, with the Bradford method. Identical samples quantified using both methods yielded significantly different expression patterns on Western blot. We show for the first time that methodical variations observed in these protein assay techniques, can potentially translate into differential protein expression patterns, that can be falsely taken to be biologically significant. Our study therefore highlights the pivotal need to carefully consider methodical approaches to protein quantification in techniques that report quantitative differences.

Dual-model automatic detection of nerve-fibres in corneal confocal microscopy images.

PubMed

Dabbah, M A; Graham, J; Petropoulos, I; Tavakoli, M; Malik, R A

2010-01-01

Corneal Confocal Microscopy (CCM) imaging is a non-invasive surrogate of detecting, quantifying and monitoring diabetic peripheral neuropathy. This paper presents an automated method for detecting nerve-fibres from CCM images using a dual-model detection algorithm and compares the performance to well-established texture and feature detection methods. The algorithm comprises two separate models, one for the background and another for the foreground (nerve-fibres), which work interactively. Our evaluation shows significant improvement (p approximately 0) in both error rate and signal-to-noise ratio of this model over the competitor methods. The automatic method is also evaluated in comparison with manual ground truth analysis in assessing diabetic neuropathy on the basis of nerve-fibre length, and shows a strong correlation (r = 0.92). Both analyses significantly separate diabetic patients from control subjects (p approximately 0).

Long-term effects of seven cleaning methods on light transmittance, surface roughness, and flexural modulus of polyurethane retainer material.

PubMed

Agarwal, Manika; Wible, Emily; Ramir, Tyler; Altun, Sibel; Viana, Grace; Evans, Carla; Lukic, Henry; Megremis, Spiro; Atsawasuwan, Phimon

2018-05-01

To evaluate the long-term effects of seven different cleaning methods on light transmittance, surface roughness, and flexural modulus of a polyurethane retainer material. Polyurethane retainer specimens (Vivera®, Align Technology Inc) (70 specimens, n = 10 per method, 50.8 mm × 12.7 mm × 1.0 mm) were exposed to seven cleaning methods twice a week for 6 months. Before treatment and after 6 months, light transmittance, surface roughness, and flexural modulus of the specimens were quantified. Qualitative assessment of randomly selected specimens from each solution was performed at baseline and after 6 months using a scanning electron microscope. Statistical analyses were performed at the .05 significance level. Of the three test variables, light transmittance through the specimens was the only one that changed significantly from baseline to 6 months for all cleaning solutions, with all of them causing a decrease. However, except for 0.6% sodium hypochlorite showing a change in surface roughness values and 2.5% vinegar and toothbrushing showing an increase in flexural modulus, none of the other four cleaning methods resulted in significant changes in surface roughness or flexural modulus values for the polyurethane specimens between baseline and after 6 months. Of the seven cleaning methods, Invisalign® cleaning crystals, Polident®, and Listerine® showed the least amount of change in light transmittance values for the polyurethane specimens over 6 months, and they had no effect on surface roughness and flexural modulus values.

The Ability of Different Imputation Methods to Preserve the Significant Genes and Pathways in Cancer.

PubMed

Aghdam, Rosa; Baghfalaki, Taban; Khosravi, Pegah; Saberi Ansari, Elnaz

2017-12-01

Deciphering important genes and pathways from incomplete gene expression data could facilitate a better understanding of cancer. Different imputation methods can be applied to estimate the missing values. In our study, we evaluated various imputation methods for their performance in preserving significant genes and pathways. In the first step, 5% genes are considered in random for two types of ignorable and non-ignorable missingness mechanisms with various missing rates. Next, 10 well-known imputation methods were applied to the complete datasets. The significance analysis of microarrays (SAM) method was applied to detect the significant genes in rectal and lung cancers to showcase the utility of imputation approaches in preserving significant genes. To determine the impact of different imputation methods on the identification of important genes, the chi-squared test was used to compare the proportions of overlaps between significant genes detected from original data and those detected from the imputed datasets. Additionally, the significant genes are tested for their enrichment in important pathways, using the ConsensusPathDB. Our results showed that almost all the significant genes and pathways of the original dataset can be detected in all imputed datasets, indicating that there is no significant difference in the performance of various imputation methods tested. The source code and selected datasets are available on http://profiles.bs.ipm.ir/softwares/imputation_methods/. Copyright © 2017. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.

EEG slow waves in traumatic brain injury: Convergent findings in mouse and man

PubMed Central

Modarres, Mo; Kuzma, Nicholas N.; Kretzmer, Tracy; Pack, Allan I.; Lim, Miranda M.

2016-01-01

Objective Evidence from previous studies suggests that greater sleep pressure, in the form of EEG-based slow waves, accumulates in specific brain regions that are more active during prior waking experience. We sought to quantify the number and coherence of EEG slow waves in subjects with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Methods We developed a method to automatically detect individual slow waves in each EEG channel, and validated this method using simulated EEG data. We then used this method to quantify EEG-based slow waves during sleep and wake states in both mouse and human subjects with mTBI. A modified coherence index that accounts for information from multiple channels was calculated as a measure of slow wave synchrony. Results Brain-injured mice showed significantly higher theta:alpha amplitude ratios and significantly more slow waves during spontaneous wakefulness and during prolonged sleep deprivation, compared to sham-injured control mice. Human subjects with mTBI showed significantly higher theta:beta amplitude ratios and significantly more EEG slow waves while awake compared to age-matched control subjects. We then quantified the global coherence index of slow waves across several EEG channels in human subjects. Individuals with mTBI showed significantly less EEG global coherence compared to control subjects while awake, but not during sleep. EEG global coherence was significantly correlated with severity of post-concussive symptoms (as assessed by the Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory scale). Conclusion and implications Taken together, our data from both mouse and human studies suggest that EEG slow wave quantity and the global coherence index of slow waves may represent a sensitive marker for the diagnosis and prognosis of mTBI and post-concussive symptoms. PMID:28018987

Robust gene selection methods using weighting schemes for microarray data analysis.

PubMed

Kang, Suyeon; Song, Jongwoo

2017-09-02

A common task in microarray data analysis is to identify informative genes that are differentially expressed between two different states. Owing to the high-dimensional nature of microarray data, identification of significant genes has been essential in analyzing the data. However, the performances of many gene selection techniques are highly dependent on the experimental conditions, such as the presence of measurement error or a limited number of sample replicates. We have proposed new filter-based gene selection techniques, by applying a simple modification to significance analysis of microarrays (SAM). To prove the effectiveness of the proposed method, we considered a series of synthetic datasets with different noise levels and sample sizes along with two real datasets. The following findings were made. First, our proposed methods outperform conventional methods for all simulation set-ups. In particular, our methods are much better when the given data are noisy and sample size is small. They showed relatively robust performance regardless of noise level and sample size, whereas the performance of SAM became significantly worse as the noise level became high or sample size decreased. When sufficient sample replicates were available, SAM and our methods showed similar performance. Finally, our proposed methods are competitive with traditional methods in classification tasks for microarrays. The results of simulation study and real data analysis have demonstrated that our proposed methods are effective for detecting significant genes and classification tasks, especially when the given data are noisy or have few sample replicates. By employing weighting schemes, we can obtain robust and reliable results for microarray data analysis.

Quantitative Assessment of Blood Pressure Measurement Accuracy and Variability from Visual Auscultation Method by Observers without Receiving Medical Training

PubMed Central

Feng, Yong; Chen, Aiqing

2017-01-01

This study aimed to quantify blood pressure (BP) measurement accuracy and variability with different techniques. Thirty video clips of BP recordings from the BHS training database were converted to Korotkoff sound waveforms. Ten observers without receiving medical training were asked to determine BPs using (a) traditional manual auscultatory method and (b) visual auscultation method by visualizing the Korotkoff sound waveform, which was repeated three times on different days. The measurement error was calculated against the reference answers, and the measurement variability was calculated from the SD of the three repeats. Statistical analysis showed that, in comparison with the auscultatory method, visual method significantly reduced overall variability from 2.2 to 1.1 mmHg for SBP and from 1.9 to 0.9 mmHg for DBP (both p < 0.001). It also showed that BP measurement errors were significant for both techniques (all p < 0.01, except DBP from the traditional method). Although significant, the overall mean errors were small (−1.5 and −1.2 mmHg for SBP and −0.7 and 2.6 mmHg for DBP, resp., from the traditional auscultatory and visual auscultation methods). In conclusion, the visual auscultation method had the ability to achieve an acceptable degree of BP measurement accuracy, with smaller variability in comparison with the traditional auscultatory method. PMID:29423405

In Vitro Effects of Cooking Methods on Digestibility of Lipids and Formation of Cholesterol Oxidation Products in Pork

PubMed Central

Moon, Sung Sil

2014-01-01

This study investigated the effects of cooking methods on the digestibility of lipids and formation of cholesterol oxidation products (COPs) in pork, during in vitro human digestion. Pork patties were cooked using four different methods (oven cooking, pan frying, boiling, and microwaving), to an internal temperature of approximately 85℃. The digestibility of pork patties were then evaluated, using the in vitro human digestion model that simulated the composition (pH, minerals, surfaceactive components, and enzymes) of digestive juices in the human mouth, stomach, and small intestine. The total lipid digestibility was higher after microwave cooking, whereas pan-frying resulted in lower in vitro digestibility, compared to the other cooking methods. The microwaving method followed by in vitro digestion also showed significantly higher content of free fatty acids and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), compared to the other cooking methods; whereas, the pan frying and boiling methods showed the lowest. Cholesterol content was not significantly different among the cooked samples before, and after in vitro human digestion. The formation of COPs was significantly higher in the microwave-treated pork samples, compared to those cooked by the other methods, which was consistent with the trend for lipid peroxidation (TBARS). We propose that from the point of view of COPs formation and lipid oxidation, the pan-frying or boiling methods would be useful. PMID:26761168

Testing an automated method to estimate ground-water recharge from streamflow records

USGS Publications Warehouse

Rutledge, A.T.; Daniel, C.C.

1994-01-01

The computer program, RORA, allows automated analysis of streamflow hydrographs to estimate ground-water recharge. Output from the program, which is based on the recession-curve-displacement method (often referred to as the Rorabaugh method, for whom the program is named), was compared to estimates of recharge obtained from a manual analysis of 156 years of streamflow record from 15 streamflow-gaging stations in the eastern United States. Statistical tests showed that there was no significant difference between paired estimates of annual recharge by the two methods. Tests of results produced by the four workers who performed the manual method showed that results can differ significantly between workers. Twenty-two percent of the variation between manual and automated estimates could be attributed to having different workers perform the manual method. The program RORA will produce estimates of recharge equivalent to estimates produced manually, greatly increase the speed od analysis, and reduce the subjectivity inherent in manual analysis.

A comparison of two differential methods for nutrition education in elementary school: lecture-and experience-based learning program.

PubMed

Jung, Lan-Hee; Choi, Jeong-Hwa; Bang, Hyun-Mi; Shin, Jun-Ho; Heo, Young-Ran

2015-02-01

This research was conducted to compare lecture-and experience-based methods of nutritional education as well as provide fundamental data for developing an effective nutritional education program in elementary schools. A total of 110 students in three elementary schools in Jeollanam-do were recruited and randomly distributed in lecture-and experience-based groups. The effects of education on students' dietary knowledge, dietary behaviors, and dietary habits were analyzed using a pre/post-test. Lecture-and experience-based methods did not significantly alter total scores for dietary knowledge in any group, although lecture-based method led to improvement for some detailed questions. In the experience-based group, subjects showed significant alteration of dietary behaviors, whereas lecture-based method showed alteration of dietary habits. These outcomes suggest that lecture-and experience-based methods led to differential improvement of students' dietary habits, behaviors, and knowledge. To obtain better nutritional education results, both lectures and experiential activities need to be considered.

Evaluating fMRI methods for assessing hemispheric language dominance in healthy subjects.

PubMed

Baciu, Monica; Juphard, Alexandra; Cousin, Emilie; Bas, Jean François Le

2005-08-01

We evaluated two methods for quantifying the hemispheric language dominance in healthy subjects, by using a rhyme detection (deciding whether couple of words rhyme) and a word fluency (generating words starting with a given letter) task. One of methods called "flip method" (FM) was based on the direct statistical comparison between hemispheres' activity. The second one, the classical lateralization indices method (LIM), was based on calculating lateralization indices by taking into account the number of activated pixels within hemispheres. The main difference between methods is the statistical assessment of the inter-hemispheric difference: while FM shows if the difference between hemispheres' activity is statistically significant, LIM shows only that if there is a difference between hemispheres. The robustness of LIM and FM was assessed by calculating correlation coefficients between LIs obtained with each of these methods and manual lateralization indices MLI obtained with Edinburgh inventory. Our results showed significant correlation between LIs provided by each method and the MIL, suggesting that both methods are robust for quantifying hemispheric dominance for language in healthy subjects. In the present study we also evaluated the effect of spatial normalization, smoothing and "clustering" (NSC) on the intra-hemispheric location of activated regions and inter-hemispheric asymmetry of the activation. Our results have shown that NSC did not affect the hemispheric specialization but increased the value of the inter-hemispheric difference.

Comparing the effects of two Swedish massage techniques on the vital signs and anxiety of healthy women

PubMed Central

Gholami-Motlagh, Farzaneh; Jouzi, Mina; Soleymani, Bahram

2016-01-01

Background: Anxiety is an inseparable part of our lives and a serious threat to health. Therefore, it is necessary to use certain strategies to prevent disorders caused by anxiety and adjust the vital signs of people. Swedish massage is one of the most recognized techniques for reducing anxiety. This study aims to compare the effects of two massage techniques on the vital signs and anxiety of healthy women. Materials and Methods: This quasi-experimental study with a two-group, crossover design was conducted on 20 healthy women who were selected by simple sampling method and were randomly assigned to BNC (Back, Neck, and Chest) or LAF (Leg, Arm, and Face) groups. Massage therapy was carried out for a 14-week period (two 4-week massage therapy sessions and 6 weeks washout stage). Gathered data were analyzed using paired t-test with a significance level of P < 0.05. Results: Both BNC and LAF methods caused a significant decrease in systolic BP in the first stage (P = 0.02, 0.00); however, diastolic BP showed significant decrease only in BNC group (P = 0.01). The mean average of body temperature of LAF group showed a significant decrease in the first stage (P = 0.0.3), and pulse and respiratory rate showed significant decrease in both groups during the second stage (P = 0.00). In addition, anxiety scores showed no significant difference before and after massage therapy (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Massage therapy caused a decrease in systolic BP, pulse, and respiratory rate. It can be concluded that massage therapy was useful for decreasing the vital signs associated with anxiety in healthy women. PMID:27563325

Validated flow-injection method for rapid aluminium determination in anti-perspirants.

PubMed

López-Gonzálvez, A; Ruiz, M A; Barbas, C

2008-09-29

A flow-injection (FI) method for the rapid determination of aluminium in anti-perspirants has been developed. The method is based on the spectrophotometric detection at 535nm of the complex formed between Al ions and the chromogenic reagent eriochrome cyanine R. Both the batch and FI methods were validated by checking the parameters included in the ISO-3543-1 regulation. Variables involved in the FI method were optimized by using appropriate statistical tools. The method does not exhibit interference from other substances present in anti-perspirants and it shows a high precision with a R.S.D. value (n=6) of 0.9%. Moreover, the accuracy of the method was evaluated by comparison with a back complexometric titration method, which is currently used for routine analysis in pharmaceutical laboratories. The Student's t-test showed that the results obtained by both methods were not significantly different for a significance level of 95%. A response time of 12s and a sample analysis time, by performing triplicate injections, of 60s were achieved. The analytical figures of merit make the method highly appropriate to substitute the time-consuming complexometric method for this kind of analysis.

Biomedical applications of green synthesized Nobel metal nanoparticles.

PubMed

Khan, Zia Ul Haq; Khan, Amjad; Chen, Yongmei; Shah, Noor S; Muhammad, Nawshad; Khan, Arif Ullah; Tahir, Kamran; Khan, Faheem Ullah; Murtaza, Behzad; Hassan, Sadaf Ul; Qaisrani, Saeed Ahmad; Wan, Pingyu

2017-08-01

Synthesis of Nobel metal nanoparticles, play a key role in the field of medicine. Plants contain a substantial number of organic constituents, like phenolic compounds and various types of glycosides that help in synthesis of metal nanoparticles. Synthesis of metal nanoparticles by green method is one of the best and environment friendly methods. The major significance of the green synthesis is lack of toxic by-products produced during metal nanoparticle synthesis. The nanoparticles, synthesized by green method show various significant biological activities. Most of the research articles report the synthesized nanoparticles to be active against gram positive and gram negative bacteria. Some of these bacteria include Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Klebsiella pneumonia and Pseudomonas fluorescens. The synthesized nanoparticles also show significant antifungal activity against Trichophyton simii, Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Trichophyton rubrum as well as different types of cancer cells such as breast cancer cell line. They also exhibit significant antioxidant activity. The activities of these Nobel metal nano-particles mainly depend on the size and shape. The particles of small size with large surface area show good activity in the field of medicine. The synthesized nanoparticles are also active against leishmanial diseases. This research article explores in detail the green synthesis of the nanoparticles and their uses thereof. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Model-based sensor-less wavefront aberration correction in optical coherence tomography.

PubMed

Verstraete, Hans R G W; Wahls, Sander; Kalkman, Jeroen; Verhaegen, Michel

2015-12-15

Several sensor-less wavefront aberration correction methods that correct nonlinear wavefront aberrations by maximizing the optical coherence tomography (OCT) signal are tested on an OCT setup. A conventional coordinate search method is compared to two model-based optimization methods. The first model-based method takes advantage of the well-known optimization algorithm (NEWUOA) and utilizes a quadratic model. The second model-based method (DONE) is new and utilizes a random multidimensional Fourier-basis expansion. The model-based algorithms achieve lower wavefront errors with up to ten times fewer measurements. Furthermore, the newly proposed DONE method outperforms the NEWUOA method significantly. The DONE algorithm is tested on OCT images and shows a significantly improved image quality.

Assessment of the Effects of Holding Time and Temperature on Escherichia coli Densities in Surface Water Samples

PubMed Central

Pope, Misty L.; Bussen, Michelle; Feige, Mary Ann; Shadix, Lois; Gonder, Sharon; Rodgers, Crystal; Chambers, Yildiz; Pulz, Jessica; Miller, Ken; Connell, Kevin; Standridge, Jon

2003-01-01

Escherichia coli is a routinely used microbiological indicator of water quality. To determine whether holding time and storage conditions had an effect on E. coli densities in surface water, studies were conducted in three phases, encompassing 24 sites across the United States and four commonly used monitoring methods. During all three phases of the study, E. coli samples were analyzed at time 0 and at 8, 24, 30, and 48 h after sample collection. During phase 1, when 4°C samples were evaluated by Colilert or by placing a membrane onto mFC medium followed by transfer to nutrient agar containing 4-methylumbelliferyl-β-d-glucuronide (mFC/NA-MUG), three of four sites showed no significant differences throughout the 48-h study. During phase 2, five of seven sites showed no significant difference between time 0 and 24 h by membrane filtration (mFC/NA-MUG). When evaluated by the Colilert method, five of seven sites showed no significant difference in E. coli density between time 0 and 48 h. During phase 3, 8 of 13 sites showed no significant differences in E. coli densities between time 0 and the 48-h holding time, regardless of method. Based on the results of these studies, it appears that if samples are held below 10°C and are not allowed to freeze, most surface water E. coli samples analyzed by commonly used methods beyond 8 h after sample collection can generate E. coli data comparable to those generated within 8 h of sample collection. Notwithstanding this conclusion, E. coli samples collected from surface waters should always be analyzed as soon as possible. PMID:14532081

Suitability of Secondary PEEK Telescopic Crowns on Zirconia Primary Crowns: The Influence of Fabrication Method and Taper.

PubMed

Merk, Susanne; Wagner, Christina; Stock, Veronika; Eichberger, Marlis; Schmidlin, Patrick R; Roos, Malgorzata; Stawarczyk, Bogna

2016-11-08

This study investigates the retention load (RL) between ZrO₂ primary crowns and secondary polyetheretherketone (PEEK) crowns made by different fabrication methods with three different tapers. Standardized primary ZrO₂ crowns were fabricated with three different tapers: 0°, 1°, and 2° ( n = 10/group). Ten secondary crowns were fabricated (i) milled from breCam BioHPP blanks (PM); (ii) pressed from industrially fabricated PEEK pellets (PP) (BioHPP Pellet); or (iii) pressed from granular PEEK (PG) (BioHPP Granulat). One calibrated operator adjusted all crowns. In total, the RL of 90 secondary crowns were measured in pull-off tests at 50 mm/min, and each specimen was tested 20 times. Two- and one-way ANOVAs followed by a Scheffé's post-hoc test were used for data analysis ( p < 0.05). Within crowns with a 0° taper, the PP group showed significantly higher retention load values compared with the other groups. Among the 1° taper, the PM group presented significantly lower retention loads than the PP group. However, the pressing type had no impact on the results. Within the 2° taper, the fabrication method had no influence on the RL. Within the PM group, the 2° taper showed significantly higher retention load compared with the 1° taper. The taper with 0° was in the same range value as the 1° and 2° tapers. No impact of the taper on the retention value was observed between the PP groups. Within the PG groups, the 0° taper presented significantly lower RL than the 1° taper, whereas the 2° taper showed no differences. The fabrication method of the secondary PEEK crowns and taper angles showed no consistent effect within all tested groups.

Evaluation of new automated syphilis test reagents 'IMMUNOTICLES AUTO3' series: performance, biochemical reactivity, and clinical significance.

PubMed

Yukimasa, Nobuyasu; Miura, Keisuke; Miyagawa, Yukiko; Fukuchi, Kunihiko

2015-01-01

Automated nontreponemal and treponemal test reagents based on the latex agglutination method (immunoticles auto3 RPR: ITA3RPR and immunoticles auto3 TP: ITA3TP) have been developed to improve the issues of conventional manual methods such as their subjectivity, a massive amount of assays, and so on. We evaluated these reagents in regards to their performance, reactivity to antibody isotype, and their clinical significance. ITA3RPR and ITA3TP were measured using a clinical chemistry analyzer. Reactivity to antibody isotype was examined by gel filtration analysis. ITA3RPR and ITA3TP showed reactivity to both IgM- and IgG-class antibodies and detected early infections. ITA3RPR was verified to show a higher reactivity to IgM-class antibodies than the conventional methods. ITA3RPR correlated with VDRL in the high titer range, and measurement values decreased with treatment. ITA3RPR showed a negative result earlier after treatment than conventional methods. ITA3TP showed high specificity and did not give any false-negative reaction. Significant differences in the measurement values of ITA3RPR between the infective and previous group were verified. The double test of ITA3RPR and ITA3TP enables efficient and objective judgment for syphilis diagnosis and treatments, achieving clinical availability. Copyright © 2014 Japanese Society of Chemotherapy and The Japanese Association for Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Different methods to analyze stepped wedge trial designs revealed different aspects of intervention effects.

PubMed

Twisk, J W R; Hoogendijk, E O; Zwijsen, S A; de Boer, M R

2016-04-01

Within epidemiology, a stepped wedge trial design (i.e., a one-way crossover trial in which several arms start the intervention at different time points) is increasingly popular as an alternative to a classical cluster randomized controlled trial. Despite this increasing popularity, there is a huge variation in the methods used to analyze data from a stepped wedge trial design. Four linear mixed models were used to analyze data from a stepped wedge trial design on two example data sets. The four methods were chosen because they have been (frequently) used in practice. Method 1 compares all the intervention measurements with the control measurements. Method 2 treats the intervention variable as a time-independent categorical variable comparing the different arms with each other. In method 3, the intervention variable is a time-dependent categorical variable comparing groups with different number of intervention measurements, whereas in method 4, the changes in the outcome variable between subsequent measurements are analyzed. Regarding the results in the first example data set, methods 1 and 3 showed a strong positive intervention effect, which disappeared after adjusting for time. Method 2 showed an inverse intervention effect, whereas method 4 did not show a significant effect at all. In the second example data set, the results were the opposite. Both methods 2 and 4 showed significant intervention effects, whereas the other two methods did not. For method 4, the intervention effect attenuated after adjustment for time. Different methods to analyze data from a stepped wedge trial design reveal different aspects of a possible intervention effect. The choice of a method partly depends on the type of the intervention and the possible time-dependent effect of the intervention. Furthermore, it is advised to combine the results of the different methods to obtain an interpretable overall result. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Comparison of Manual Refraction Versus Autorefraction in 60 Diabetic Retinopathy Patients

PubMed Central

Shirzadi, Keyvan; Shahraki, Kourosh; Yahaghi, Emad; Makateb, Ali; Khosravifard, Keivan

2016-01-01

Aim: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the comparison of manual refraction versus autorefraction in diabetic retinopathy patients. Material and Methods: The study was conducted at the Be’sat Army Hospital from 2013-2015. In the present study differences between two common refractometry methods (manual refractometry and Auto refractometry) in diagnosis and follow up of retinopathy in patients affected with diabetes is investigated. Results: Our results showed that there is a significant difference in visual acuity score of patients between manual and auto refractometry. Despite this fact, spherical equivalent scores of two methods of refractometry did not show a significant statistical difference in the patients. Conclusion: Although use of manual refraction is comparable with autorefraction in evaluating spherical equivalent scores in diabetic patients affected with retinopathy, but in the case of visual acuity results from these two methods are not comparable. PMID:27703289

Sensitivity analysis and nonlinearity assessment of steam cracking furnace process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosli, M. N.; Sudibyo, Aziz, N.

2017-11-01

In this paper, sensitivity analysis and nonlinearity assessment of cracking furnace process are presented. For the sensitivity analysis, the fractional factorial design method is employed as a method to analyze the effect of input parameters, which consist of four manipulated variables and two disturbance variables, to the output variables and to identify the interaction between each parameter. The result of the factorial design method is used as a screening method to reduce the number of parameters, and subsequently, reducing the complexity of the model. It shows that out of six input parameters, four parameters are significant. After the screening is completed, step test is performed on the significant input parameters to assess the degree of nonlinearity of the system. The result shows that the system is highly nonlinear with respect to changes in an air-to-fuel ratio (AFR) and feed composition.

Searching for transcription factor binding sites in vector spaces

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Computational approaches to transcription factor binding site identification have been actively researched in the past decade. Learning from known binding sites, new binding sites of a transcription factor in unannotated sequences can be identified. A number of search methods have been introduced over the years. However, one can rarely find one single method that performs the best on all the transcription factors. Instead, to identify the best method for a particular transcription factor, one usually has to compare a handful of methods. Hence, it is highly desirable for a method to perform automatic optimization for individual transcription factors. Results We proposed to search for transcription factor binding sites in vector spaces. This framework allows us to identify the best method for each individual transcription factor. We further introduced two novel methods, the negative-to-positive vector (NPV) and optimal discriminating vector (ODV) methods, to construct query vectors to search for binding sites in vector spaces. Extensive cross-validation experiments showed that the proposed methods significantly outperformed the ungapped likelihood under positional background method, a state-of-the-art method, and the widely-used position-specific scoring matrix method. We further demonstrated that motif subtypes of a TF can be readily identified in this framework and two variants called the k NPV and k ODV methods benefited significantly from motif subtype identification. Finally, independent validation on ChIP-seq data showed that the ODV and NPV methods significantly outperformed the other compared methods. Conclusions We conclude that the proposed framework is highly flexible. It enables the two novel methods to automatically identify a TF-specific subspace to search for binding sites. Implementations are available as source code at: http://biogrid.engr.uconn.edu/tfbs_search/. PMID:23244338

Improving space debris detection in GEO ring using image deconvolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Núñez, Jorge; Núñez, Anna; Montojo, Francisco Javier; Condominas, Marta

2015-07-01

In this paper we present a method based on image deconvolution to improve the detection of space debris, mainly in the geostationary ring. Among the deconvolution methods we chose the iterative Richardson-Lucy (R-L), as the method that achieves better goals with a reasonable amount of computation. For this work, we used two sets of real 4096 × 4096 pixel test images obtained with the Telescope Fabra-ROA at Montsec (TFRM). Using the first set of data, we establish the optimal number of iterations in 7, and applying the R-L method with 7 iterations to the images, we show that the astrometric accuracy does not vary significantly while the limiting magnitude of the deconvolved images increases significantly compared to the original ones. The increase is in average about 1.0 magnitude, which means that objects up to 2.5 times fainter can be detected after deconvolution. The application of the method to the second set of test images, which includes several faint objects, shows that, after deconvolution, up to four previously undetected faint objects are detected in a single frame. Finally, we carried out a study of some economic aspects of applying the deconvolution method, showing that an important economic impact can be envisaged.

Marginal and Internal Adaptation of Zirconia Crowns: A Comparative Study of Assessment Methods.

PubMed

Cunali, Rafael Schlögel; Saab, Rafaella Caramori; Correr, Gisele Maria; Cunha, Leonardo Fernandes da; Ornaghi, Bárbara Pick; Ritter, André V; Gonzaga, Carla Castiglia

2017-01-01

Marginal and internal adaptation is critical for the success of indirect restorations. New imaging systems make it possible to evaluate these parameters with precision and non-destructively. This study evaluated the marginal and internal adaptation of zirconia copings fabricated with two different systems using both silicone replica and microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) assessment methods. A metal master model, representing a preparation for an all-ceramic full crown, was digitally scanned and polycrystalline zirconia copings were fabricated with either Ceramill Zi (Amann-Girrbach) or inCoris Zi (Dentslpy-Sirona), n=10. For each coping, marginal and internal gaps were evaluated by silicone replica and micro-CT assessment methods. Four assessment points of each replica cross-section and micro-CT image were evaluated using imaging software: marginal gap (MG), axial wall (AW), axio-occlusal angle (AO) and mid-occlusal wall (MO). Data were statistically analyzed by factorial ANOVA and Tukey test (a=0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the methods for MG and AW. For AO, there were significant differences between methods for Amann copings, while for Dentsply-Sirona copings similar values were observed. For MO, both methods presented statistically significant differences. A positive correlation was observed determined by the two assessment methods for MG values. In conclusion, the assessment method influenced the evaluation of marginal and internal adaptation of zirconia copings. Micro-CT showed lower marginal and internal gap values when compared to the silicone replica technique, although the difference was not always statistically significant. Marginal gap and axial wall assessment points showed the lower gap values, regardless of ceramic system and assessment method used.

Boar taint detection: A comparison of three sensory protocols.

PubMed

Trautmann, Johanna; Meier-Dinkel, Lisa; Gertheiss, Jan; Mörlein, Daniel

2016-01-01

While recent studies state an important role of human sensory methods for daily routine control of so-called boar taint, the evaluation of different heating methods is still incomplete. This study investigated three common heating methods (microwave (MW), hot-water (HW), hot-iron (HI)) for boar fat evaluation. The comparison was carried out on 72 samples with a 10-person sensory panel. The heating method significantly affected the probability of a deviant rating. Compared to an assumed 'gold standard' (chemical analysis), the performance was best for HI when both sensitivity and specificity were considered. The results show the superiority of the panel result compared to individual assessors. However, the consistency of the individual sensory ratings was not significantly different between MW, HW, and HI. The three protocols showed only fair to moderate agreement. Concluding from the present results, the hot-iron method appears to be advantageous for boar taint evaluation as compared to microwave and hot-water. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

[Analysis of the stability and adaptability of near infrared spectra qualitative analysis model].

PubMed

Cao, Wu; Li, Wei-jun; Wang, Ping; Zhang, Li-ping

2014-06-01

The stability and adaptability of model of near infrared spectra qualitative analysis were studied. Method of separate modeling can significantly improve the stability and adaptability of model; but its ability of improving adaptability of model is limited. Method of joint modeling can not only improve the adaptability of the model, but also the stability of model, at the same time, compared to separate modeling, the method can shorten the modeling time, reduce the modeling workload; extend the term of validity of model, and improve the modeling efficiency. The experiment of model adaptability shows that, the correct recognition rate of separate modeling method is relatively low, which can not meet the requirements of application, and joint modeling method can reach the correct recognition rate of 90%, and significantly enhances the recognition effect. The experiment of model stability shows that, the identification results of model by joint modeling are better than the model by separate modeling, and has good application value.

Cluster analysis as a prediction tool for pregnancy outcomes.

PubMed

Banjari, Ines; Kenjerić, Daniela; Šolić, Krešimir; Mandić, Milena L

2015-03-01

Considering specific physiology changes during gestation and thinking of pregnancy as a "critical window", classification of pregnant women at early pregnancy can be considered as crucial. The paper demonstrates the use of a method based on an approach from intelligent data mining, cluster analysis. Cluster analysis method is a statistical method which makes possible to group individuals based on sets of identifying variables. The method was chosen in order to determine possibility for classification of pregnant women at early pregnancy to analyze unknown correlations between different variables so that the certain outcomes could be predicted. 222 pregnant women from two general obstetric offices' were recruited. The main orient was set on characteristics of these pregnant women: their age, pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and haemoglobin value. Cluster analysis gained a 94.1% classification accuracy rate with three branch- es or groups of pregnant women showing statistically significant correlations with pregnancy outcomes. The results are showing that pregnant women both of older age and higher pre-pregnancy BMI have a significantly higher incidence of delivering baby of higher birth weight but they gain significantly less weight during pregnancy. Their babies are also longer, and these women have significantly higher probability for complications during pregnancy (gestosis) and higher probability of induced or caesarean delivery. We can conclude that the cluster analysis method can appropriately classify pregnant women at early pregnancy to predict certain outcomes.

Efficiency of the Thermal Jacket on the Delivered Temperature of Prewarmed Crystalloid Intravenous Fluid

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-01-01

intervals over a 60 minute period at flow rates of 100, 250, 500, 750, and 1,000 ml/hr. Analysis of variance showed a highly significant group effect with a...significant difference between all groups except Group 3 and Group 4. Analysis of - .riance aiso showed a highly significant flow rate effect on...as effective as the conventional method of delivering warmed fluids. Also, within the range of flow rates studied, faster flow rates tended to yield a

β-Cell protection and antidiabetic activities of Crassocephalum crepidioides (Asteraceae) Benth. S. Moore extract against alloxan-induced oxidative stress via regulation of apoptosis and reactive oxygen species (ROS).

PubMed

Bahar, Entaz; Akter, Kazi-Marjahan; Lee, Geum-Hwa; Lee, Hwa-Young; Rashid, Harun-Or; Choi, Min-Kyung; Bhattarai, Kashi Raj; Hossain, Mir Mohammad Monir; Ara, Joushan; Mazumder, Kishor; Raihan, Obayed; Chae, Han-Jung; Yoon, Hyonok

2017-03-29

Medicinal plants are becoming more popular in the treatment of various diseases because of the adverse effects of the current therapy, especially antioxidant plant components such as phenols and flavonoids have a protective role against oxidative stress-induced degenerative diseases like diabetes. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate β-cell protection and antidiabetic activities of Crassocephalum crepidioides (Asteraceae) Benth. S. Moore. The in-vitro study was conducted by the pancreatic β-cell culture and α-amylase inhibition technique which includes two methods, namely starch-iodine method and 3,5-dinitrosalicylic acid (DNSA) method. On the other hand, the in-vivo study was performed by oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) method and alloxan-induced diabetes method by using Wistar albino rat. At the end pancreatic specimens were removed and processed for histopathological study. The plant extract showed significant (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01) effect on hyperglycemia as compared to standard (Gliclazide) in OGTT. The plant extract showed efficient protection activity of pancreatic β-cell from cell death in INS-1 cell line by significantly reduced (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01) the levels alloxan-induced apoptosis and intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation. In addition, the plant extract showed a significant (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01) effect on hyperglycemia by increases in percent of β-cells present in each islet (45% - 60%) compared to the diabetic group. The result showed that C. crepidioides had β-cell protection and antidiabetic activities in pancreatic β-cell culture and Wistar albino rat.

Massachusetts Lowell low speed wind tunnel (LSWT) test section

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anderson, Erik William

The alumina and hybrid alumina-silica FT catalyst were prepared by one-step solgel/oil-drop methods using metal-nitrate-solutions (method-I), and nanoparticle-metaloxides (method-2). The nanoparticle-metal-oxides did not participate in solubility equilibria in contrast to metal nitrate in method-1 causing no metal ion seepage; therefore, method-2 yields higher XRF metal loading efficiency than method-1. The thermal analysis confirmed that the metal loading by method-1 and method-2 involved two different pathways. Method-1 involves solubility equilibria in the conversion of metal-nitrate to metal- hydroxide and finally to metal-oxide, while in method-2 nanoparticle-metal-oxide remained intact during sol-gel-oil-drop and calcination steps. The alumina supported catalysts were dominated by gamma-alumina PXRD peaks in alumina catalysts while amorphous alumino-silicate phase was the bulk of hybrid alumina-silica catalysts. The presence of cobalt oxides (CoO, Co3O4) and iron oxides (FeO, Fe2O3) phases are confirmed in the catalysts prepared by method-1 and method-2. The PXRD analysis indicated weak peak intensities in catalysts with 5 wt. % total metal loading. PXRD pattern confirmed alloy formation in the bimetallic catalysts (CoFe2O4) on alumina support phase gamma-A12 O3. The surface area and pore diameter of hybrid alumina-silica granules (301 - 372 m2/g and 7.3 nm) showed better values than the alumina granules (251 - 256 m2/g and 6.5 nm). The support pore diameter of both types of granules is within the mesoporous range (1 - 50 nm). The morphology of all the catalysts is preserved upon metal loading and heat treatments. The surface characteristics of the sol-gel-oil-drop method prepared catalysts indicate there was no significant pore blockage of the support below 10 wt % total metal loading. The CO conversion of the FT catalysts was measured to screen catalytic active metals and determine the optimum temperatures of the FT reaction for the alumina catalysts. The alumina FT catalysts showed an optimum reaction temperature of 250 °C. Hydrocarbon production and CO conversion of alumina and hybrid alumina-silica FT catalysts were investigated. Among monometallic alumina catalysts, Co(5%) showed a higher CO conversion. The incorporation of Fe to Co increased CO conversion and hydrocarbon production. Increased Fe content in the bimetallic catalysts prepared by combined method-1&2, decreased CO conversion and hydrocarbon production, and increased CO 2 production. The bimetallic nano-Co(2.5%)nano-Fe(2.5%) prepared by method-2 alone showed higher CO conversion comparable to the Co(4%)nano-Fe(l %). Hybrid alumina-silica FT catalysts showed a higher CO conversion than the alumina FT catalysts due to better surface characteristics. The monometallic catalysts showed higher selectivity to C1-C4 hydrocarbon than bimetallic. The bimetallic alumina FT catalysts prepared by method-2 showed slightly higher C5+ selectivity compared to the higher Co catalysts prepared by combined method- I &2. The Ru promotion showed a significant effect on the CO conversion and 11 product distribution of the monometallic catalysts. There was no significant effect on the CO conversion on the (Co-Fe) bimetallic catalysts, but hydrocarbon production slightly increased when promoted by 0.5 wt.% Ru.

Synthesis, characterization, and activity of Co/Fe alumina/silica supported Ft catalysts and the study of promoter effect of ruthenium

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Esumike, Sunday Azubike

The alumina and hybrid alumina-silica FT catalyst were prepared by one-step solgel/oil-drop methods using metal-nitrate-solutions (method-I), and nanoparticle-metaloxides (method-2). The nanoparticle-metal-oxides did not participate in solubility equilibria in contrast to metal nitrate in method-1 causing no metal ion seepage; therefore, method-2 yields higher XRF metal loading efficiency than method-1. The thermal analysis confirmed that the metal loading by method-1 and method-2 involved two different pathways. Method-1 involves solubility equilibria in the conversion of metal-nitrate to metal- hydroxide and finally to metal-oxide, while in method-2 nanoparticle-metal-oxide remained intact during sol-gel-oil-drop and calcination steps. The alumina supported catalysts were dominated by gamma-alumina PXRD peaks in alumina catalysts while amorphous alumino-silicate phase was the bulk of hybrid alumina-silica catalysts. The presence of cobalt oxides (CoO, Co3O4) and iron oxides (FeO, Fe2O3) phases are confirmed in the catalysts prepared by method-1 and method-2. The PXRD analysis indicated weak peak intensities in catalysts with 5 wt. % total metal loading. PXRD pattern confirmed alloy formation in the bimetallic catalysts (CoFe2O4) on alumina support phase gamma-A12 O3. The surface area and pore diameter of hybrid alumina-silica granules (301 - 372 m2/g and 7.3 nm) showed better values than the alumina granules (251 - 256 m2/g and 6.5 nm). The support pore diameter of both types of granules is within the mesoporous range (1 - 50 nm). The morphology of all the catalysts is preserved upon metal loading and heat treatments. The surface characteristics of the sol-gel-oil-drop method prepared catalysts indicate there was no significant pore blockage of the support below 10 wt % total metal loading. The CO conversion of the FT catalysts was measured to screen catalytic active metals and determine the optimum temperatures of the FT reaction for the alumina catalysts. The alumina FT catalysts showed an optimum reaction temperature of 250 °C. Hydrocarbon production and CO conversion of alumina and hybrid alumina-silica FT catalysts were investigated. Among monometallic alumina catalysts, Co(5%) showed a higher CO conversion. The incorporation of Fe to Co increased CO conversion and hydrocarbon production. Increased Fe content in the bimetallic catalysts prepared by combined method-1&2, decreased CO conversion and hydrocarbon production, and increased CO 2 production. The bimetallic nano-Co(2.5%)nano-Fe(2.5%) prepared by method-2 alone showed higher CO conversion comparable to the Co(4%)nano-Fe(l %). Hybrid alumina-silica FT catalysts showed a higher CO conversion than the alumina FT catalysts due to better surface characteristics. The monometallic catalysts showed higher selectivity to C1-C4 hydrocarbon than bimetallic. The bimetallic alumina FT catalysts prepared by method-2 showed slightly higher C5+ selectivity compared to the higher Co catalysts prepared by combined method- I &2. The Ru promotion showed a significant effect on the CO conversion and 11 product distribution of the monometallic catalysts. There was no significant effect on the CO conversion on the (Co-Fe) bimetallic catalysts, but hydrocarbon production slightly increased when promoted by 0.5 wt.% Ru.

The choice of statistical methods for comparisons of dosimetric data in radiotherapy.

PubMed

Chaikh, Abdulhamid; Giraud, Jean-Yves; Perrin, Emmanuel; Bresciani, Jean-Pierre; Balosso, Jacques

2014-09-18

Novel irradiation techniques are continuously introduced in radiotherapy to optimize the accuracy, the security and the clinical outcome of treatments. These changes could raise the question of discontinuity in dosimetric presentation and the subsequent need for practice adjustments in case of significant modifications. This study proposes a comprehensive approach to compare different techniques and tests whether their respective dose calculation algorithms give rise to statistically significant differences in the treatment doses for the patient. Statistical investigation principles are presented in the framework of a clinical example based on 62 fields of radiotherapy for lung cancer. The delivered doses in monitor units were calculated using three different dose calculation methods: the reference method accounts the dose without tissues density corrections using Pencil Beam Convolution (PBC) algorithm, whereas new methods calculate the dose with tissues density correction for 1D and 3D using Modified Batho (MB) method and Equivalent Tissue air ratio (ETAR) method, respectively. The normality of the data and the homogeneity of variance between groups were tested using Shapiro-Wilks and Levene test, respectively, then non-parametric statistical tests were performed. Specifically, the dose means estimated by the different calculation methods were compared using Friedman's test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test. In addition, the correlation between the doses calculated by the three methods was assessed using Spearman's rank and Kendall's rank tests. The Friedman's test showed a significant effect on the calculation method for the delivered dose of lung cancer patients (p <0.001). The density correction methods yielded to lower doses as compared to PBC by on average (-5 ± 4.4 SD) for MB and (-4.7 ± 5 SD) for ETAR. Post-hoc Wilcoxon signed-rank test of paired comparisons indicated that the delivered dose was significantly reduced using density-corrected methods as compared to the reference method. Spearman's and Kendall's rank tests indicated a positive correlation between the doses calculated with the different methods. This paper illustrates and justifies the use of statistical tests and graphical representations for dosimetric comparisons in radiotherapy. The statistical analysis shows the significance of dose differences resulting from two or more techniques in radiotherapy.

Value of the polymerase chain reaction method for detecting tuberculosis in the bronchial tissue involved by anthracosis.

PubMed

Mirsadraee, Majid; Shafahie, Ahmad; Reza Khakzad, Mohammad; Sankian, Mojtaba

2014-04-01

Anthracofibrosis is the black discoloration of the bronchial mucosa with deformity and obstruction. Association of this disease with tuberculosis (TB) was approved. The objective of this study was to find the additional benefit of assessment of TB by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. Bronchoscopy was performed on 103 subjects (54 anthracofibrosis and 49 control subjects) who required bronchoscopy for their pulmonary problems. According to bronchoscopic findings, participants were classified to anthracofibrosis and nonanthracotic groups. They were examined for TB with traditional methods such as direct smear (Ziehl-Neelsen staining), Löwenstein-Jensen culture, and histopathology and the new method "PCR" for Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome (IS6110). Age, sex, smoking, and clinical findings were not significantly different in the TB and the non-TB groups. Acid-fast bacilli could be detected by a direct smear in 12 (25%) of the anthracofibrosis subjects, and adding the results of culture and histopathology traditional tests indicated TB in 27 (31%) of the cases. Mycobacterium tuberculosis was diagnosed by PCR in 18 (33%) patients, but the difference was not significant. Detection of acid-fast bacilli in control nonanthracosis subjects was significantly lower (3, 6%), but PCR (20, 40%) and accumulation of results from all traditional methods (22, 44%) showed a nonsignificant difference. The PCR method showed a result equal to traditional methods including accumulation of smear, culture, and histopathology.

The effect of four-phase teaching method on midwifery students’ emotional intelligence in managing the childbirth

PubMed Central

Mohamadirizi, Soheila; Fahami, Fariba; Bahadoran, Parvin; Ehsanpour, Soheila

2015-01-01

Background: An active teaching method has been used widely in medical education. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the four-phase teaching method on midwifery students’ emotional intelligence (EQ) in managing the childbirth. Materials and Methods: This was an experimental study that performed in 2013 in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Thirty midwifery students were involved in this study and selected through a random sampling method. The EQ questionnaire (43Q) was completed by both the groups, before and after the education. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 14, the independent t-test, and the paired t-test. The statistically significant level was considered to be <0.05. Results: The findings of the independent t-test did not show any significant difference between EQ scores of the experimental and the control group before the intervention, whereas a statistically significant difference was observed after the intervention between the scores of two groups (P = 0.009). The paired t-test showed a statistically significant difference in EQ scores in the two groups after the intervention in the four-phase and the control group, respectively, as P = 0.005 and P = 0.018. Furthermore, the rate of self-efficiency has increased in the experimental group and control group as 66% and 13% (P = 0.024), respectively. Conclusion: The four-phase teaching method can increase the EQ levels of midwifery students. Therefore, the conduction of this educational model is recommended as an effective learning method. PMID:26097861

Face-name association learning in early Alzheimer's disease: a comparison of learning methods and their underlying mechanisms.

PubMed

Bier, Nathalie; Van Der Linden, Martial; Gagnon, Lise; Desrosiers, Johanne; Adam, Stephane; Louveaux, Stephanie; Saint-Mleux, Julie

2008-06-01

This study compared the efficacy of five learning methods in the acquisition of face-name associations in early dementia of Alzheimer type (AD). The contribution of error production and implicit memory to the efficacy of each method was also examined. Fifteen participants with early AD and 15 matched controls were exposed to five learning methods: spaced retrieval, vanishing cues, errorless, and two trial-and-error methods, one with explicit and one with implicit memory task instructions. Under each method, participants had to learn a list of five face-name associations, followed by free recall, cued recall and recognition. Delayed recall was also assessed. For AD, results showed that all methods were efficient but there were no significant differences between them. The number of errors produced during the learning phases varied between the five methods but did not influence learning. There were no significant differences between implicit and explicit memory task instructions on test performances. For the control group, there were no differences between the five methods. Finally, no significant correlations were found between the performance of the AD participants in free recall and their cognitive profile, but generally, the best performers had better remaining episodic memory. Also, case study analyses showed that spaced retrieval was the method for which the greatest number of participants (four) obtained results as good as the controls. This study suggests that the five methods are effective for new learning of face-name associations in AD. It appears that early AD patients can learn, even in the context of error production and explicit memory conditions.

Anti-inflammatory, Analgesic and Antiulcer properties of Porphyra vietnamensis

PubMed Central

Bhatia, Saurabh; Sharma, Kiran; Sharma, Ajay; Nagpal, Kalpana; Bera, Tanmoy

2015-01-01

Objectives: Aim of the present work was to investigate the anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antiulcer effects of red seaweed Porphyra vietnamensis (P. vietnamenis). Materials and Methods: Aqueous (POR) and alcoholic (PE) fractions were successfully isolated from P. vietnamenis. Further biological investigations were performed using a classic test of paw edema induced by carrageenan, writhing induced by acetic acid, hot plate method and naproxen induced gastro-duodenal ulcer. Results: Among the fractions POR showed better activity. POR and PE significantly (p < 0.05) reduced carrageenan induced paw edema in a dose dependent manner. In the writhing test POR significantly (p < 0.05) reduced abdominal writhes than PE. In hot plate method POR showed better analgesic activity than PE. POR showed comparable ulcers reducing potential (p<0.01) to that of omeprazole, and has more ulcer reducing potential then PE. Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrated that P. vietnamenis aqueous fraction possesses biological activity that is close to the standards taken for the treatment of peripheral painful or/and inflammatory and ulcer conditions. PMID:25767759

Comparison of Digestion Methods for the Determination of Trace Elements and Heavy Metals in Human Hair and Nails

PubMed Central

Ishak, Ismarulyusda; Rosli, Farah Dayana; Mohamed, Jamaludin; Mohd Ismail, Muhammad Faiz

2015-01-01

Background Microwave is the most reliable sample digestion method. However, it requires expensive microwave digester automation and has relatively low productivity. In this study, three non-automated digestion methods, i.e. wet acid digestion using nitric acid (HNO3) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), wet acid digestion using HNO3, and dry washing, are compared in order to determine the best approach. Methods Certified reference material IAEA-086 (International Atomic Energy Agency, Austria) and hair and nail samples from 20 female students of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, aged 19 to 30 years, were collected and analysed using the three digestion methods. Results For hair samples, analysis of variance of repeated measures showed significant differences in the level of all elements (P < 0.001) between the three methods. For nail samples, only the copper (Cu) level showed no significant difference (P = 0.100) between methods. Wet acid digestion using HNO3 and H2O2 showed the best within- and between-run relative standard deviation (RSD) values, with within-run RSD for all elements, except for selenium (Se), < 5%. The between-run precision ranges from 6.14% to 17.96% for hair and from 3.53% to 11.52% for nail samples. Wet acid digestion using HNO3 and H2O2 showed both good accuracy and precision for manganese (Mn) and magnesium (Mg), with percentage recoveries of 110% and 96.9%, respectively. All elements show higher method detection limit (MDL) values than the previous study: 0.05 μg/g Mg for wet acid digestion using HNO3, 0.02 μg/g Se for wet acid digestion using HNO3 and H2O2, and 0.2 μg/g Mg for dry ash method. Conclusion Wet acid digestion using HNO3 and H2O2 proved to be the best method in terms of precision, accuracy, recovery, and MDL. However, only Mn and Mg showed adequate precision, accuracy, and percentage of recovery. PMID:28223880

Simplified method for detecting tritium contamination in plants and soil

USGS Publications Warehouse

Andraski, Brian J.; Sandstrom, M.W.; Michel, R.L.; Radyk, J.C.; Stonestrom, David A.; Johnson, M.J.; Mayers, C.J.

2003-01-01

Cost-effective methods are needed to identify the presence and distribution of tritium near radioactive waste disposal and other contaminated sites. The objectives of this study were to (i) develop a simplified sample preparation method for determining tritium contamination in plants and (ii) determine if plant data could be used as an indicator of soil contamination. The method entailed collection and solar distillation of plant water from foliage, followed by filtration and adsorption of scintillation-interfering constituents on a graphite-based solid phase extraction (SPE) column. The method was evaluated using samples of creosote bush [Larrea tridentata (Sessé & Moc. ex DC.) Coville], an evergreen shrub, near a radioactive disposal area in the Mojave Desert. Laboratory tests showed that a 2-g SPE column was necessary and sufficient for accurate determination of known tritium concentrations in plant water. Comparisons of tritium concentrations in plant water determined with the solar distillation–SPE method and the standard (and more laborious) toluene-extraction method showed no significant difference between methods. Tritium concentrations in plant water and in water vapor of root-zone soil also showed no significant difference between methods. Thus, the solar distillation–SPE method provides a simple and cost-effective way to identify plant and soil contamination. The method is of sufficient accuracy to facilitate collection of plume-scale data and optimize placement of more sophisticated (and costly) monitoring equipment at contaminated sites. Although work to date has focused on one desert plant, the approach may be transferable to other species and environments after site-specific experiments.

The Role of Attention in Somatosensory Processing: A Multi-Trait, Multi-Method Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wodka, Ericka L.; Puts, Nicolaas A. J.; Mahone, E. Mark; Edden, Richard A. E.; Tommerdahl, Mark; Mostofsky, Stewart H.

2016-01-01

Sensory processing abnormalities in autism have largely been described by parent report. This study used a multi-method (parent-report and measurement), multi-trait (tactile sensitivity and attention) design to evaluate somatosensory processing in ASD. Results showed multiple significant within-method (e.g., parent report of different…

Comparative analysis of 2 glenoid version measurement methods in variable axial slices on 3-dimensionally reconstructed computed tomography scans.

PubMed

Cunningham, Gregory; Freebody, John; Smith, Margaret M; Taha, Mohy E; Young, Allan A; Cass, Benjamin; Giuffre, Bruno

2018-05-16

Most glenoid version measurement methods have been validated on 3-dimensionally corrected axial computed tomography (CT) slices at the mid glenoid. Variability of the vault according to slice height and angulation has not yet been studied and is crucial for proper surgical implant positioning. The aim of this study was to analyze the variation of the glenoid vault compared with the Friedman angle according to different CT slice heights and angulations. The hypothesis was that the Friedman angle would show less variability. Sixty shoulder CT scans were retrieved from a hospital imaging database and were reconstructed in the plane of the scapula. Seven axial slices of different heights and coronal angulations were selected, and measurements were carried out by 3 observers. Mid-glenoid mean version was -8.0° (±4.9°; range, -19.6° to +7.0°) and -2.1° (±4.7°; range, -13.0° to +10.3°) using the vault method and Friedman angle, respectively. For both methods, decreasing slice height or angulation did not significantly alter version. Increasing slice height or angulation significantly increased anteversion for the vault method (P < .001). Both interobserver reliability and intraobserver reliability were significantly higher using the Friedman angle. Version at the mid and lower glenoid is similar using either method. The vault method shows less reliability and more variability according to slice height or angulation. Yet, as it significantly differs from the Friedman angle, it should still be used in situations where maximum bone purchase is sought with glenoid implants. For any other situation, the Friedman angle remains the method of choice. Copyright © 2018 Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Board of Trustees. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Active Learning with Rationales for Identifying Operationally Significant Anomalies in Aviation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sharma, Manali; Das, Kamalika; Bilgic, Mustafa; Matthews, Bryan; Nielsen, David Lynn; Oza, Nikunj C.

2016-01-01

A major focus of the commercial aviation community is discovery of unknown safety events in flight operations data. Data-driven unsupervised anomaly detection methods are better at capturing unknown safety events compared to rule-based methods which only look for known violations. However, not all statistical anomalies that are discovered by these unsupervised anomaly detection methods are operationally significant (e.g., represent a safety concern). Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) have to spend significant time reviewing these statistical anomalies individually to identify a few operationally significant ones. In this paper we propose an active learning algorithm that incorporates SME feedback in the form of rationales to build a classifier that can distinguish between uninteresting and operationally significant anomalies. Experimental evaluation on real aviation data shows that our approach improves detection of operationally significant events by as much as 75% compared to the state-of-the-art. The learnt classifier also generalizes well to additional validation data sets.

Validation of the Use of Dried Blood Spot (DBS) Method to Assess Vitamin A Status

PubMed Central

Fallah, Elham; Peighambardoust, Seyed Hadi

2012-01-01

Background: Vitamin A deficiency is an important dietary deficiency in the world. Thus, the ne¬cessity of screening for deficient populations is obvious. This paper introduces a fast, cheap and relatively reliable method called “dried blood spot” (DBS) method in screening the deficient populations. The validity of this method for retinol measurement was investigated. Method: The “precision” and “agreement” criteria of the DBS method were assessed. The preci¬sion was calculated and compared with those of plasma using F-test. The agreement was eva¬luated using Bland-Altman plot. Results: The imprecision of retinol measurements in dried spots was not significantly different from those of the control (plasma). A good correlation coefficient (r2=0.78) was obtained for dried spots’ retinol measurements versus plasma’s retinol analysis (P < 0.01). Paired t-test showed no significant difference between the DBS and retinol methods on a group level. Imprecision of DBS measurement was acceptable, compared to that of the plasma method. The difference be¬tween these two methods was not statistically significant on a group level. Conclusion: Application of DBS standard samples, in which a part of the plasma was replaced with the artificial plasma, was shown to be a reliable calibration mean for retinol measurements in DBS samples. Retinol in dried spots was stable for 90 days. Overall, the DBS method provided a precise measurement of retinol, showing results that were comparable with the measurement of retinol in plasma. PMID:24688932

Comparison of Manual Refraction Versus Autorefraction in 60 Diabetic Retinopathy Patients.

PubMed

Shirzadi, Keyvan; Shahraki, Kourosh; Yahaghi, Emad; Makateb, Ali; Khosravifard, Keivan

2016-07-27

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the comparison of manual refraction versus autorefraction in diabetic retinopathy patients. The study was conducted at the Be'sat Army Hospital from 2013-2015. In the present study differences between two common refractometry methods (manual refractometry and Auto refractometry) in diagnosis and follow up of retinopathy in patients affected with diabetes is investigated. Our results showed that there is a significant difference in visual acuity score of patients between manual and auto refractometry. Despite this fact, spherical equivalent scores of two methods of refractometry did not show a significant statistical difference in the patients. Although use of manual refraction is comparable with autorefraction in evaluating spherical equivalent scores in diabetic patients affected with retinopathy, but in the case of visual acuity results from these two methods are not comparable.

[Optimized application of nested PCR method for detection of malaria].

PubMed

Yao-Guang, Z; Li, J; Zhen-Yu, W; Li, C

2017-04-28

Objective To optimize the application of the nested PCR method for the detection of malaria according to the working practice, so as to improve the efficiency of malaria detection. Methods Premixing solution of PCR, internal primers for further amplification and new designed primers that aimed at two Plasmodium ovale subspecies were employed to optimize the reaction system, reaction condition and specific primers of P . ovale on basis of routine nested PCR. Then the specificity and the sensitivity of the optimized method were analyzed. The positive blood samples and examination samples of malaria were detected by the routine nested PCR and the optimized method simultaneously, and the detection results were compared and analyzed. Results The optimized method showed good specificity, and its sensitivity could reach the pg to fg level. The two methods were used to detect the same positive malarial blood samples simultaneously, the results indicated that the PCR products of the two methods had no significant difference, but the non-specific amplification reduced obviously and the detection rates of P . ovale subspecies improved, as well as the total specificity also increased through the use of the optimized method. The actual detection results of 111 cases of malarial blood samples showed that the sensitivity and specificity of the routine nested PCR were 94.57% and 86.96%, respectively, and those of the optimized method were both 93.48%, and there was no statistically significant difference between the two methods in the sensitivity ( P > 0.05), but there was a statistically significant difference between the two methods in the specificity ( P < 0.05). Conclusion The optimized PCR can improve the specificity without reducing the sensitivity on the basis of the routine nested PCR, it also can save the cost and increase the efficiency of malaria detection as less experiment links.

Performance Evaluation of a Salivary Amylase Biosensor for Stress Assessment in Military Field Research.

PubMed

Peng, Henry T; Savage, Erin; Vartanian, Oshin; Smith, Shane; Rhind, Shawn G; Tenn, Catherine; Bjamason, Stephen

2016-05-01

A convenient biosensor for real-time measurement of biomarkers for in-field psychophysiological stress research and military operations is desirable. We evaluated a hand-held device for measuring salivary amylase as a stress marker in medical technicians undergoing combat casualty care training using two different modalities in operating room and field settings. Salivary amylase activity was measured by two biosensor methods: directly sampling saliva with a test strip placed under the tongue or pipetting a fixed volume of precollected saliva onto the test strip, followed by analyzing the sample on the strip using a biosensor. The two methods were compared for their accuracy and sensitivity to detect the stress response using an enzyme assay method as a standard. The measurements from the under-the-tongue method were not as consistent with those from the standard assay method as the values obtained from the pipetting method. The under-the-tongue method did not detect any significant increase in the amylase activity due to stress in the operating room (P > 0.1), in contrast to the significant increases observed using the pipetting method and assay method with a significance level less than 0.05 and 0.1, respectively. Furthermore, the under-the-tongue method showed no increased amylase activity in the field testing, while both the pipetting method and assay method showed increased amylase activity in the same group (P < 0.1). The accuracy and consistency of the biosensors need to be improved when used to directly measure salivary amylase activity under the tongue for stress assessment in military medical training. © 2015 Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada. Journal of Clinical Laboratory Analysis published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Reproduced with the permission DRDC Editorial Board.

A three phase optimization method for precopy based VM live migration.

PubMed

Sharma, Sangeeta; Chawla, Meenu

2016-01-01

Virtual machine live migration is a method of moving virtual machine across hosts within a virtualized datacenter. It provides significant benefits for administrator to manage datacenter efficiently. It reduces service interruption by transferring the virtual machine without stopping at source. Transfer of large number of virtual machine memory pages results in long migration time as well as downtime, which also affects the overall system performance. This situation becomes unbearable when migration takes place over slower network or a long distance migration within a cloud. In this paper, precopy based virtual machine live migration method is thoroughly analyzed to trace out the issues responsible for its performance drops. In order to address these issues, this paper proposes three phase optimization (TPO) method. It works in three phases as follows: (i) reduce the transfer of memory pages in first phase, (ii) reduce the transfer of duplicate pages by classifying frequently and non-frequently updated pages, and (iii) reduce the data sent in last iteration of migration by applying the simple RLE compression technique. As a result, each phase significantly reduces total pages transferred, total migration time and downtime respectively. The proposed TPO method is evaluated using different representative workloads on a Xen virtualized environment. Experimental results show that TPO method reduces total pages transferred by 71 %, total migration time by 70 %, downtime by 3 % for higher workload, and it does not impose significant overhead as compared to traditional precopy method. Comparison of TPO method with other methods is also done for supporting and showing its effectiveness. TPO method and precopy methods are also tested at different number of iterations. The TPO method gives better performance even with less number of iterations.

Statistical lamb wave localization based on extreme value theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harley, Joel B.

2018-04-01

Guided wave localization methods based on delay-and-sum imaging, matched field processing, and other techniques have been designed and researched to create images that locate and describe structural damage. The maximum value of these images typically represent an estimated damage location. Yet, it is often unclear if this maximum value, or any other value in the image, is a statistically significant indicator of damage. Furthermore, there are currently few, if any, approaches to assess the statistical significance of guided wave localization images. As a result, we present statistical delay-and-sum and statistical matched field processing localization methods to create statistically significant images of damage. Our framework uses constant rate of false alarm statistics and extreme value theory to detect damage with little prior information. We demonstrate our methods with in situ guided wave data from an aluminum plate to detect two 0.75 cm diameter holes. Our results show an expected improvement in statistical significance as the number of sensors increase. With seventeen sensors, both methods successfully detect damage with statistical significance.

Numerical Manifold Method for the Forced Vibration of Thin Plates during Bending

PubMed Central

Jun, Ding; Song, Chen; Wei-Bin, Wen; Shao-Ming, Luo; Xia, Huang

2014-01-01

A novel numerical manifold method was derived from the cubic B-spline basis function. The new interpolation function is characterized by high-order coordination at the boundary of a manifold element. The linear elastic-dynamic equation used to solve the bending vibration of thin plates was derived according to the principle of minimum instantaneous potential energy. The method for the initialization of the dynamic equation and its solution process were provided. Moreover, the analysis showed that the calculated stiffness matrix exhibited favorable performance. Numerical results showed that the generalized degrees of freedom were significantly fewer and that the calculation accuracy was higher for the manifold method than for the conventional finite element method. PMID:24883403

Isolation of osteoprogenitors from human jaw periosteal cells: a comparison of two magnetic separation methods.

PubMed

Olbrich, Marcus; Rieger, Melanie; Reinert, Siegmar; Alexander, Dorothea

2012-01-01

Human jaw periosteum tissue contains osteoprogenitors that have potential for tissue engineering applications in oral and maxillofacial surgeries. To isolate osteoprogenitor cells from heterogeneous cell populations, we used the specific mesenchymal stem cell antigen-1 (MSCA-1) antibody and compared two magnetic separation methods. We analyzed the obtained MSCA-1(+) and MSCA-1(-) fractions in terms of purity, yield of positive/negative cells and proliferative and mineralization potentials. The analysis of cell viability after separation revealed that the EasySep method yielded higher viability rates, whereas the flow cytometry results showed a higher purity for the MACS-separated cell fractions. The mineralization capacity of the osteogenic induced MSCA-1(+) cells compared with the MSCA-1(-) controls using MACS was 5-fold higher, whereas the same comparison after EasySep showed no significant differences between both fractions. By analyzing cell proliferation, we detected a significant difference between the proliferative potential of the osteogenic cells versus untreated cells after the MACS and EasySep separations. The differentiated cells after MACS separation adjusted their proliferative capacity, whereas the EasySep-separated cells failed to do so. The protein expression analysis showed small differences between the two separation methods. Our findings suggest that MACS is a more suitable separation method to isolate osteoprogenitors from the entire jaw periosteal cell population.

Optimization of enzymes-microwave-ultrasound assisted extraction of Lentinus edodes polysaccharides and determination of its antioxidant activity.

PubMed

Yin, Chaomin; Fan, Xiuzhi; Fan, Zhe; Shi, Defang; Gao, Hong

2018-05-01

Enzymes-microwave-ultrasound assisted extraction (EMUE) method had been used to extract Lentinus edodes polysaccharides (LEPs). The enzymatic temperature, enzymatic pH, microwave power and microwave time were optimized by response surface methodology. The yields, properties and antioxidant activities of LEPs from EMUE and other extraction methods including hot-water extraction, enzymes-assisted extraction, microwave-assisted extraction and ultrasound-assisted extraction were evaluated. The results showed that the highest LEPs yield of 9.38% was achieved with enzymatic temperature of 48°C, enzymatic pH of 5.0, microwave power of 440W and microwave time of 10min, which correlated well with the predicted value of 9.79%. Additionally, LEPs from different extraction methods possessed typical absorption peak of polysaccharides, which meant different extraction methods had no significant effects on type of glycosidic bonds and sugar ring of LEPs. However, SEM images of LEPs from different extraction methods were significantly different. Moreover, the different LEPs all showed antioxidant activities, but LEPs from EMUE showed the highest reducing power when compared to other LEPs. The results indicated LEPs from EMUE can be used as natural antioxidant component in the pharmaceutical and functional food industries. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Repeatability, Reproducibility, Separative Power and Subjectivity of Different Fish Morphometric Analysis Methods

PubMed Central

Takács, Péter

2016-01-01

We compared the repeatability, reproducibility (intra- and inter-measurer similarity), separative power and subjectivity (measurer effect on results) of four morphometric methods frequently used in ichthyological research, the “traditional” caliper-based (TRA) and truss-network (TRU) distance methods and two geometric methods that compare landmark coordinates on the body (GMB) and scales (GMS). In each case, measurements were performed three times by three measurers on the same specimen of three common cyprinid species (roach Rutilus rutilus (Linnaeus, 1758), bleak Alburnus alburnus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Prussian carp Carassius gibelio (Bloch, 1782)) collected from three closely-situated sites in the Lake Balaton catchment (Hungary) in 2014. TRA measurements were made on conserved specimens using a digital caliper, while TRU, GMB and GMS measurements were undertaken on digital images of the bodies and scales. In most cases, intra-measurer repeatability was similar. While all four methods were able to differentiate the source populations, significant differences were observed in their repeatability, reproducibility and subjectivity. GMB displayed highest overall repeatability and reproducibility and was least burdened by measurer effect. While GMS showed similar repeatability to GMB when fish scales had a characteristic shape, it showed significantly lower reproducability (compared with its repeatability) for each species than the other methods. TRU showed similar repeatability as the GMS. TRA was the least applicable method as measurements were obtained from the fish itself, resulting in poor repeatability and reproducibility. Although all four methods showed some degree of subjectivity, TRA was the only method where population-level detachment was entirely overwritten by measurer effect. Based on these results, we recommend a) avoidance of aggregating different measurer’s datasets when using TRA and GMS methods; and b) use of image-based methods for morphometric surveys. Automation of the morphometric workflow would also reduce any measurer effect and eliminate measurement and data-input errors. PMID:27327896

Combining multiple positive training sets to generate confidence scores for protein-protein interactions.

PubMed

Yu, Jingkai; Finley, Russell L

2009-01-01

High-throughput experimental and computational methods are generating a wealth of protein-protein interaction data for a variety of organisms. However, data produced by current state-of-the-art methods include many false positives, which can hinder the analyses needed to derive biological insights. One way to address this problem is to assign confidence scores that reflect the reliability and biological significance of each interaction. Most previously described scoring methods use a set of likely true positives to train a model to score all interactions in a dataset. A single positive training set, however, may be biased and not representative of true interaction space. We demonstrate a method to score protein interactions by utilizing multiple independent sets of training positives to reduce the potential bias inherent in using a single training set. We used a set of benchmark yeast protein interactions to show that our approach outperforms other scoring methods. Our approach can also score interactions across data types, which makes it more widely applicable than many previously proposed methods. We applied the method to protein interaction data from both Drosophila melanogaster and Homo sapiens. Independent evaluations show that the resulting confidence scores accurately reflect the biological significance of the interactions.

State Medicaid reimbursement for nursing homes, 1978-86

PubMed Central

Swan, James H.; Harrington, Charlene; Grant, Leslie A.

1988-01-01

State Medicaid reimbursement methods and rates are reported for the period 1978-86 for skilled nursing and intermediate care facilities. A cross-sectional time series regression analysis of Medicaid reimbursement rates on methods showed that States using prospective class reimbursement had significantly lower rates for the period 1982-86. States using prospective facility-specific reimbursement methods had lower rates than retrospective methods in 1983-84. PMID:10312516

Community-based Inquiry Improves Critical Thinking in General Education Biology

PubMed Central

Faiola, Celia L.; Johnson, James E.; Kurtz, Martha J.

2008-01-01

National stakeholders are becoming increasingly concerned about the inability of college graduates to think critically. Research shows that, while both faculty and students deem critical thinking essential, only a small fraction of graduates can demonstrate the thinking skills necessary for academic and professional success. Many faculty are considering nontraditional teaching methods that incorporate undergraduate research because they more closely align with the process of doing investigative science. This study compared a research-focused teaching method called community-based inquiry (CBI) with traditional lecture/laboratory in general education biology to discover which method would elicit greater gains in critical thinking. Results showed significant critical-thinking gains in the CBI group but decreases in a traditional group and a mixed CBI/traditional group. Prior critical-thinking skill, instructor, and ethnicity also significantly influenced critical-thinking gains, with nearly all ethnicities in the CBI group outperforming peers in both the mixed and traditional groups. Females, who showed decreased critical thinking in traditional courses relative to males, outperformed their male counterparts in CBI courses. Through the results of this study, it is hoped that faculty who value both research and critical thinking will consider using the CBI method. PMID:18765755

Statistical significance of the rich-club phenomenon in complex networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Zhi-Qiang; Zhou, Wei-Xing

2008-04-01

We propose that the rich-club phenomenon in complex networks should be defined in the spirit of bootstrapping, in which a null model is adopted to assess the statistical significance of the rich-club detected. Our method can serve as a definition of the rich-club phenomenon and is applied to analyze three real networks and three model networks. The results show significant improvement compared with previously reported results. We report a dilemma with an exceptional example, showing that there does not exist an omnipotent definition for the rich-club phenomenon.

Assessing muscular oxygenation during incremental exercise using near-infrared spectroscopy: comparison of three different methods.

PubMed

Agbangla, N F; Audiffren, M; Albinet, C T

2017-12-20

Using continuous-wave near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), this study compared three different methods, namely the slope method (SM), the amplitude method (AM), and the area under the curve (AUC) method to determine the variations of intramuscular oxygenation level as a function of workload. Ten right-handed subjects (22+/-4 years) performed one isometric contraction at each of three different workloads (30 %, 50 % and 90 % of maximal voluntary strength) during a period of twenty seconds. Changes in oxyhemoglobin (delta[HbO(2)]) and deoxyhemoglobin (delta[HHb]) concentrations in the superficial flexor of fingers were recorded using continuous-wave NIRS. The results showed a strong consistency between the three methods, with standardized Cronbach alphas of 0.87 for delta[HHb] and 0.95 for delta[HbO(2)]. No significant differences between the three methods were observed concerning delta[HHb] as a function of workload. However, only the SM showed sufficient sensitivity to detect a significant decrease in delta[HbO(2)] between 30 % and 50 % of workload (p<0.01). Among these three methods, the SM appeared to be the only method that was well adapted and sensitive enough to determine slight changes in delta[HbO(2)]. Theoretical and methodological implications of these results are discussed.

Simulations of Fractal Star Cluster Formation. I. New Insights for Measuring Mass Segregation of Star Clusters with Substructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, Jincheng; Puzia, Thomas H.; Lin, Congping; Zhang, Yiwei

2017-05-01

We compare the existent methods, including the minimum spanning tree based method and the local stellar density based method, in measuring mass segregation of star clusters. We find that the minimum spanning tree method reflects more the compactness, which represents the global spatial distribution of massive stars, while the local stellar density method reflects more the crowdedness, which provides the local gravitational potential information. It is suggested to measure the local and the global mass segregation simultaneously. We also develop a hybrid method that takes both aspects into account. This hybrid method balances the local and the global mass segregation in the sense that the predominant one is either caused by dynamical evolution or purely accidental, especially when such information is unknown a priori. In addition, we test our prescriptions with numerical models and show the impact of binaries in estimating the mass segregation value. As an application, we use these methods on the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) observations and the Taurus cluster. We find that the ONC is significantly mass segregated down to the 20th most massive stars. In contrast, the massive stars of the Taurus cluster are sparsely distributed in many different subclusters, showing a low degree of compactness. The massive stars of Taurus are also found to be distributed in the high-density region of the subclusters, showing significant mass segregation at subcluster scales. Meanwhile, we also apply these methods to discuss the possible mechanisms of the dynamical evolution of the simulated substructured star clusters.

Simulations of Fractal Star Cluster Formation. I. New Insights for Measuring Mass Segregation of Star Clusters with Substructure

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yu, Jincheng; Puzia, Thomas H.; Lin, Congping

2017-05-10

We compare the existent methods, including the minimum spanning tree based method and the local stellar density based method, in measuring mass segregation of star clusters. We find that the minimum spanning tree method reflects more the compactness, which represents the global spatial distribution of massive stars, while the local stellar density method reflects more the crowdedness, which provides the local gravitational potential information. It is suggested to measure the local and the global mass segregation simultaneously. We also develop a hybrid method that takes both aspects into account. This hybrid method balances the local and the global mass segregationmore » in the sense that the predominant one is either caused by dynamical evolution or purely accidental, especially when such information is unknown a priori. In addition, we test our prescriptions with numerical models and show the impact of binaries in estimating the mass segregation value. As an application, we use these methods on the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) observations and the Taurus cluster. We find that the ONC is significantly mass segregated down to the 20th most massive stars. In contrast, the massive stars of the Taurus cluster are sparsely distributed in many different subclusters, showing a low degree of compactness. The massive stars of Taurus are also found to be distributed in the high-density region of the subclusters, showing significant mass segregation at subcluster scales. Meanwhile, we also apply these methods to discuss the possible mechanisms of the dynamical evolution of the simulated substructured star clusters.« less

Evaluation of analytical performance of a new high-sensitivity immunoassay for cardiac troponin I.

PubMed

Masotti, Silvia; Prontera, Concetta; Musetti, Veronica; Storti, Simona; Ndreu, Rudina; Zucchelli, Gian Carlo; Passino, Claudio; Clerico, Aldo

2018-02-23

The study aim was to evaluate and compare the analytical performance of the new chemiluminescent immunoassay for cardiac troponin I (cTnI), called Access hs-TnI using DxI platform, with those of Access AccuTnI+3 method, and high-sensitivity (hs) cTnI method for ARCHITECT platform. The limits of blank (LoB), detection (LoD) and quantitation (LoQ) at 10% and 20% CV were evaluated according to international standardized protocols. For the evaluation of analytical performance and comparison of cTnI results, both heparinized plasma samples, collected from healthy subjects and patients with cardiac diseases, and quality control samples distributed in external quality assessment programs were used. LoB, LoD and LoQ at 20% and 10% CV values of the Access hs-cTnI method were 0.6, 1.3, 2.1 and 5.3 ng/L, respectively. Access hs-cTnI method showed analytical performance significantly better than that of Access AccuTnI+3 method and similar results to those of hs ARCHITECT cTnI method. Moreover, the cTnI concentrations measured with Access hs-cTnI method showed close linear regressions with both Access AccuTnI+3 and ARCHITECT hs-cTnI methods, although there were systematic differences between these methods. There was no difference between cTnI values measured by Access hs-cTnI in heparinized plasma and serum samples, whereas there was a significant difference between cTnI values, respectively measured in EDTA and heparin plasma samples. Access hs-cTnI has analytical sensitivity parameters significantly improved compared to Access AccuTnI+3 method and is similar to those of the high-sensitivity method using ARCHITECT platform.

Regional precipitation trend analysis at the Langat River Basin, Selangor, Malaysia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Palizdan, Narges; Falamarzi, Yashar; Huang, Yuk Feng; Lee, Teang Shui; Ghazali, Abdul Halim

2014-08-01

Various hydrological and meteorological variables such as rainfall and temperature have been affected by global climate change. Any change in the pattern of precipitation can have a significant impact on the availability of water resources, agriculture, and the ecosystem. Therefore, knowledge on rainfall trend is an important aspect of water resources management. In this study, the regional annual and seasonal precipitation trends at the Langat River Basin, Malaysia, for the period of 1982-2011 were examined at the 95 % level of significance using the regional average Mann-Kendall (RAMK) test and the regional average Mann-Kendall coupled with bootstrap (RAMK-bootstrap) method. In order to identify the homogeneous regions respectively for the annual and seasonal scales, firstly, at-site mean total annual and separately at-site mean total seasonal precipitation were spatialized into 5 km × 5 km grids using the inverse distance weighting (IDW) algorithm. Next, the optimum number of homogeneous regions (clusters) is computed using the silhouette coefficient approach. Next, the homogeneous regions were formed using the K-mean clustering method. From the annual scale perspective, all three regions showed positive trends. However, the application of two methods at this scale showed a significant trend only in the region AC1. The region AC2 experienced a significant positive trend using only the RAMK test. On a seasonal scale, all regions showed insignificant trends, except the regions I1C1 and I1C2 in the Inter-Monsoon 1 (INT1) season which experienced significant upward trends. In addition, it was proven that the significance of trends has been affected by the existence of serial and spatial correlations.

EEG slow waves in traumatic brain injury: Convergent findings in mouse and man.

PubMed

Modarres, Mo; Kuzma, Nicholas N; Kretzmer, Tracy; Pack, Allan I; Lim, Miranda M

2016-07-01

Evidence from previous studies suggests that greater sleep pressure, in the form of EEG-based slow waves, accumulates in specific brain regions that are more active during prior waking experience. We sought to quantify the number and coherence of EEG slow waves in subjects with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). We developed a method to automatically detect individual slow waves in each EEG channel, and validated this method using simulated EEG data. We then used this method to quantify EEG-based slow waves during sleep and wake states in both mouse and human subjects with mTBI. A modified coherence index that accounts for information from multiple channels was calculated as a measure of slow wave synchrony. Brain-injured mice showed significantly higher theta:alpha amplitude ratios and significantly more slow waves during spontaneous wakefulness and during prolonged sleep deprivation, compared to sham-injured control mice. Human subjects with mTBI showed significantly higher theta:beta amplitude ratios and significantly more EEG slow waves while awake compared to age-matched control subjects. We then quantified the global coherence index of slow waves across several EEG channels in human subjects. Individuals with mTBI showed significantly less EEG global coherence compared to control subjects while awake, but not during sleep. EEG global coherence was significantly correlated with severity of post-concussive symptoms (as assessed by the Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory scale). Taken together, our data from both mouse and human studies suggest that EEG slow wave quantity and the global coherence index of slow waves may represent a sensitive marker for the diagnosis and prognosis of mTBI and post-concussive symptoms.

Effect of freezing method and frozen storage duration on lamb sensory quality.

PubMed

Muela, E; Sañudo, C; Campo, M M; Medel, I; Beltrán, J A

2012-01-01

This study assessed the effect of three freezing methods with three frozen storage durations (1, 3, and 6 months) on the sensory quality of lamb. Methods were: air blast freezer, freezing tunnel+air blast freezer, and nitrogen chamber+air blast freezer. Meat was frozen after 48 h of ageing (0-4°C). Fresh meat (72 h ageing at 2-4°C) was used as control. Sensory analyses (trained panel and consumer tests) were performed on loin chops (Longissimus lumborum) after 24 h of thawing. Results from the trained panel test showed that freezing (method and/or storage duration) had no significant effect. Consumers found that freezing affected sensory quality. Cluster analysis for overall acceptability divided the population into four classes with different preference patterns, and none of them showed a significant preference for fresh meat. The small differences between fresh and thawed meat shown in this study should not give consumers concerns about buying frozen meat or consuming thawed meat. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

An improved correlation method for determining the period of a torsion pendulum

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Luo Jie; Wang Dianhong

Considering variation of environment temperature and unhomogeneity of background gravitational field, an improved correlation method was proposed to determine the variational period of a torsion pendulum with high precision. The result of processing experimental data shows that the uncertainty of determining the period with this method has been improved about twofolds than traditional correlation method, which is significant for the determination of gravitational constant with time-of-swing method.

Efficacy of Miswak toothpaste and mouthwash on cariogenic bacteria

PubMed Central

Al-Dabbagh, Samim A.; Qasim, Huda J.; Al-Derzi, Nadia A.

2016-01-01

Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of Salvadora persica (Miswak) products on cariogenic bacteria in comparison with ordinary toothpaste. Methods: The study was conducted in Zakho city, Kurdistan region, Iraq during the period from October 2013 to January 2014. A randomized controlled clinical trial of 40 students randomly allocated into 4 groups. They were instructed to use Mismark toothpaste, Miswak mouthwash, and ordinary toothpaste with water or with normal saline. Salivary samples were collected at 3-time intervals: before, immediately after use, and after 2 weeks of use. The effect of each method on Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacilli was evaluated by using caries risk test. Results: One-way repeated measure analysis of variance (ANOVA), one-way ANOVA, and least significant difference tests were used. Miswak wash has a significant reduction effect on both bacteria immediately and after 2 weeks of use. Miswak paste has a similar effect on Lactobacilli, while Streptococcus mutans showed a significant decrease only after 2 weeks of use. Ordinary paste showed a non significant effect on both bacteria at both time intervals; while the addition of normal saline showed a significant effect on both bacteria only after 2 weeks of use. Conclusion: Miswak products, especially mouth wash, were more effective in reducing the growth of cariogenic bacteria than ordinary toothpaste. PMID:27570858

Gingival Biotype Assessment in a Healthy Periodontium: Transgingival Probing Method

PubMed Central

Manjunath, R. G. Shiva; Sarkar, Arijit

2015-01-01

Background Gingival biotype is the thickness of the gingiva in the faciopalatal dimension. It has a significant impact on the outcome of the restorative, regenerative and implant therapy. It has been suggested that a direct co-relation exists with the susceptibility of gingival recession followed by any surgical procedure. So, the study was aimed to assess gingival biotype in different age groups of males and females using transgingival probing method. Materials and Methods Gingival thickness (GT) was evaluated in 336 patients including males and females of different age groups. The latter was based on the transparency of the periodontal probe through the gingival margin while probing the buccal sulcus. Final data collected was then used for statistical analysis. Results A significant difference was found between males and females with males showing thick biotype. Out of the total samples 76.9% of males showed thick biotype compared to 13.3 % of females which was statistically significant. Conclusion This was probably one of the few attempts to correlate gingival biotype with different age groups in males and females. A clear thick gingiva was found in more than two-third of the male subjects whereas majority of female subjects showed thin biotype. Also, it was seen that in females, the gingival biotype varies with age unlike in male. PMID:26155566

The effects of bridge exercise on an unstable base of support on lumbar stability and the thickness of the transversus abdominis.

PubMed

Cho, Misuk; Jeon, Hyewon

2013-06-01

[Purpose] We examined the effects of an abdominal drawing-in bridge exercise using a pressure biofeedback unit on different bases on the thickness of trunk and abdominal muscles, and lumbar stability. [Subjects] Thirty healthy young adults (2 males, 28 females) took part in this study. The subjects were randomly and equally assigned to a stable bridge exercise group and an unstable bridge exercise group. [Methods] The subjects performed bridge exercises using an abdominal drawing-in method on a stable base and on an unstable base, and changes in their abdominal muscle thickness and on the stable and on unstable bases lumbar stability were evaluated. [Results] After the intervention, the stable bridge exercise group showed a statistically significantly increased muscle thickness in the transversus abdominis, and the unstable bridge exercise group showed significantly increased muscle thicknesses of the transversus abdominis and internal obliques in static and dynamic lumbar stability. The unstable bridge exercise group showed significant increase after performing the exercise. [Conclusion] Lumbar stability exercise, with the compensation of the lumbar spine minimized, using an abdominal drawing-in method on an unstable support of base is effective and efforts to prevent the compensation may induce a greater exercise effect.

The oxygen uptake slow component at submaximal intensities in breaststroke swimming

PubMed Central

Oliveira, Diogo R.; Gonçalves, Lio F.; Reis, António M.; Fernandes, Ricardo J.; Garrido, Nuno D.

2016-01-01

Abstract The present work proposed to study the oxygen uptake slow component (VO2 SC) of breaststroke swimmers at four different intensities of submaximal exercise, via mathematical modeling of a multi-exponential function. The slow component (SC) was also assessed with two different fixed interval methods and the three methods were compared. Twelve male swimmers performed a test comprising four submaximal 300 m bouts at different intensities where all expired gases were collected breath by breath. Multi-exponential modeling showed values above 450 ml·min−1 of the SC in the two last bouts of exercise (those with intensities above the lactate threshold). A significant effect of the method that was used to calculate the VO2 SC was revealed. Higher mean values were observed when using mathematical modeling compared with the fixed interval 3rd min method (F=7.111; p=0.012; η2=0.587); furthermore, differences were detected among the two fixed interval methods. No significant relationship was found between the SC determined by any method and the blood lactate measured at each of the four exercise intensities. In addition, no significant association between the SC and peak oxygen uptake was found. It was concluded that in trained breaststroke swimmers, the presence of the VO2 SC may be observed at intensities above that corresponding to the 3.5 mM-1 threshold. Moreover, mathematical modeling of the oxygen uptake on-kinetics tended to show a higher slow component as compared to fixed interval methods. PMID:28149379

New clinical validation method for automated sphygmomanometer: a proposal by Japan ISO-WG for sphygmomanometer standard.

PubMed

Shirasaki, Osamu; Asou, Yosuke; Takahashi, Yukio

2007-12-01

Owing to fast or stepwise cuff deflation, or measuring at places other than the upper arm, the clinical accuracy of most recent automated sphygmomanometers (auto-BPMs) cannot be validated by one-arm simultaneous comparison, which would be the only accurate validation method based on auscultation. Two main alternative methods are provided by current standards, that is, two-arm simultaneous comparison (method 1) and one-arm sequential comparison (method 2); however, the accuracy of these validation methods might not be sufficient to compensate for the suspicious accuracy in lateral blood pressure (BP) differences (LD) and/or BP variations (BPV) between the device and reference readings. Thus, the Japan ISO-WG for sphygmomanometer standards has been studying a new method that might improve validation accuracy (method 3). The purpose of this study is to determine the appropriateness of method 3 by comparing immunity to LD and BPV with those of the current validation methods (methods 1 and 2). The validation accuracy of the above three methods was assessed in human participants [N=120, 45+/-15.3 years (mean+/-SD)]. An oscillometric automated monitor, Omron HEM-762, was used as the tested device. When compared with the others, methods 1 and 3 showed a smaller intra-individual standard deviation of device error (SD1), suggesting their higher reproducibility of validation. The SD1 by method 2 (P=0.004) significantly correlated with the participant's BP, supporting our hypothesis that the increased SD of device error by method 2 is at least partially caused by essential BPV. Method 3 showed a significantly (P=0.0044) smaller interparticipant SD of device error (SD2), suggesting its higher interparticipant consistency of validation. Among the methods of validation of the clinical accuracy of auto-BPMs, method 3, which showed the highest reproducibility and highest interparticipant consistency, can be proposed as being the most appropriate.

Rotational and translational stability of different methods for direct acromioclavicular ligament repair in anatomic acromioclavicular joint reconstruction.

PubMed

Beitzel, Knut; Obopilwe, Elifho; Apostolakos, John; Cote, Mark P; Russell, Ryan P; Charette, Ryan; Singh, Hardeep; Arciero, Robert A; Imhoff, Andreas B; Mazzocca, Augustus D

2014-09-01

Many reconstructions of acromioclavicular (AC) joint dislocations have focused on the coracoclavicular (CC) ligaments and neglected the functional contribution of the AC ligaments and the deltotrapezial fascia. To compare the modifications of previously published methods for direct AC reconstruction in addition to a CC reconstruction. The hypothesis was that there would be significant differences within the variations of surgical reconstructions. Controlled laboratory study. A total of 24 cadaveric shoulders were tested with a servohydraulic testing system. Two digitizing cameras evaluated the 3-dimensional movement. All reconstructions were based on a CC reconstruction using 2 clavicle tunnels and a tendon graft. The following techniques were used to reconstruct the AC ligaments: a graft was shuttled underneath the AC joint back from anterior and again sutured to the acromial side of the joint (group 1), a graft was fixed intramedullary in the acromion and distal clavicle (group 2), a graft was passed over the acromion and into an acromial tunnel (group 3), and a FiberTape was fixed in a cruciate configuration (group 4). Anterior, posterior, and superior translation, as well as anterior and posterior rotation, were tested. Group 1 showed significantly less posterior translation compared with the 3 other groups (P < .05) but did not show significant differences compared with the native joint. Groups 3 and 4 demonstrated significantly more posterior translation than the native joint. Group 1 showed significantly less anterior translation compared with groups 2 and 3. Group 3 demonstrated significantly more anterior translation than the native joint. Group 1 demonstrated significantly less superior translation compared with the other groups and with the native joint. The AC joint of group 1 was pulled apart less compared with all other reconstructions. Only group 1 reproduced the native joint for the anterior rotation at the posterior marker. Group 4 showed significantly increased distances for all 3 measure points when the clavicle was rotated posteriorly. Reconstruction of the AC ligament by direct wrapping and suturing of the remaining graft around the AC joint (group 1) was the most stable method and was the only one to show anterior rotation comparable with the native joint. In contrast, the transacromial technique (group 3) showed the most translation and rotation. An anatomic repair should address both the CC ligaments and the AC ligaments to control the optimal physiologic function (translation and rotation). © 2014 The Author(s).

Validation of a One-Step Method for Extracting Fatty Acids from Salmon, Chicken and Beef Samples.

PubMed

Zhang, Zhichao; Richardson, Christine E; Hennebelle, Marie; Taha, Ameer Y

2017-10-01

Fatty acid extraction methods are time-consuming and expensive because they involve multiple steps and copious amounts of extraction solvents. In an effort to streamline the fatty acid extraction process, this study compared the standard Folch lipid extraction method to a one-step method involving a column that selectively elutes the lipid phase. The methods were tested on raw beef, salmon, and chicken. Compared to the standard Folch method, the one-step extraction process generally yielded statistically insignificant differences in chicken and salmon fatty acid concentrations, percent composition and weight percent. Initial testing showed that beef stearic, oleic and total fatty acid concentrations were significantly lower by 9-11% with the one-step method as compared to the Folch method, but retesting on a different batch of samples showed a significant 4-8% increase in several omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid concentrations with the one-step method relative to the Folch. Overall, the findings reflect the utility of a one-step extraction method for routine and rapid monitoring of fatty acids in chicken and salmon. Inconsistencies in beef concentrations, although minor (within 11%), may be due to matrix effects. A one-step fatty acid extraction method has broad applications for rapidly and routinely monitoring fatty acids in the food supply and formulating controlled dietary interventions. © 2017 Institute of Food Technologists®.

Using the MDCT thick slab MinIP method for the follow-up of pulmonary emphysema.

PubMed

Lan, Hai; Nishitani, Hiromu; Nishihara, Sadamitsu; Ueno, Junji; Takao, Shoichiro; Iwamoto, Seiji; Kawanaka, Takashi; Mahmut, Mawlan; Qingge, Si

2011-08-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of thick slab minimum intensity projection (MinIP) as a follow-up method in patients with pulmonary emphysema. This method was used to determine the presence or absence of changes over time in the lung field based on multi-detector-row CT (MDCT) data. Among patients diagnosed with pulmonary emphysema who underwent 16-MDCT (slice thickness, 1 mm) twice at an interval of 6 months or more, 12 patients without changes in the lung field and 14 with clear changes in the lung field were selected as subjects. An image interpretation experiment was performed by five image interpreters. Pulmonary emphysema was followed up using two types of thick slab MinIP (thick slab MinIP 1 and 2) and multi-planar reformation (MPR), and the results of image interpretation were evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. In addition, the time required for image interpretation was compared among the three follow-up methods. The area under the ROC curve (Az) was 0.794 for thick slab MinIP 1, 0.778 for the thick slab MinIP 2, and 0.759 for MPR, showing no significant differences among the three methods. Individual differences in each item were significantly more marked for MPR than for thick slab MinIP. The time required for image interpretation was around 18 seconds for thick slab MinIP 1, 11 seconds for thick slab MinIP 2, and approximately 127 seconds for MPR, showing significant differences among the three methods. There were no significant differences in the results of image interpretation regarding the presence or absence of changes in the lung fields between thick slab MinIP and MPR. However, thick slab MinIP showed a shorter image interpretation time and smaller individual differences in the results among image interpreters than MPR, suggesting the usefulness of this method for determining the presence or absence of changes with time in the lung fields of patients with pulmonary emphysema.

Surface roughness of flowable resin composites eroded by acidic and alcoholic drinks

PubMed Central

Poggio, Claudio; Dagna, Alberto; Chiesa, Marco; Colombo, Marco; Scribante, Andrea

2012-01-01

Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the surface roughness of four flowable resin composites following exposure to acidic and alcoholic drinks. Materials and Methods: SureFil SDR flow, TetricEvoFlow, Esthet-X Flow and Amaris Flow HT samples were immersed in artificial saliva, Coca Cola and Chivas Regal Whisky. Each specimen was examined using a Leica DCM 3D microscope: Arithmetical mean height of the surface profiles was measured (Sa). Results: Kruskal-Wallis test showed significant differences among various groups (P<0,001). Mann Whitney test was applied and control groups showed significantly lower Sa values than other groups (P=0,008). Coca Cola groups showed highest Sa values (P<0,021). No significant differences (P=0,14) in surface texture were found among the specimens of the different materials. No significant differences were found among TetricEvoFlow, Esthet-X Flow and Amaris Flow under control conditions nor after Coca Cola application. Under control condition and after Coca Cola application SureFil SDR flow showed significantly higher Sa values. Moreover, after whisky application Amaris Flow showed significantly lower Sa values then the other three groups that showed no significant differences among them. Conclusions: Acidic and alcoholic drinks eroded the surface roughness of all evaluated flowable resin composites. PMID:22557811

Influence of the quality of intraoperative fluoroscopic images on the spatial positioning accuracy of a CAOS system.

PubMed

Wang, Junqiang; Wang, Yu; Zhu, Gang; Chen, Xiangqian; Zhao, Xiangrui; Qiao, Huiting; Fan, Yubo

2018-06-01

Spatial positioning accuracy is a key issue in a computer-assisted orthopaedic surgery (CAOS) system. Since intraoperative fluoroscopic images are one of the most important input data to the CAOS system, the quality of these images should have a significant influence on the accuracy of the CAOS system. But the regularities and mechanism of the influence of the quality of intraoperative images on the accuracy of a CAOS system have yet to be studied. Two typical spatial positioning methods - a C-arm calibration-based method and a bi-planar positioning method - are used to study the influence of different image quality parameters, such as resolution, distortion, contrast and signal-to-noise ratio, on positioning accuracy. The error propagation rules of image error in different spatial positioning methods are analyzed by the Monte Carlo method. Correlation analysis showed that resolution and distortion had a significant influence on spatial positioning accuracy. In addition the C-arm calibration-based method was more sensitive to image distortion, while the bi-planar positioning method was more susceptible to image resolution. The image contrast and signal-to-noise ratio have no significant influence on the spatial positioning accuracy. The result of Monte Carlo analysis proved that generally the bi-planar positioning method was more sensitive to image quality than the C-arm calibration-based method. The quality of intraoperative fluoroscopic images is a key issue in the spatial positioning accuracy of a CAOS system. Although the 2 typical positioning methods have very similar mathematical principles, they showed different sensitivities to different image quality parameters. The result of this research may help to create a realistic standard for intraoperative fluoroscopic images for CAOS systems. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The polymorphism -863C/A in tumour necrosis factor-alpha gene contributes an independent association to gout.

PubMed

Chang, S-J; Tsai, P-C; Chen, C-J; Lai, H-M; Ko, Y-C

2007-11-01

To investigate the associations between polymorphisms in the promoter of the tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) gene and gout. The polymorphisms -308G/A and -863C/A in the TNF-alpha gene were determined in 106 gout patients and 159 healthy controls among male Taiwanese using the Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method. The biochemical markers, including Glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT), Glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (GPT), uric acid, creatinine, total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), body mass index (BMI) and hypertension, as well as alcohol consumption were measured. The gout patients had 9.43% (10/106) with genotype AA at polymorphism -863C/A showing a significantly higher fraction than controls (0.63%; 1/159, P < 0.001). The crude results also showed that the gout patients had significantly higher portions of abnormal GOT, GPT, creatinine, TC, TG, alcohol consumption, hypertension and hyperuricaemia than controls (P < 0.05), but the -308G/A, BMI and genotype CA at -863C/A did not show the same significant difference (P > 0.05). After adjustment by a stepwise logistic regression method, the hyperuricaemia, creatinine, GPT, TG and alcohol consumption as well as genotype AA at polymorphism -863C/A were found to be significantly associated with gout. The genotype AA at polymorphism -863C/A in a recessive model showed a significant association with developing gout independent of hyperuricaemia, abnormal creatinine, higher TG, GPT and alcohol consumption.

Establishing glucose- and ABA-regulated transcription networks in Arabidopsis by microarray analysis and promoter classification using a Relevance Vector Machine.

PubMed

Li, Yunhai; Lee, Kee Khoon; Walsh, Sean; Smith, Caroline; Hadingham, Sophie; Sorefan, Karim; Cawley, Gavin; Bevan, Michael W

2006-03-01

Establishing transcriptional regulatory networks by analysis of gene expression data and promoter sequences shows great promise. We developed a novel promoter classification method using a Relevance Vector Machine (RVM) and Bayesian statistical principles to identify discriminatory features in the promoter sequences of genes that can correctly classify transcriptional responses. The method was applied to microarray data obtained from Arabidopsis seedlings treated with glucose or abscisic acid (ABA). Of those genes showing >2.5-fold changes in expression level, approximately 70% were correctly predicted as being up- or down-regulated (under 10-fold cross-validation), based on the presence or absence of a small set of discriminative promoter motifs. Many of these motifs have known regulatory functions in sugar- and ABA-mediated gene expression. One promoter motif that was not known to be involved in glucose-responsive gene expression was identified as the strongest classifier of glucose-up-regulated gene expression. We show it confers glucose-responsive gene expression in conjunction with another promoter motif, thus validating the classification method. We were able to establish a detailed model of glucose and ABA transcriptional regulatory networks and their interactions, which will help us to understand the mechanisms linking metabolism with growth in Arabidopsis. This study shows that machine learning strategies coupled to Bayesian statistical methods hold significant promise for identifying functionally significant promoter sequences.

Enhanced chondrogenesis of human bone marrow mesenchymal Stem Cell (BMSC) on nanofiber-based polyethersulfone (PES) scaffold.

PubMed

Mahboudi, Hossein; Kazemi, Bahram; Soleimani, Masoud; Hanaee-Ahvaz, Hana; Ghanbarian, Hossein; Bandehpour, Mojgan; Enderami, Seyed Ehsan; Kehtari, Mousa; Barati, Ghasem

2018-02-15

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) from bone marrow hold great potential as a cell source for cartilage repair. The objective of our study was differentiation of MSC toward chondrocyte by using Nanofiber-based polyethersulfone (PES) scaffold and also enhanced chondrogenic differentiation of BMSC in vitro. MSCs were harvested from bone marrow of human and PES scaffold was fabricated via Electrospinning. The isolated cells were cultured on the PES scaffold and scaffold free method. After 21days, Real-time PCR was performed to evaluate the cartilage-specific genes in the mRNA levels. Also, in order to confirm our results, we have done immunocytochemistry and SEM imaging. Flowcytometry confirmed the nature of the isolated adherent cells. Immunocytochemistry and SEM imaging confirmed the differentiation of MSC toward chondrocyte. Also, real time PCR showed a significant increased gene expression of collagen type II and aggrecan on the PES scaffold method when compared to the mRNA levels measured in scaffold free method. Down regulation of Collagen type I was observed in PES scaffold compared to scaffold free at day 21. Also, both methods showed a similar pattern of expression of SOX9. Our results showed that PES scaffold maintains BMSC proliferation and differentiation, and can significantly enhance chondrogenic differentiation of BMSC. PES scaffold seeded BMSC showed the highest capacity for differentiation into chondrocyte-like cells. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An improved method to detect correct protein folds using partial clustering.

PubMed

Zhou, Jianjun; Wishart, David S

2013-01-16

Structure-based clustering is commonly used to identify correct protein folds among candidate folds (also called decoys) generated by protein structure prediction programs. However, traditional clustering methods exhibit a poor runtime performance on large decoy sets. We hypothesized that a more efficient "partial" clustering approach in combination with an improved scoring scheme could significantly improve both the speed and performance of existing candidate selection methods. We propose a new scheme that performs rapid but incomplete clustering on protein decoys. Our method detects structurally similar decoys (measured using either C(α) RMSD or GDT-TS score) and extracts representatives from them without assigning every decoy to a cluster. We integrated our new clustering strategy with several different scoring functions to assess both the performance and speed in identifying correct or near-correct folds. Experimental results on 35 Rosetta decoy sets and 40 I-TASSER decoy sets show that our method can improve the correct fold detection rate as assessed by two different quality criteria. This improvement is significantly better than two recently published clustering methods, Durandal and Calibur-lite. Speed and efficiency testing shows that our method can handle much larger decoy sets and is up to 22 times faster than Durandal and Calibur-lite. The new method, named HS-Forest, avoids the computationally expensive task of clustering every decoy, yet still allows superior correct-fold selection. Its improved speed, efficiency and decoy-selection performance should enable structure prediction researchers to work with larger decoy sets and significantly improve their ab initio structure prediction performance.

An improved method to detect correct protein folds using partial clustering

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Structure-based clustering is commonly used to identify correct protein folds among candidate folds (also called decoys) generated by protein structure prediction programs. However, traditional clustering methods exhibit a poor runtime performance on large decoy sets. We hypothesized that a more efficient “partial“ clustering approach in combination with an improved scoring scheme could significantly improve both the speed and performance of existing candidate selection methods. Results We propose a new scheme that performs rapid but incomplete clustering on protein decoys. Our method detects structurally similar decoys (measured using either Cα RMSD or GDT-TS score) and extracts representatives from them without assigning every decoy to a cluster. We integrated our new clustering strategy with several different scoring functions to assess both the performance and speed in identifying correct or near-correct folds. Experimental results on 35 Rosetta decoy sets and 40 I-TASSER decoy sets show that our method can improve the correct fold detection rate as assessed by two different quality criteria. This improvement is significantly better than two recently published clustering methods, Durandal and Calibur-lite. Speed and efficiency testing shows that our method can handle much larger decoy sets and is up to 22 times faster than Durandal and Calibur-lite. Conclusions The new method, named HS-Forest, avoids the computationally expensive task of clustering every decoy, yet still allows superior correct-fold selection. Its improved speed, efficiency and decoy-selection performance should enable structure prediction researchers to work with larger decoy sets and significantly improve their ab initio structure prediction performance. PMID:23323835

Scene-based nonuniformity correction with reduced ghosting using a gated LMS algorithm.

PubMed

Hardie, Russell C; Baxley, Frank; Brys, Brandon; Hytla, Patrick

2009-08-17

In this paper, we present a scene-based nouniformity correction (NUC) method using a modified adaptive least mean square (LMS) algorithm with a novel gating operation on the updates. The gating is designed to significantly reduce ghosting artifacts produced by many scene-based NUC algorithms by halting updates when temporal variation is lacking. We define the algorithm and present a number of experimental results to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method in comparison to several previously published methods including other LMS and constant statistics based methods. The experimental results include simulated imagery and a real infrared image sequence. We show that the proposed method significantly reduces ghosting artifacts, but has a slightly longer convergence time. (c) 2009 Optical Society of America

Nonlinear dynamic analysis of voices before and after surgical excision of vocal polyps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yu; McGilligan, Clancy; Zhou, Liang; Vig, Mark; Jiang, Jack J.

2004-05-01

Phase space reconstruction, correlation dimension, and second-order entropy, methods from nonlinear dynamics, are used to analyze sustained vowels generated by patients before and after surgical excision of vocal polyps. Two conventional acoustic perturbation parameters, jitter and shimmer, are also employed to analyze voices before and after surgery. Presurgical and postsurgical analyses of jitter, shimmer, correlation dimension, and second-order entropy are statistically compared. Correlation dimension and second-order entropy show a statistically significant decrease after surgery, indicating reduced complexity and higher predictability of postsurgical voice dynamics. There is not a significant postsurgical difference in shimmer, although jitter shows a significant postsurgical decrease. The results suggest that jitter and shimmer should be applied to analyze disordered voices with caution; however, nonlinear dynamic methods may be useful for analyzing abnormal vocal function and quantitatively evaluating the effects of surgical excision of vocal polyps.

A VaR Algorithm for Warrants Portfolio

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dai, Jun; Ni, Liyun; Wang, Xiangrong; Chen, Weizhong

Based on Gamma Vega-Cornish Fish methodology, this paper propose the algorithm for calculating VaR via adjusting the quantile under the given confidence level using the four moments (e.g. mean, variance, skewness and kurtosis) of the warrants portfolio return and estimating the variance of portfolio by EWMA methodology. Meanwhile, the proposed algorithm considers the attenuation of the effect of history return on portfolio return of future days. Empirical study shows that, comparing with Gamma-Cornish Fish method and standard normal method, the VaR calculated by Gamma Vega-Cornish Fish can improve the effectiveness of forecasting the portfolio risk by virture of considering the Gamma risk and the Vega risk of the warrants. The significance test is conducted on the calculation results by employing two-tailed test developed by Kupiec. Test results show that the calculated VaRs of the warrants portfolio all pass the significance test under the significance level of 5%.

The reliability and reproducibility of cephalometric measurements: a comparison of conventional and digital methods

PubMed Central

AlBarakati, SF; Kula, KS; Ghoneima, AA

2012-01-01

Objective The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and reproducibility of angular and linear measurements of conventional and digital cephalometric methods. Methods A total of 13 landmarks and 16 skeletal and dental parameters were defined and measured on pre-treatment cephalometric radiographs of 30 patients. The conventional and digital tracings and measurements were performed twice by the same examiner with a 6 week interval between measurements. The reliability within the method was determined using Pearson's correlation coefficient (r2). The reproducibility between methods was calculated by paired t-test. The level of statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results All measurements for each method were above 0.90 r2 (strong correlation) except maxillary length, which had a correlation of 0.82 for conventional tracing. Significant differences between the two methods were observed in most angular and linear measurements except for ANB angle (p = 0.5), angle of convexity (p = 0.09), anterior cranial base (p = 0.3) and the lower anterior facial height (p = 0.6). Conclusion In general, both methods of conventional and digital cephalometric analysis are highly reliable. Although the reproducibility of the two methods showed some statistically significant differences, most differences were not clinically significant. PMID:22184624

"Mastery Learning" Como Metodo Psicoeducativo para Ninos con Problemas Especificos de Aprendizaje. ("Mastery Learning" as a Psychoeducational Method for Children with Specific Learning Problems.)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coya, Liliam de Barbosa; Perez-Coffie, Jorge

1982-01-01

"Mastery Learning" was compared with the "conventional" method of teaching reading skills to Puerto Rican children with specific learning disabilities. The "Mastery Learning" group showed significant gains in the cognitive and affective domains. Results suggested Mastery Learning is a more effective method of teaching…

Validation of phenol red versus gravimetric method for water reabsorption correction and study of gender differences in Doluisio's absorption technique.

PubMed

Tuğcu-Demiröz, Fatmanur; Gonzalez-Alvarez, Isabel; Gonzalez-Alvarez, Marta; Bermejo, Marival

2014-10-01

The aim of the present study was to develop a method for water flux reabsorption measurement in Doluisio's Perfusion Technique based on the use of phenol red as a non-absorbable marker and to validate it by comparison with gravimetric procedure. The compounds selected for the study were metoprolol, atenolol, cimetidine and cefadroxil in order to include low, intermediate and high permeability drugs absorbed by passive diffusion and by carrier mediated mechanism. The intestinal permeabilities (Peff) of the drugs were obtained in male and female Wistar rats and calculated using both methods of water flux correction. The absorption rate coefficients of all the assayed compounds did not show statistically significant differences between male and female rats consequently all the individual values were combined to compare between reabsorption methods. The absorption rate coefficients and permeability values did not show statistically significant differences between the two strategies of concentration correction. The apparent zero order water absorption coefficients were also similar in both correction procedures. In conclusion gravimetric and phenol red method for water reabsorption correction are accurate and interchangeable for permeability estimation in closed loop perfusion method. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The effects of two methods of reflexology and stretching exercises on the severity of restless leg syndrome among hemodialysis patients

PubMed Central

Shahgholian, Nahid; Jazi, Shahrzad Khojandi; Karimian, Jahangir; Valiani, Mahboubeh

2016-01-01

Background: Restless leg syndrome prevalence is high among the patients undergoing hemodialysis. Due to several side effects of medicational treatments, the patients prefer non-medicational methods. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of two methods of reflexology and stretching exercises on the severity of restless leg syndrome among patients undergoing hemodialysis. Materials and Methods: This study is a randomized clinical trial that was done on 90 qualified patients undergoing hemodialysis in selected hospitals of Isfahan, who were diagnosed with restless leg syndrome through standard restless leg syndrome questionnaire. They were randomly assigned by random number table to three groups: Reflexology, stretching exercises, and control groups through random allocation. Foot reflexology and stretching exercises were conducted three times a week for 30–40 min within straight 4 weeks. Data analysis was performed by SPSS version 18 using descriptive and inferential statistical analyses [one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), paired t-test, and least significant difference (LSD) post hoc test]. Results: There was a significant difference in the mean scores of restless leg syndrome severity between reflexology and stretching exercises groups, compared to control (P < 0.001), but there was no significant difference between the two study groups (P < 0.001). Changes in the mean score of restless leg syndrome severity were significantly higher in reflexology and stretching exercises groups compared to the control group (P < 0.001), but it showed no significant difference between reflexology massage and stretching exercises groups. Conclusions: Our obtained results showed that reflexology and stretching exercises can reduce the severity of restless leg syndrome. These two methods of treatment are recommended to the patients. PMID:27186197

Comparing four non-invasive methods to determine the ventilatory anaerobic threshold during cardiopulmonary exercise testing in children with congenital heart or lung disease.

PubMed

Visschers, Naomi C A; Hulzebos, Erik H; van Brussel, Marco; Takken, Tim

2015-11-01

The ventilatory anaerobic threshold (VAT) is an important method to assess the aerobic fitness in patients with cardiopulmonary disease. Several methods exist to determine the VAT; however, there is no consensus which of these methods is the most accurate. To compare four different non-invasive methods for the determination of the VAT via respiratory gas exchange analysis during a cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET). A secondary objective is to determine the interobserver reliability of the VAT. CPET data of 30 children diagnosed with either cystic fibrosis (CF; N = 15) or with a surgically corrected dextro-transposition of the great arteries (asoTGA; N = 15) were included. No significant differences were found between conditions or among testers. The RER = 1 method differed the most compared to the other methods, showing significant higher results in all six variables. The PET-O2 method differed significantly on five of six and four of six exercise variables with the V-slope method and the VentEq method, respectively. The V-slope and the VentEq method differed significantly on one of six exercise variables. Ten of thirteen ICCs that were >0.80 had a 95% CI > 0.70. The RER = 1 method and the V-slope method had the highest number of significant ICCs and 95% CIs. The V-slope method, the ventilatory equivalent method and the PET-O2 method are comparable and reliable methods to determine the VAT during CPET in children with CF or asoTGA. © 2014 Scandinavian Society of Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A statistical approach to selecting and confirming validation targets in -omics experiments

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Genomic technologies are, by their very nature, designed for hypothesis generation. In some cases, the hypotheses that are generated require that genome scientists confirm findings about specific genes or proteins. But one major advantage of high-throughput technology is that global genetic, genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic behaviors can be observed. Manual confirmation of every statistically significant genomic result is prohibitively expensive. This has led researchers in genomics to adopt the strategy of confirming only a handful of the most statistically significant results, a small subset chosen for biological interest, or a small random subset. But there is no standard approach for selecting and quantitatively evaluating validation targets. Results Here we present a new statistical method and approach for statistically validating lists of significant results based on confirming only a small random sample. We apply our statistical method to show that the usual practice of confirming only the most statistically significant results does not statistically validate result lists. We analyze an extensively validated RNA-sequencing experiment to show that confirming a random subset can statistically validate entire lists of significant results. Finally, we analyze multiple publicly available microarray experiments to show that statistically validating random samples can both (i) provide evidence to confirm long gene lists and (ii) save thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of labor over manual validation of each significant result. Conclusions For high-throughput -omics studies, statistical validation is a cost-effective and statistically valid approach to confirming lists of significant results. PMID:22738145

Extending the solvent-free MALDI sample preparation method.

PubMed

Hanton, Scott D; Parees, David M

2005-01-01

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry is an important technique to characterize many different materials, including synthetic polymers. MALDI mass spectral data can be used to determine the polymer average molecular weights, repeat units, and end groups. One of the key issues in traditional MALDI sample preparation is making good solutions of the analyte and the matrix. Solvent-free sample preparation methods have been developed to address these issues. Previous results of solvent-free or dry prepared samples show some advantages over traditional wet sample preparation methods. Although the results of the published solvent-free sample preparation methods produced excellent mass spectra, we found the method to be very time-consuming, with significant tool cleaning, which presents a significant possibility of cross contamination. To address these issues, we developed an extension of the solvent-free method that replaces the mortar and pestle grinding with ball milling the sample in a glass vial with two small steel balls. This new method generates mass spectra with equal quality of the previous methods, but has significant advantages in productivity, eliminates cross contamination, and is applicable to liquid and soft or waxy analytes.

Jointly determining significance levels of primary and replication studies by controlling the false discovery rate in two-stage genome-wide association studies.

PubMed

Jiang, Wei; Yu, Weichuan

2017-01-01

In genome-wide association studies, we normally discover associations between genetic variants and diseases/traits in primary studies, and validate the findings in replication studies. We consider the associations identified in both primary and replication studies as true findings. An important question under this two-stage setting is how to determine significance levels in both studies. In traditional methods, significance levels of the primary and replication studies are determined separately. We argue that the separate determination strategy reduces the power in the overall two-stage study. Therefore, we propose a novel method to determine significance levels jointly. Our method is a reanalysis method that needs summary statistics from both studies. We find the most powerful significance levels when controlling the false discovery rate in the two-stage study. To enjoy the power improvement from the joint determination method, we need to select single nucleotide polymorphisms for replication at a less stringent significance level. This is a common practice in studies designed for discovery purpose. We suggest this practice is also suitable in studies with validation purpose in order to identify more true findings. Simulation experiments show that our method can provide more power than traditional methods and that the false discovery rate is well-controlled. Empirical experiments on datasets of five diseases/traits demonstrate that our method can help identify more associations. The R-package is available at: http://bioinformatics.ust.hk/RFdr.html .

Laboratory based instruction in Pakistan: Comparative evaluation of three laboratory instruction methods in biological science at higher secondary school level

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheema, Tabinda Shahid

This study of laboratory based instruction at higher secondary school level was an attempt to gain some insight into the effectiveness of three laboratory instruction methods: cooperative group instruction method, individualised instruction method and lecture demonstration method on biology achievement and retention. A Randomised subjects, Pre-test Post-test Comparative Methods Design was applied. Three groups of students from a year 11 class in Pakistan conducted experiments using the different laboratory instruction methods. Pre-tests, achievement tests after the experiments and retention tests one month later were administered. Results showed no significant difference between the groups on total achievement and retention, nor was there any significant difference on knowledge and comprehension test scores or skills performance. Future research investigating a similar problem is suggested.

Evaluation of chemical, botanical and cultural managements of termites control.

PubMed

Dufera, Jiregna Tasisa; Fufa, Tena Gobena

2014-01-15

The study was conducted at Bojdi Dirmaji District, Wollega Zone (Western Ethiopia) using Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Eight different treatments of chemical, botanical and cultural control methods independently and in combinations were evaluated to identify the most effective method which is environmentally sustainable and economically feasible in controlling the termite problems. The data were collected over 12 weeks and analysis of variance showed significant difference among the treatments for all parameters. Maesa lanceolata 100 g alone showed lower percent damage between 2-8 weeks (33.3%), later on after 9-12 weeks it become non significant and the destructed mound was recovered. Mound treated with Diazinon 60% EC at the rate of 25 and 20 mL alone and Diazinon 60% EC combination with queen removal at rate of 15 and 10 mL showed significant control overall the treatment. From the results of the study the lower rate of Diazinon 60% EC (10 mL per mound) and queen removal could be better option to manage the termite problem and could be more sustainable and integrated manner in the study area.

Effects of blood pressure and sex on the change of wave reflection: evidence from Gaussian fitting method for radial artery pressure waveform.

PubMed

Liu, Chengyu; Zhao, Lina; Liu, Changchun

2014-01-01

An early return of the reflected component in the arterial pulse has been recognized as an important indicator of cardiovascular risk. This study aimed to determine the effects of blood pressure and sex factor on the change of wave reflection using Gaussian fitting method. One hundred and ninety subjects were enrolled. They were classified into four blood pressure categories based on the systolic blood pressures (i.e., ≤ 110, 111-120, 121-130 and ≥ 131 mmHg). Each blood pressure category was also stratified for sex factor. Electrocardiogram (ECG) and radial artery pressure waveforms (RAPW) signals were recorded for each subject. Ten consecutive pulse episodes from the RAPW signal were extracted and normalized. Each normalized pulse episode was fitted by three Gaussian functions. Both the peak position and peak height of the first and second Gaussian functions, as well as the peak position interval and peak height ratio, were used as the evaluation indices of wave reflection. Two-way ANOVA results showed that with the increased blood pressure, the peak position of the second Gaussian significantly shorten (P < 0.01), the peak height of the first Gaussian significantly decreased (P < 0.01) and the peak height of the second Gaussian significantly increased (P < 0.01), inducing the significantly decreased peak position interval and significantly increased peak height ratio (both P < 0.01). Sex factor had no significant effect on all evaluation indices (all P > 0.05). Moreover, the interaction between sex and blood pressure factors also had no significant effect on all evaluation indices (all P > 0.05). These results showed that blood pressure has significant effect on the change of wave reflection when using the recently developed Gaussian fitting method, whereas sex has no significant effect. The results also suggested that the Gaussian fitting method could be used as a new approach for assessing the arterial wave reflection.

Quantification of right ventricular volume in dogs: a comparative study between three-dimensional echocardiography and computed tomography with the reference method magnetic resonance imaging.

PubMed

Sieslack, Anne K; Dziallas, Peter; Nolte, Ingo; Wefstaedt, Patrick; Hungerbühler, Stephan O

2014-10-12

Right ventricular (RV) volume and function are important diagnostic and prognostic factors in dogs with primary or secondary right-sided heart failure. The complex shape of the right ventricle and its retrosternal position make the quantification of its volume difficult. For that reason, only few studies exist, which deal with the determination of RV volume parameters. In human medicine cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMRI) is considered to be the reference technique for RV volumetric measurement (Nat Rev Cardiol 7(10):551-563, 2010), but cardiac computed tomography (CCT) and three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) are other non-invasive methods feasible for RV volume quantification. The purpose of this study was the comparison of 3DE and CCT with CMRI, the gold standard for RV volumetric quantification. 3DE showed significant lower and CCT significant higher right ventricular volumes than CMRI. Both techniques showed very good correlations (R > 0.8) with CMRI for the volumetric parameters end-diastolic volume (EDV) and end-systolic volume (ESV). Ejection fraction (EF) and stroke volume (SV) were not different when considering CCT and CMRI, whereas 3DE showed a significant higher EF and lower SV than CMRI. The 3DE values showed excellent intra-observer variability (<3%) and still acceptable inter-observer variability (<13%). CCT provides an accurate image quality of the right ventricle with comparable results to the reference method CMRI. CCT overestimates the RV volumes; therefore, it is not an interchangeable method, having the disadvantage as well of needing general anaesthesia. 3DE underestimated the RV-Volumes, which could be explained by the worse image resolution. The excellent correlation between the methods indicates a close relationship between 3DE and CMRI although not directly comparable. 3DE is a promising technique for RV volumetric quantification, but further studies in awake dogs and dogs with heart disease are necessary to evaluate its usefulness in veterinary cardiology.

SU-E-I-38: Improved Metal Artifact Correction Using Adaptive Dual Energy Calibration

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dong, X; Elder, E; Roper, J

2015-06-15

Purpose: The empirical dual energy calibration (EDEC) method corrects for beam-hardening artifacts, but shows limited performance on metal artifact correction. In this work, we propose an adaptive dual energy calibration (ADEC) method to correct for metal artifacts. Methods: The empirical dual energy calibration (EDEC) method corrects for beam-hardening artifacts, but shows limited performance on metal artifact correction. In this work, we propose an adaptive dual energy calibration (ADEC) method to correct for metal artifacts. Results: Highly attenuating copper rods cause severe streaking artifacts on standard CT images. EDEC improves the image quality, but cannot eliminate the streaking artifacts. Compared tomore » EDEC, the proposed ADEC method further reduces the streaking resulting from metallic inserts and beam-hardening effects and obtains material decomposition images with significantly improved accuracy. Conclusion: We propose an adaptive dual energy calibration method to correct for metal artifacts. ADEC is evaluated with the Shepp-Logan phantom, and shows superior metal artifact correction performance. In the future, we will further evaluate the performance of the proposed method with phantom and patient data.« less

Bioactive Compounds in Potato Tubers: Effects of Farming System, Cooking Method, and Flesh Color

PubMed Central

Czerko, Zbigniew; Zarzyńska, Krystyna; Borowska-Komenda, Monika

2016-01-01

We investigated the effect of cultivation system (conventional or organic), cooking method, and flesh color on the contents of ascorbic acid (AA) and total phenolics (TPs), and on total antioxidant activity (Trolox equivalents, TE) in Solanum tuberosum (potato) tubers. The research material, consisting of 4 potato cultivars, was grown in experimental fields, using organic and conventional systems, at the experimental station in 2012 and 2013. The analysis showed that organically grown potatoes with creamy, light yellow, and yellow flesh had significantly higher TPs than did potatoes grown conventionally. Flesh color and cooking method also affected AA. The greatest losses of AA occurred in yellow-fleshed potatoes grown conventionally and cooked in the microwave; such losses were not observed in potatoes grown organically. A dry cooking method (baking in a microwave) increased the TP contents in potatoes by about 30%, regardless of the flesh color and the production system. TE was significantly higher in organically grown potatoes (raw and cooked in a steamer) than in conventionally grown potatoes. TE and AA contents showed a significant positive correlation, but only in potatoes from the organic system [R2 = 0.686]. By contrast, the positive correlation between TE and TPs was observed regardless of the production system. Therefore, we have identified the effects of farming system, cooking method, and flesh color on the contents of bioactive compounds in potato tubers. PMID:27139188

The effects of nutrient solution sterilization on the growth and yield of hydroponically grown lettuce

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schwartzkopf, S. H.; Dudzinski, D.; Minners, R. S.

1987-01-01

Two methods of removing bacteria from hydroponic nutrient solution [ultraviolet (UV) radiation and submicronic filter] were evaluated for efficiency and for their effects on lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) production. Both methods were effective in removing bacteria; but, at high intensity, the ultraviolet sterilizer significantly inhibited the production of plants grown in the treated solution. Bacterial removal by lower intensity UV or a submicronic filter seemed to promote plant growth slightly, but showed no consistent, statistically significant effect.

Image restoration by the method of convex projections: part 2 applications and numerical results.

PubMed

Sezan, M I; Stark, H

1982-01-01

The image restoration theory discussed in a previous paper by Youla and Webb [1] is applied to a simulated image and the results compared with the well-known method known as the Gerchberg-Papoulis algorithm. The results show that the method of image restoration by projection onto convex sets, by providing a convenient technique for utilizing a priori information, performs significantly better than the Gerchberg-Papoulis method.

Defining conservation priorities using fragmentation forecasts

Treesearch

David Wear; John Pye; Kurt H. Riitters

2004-01-01

Methods are developed for forecasting the effects of population and economic growth on the distribution of interior forest habitat. An application to the southeastern United States shows that models provide significant explanatory power with regard to the observed distribution of interior forest. Estimates for economic and biophysical variables are significant and...

Early Dose Response to Yttrium-90 Microsphere Treatment of Metastatic Liver Cancer by a Patient-Specific Method Using Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography and Positron Emission Tomography

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Campbell, Janice M.; Department of Radiation Oncology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI; Wong, C. Oliver

2009-05-01

Purpose: To evaluate a patient-specific single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)-based method of dose calculation for treatment planning of yttrium-90 ({sup 90}Y) microsphere selective internal radiotherapy (SIRT). Methods and Materials: Fourteen consecutive {sup 90}Y SIRTs for colorectal liver metastasis were retrospectively analyzed. Absorbed dose to tumor and normal liver tissue was calculated by partition methods with two different tumor/normal liver vascularity ratios: an average 3:1 and a patient-specific ratio derived from pretreatment technetium-99m macroaggregated albumin SPECT. Tumor response was quantitatively evaluated from fluorine-18 fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography scans. Results: Positron emission tomography showed a significant decrease in total tumor standardizedmore » uptake value (average, 52%). There was a significant difference in the tumor absorbed dose between the average and specific methods (p = 0.009). Response vs. dose curves fit by linear and linear-quadratic modeling showed similar results. Linear fit r values increased for all tumor response parameters with the specific method (+0.20 for mean standardized uptake value). Conclusion: Tumor dose calculated with the patient-specific method was more predictive of response in liver-directed {sup 90}Y SIRT.« less

Aberration corrections for free-space optical communications in atmosphere turbulence using orbital angular momentum states.

PubMed

Zhao, S M; Leach, J; Gong, L Y; Ding, J; Zheng, B Y

2012-01-02

The effect of atmosphere turbulence on light's spatial structure compromises the information capacity of photons carrying the Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) in free-space optical (FSO) communications. In this paper, we study two aberration correction methods to mitigate this effect. The first one is the Shack-Hartmann wavefront correction method, which is based on the Zernike polynomials, and the second is a phase correction method specific to OAM states. Our numerical results show that the phase correction method for OAM states outperforms the Shark-Hartmann wavefront correction method, although both methods improve significantly purity of a single OAM state and the channel capacities of FSO communication link. At the same time, our experimental results show that the values of participation functions go down at the phase correction method for OAM states, i.e., the correction method ameliorates effectively the bad effect of atmosphere turbulence.

Learning style-based teaching harvests a superior comprehension of respiratory physiology.

PubMed

Anbarasi, M; Rajkumar, G; Krishnakumar, S; Rajendran, P; Venkatesan, R; Dinesh, T; Mohan, J; Venkidusamy, S

2015-09-01

Students entering medical college generally show vast diversity in their school education. It becomes the responsibility of teachers to motivate students and meet the needs of all diversities. One such measure is teaching students in their own preferred learning style. The present study was aimed to incorporate a learning style-based teaching-learning program for medical students and to reveal its significance and utility. Learning styles of students were assessed online using the visual-auditory-kinesthetic (VAK) learning style self-assessment questionnaire. When respiratory physiology was taught, students were divided into three groups, namely, visual (n = 34), auditory (n = 44), and kinesthetic (n = 28), based on their learning style. A fourth group (the traditional group; n = 40) was formed by choosing students randomly from the above three groups. Visual, auditory, and kinesthetic groups were taught following the appropriate teaching-learning strategies. The traditional group was taught via the routine didactic lecture method. The effectiveness of this intervention was evaluated by a pretest and two posttests, posttest 1 immediately after the intervention and posttest 2 after a month. In posttest 1, one-way ANOVA showed a significant statistical difference (P=0.005). Post hoc analysis showed significance between the kinesthetic group and traditional group (P=0.002). One-way ANOVA showed a significant difference in posttest 2 scores (P < 0.0001). Post hoc analysis showed significance between the three learning style-based groups compared with the traditional group [visual vs. traditional groups (p=0.002), auditory vs. traditional groups (p=0.03), and Kinesthetic vs. traditional groups (p=0.001)]. This study emphasizes that teaching methods tailored to students' style of learning definitely improve their understanding, performance, and retrieval of the subject. Copyright © 2015 The American Physiological Society.

A psychological study of stress, personality and coping in police personnel.

PubMed

Kaur, Ravneet; Chodagiri, Vamsi K; Reddi, Narasimha K

2013-04-01

There have been few studies focusing on occupational/organizational causes of stress in police. Hardly any studies exist on personality traits and coping methods in this group of individuals. To study the association of personality traits and coping methods to psychological stress in police personnel. This cross-sectional study was conducted among the constables and head constables working in the Police Department, Vizianagram town, Andhra Pradesh. The study sample consisted of 150 police persons. The socio-demographic data was individually collected from them. General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) was used for assessing psychological stress, Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) for personality traits, and Coping Checklist-1 (CCL-1) for eliciting coping methods. The statistical analysis was done using SPSS v 10 software. On screening by GHQ-28, 35.33% of the police were found to be having psychological distress. The socio-demographic variables showed no significant association to psychological stress. Personality traits such as neuroticism, psychoticism, and extroversion and coping methods like negative distraction and denial/blame showed statistically significant association (P<0.05) with psychological stress. The most commonly used coping methods across the sample were social support (72.55%), acceptance/redefinition (64.72%), and problem solving (60.46%). As measured by Pearson's correlation coefficient (r), there was evidence of linear association between certain personality traits and coping methods as well. The personality traits and coping methods have significant independent and interactive role in the development of high psychological stress in police persons, thus placing them at a high risk of developing psychiatric disorders.

Enhancement of Self Efficacy of Vocational School Students in Buffer Solution Topics through Guided Inquiry Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

M, Ardiany; W, Wahyu; A, Supriatna

2017-09-01

The more students who feel less confident in learning, so doing things that are less responsible, such as brawl, drunkenness and others. So researchers need to do research related to student self efficacy in learning, in order to reduce unwanted things. This study aims to determine the effect of guided inquiry learning on improving self-efficacy of learners in the buffer solution topics. The method used is the mixed method which is the two group pretest postest design. The subjects of the study are 60 students of class XI AK in one of the SMKN in Bandung, consisting of 30 experimental class students and 30 control class students. The instruments used in this study mix method consist of self-efficacy questionnaire of pretest and posttest learners, interview guides, and observation sheet. Data analysis using t test with significant α = 0,05. Based on the result of inquiry of guided inquiry study, there is a significant improvement in self efficacy aspect of students in the topic of buffer solution. Data of pretest and posttest interview, observation, questionnaire showed significant result, that is improvement of experimental class with conventionally guided inquiry learning. The mean of self-efficacy of student learning there is significant difference of experiment class than control class equal to 0,047. There is a significant relationship between guided inquiry learning with self efficacy and guided inquiry learning. Each correlation value is 0.737. The learning process with guided inquiry is fun and challenging so that students can expose their ideas and opinions without being forced. From the results of questionnaires students showed an attitude of interest, sincerity and a good response of learning. While the results of questionnaires teachers showed that guided inquiry learning can make students learn actively, increased self-efficacy.

Three-dimensional accuracy of different correction methods for cast implant bars

PubMed Central

Kwon, Ji-Yung; Kim, Chang-Whe; Lim, Young-Jun; Kwon, Ho-Beom

2014-01-01

PURPOSE The aim of the present study was to evaluate the accuracy of three techniques for correction of cast implant bars. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty cast implant bars were fabricated on a metal master model. All cast implant bars were sectioned at 5 mm from the left gold cylinder using a disk of 0.3 mm thickness, and then each group of ten specimens was corrected by gas-air torch soldering, laser welding, and additional casting technique. Three dimensional evaluation including horizontal, vertical, and twisting measurements was based on measurement and comparison of (1) gap distances of the right abutment replica-gold cylinder interface at buccal, distal, lingual side, (2) changes of bar length, and (3) axis angle changes of the right gold cylinders at the step of the post-correction measurements on the three groups with a contact and non-contact coordinate measuring machine. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and paired t-test were performed at the significance level of 5%. RESULTS Gap distances of the cast implant bars after correction procedure showed no statistically significant difference among groups. Changes in bar length between pre-casting and post-correction measurement were statistically significance among groups. Axis angle changes of the right gold cylinders were not statistically significance among groups. CONCLUSION There was no statistical significance among three techniques in horizontal, vertical and axial errors. But, gas-air torch soldering technique showed the most consistent and accurate trend in the correction of implant bar error. However, Laser welding technique, showed a large mean and standard deviation in vertical and twisting measurement and might be technique-sensitive method. PMID:24605205

Influence of the Extractive Method on the Recovery of Phenolic Compounds in Different Parts of Hymenaea martiana Hayne

PubMed Central

Oliveira, Fernanda Granja da Silva; de Lima-Saraiva, Sarah Raquel Gomes; Oliveira, Ana Paula; Rabêlo, Suzana Vieira; Rolim, Larissa Araújo; Almeida, Jackson Roberto Guedes da Silva

2016-01-01

Background: Popularly known as “jatobá,” Hymenaea martiana Hayne is a medicinal plant widely used in the Brazilian Northeast for the treatment of various diseases. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of different extractive methods in the production of phenolic compounds from different parts of H. martiana. Materials and Methods: The leaves, bark, fruits, and seeds were dried, pulverized, and submitted to maceration, ultrasound, and percolation extractive methods, which were evaluated for yield, visual aspects, qualitative phytochemical screening, phenolic compound content, and total flavonoids. Results: The highest results of yield were obtained from the maceration of the leaves, which may be related to the contact time between the plant drug and solvent. The visual aspects of the extracts presented some differences between the extractive methods. The phytochemical screening showed consistent data with other studies of the genus. Both the vegetal part as the different extractive methods influenced significantly the levels of phenolic compounds, and the highest content was found in the maceration of the barks, even more than the content found previously. No differences between the levels of total flavonoids were significant. The highest concentration of total flavonoids was found in the ultrasound of the barks, followed by maceration on this drug. According to the results, the barks of H. martiana presented the highest total flavonoid contents. Conclusion: The results demonstrate that both the vegetable and the different extractive methods influenced significantly various parameters obtained in the various extracts, demonstrating the importance of systematic comparative studies for the development of pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. SUMMARY The phytochemical screening showed consistent data with other studies of the genus HymenaeaBoth the vegetable part and the different extractive methods influenced significantly various parameters obtained in the various extracts, including the levels of phenolic compoundsThe barks of H. martiana presented the highest total phenolic and flavonoid contents. PMID:27695267

Ultrasound biomicroscopy for determining visian implantable contact lens length in phakic IOL implantation.

PubMed

Choi, Ki Hwan; Chung, Song Ee; Chung, Tae Young; Chung, Eui Sang

2007-04-01

To assess the efficacy of the ultrasound biomicroscopic (UBM) method in estimating the sulcus-to-sulcus horizontal diameter for Visian Implantable Contact Lens (ICL, model V4) length determination to obtain optimal ICL vault. The results of postoperative ICL vaults in 30 eyes of 18 patients were retrospectively analyzed. In 17 eyes, ICL length was determined using the conventional method, and in 13 eyes, ICL length was determined using the UBM method. The UBM method was carried out by measuring the sulcus to limbus distance on each side by 50 MHz UBM and adding the white-to-white diameter by caliper or Orbscan. The ICL vaults were measured using the UBM method at 1 and 6 months postoperatively and the results were compared between the two groups. Ideal ICL vault was defined as vault between 250 and 750 microm. The relation between the ICL vault, footplate location, and ICL power was also investigated. In the UBM method group, ICL vault was within the ideal range in all 13 (100%) eyes at 1 and 6 months postoperatively, whereas in the conventional method group, 10 (58.8%) eyes showed ideal vault at 1 month postoperatively (P = .01) and 9 (52.9%) eyes showed ideal vault at 6 months postoperatively (P < .01). The ideal ICL footplate location was achieved in the ciliary sulcus in 11 (84.6%) eyes of the UBM method group and 10 (64.7%) eyes of the conventional method group. However, the differences between the two groups were not statistically significant. The ICL vault was not significantly affected by the ICL power. Implantable Contact Lens length determined by the UBM method achieved significantly more ideal ICL vault than that of the conventional white-to-white method. The UBM method is superior to the conventional method in terms of predicting the sulcus-to-sulcus horizontal diameter for ICL length determination.

A fourth-order box method for solving the boundary layer equations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wornom, S. F.

1977-01-01

A fourth order box method for calculating high accuracy numerical solutions to parabolic, partial differential equations in two variables or ordinary differential equations is presented. The method is the natural extension of the second order Keller Box scheme to fourth order and is demonstrated with application to the incompressible, laminar and turbulent boundary layer equations. Numerical results for high accuracy test cases show the method to be significantly faster than other higher order and second order methods.

Biomarkers of Selenium Action in Prostate Cancer

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-01-01

secretory by conventional methods according to published literature. In addition, we have determined the similarities and differences in global gene...transition zone tissue of a 42-year-old man ac- arrays in the resulting data tables were ordered by their cording to previously described methods [4]. The pre...hundred fifteen genes identified by ELISA method . Replicating the conditions used for the SAM analysis showed significant differential expres- microarray

Effect of various binning methods and ROI sizes on the accuracy of the automatic classification system for differentiation between diffuse infiltrative lung diseases on the basis of texture features at HRCT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Namkug; Seo, Joon Beom; Sung, Yu Sub; Park, Bum-Woo; Lee, Youngjoo; Park, Seong Hoon; Lee, Young Kyung; Kang, Suk-Ho

2008-03-01

To find optimal binning, variable binning size linear binning (LB) and non-linear binning (NLB) methods were tested. In case of small binning size (Q <= 10), NLB shows significant better accuracy than the LB. K-means NLB (Q = 26) is statistically significant better than every LB. To find optimal binning method and ROI size of the automatic classification system for differentiation between diffuse infiltrative lung diseases on the basis of textural analysis at HRCT Six-hundred circular regions of interest (ROI) with 10, 20, and 30 pixel diameter, comprising of each 100 ROIs representing six regional disease patterns (normal, NL; ground-glass opacity, GGO; reticular opacity, RO; honeycombing, HC; emphysema, EMPH; and consolidation, CONS) were marked by an experienced radiologist from HRCT images. Histogram (mean) and co-occurrence matrix (mean and SD of angular second moment, contrast, correlation, entropy, and inverse difference momentum) features were employed to test binning and ROI effects. To find optimal binning, variable binning size LB (bin size Q: 4~30, 32, 64, 128, 144, 196, 256, 384) and NLB (Q: 4~30) methods (K-means, and Fuzzy C-means clustering) were tested. For automated classification, a SVM classifier was implemented. To assess cross-validation of the system, a five-folding method was used. Each test was repeatedly performed twenty times. Overall accuracies with every combination of variable ROIs, and binning sizes were statistically compared. In case of small binning size (Q <= 10), NLB shows significant better accuracy than the LB. K-means NLB (Q = 26) is statistically significant better than every LB. In case of 30x30 ROI size and most of binning size, the K-means method showed better than other NLB and LB methods. When optimal binning and other parameters were set, overall sensitivity of the classifier was 92.85%. The sensitivity and specificity of the system for each class were as follows: NL, 95%, 97.9%; GGO, 80%, 98.9%; RO 85%, 96.9%; HC, 94.7%, 97%; EMPH, 100%, 100%; and CONS, 100%, 100%, respectively. We determined the optimal binning method and ROI size of the automatic classification system for differentiation between diffuse infiltrative lung diseases on the basis of texture features at HRCT.

The Evaluation of Head and Craniocervical Posture among Patients with and without Temporomandibular Joint Disorders- A Comparative Study

PubMed Central

Saddu, Shweta Channavir; Dyasanoor, Sujatha; Ravi, Beena Varma

2015-01-01

Introduction Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) are the most common non-dental cause of orofacial pain with a multifactorial aetiology. Aim To evaluate the head and craniocervical posture between individuals with and without TMD and its sub types by photographic and radiographic method. Materials and Methods Thirty four TMD patients diagnosed according to Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMD’s (RDC/TMD) and were divided into 2 groups: Group I (muscle disorder), Group II (disc displacement). Control group comprised of 34 age and sex matched subjects without TMD. Lateral view photographs were taken and the head posture angle was measured. Craniocervical posture was assessed on lateral skull radiograph with two angles (Craniocervical Angle, Cervical Curvature Angle) and two distances (Suboccipital Space, Atlas-Axis Distance). To compare the results, t-test was used with significance level of 0.05. Results Head posture showed no statistical significant difference (p > 0.05) between Group I, II and control group in both photographic and radiographic methods. The cervical curvature angle showed significant difference (p = 0.045) in Group I only. Atlas-Axis Distance was statistically significant in Group II (p = 0.001). Conclusion The present study confirmed that there is a negative association of head posture and TMD whereas, cervical lordosis was present in Group I only. PMID:26436048

Effects of different cooking methods on health-promoting compounds of broccoli*

PubMed Central

Yuan, Gao-feng; Sun, Bo; Yuan, Jing; Wang, Qiao-mei

2009-01-01

The effects of five domestic cooking methods, including steaming, microwaving, boiling, stir-frying, and stir-frying followed by boiling (stir-frying/boiling), on the nutrients and health-promoting compounds of broccoli were investigated. The results show that all cooking treatments, except steaming, caused significant losses of chlorophyll and vitamin C and significant decreases of total soluble proteins and soluble sugars. Total aliphatic and indole glucosinolates were significantly modified by all cooking treatments but not by steaming. In general, the steaming led to the lowest loss of total glucosinolates, while stir-frying and stir-frying/boiling presented the highest loss. Stir-frying and stir-frying/boiling, the two most popular methods for most homemade dishes in China, cause great losses of chlorophyll, soluble protein, soluble sugar, vitamin C, and glucosinolates, but the steaming method appears the best in retention of the nutrients in cooking broccoli. PMID:19650196

A rapid, efficient, and economic device and method for the isolation and purification of mouse islet cells

PubMed Central

Zongyi, Yin; Funian, Zou; Hao, Li; Ying, Cheng; Jialin, Zhang

2017-01-01

Rapid, efficient, and economic method for the isolation and purification of islets has been pursued by numerous islet-related researchers. In this study, we compared the advantages and disadvantages of our developed patented method with those of commonly used conventional methods (Ficoll-400, 1077, and handpicking methods). Cell viability was assayed using Trypan blue, cell purity and yield were assayed using diphenylthiocarbazone, and islet function was assayed using acridine orange/ethidium bromide staining and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-glucose stimulation testing 4 days after cultivation. The results showed that our islet isolation and purification method required 12 ± 3 min, which was significantly shorter than the time required in Ficoll-400, 1077, and HPU groups (34 ± 3, 41 ± 4, and 30 ± 4 min, respectively; P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in islet viability among the four groups. The islet purity, function, yield, and cost of our method were superior to those of the Ficoll-400 and 1077 methods, but inferior to the handpicking method. However, the handpicking method may cause wrist injury and visual impairment in researchers during large-scale islet isolation (>1000 islets). In summary, the MCT method is a rapid, efficient, and economic method for isolating and purifying murine islet cell clumps. This method overcomes some of the shortcomings of conventional methods, showing a relatively higher quality and yield of islets within a shorter duration at a lower cost. Therefore, the current method provides researchers with an alternative option for islet isolation and should be widely generalized. PMID:28207765

A rapid, efficient, and economic device and method for the isolation and purification of mouse islet cells.

PubMed

Zongyi, Yin; Funian, Zou; Hao, Li; Ying, Cheng; Jialin, Zhang; Baifeng, Li

2017-01-01

Rapid, efficient, and economic method for the isolation and purification of islets has been pursued by numerous islet-related researchers. In this study, we compared the advantages and disadvantages of our developed patented method with those of commonly used conventional methods (Ficoll-400, 1077, and handpicking methods). Cell viability was assayed using Trypan blue, cell purity and yield were assayed using diphenylthiocarbazone, and islet function was assayed using acridine orange/ethidium bromide staining and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-glucose stimulation testing 4 days after cultivation. The results showed that our islet isolation and purification method required 12 ± 3 min, which was significantly shorter than the time required in Ficoll-400, 1077, and HPU groups (34 ± 3, 41 ± 4, and 30 ± 4 min, respectively; P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in islet viability among the four groups. The islet purity, function, yield, and cost of our method were superior to those of the Ficoll-400 and 1077 methods, but inferior to the handpicking method. However, the handpicking method may cause wrist injury and visual impairment in researchers during large-scale islet isolation (>1000 islets). In summary, the MCT method is a rapid, efficient, and economic method for isolating and purifying murine islet cell clumps. This method overcomes some of the shortcomings of conventional methods, showing a relatively higher quality and yield of islets within a shorter duration at a lower cost. Therefore, the current method provides researchers with an alternative option for islet isolation and should be widely generalized.

Validation of a combi oven cooking method for preparation of chicken breast meat for quality assessment.

PubMed

Zhuang, H; Savage, E M

2008-10-01

Quality assessment results of cooked meat can be significantly affected by sample preparation with different cooking techniques. A combi oven is a relatively new cooking technique in the U.S. market. However, there was a lack of published data about its effect on quality measurements of chicken meat. Broiler breast fillets deboned at 24-h postmortem were cooked with one of the 3 methods to the core temperature of 80 degrees C. Cooking methods were evaluated based on cooking operation requirements, sensory profiles, Warner-Bratzler (WB) shear and cooking loss. Our results show that the average cooking time for the combi oven was 17 min compared with 31 min for the commercial oven method and 16 min for the hot water method. The combi oven did not result in a significant difference in the WB shear force values, although the cooking loss of the combi oven samples was significantly lower than the commercial oven and hot water samples. Sensory profiles of the combi oven samples did not significantly differ from those of the commercial oven and hot water samples. These results demonstrate that combi oven cooking did not significantly affect sensory profiles and WB shear force measurements of chicken breast muscle compared to the other 2 cooking methods. The combi oven method appears to be an acceptable alternative for preparing chicken breast fillets in a quality assessment.

In vitro starch digestibility, pasting and textural properties of mung bean: effect of different processing methods.

PubMed

Kaur, Maninder; Sandhu, Kawaljit Singh; Ahlawat, RavinderPal; Sharma, Somesh

2015-03-01

Mung bean was subjected to different processing conditions (soaking, germination, cooking and autoclaving) and their textural, pasting and in vitro starch digestibility characteristics were studied. A significant reduction in textural properties (hardness, cohesiveness, gumminess and chewiness) after cooking and autoclaving treatment of mung bean was observed. Flours made from differently processed mung bean showed significant differences (P < 0.05) in their pastin g characteristics. Peak and final viscosity were the highest for flour from germinated mung bean whereas those made from autoclaved mung bean showed the lowest value. in vitro starch digestibility of mung bean flours was assessed enzymatically using modified Englyst method and the parameters studied were readily digestible starch (RDS), slowly digestible starch (SDS), resistant starch (RS) and total starch (TS) content. Various processing treatments increased the RDS contents of mung bean, while the SDS content was found to be the highest for soaked and the lowest for the autoclaved sample. Germinated sample showed higher amount of digestible starch (RDS + SDS) as compared to raw and soaked samples. Flours from raw and soaked samples showed significantly low starch hydrolysis rate at all the temperatures with total hydrolysis of 29.9 and 31.2 %, respectively at 180 min whereas cooked and autoclaved samples showed high hydrolysis rates with 50.2 and 53.8 % of these hydrolyzing within 30 min of hydrolysis.

Effects of special composite stretching on the swing of amateur golf players

PubMed Central

Lee, Joong-chul; Lee, Sung-wan; Yeo, Yun-ghi; Park, Gi Duck

2015-01-01

[Purpose] The study investigated stretching for safer a golf swing compared to present stretching methods for proper swings in order to examine the effects of stretching exercises on golf swings. [Subjects] The subjects were 20 amateur golf club members who were divided into two groups: an experimental group which performed stretching, and a control group which did not. The subjects had no bone deformity, muscle weakness, muscle soreness, or neurological problems. [Methods] A swing analyzer and a ROM measuring instrument were used as the measuring tools. The swing analyzer was a GS400-golf hit ball analyzer (Korea) and the ROM measuring instrument was a goniometer (Korea). [Results] The experimental group showed a statistically significant improvement in driving distance. After the special stretching training for golf, a statistically significant difference in hit-ball direction deviation after swings were found between the groups. The experimental group showed statistically significant decreases in hit ball direction deviation. After the special stretching training for golf, statistically significant differences in hit-ball speed were found between the groups. The experimental group showed significant increases in hit-ball speed. [Conclusion] To examine the effects of a special stretching program for golf on golf swing-related factors, 20 male amateur golf club members performed a 12-week stretching training program. After the golf stretching training, statistically significant differences were found between the groups in hit-ball driving distance, direction deviation, deflection distance, and speed. PMID:25995553

Effects of special composite stretching on the swing of amateur golf players.

PubMed

Lee, Joong-Chul; Lee, Sung-Wan; Yeo, Yun-Ghi; Park, Gi Duck

2015-04-01

[Purpose] The study investigated stretching for safer a golf swing compared to present stretching methods for proper swings in order to examine the effects of stretching exercises on golf swings. [Subjects] The subjects were 20 amateur golf club members who were divided into two groups: an experimental group which performed stretching, and a control group which did not. The subjects had no bone deformity, muscle weakness, muscle soreness, or neurological problems. [Methods] A swing analyzer and a ROM measuring instrument were used as the measuring tools. The swing analyzer was a GS400-golf hit ball analyzer (Korea) and the ROM measuring instrument was a goniometer (Korea). [Results] The experimental group showed a statistically significant improvement in driving distance. After the special stretching training for golf, a statistically significant difference in hit-ball direction deviation after swings were found between the groups. The experimental group showed statistically significant decreases in hit ball direction deviation. After the special stretching training for golf, statistically significant differences in hit-ball speed were found between the groups. The experimental group showed significant increases in hit-ball speed. [Conclusion] To examine the effects of a special stretching program for golf on golf swing-related factors, 20 male amateur golf club members performed a 12-week stretching training program. After the golf stretching training, statistically significant differences were found between the groups in hit-ball driving distance, direction deviation, deflection distance, and speed.

Comparative study of signalling methods for high-speed backplane transceiver

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Kejun

2017-11-01

A combined analysis of transient simulation and statistical method is proposed for comparative study of signalling methods applied to high-speed backplane transceivers. This method enables fast and accurate signal-to-noise ratio and symbol error rate estimation of a serial link based on a four-dimension design space, including channel characteristics, noise scenarios, equalisation schemes, and signalling methods. The proposed combined analysis method chooses an efficient sampling size for performance evaluation. A comparative study of non-return-to-zero (NRZ), PAM-4, and four-phase shifted sinusoid symbol (PSS-4) using parameterised behaviour-level simulation shows PAM-4 and PSS-4 has substantial advantages over conventional NRZ in most of the cases. A comparison between PAM-4 and PSS-4 shows PAM-4 gets significant bit error rate degradation when noise level is enhanced.

Different protocols for cryobiopsy versus forceps biopsy in diagnosis of patients with endobronchial tumors.

PubMed

Jabari, Hamidreza; Sami, Ramin; Fakhri, Mohammad; Kiani, Arda

2012-01-01

Forceps biopsy is the standard procedure to obtain specimens in endobronchial lesions. New studies have proposed flexible cryoprobe as an accepted alternative method for this technique. Although diagnostic use of the cryobiopsy is confirmed in few studies, there is paucity of data with regard to an optimum protocol for this method since one of the main considerations in cryobiopsy is the freezing time. To evaluate diagnostic yield and safety of endobronchial biopsies using the flexible cryoprobe. Moreover, different freezing times were assessed to propose an optimized protocol for this diagnostic modality. For each patient with a confirmed intrabronchial lesion, diagnostic o value of forceps biopsy, cryobiopsy in three seconds, cryobiopsy in five seconds and combined results of cryobiopsy in both timings were recorded. A total of 60 patients (39 males and 21 females; Mean age 56.7 +/- 13.3) were included. Specimens that were obtained by cryobiopsy in five seconds were significantly larger than those of forceps biopsy and cryobiopsy in three seconds (p < 0.001). We showed that the achieved diagnostic yields for all three methods were not statistically different (p > 0.05). Simultaneous usage of samples produced in both cryobiopsies can significantly improve the diagnostic yield (p = 0.02). Statistical analysis showed that there were no significant differences in case of bleeding frequency among the three sampling methods. This study confirmed safety and feasibility of cryobiopsy. Additionally, combination of sampling with two different cold induction timings would significantly increase sensitivity of this emerging technique..

A simple modification of the separation method reduces heterogeneity of adipose-derived stem cells.

PubMed

Griesche, Nadine; Luttmann, Werner; Luttmann, Arlette; Stammermann, Thekla; Geiger, Helmut; Baer, Patrick C

2010-01-01

High hopes are put into the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in various approaches for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. MSCs are derived from different tissues with only small differences in their phenotype or their differentiation potential, but higher differences in the cell yield. Since fat is easily accessible and contains a high amount of MSCs to be isolated, adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) are very promising for clinical approaches. ASCs are not a completely homogeneous cell population. Our study was initiated to explore an easy and convenient method to reduce heterogeneity. We tested different isolation methods: (1) the standard isolation method for ASCs based on plastic attachment, (2) the standard method with an initial washing step after 60 min of adherence and (3) immunomagnetic isolation by 4 typical markers (CD49a, CD90, CD105 and CD271). Cells isolated by these methods were evaluated using quantitative PCR and flow cytometry as well as by their differentiation potential. Washing led to a significantly lower expression of desmin, smA and six2, and a higher expression of the stem cell markers nestin, oct-4 and sall-1, compared to standard isolated cells, while the immunomagnetically isolated cells showed no significant changes. All cells independent of the isolation method could be induced to differentiate into adipocytes and osteoblasts. Our study demonstrates that a simple washing step reduces heterogeneity of cultured ASCs according to PCR analysis, whereas the immunomagnetic isolation only showed minor advantages compared to the standard method, but the disadvantage of significantly lower cell yields in the primary isolates. Copyright 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Comparison of Antimicrobial Efficacy of Triclosan- Containing, Herbal and Homeopathy Toothpastes- An Invitro Study

PubMed Central

Fawaz, Mohammed Alimullah; Narahari, Rao; Shahela, Tanveer; Syed, Afroz

2015-01-01

Background Use of antimicrobial agents is one of the important strategies to prevent oral diseases. These agents vary in their abilities to deliver preventive and therapeutic benefits. Objectives This invitro study was conducted to assess antimicrobial efficacy of different toothpastes against various oral pathogens. Materials and Methods A total of nine toothpastes in three groups were tested for their antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923), Streptococcus mutans (ATCC 0266P) and Candida albicans (Laboratory Strain) by modified agar well diffusion method. Statistical Analysis was performed using Minitab Software. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results Triclosan-based dental formulation with combination of fluoride (1000ppm) exhibited higher antimicrobial activity against test organisms than the combination of lower fluoride-concentration or sodium monofluorophosphate. Among herbal dentifrices, formulation containing Neem, Pudina, Long, Babool, Turmeric and Vajradanti showed significant antimicrobial activity against all the four tested microorganisms (p<0.05). However, against Streptococcus mutans, all three herbal products showed significant antimicrobial activity. Homeo products showed least antimicrobial activity on the tested strains. Formulation with kreosotum, Plantago major and calendula was significantly effective only against Streptococcus mutans. Conclusion In the present study, antimicrobial activity of the toothpaste containing both triclosan and fluoride (1000ppm) as active ingredients showed a significant difference (p< 0.05) against all four tested microflora compared to that of with lower fluoride-concentration or sodium monofluorophosphate. Of herbal groups, the only dentifrice containing several phytochemicals was found to be significantly effective and comparable to triclosan-fluoride (1000ppm) formulation. Thus, this herbal toothpaste can be used as alternative to triclosan-based formulations. However, these results might not be clinically useful unless tested invivo. PMID:26557516

Characterization of Change and Significance for Clinical Findings in Radiology Reports Through Natural Language Processing.

PubMed

Hassanpour, Saeed; Bay, Graham; Langlotz, Curtis P

2017-06-01

We built a natural language processing (NLP) method to automatically extract clinical findings in radiology reports and characterize their level of change and significance according to a radiology-specific information model. We utilized a combination of machine learning and rule-based approaches for this purpose. Our method is unique in capturing different features and levels of abstractions at surface, entity, and discourse levels in text analysis. This combination has enabled us to recognize the underlying semantics of radiology report narratives for this task. We evaluated our method on radiology reports from four major healthcare organizations. Our evaluation showed the efficacy of our method in highlighting important changes (accuracy 99.2%, precision 96.3%, recall 93.5%, and F1 score 94.7%) and identifying significant observations (accuracy 75.8%, precision 75.2%, recall 75.7%, and F1 score 75.3%) to characterize radiology reports. This method can help clinicians quickly understand the key observations in radiology reports and facilitate clinical decision support, review prioritization, and disease surveillance.

[The benefits of foot reflexology in nursing homes].

PubMed

Simonnet, Karine

2012-01-01

Massages, following the foot reflexology method, were given to patients in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimer's disease or related disorders. A methodical assessment, on a small sample of patients, showed a significant reduction in neuropsychiatric manifestations, opening up new perspectives for non-medication based therapy for the care of elderly dependent people.

Apparent migration of implantable port devices: normal variations in consideration of BMI.

PubMed

Wyschkon, Sebastian; Löschmann, Jan-Phillip; Scheurig-Münkler, Christian; Nagel, Sebastian; Hamm, Bernd; Elgeti, Thomas

2016-01-01

To evaluate the extent of normal variation in implantable port devices between supine fluoroscopy and upright chest x-ray in relation to body mass index (BMI) based on three different measurement methods. Retrospectively, 80 patients with implanted central venous access port systems from 2012-01-01 until 2013-12-31 were analyzed. Three parameters (two quantitative and one semi-quantitative) were determined to assess port positions: projection of port capsule to anterior ribs (PCP) and intercostal spaces, ratio of extra- and intravascular catheter portions (EX/IV), normalized distance of catheter tip to carina (nCTCD). Changes were analyzed for males and females and normal-weight and overweight patients using analysis of variance with Bonferroni-corrected pairwise comparison. PCP revealed significantly greater changes in chest x-rays in overweight women than in the other groups (p<0.001, F-test). EX/IV showed a significantly higher increase in overweight women than normal-weight women and men and overweight men (p<0.001). nCTCD showed a significantly greater increase in overweight women than overweight men (p = 0.0130). There were no significant differences between the other groups. Inter- and intra-observer reproducibility was high (Cronbach alpha of 0.923-1.0) and best for EX/IV. Central venous port systems show wide normal variations in the projection of catheter tip and port capsule. In overweight women apparent catheter migration is significantly greater compared with normal-weight women and with men. The measurement of EX/IV and PCP are straightforward methods, quick to perform, and show higher reproducibility than measurement of catheter tip-to-carina distance.

Recording 2-D Nutation NQR Spectra by Random Sampling Method

PubMed Central

Sinyavsky, Nikolaj; Jadzyn, Maciej; Ostafin, Michal; Nogaj, Boleslaw

2010-01-01

The method of random sampling was introduced for the first time in the nutation nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) spectroscopy where the nutation spectra show characteristic singularities in the form of shoulders. The analytic formulae for complex two-dimensional (2-D) nutation NQR spectra (I = 3/2) were obtained and the condition for resolving the spectral singularities for small values of an asymmetry parameter η was determined. Our results show that the method of random sampling of a nutation interferogram allows significant reduction of time required to perform a 2-D nutation experiment and does not worsen the spectral resolution. PMID:20949121

Joint Concept Correlation and Feature-Concept Relevance Learning for Multilabel Classification.

PubMed

Zhao, Xiaowei; Ma, Zhigang; Li, Zhi; Li, Zhihui

2018-02-01

In recent years, multilabel classification has attracted significant attention in multimedia annotation. However, most of the multilabel classification methods focus only on the inherent correlations existing among multiple labels and concepts and ignore the relevance between features and the target concepts. To obtain more robust multilabel classification results, we propose a new multilabel classification method aiming to capture the correlations among multiple concepts by leveraging hypergraph that is proved to be beneficial for relational learning. Moreover, we consider mining feature-concept relevance, which is often overlooked by many multilabel learning algorithms. To better show the feature-concept relevance, we impose a sparsity constraint on the proposed method. We compare the proposed method with several other multilabel classification methods and evaluate the classification performance by mean average precision on several data sets. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.

The development of a novel cooking method (alternate roasting with its own fat) for chicken to improve nutritional value.

PubMed

Kim, J H; Park, H G; Kim, J H; Jung, H; Kim, J K; Oh, S S; Shin, D H; Lim, E J; Kim, Y J

2008-05-01

The goal of this study was to develop a novel cooking method for fried meat products, to improve their nutritional value, and to provide superior taste and texture. We used the fat derived from each individual meat source during radiant heat roasting (alternate roasting with its own fat: AROF) without deep-fat frying (DFF), first without any air flow and subsequently with an exposure to air flow. We then compared these roasted chicken samples to breaded fried chicken samples that were deep-fat fried in 3 types of fat: soybean oil (SB), partially hydrogenated soybean oil (PSB), and lard. The final fat contents of both the skin and lean parts of the AROF samples of chicken were less than half of those of the DFF groups. The total trans-fatty acids (TFA) contents were significantly lower in the AROF samples compared to the DFF samples. The cholesterol levels of the samples did not show any significant differences among the tested groups, except for the sample fried in lard, which was significantly higher. Moreover, the sensory evaluation results showed that the crispy texture of the AROF samples was not significantly different from that of the DFF samples (P < 0.05); the AROF samples had higher scores for the characteristic fried flavor and for overall acceptability (P < 0.05). This study shows the potential value of products prepared by AROF, which can successfully replace DFF methods used for chicken and other meat products and improve their nutritional value.

Whole genome prediction and heritability of childhood asthma phenotypes.

PubMed

McGeachie, Michael J; Clemmer, George L; Croteau-Chonka, Damien C; Castaldi, Peter J; Cho, Michael H; Sordillo, Joanne E; Lasky-Su, Jessica A; Raby, Benjamin A; Tantisira, Kelan G; Weiss, Scott T

2016-12-01

While whole genome prediction (WGP) methods have recently demonstrated successes in the prediction of complex genetic diseases, they have not yet been applied to asthma and related phenotypes. Longitudinal patterns of lung function differ between asthmatics, but these phenotypes have not been assessed for heritability or predictive ability. Herein, we assess the heritability and genetic predictability of asthma-related phenotypes. We applied several WGP methods to a well-phenotyped cohort of 832 children with mild-to-moderate asthma from CAMP. We assessed narrow-sense heritability and predictability for airway hyperresponsiveness, serum immunoglobulin E, blood eosinophil count, pre- and post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV 1 ), bronchodilator response, steroid responsiveness, and longitudinal patterns of lung function (normal growth, reduced growth, early decline, and their combinations). Prediction accuracy was evaluated using a training/testing set split of the cohort. We found that longitudinal lung function phenotypes demonstrated significant narrow-sense heritability (reduced growth, 95%; normal growth with early decline, 55%). These same phenotypes also showed significant polygenic prediction (areas under the curve [AUCs] 56% to 62%). Including additional demographic covariates in the models increased prediction 4-8%, with reduced growth increasing from 62% to 66% AUC. We found that prediction with a genomic relatedness matrix was improved by filtering available SNPs based on chromatin evidence, and this result extended across cohorts. Longitudinal reduced lung function growth displayed extremely high heritability. All phenotypes with significant heritability showed significant polygenic prediction. Using SNP-prioritization increased prediction across cohorts. WGP methods show promise in predicting asthma-related heritable traits.

RRCRank: a fusion method using rank strategy for residue-residue contact prediction.

PubMed

Jing, Xiaoyang; Dong, Qiwen; Lu, Ruqian

2017-09-02

In structural biology area, protein residue-residue contacts play a crucial role in protein structure prediction. Some researchers have found that the predicted residue-residue contacts could effectively constrain the conformational search space, which is significant for de novo protein structure prediction. In the last few decades, related researchers have developed various methods to predict residue-residue contacts, especially, significant performance has been achieved by using fusion methods in recent years. In this work, a novel fusion method based on rank strategy has been proposed to predict contacts. Unlike the traditional regression or classification strategies, the contact prediction task is regarded as a ranking task. First, two kinds of features are extracted from correlated mutations methods and ensemble machine-learning classifiers, and then the proposed method uses the learning-to-rank algorithm to predict contact probability of each residue pair. First, we perform two benchmark tests for the proposed fusion method (RRCRank) on CASP11 dataset and CASP12 dataset respectively. The test results show that the RRCRank method outperforms other well-developed methods, especially for medium and short range contacts. Second, in order to verify the superiority of ranking strategy, we predict contacts by using the traditional regression and classification strategies based on the same features as ranking strategy. Compared with these two traditional strategies, the proposed ranking strategy shows better performance for three contact types, in particular for long range contacts. Third, the proposed RRCRank has been compared with several state-of-the-art methods in CASP11 and CASP12. The results show that the RRCRank could achieve comparable prediction precisions and is better than three methods in most assessment metrics. The learning-to-rank algorithm is introduced to develop a novel rank-based method for the residue-residue contact prediction of proteins, which achieves state-of-the-art performance based on the extensive assessment.

[Validity of expired carbon monoxide and urine cotinine using dipstick method to assess smoking status].

PubMed

Park, Su San; Lee, Ju Yul; Cho, Sung-Il

2007-07-01

We investigated the validity of the dipstick method (Mossman Associates Inc. USA) and the expired CO method to distinguish between smokers and nonsmokers. We also elucidated the related factors of the two methods. This study included 244 smokers and 50 ex-smokers, recruited from smoking cessation clinics at 4 local public health centers, who had quit for over 4 weeks. We calculated the sensitivity, specificity and Kappa coefficient of each method for validity. We obtained ROC curve, predictive value and agreement to determine the cutoff of expired air CO method. Finally, we elucidated the related factors and compared their effect powers using the standardized regression coefficient. The dipstick method showed a sensitivity of 92.6%, specificity of 96.0% and Kappa coefficient of 0.79. The best cutoff value to distinguish smokers was 5-6 ppm. At 5 ppm, the expired CO method showed a sensitivity of 94.3%, specificity of 82.0% and Kappa coefficient of 0.73. And at 6 ppm, sensitivity, specificity and Kappa coefficient were 88.5%, 86.0% and 0.64, respectively. Therefore, the dipstick method had higher sensitivity and specificity than the expired CO method. The dipstick and expired CO methods were significantly increased with increasing smoking amount. With longer time since the last smoking, expired CO showed a rapid decrease after 4 hours, whereas the dipstick method showed relatively stable levels for more than 4 hours. The dipstick and expired CO methods were both good indicators for assessing smoking status. However, the former showed higher sensitivity and specificity and stable levels over longer hours after smoking, compared to the expired CO method.

Accurate diagnosis of thyroid follicular lesions from nuclear morphology using supervised learning.

PubMed

Ozolek, John A; Tosun, Akif Burak; Wang, Wei; Chen, Cheng; Kolouri, Soheil; Basu, Saurav; Huang, Hu; Rohde, Gustavo K

2014-07-01

Follicular lesions of the thyroid remain significant diagnostic challenges in surgical pathology and cytology. The diagnosis often requires considerable resources and ancillary tests including immunohistochemistry, molecular studies, and expert consultation. Visual analyses of nuclear morphological features, generally speaking, have not been helpful in distinguishing this group of lesions. Here we describe a method for distinguishing between follicular lesions of the thyroid based on nuclear morphology. The method utilizes an optimal transport-based linear embedding for segmented nuclei, together with an adaptation of existing classification methods. We show the method outputs assignments (classification results) which are near perfectly correlated with the clinical diagnosis of several lesion types' lesions utilizing a database of 94 patients in total. Experimental comparisons also show the new method can significantly outperform standard numerical feature-type methods in terms of agreement with the clinical diagnosis gold standard. In addition, the new method could potentially be used to derive insights into biologically meaningful nuclear morphology differences in these lesions. Our methods could be incorporated into a tool for pathologists to aid in distinguishing between follicular lesions of the thyroid. In addition, these results could potentially provide nuclear morphological correlates of biological behavior and reduce health care costs by decreasing histotechnician and pathologist time and obviating the need for ancillary testing. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Comparison of Arterial Spin-labeling Perfusion Images at Different Spatial Normalization Methods Based on Voxel-based Statistical Analysis.

PubMed

Tani, Kazuki; Mio, Motohira; Toyofuku, Tatsuo; Kato, Shinichi; Masumoto, Tomoya; Ijichi, Tetsuya; Matsushima, Masatoshi; Morimoto, Shoichi; Hirata, Takumi

2017-01-01

Spatial normalization is a significant image pre-processing operation in statistical parametric mapping (SPM) analysis. The purpose of this study was to clarify the optimal method of spatial normalization for improving diagnostic accuracy in SPM analysis of arterial spin-labeling (ASL) perfusion images. We evaluated the SPM results of five spatial normalization methods obtained by comparing patients with Alzheimer's disease or normal pressure hydrocephalus complicated with dementia and cognitively healthy subjects. We used the following methods: 3DT1-conventional based on spatial normalization using anatomical images; 3DT1-DARTEL based on spatial normalization with DARTEL using anatomical images; 3DT1-conventional template and 3DT1-DARTEL template, created by averaging cognitively healthy subjects spatially normalized using the above methods; and ASL-DARTEL template created by averaging cognitively healthy subjects spatially normalized with DARTEL using ASL images only. Our results showed that ASL-DARTEL template was small compared with the other two templates. Our SPM results obtained with ASL-DARTEL template method were inaccurate. Also, there were no significant differences between 3DT1-conventional and 3DT1-DARTEL template methods. In contrast, the 3DT1-DARTEL method showed higher detection sensitivity, and precise anatomical location. Our SPM results suggest that we should perform spatial normalization with DARTEL using anatomical images.

Comparison of Optimization and Two-point Methods in Estimation of Soil Water Retention Curve

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghanbarian-Alavijeh, B.; Liaghat, A. M.; Huang, G.

2009-04-01

Soil water retention curve (SWRC) is one of the soil hydraulic properties in which its direct measurement is time consuming and expensive. Since, its measurement is unavoidable in study of environmental sciences i.e. investigation of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity and solute transport, in this study the attempt is to predict soil water retention curve from two measured points. By using Cresswell and Paydar (1996) method (two-point method) and an optimization method developed in this study on the basis of two points of SWRC, parameters of Tyler and Wheatcraft (1990) model (fractal dimension and air entry value) were estimated and then water content at different matric potentials were estimated and compared with their measured values (n=180). For each method, we used both 3 and 1500 kPa (case 1) and 33 and 1500 kPa (case 2) as two points of SWRC. The calculated RMSE values showed that in the Creswell and Paydar (1996) method, there exists no significant difference between case 1 and case 2. However, the calculated RMSE value in case 2 (2.35) was slightly less than case 1 (2.37). The results also showed that the developed optimization method in this study had significantly less RMSE values for cases 1 (1.63) and 2 (1.33) rather than Cresswell and Paydar (1996) method.

Comparison of direct boiling method with commercial kits for extracting fecal microbiome DNA by Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA tags.

PubMed

Peng, Xin; Yu, Ke-Qiang; Deng, Guan-Hua; Jiang, Yun-Xia; Wang, Yu; Zhang, Guo-Xia; Zhou, Hong-Wei

2013-12-01

Low cost and high throughput capacity are major advantages of using next generation sequencing (NGS) techniques to determine metagenomic 16S rRNA tag sequences. These methods have significantly changed our view of microorganisms in the fields of human health and environmental science. However, DNA extraction using commercial kits has shortcomings of high cost and time constraint. In the present study, we evaluated the determination of fecal microbiomes using a direct boiling method compared with 5 different commercial extraction methods, e.g., Qiagen and MO BIO kits. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) using UniFrac distances and clustering showed that direct boiling of a wide range of feces concentrations gave a similar pattern of bacterial communities as those obtained from most of the commercial kits, with the exception of the MO BIO method. Fecal concentration by boiling method affected the estimation of α-diversity indices, otherwise results were generally comparable between boiling and commercial methods. The operational taxonomic units (OTUs) determined through direct boiling showed highly consistent frequencies with those determined through most of the commercial methods. Even those for the MO BIO kit were also obtained by the direct boiling method with high confidence. The present study suggested that direct boiling could be used to determine the fecal microbiome and using this method would significantly reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of the sample preparation for studying gut microbiome diversity. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

DBS-LC-MS/MS assay for caffeine: validation and neonatal application.

PubMed

Bruschettini, Matteo; Barco, Sebastiano; Romantsik, Olga; Risso, Francesco; Gennai, Iulian; Chinea, Benito; Ramenghi, Luca A; Tripodi, Gino; Cangemi, Giuliana

2016-09-01

DBS might be an appropriate microsampling technique for therapeutic drug monitoring of caffeine in infants. Nevertheless, its application presents several issues that still limit its use. This paper describes a validated DBS-LC-MS/MS method for caffeine. The results of the method validation showed an hematocrit dependence. In the analysis of 96 paired plasma and DBS clinical samples, caffeine levels measured in DBS were statistically significantly lower than in plasma but the observed differences were independent from hematocrit. These results clearly showed the need for extensive validation with real-life samples for DBS-based methods. DBS-LC-MS/MS can be considered to be a good alternative to traditional methods for therapeutic drug monitoring or PK studies in preterm infants.

[Influence of Different Straws Returning with Landfill on Soil Microbial Community Structure Under Dry and Water Farming].

PubMed

Lan, Mu-ling; Gao, Ming

2015-11-01

Based on rice, wheat, corn straw and rape, broad bean green stalk as the research object, using phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) method, combining principal component analysis method to study the soil microbial quantity, distribution of flora, community structure characteristics under dry and water farming as two different cultivated land use types. The PLFA analysis results showed that: under dry farming, total PLFA quantity ranged 8.35-25.15 nmol x g(-1), showed rape > broad bean > corn > rice > wheat, rape and broad bean significantly increased total PLFA quantity by 1.18 and 1.08 times compared to the treatment without straw; PLFA quantity of bacterial flora in treatments with straws was higher than that without straw, and fungal biomass was significantly increased, so was the species richness of microbial community. Under water faming, the treatments of different straws returning with landfill have improved the PLFA quantity of total soil microbial and flora comparing with the treatment without straw, fungi significantly increased, and species richness of microbial communities value also increased significantly. Total PLFA quantity ranged 4.04-22.19 nmol x g(-1), showed rice > corn > wheat > broad bean > rape, which in rape and broad bean treatments were lower than the treatment without straw; fungal PLFA amount in 5 kinds of straw except broad bean treatment was significantly higher than that of the treatment without straw, bacteria and total PLFA quantity in broad bean processing were significantly lower than those of other treatments, actinomycetes, G+, G- had no significant difference between all treatments; rice, wheat, corn, rape could significantly increase the soil microbial species richness index and dominance index under water faming. The results of principal component analysis showed that broad bean green stalk had the greatest impact on the microbial community structure in the dry soil, rape green stalk and wheat straw had the biggest influence on soil microbial community structure in water soil.

A comparison of the cooperative learning and traditional learning methods in theory classes on nursing students' communication skill with patients at clinical settings.

PubMed

Baghcheghi, Nayereh; Koohestani, Hamid Reza; Rezaei, Koresh

2011-11-01

The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of traditional learning and cooperative learning methods on nursing students' communication skill with patients. This was an experimental study in which 34 nursing students in their 2nd semester of program participated. They were divided randomly into two groups, a control group who were taught their medical/surgical nursing course by traditional learning method and an experimental group, who were taught the same material using cooperative learning method. Before and after the teaching intervention, the students' communication skills with patients at clinical settings were examined. The results showed that no significant difference between the two groups in students' communication skills scores before the teaching intervention, but did show a significant difference between the two groups in the interaction skills and problem follow up sub-scales scores after the teaching intervention. This study provides evidence that cooperative learning is an effective method for improving and increasing communication skills of nursing students especially in interactive skills and follow up the problems sub-scale, thereby it is recommended to increase nursing students' participation in arguments by applying active teaching methods which can provide the opportunity for increased communication skills. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Study of pharmacological activities of methanol extract of Jatropha gossypifolia fruits.

PubMed

Apu, Apurba Sarker; Hossain, Faruq; Rizwan, Farhana; Bhuyan, Shakhawat Hossan; Matin, Maima; Jamaluddin, A T M

2012-12-01

The present study was carried out to investigate the possible in vivo analgesic, neuropharmacological and anti-diarrheal activities of the methanol extract of Jatropha gossypifolia fruits. The analgesic activity was measured by acetic acid induced writhing inhibition test. The neuropharmacological activities were evaluated by hole cross, hole-board, and elevated plus-maze (EPM) tests and the anti-diarrheal activity was assessed by castor oil induced diarrhea inhibition method. The extract showed highly significant (P < 0.001) analgesic activity with % inhibitions of writhing response at doses 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight were 77.86% and 71.25%, respectively. The extract at both doses showed significant (P < 0.05) sedative effect in-hole cross test. In-hole board test, the extract showed highly significant (P < 0.001) anxiolytic activity at lower dose whereas this activity was observed at higher dose in EPM test. The extract also showed highly significant (P < 0.001) anti-diarrheal activity. The findings of the study clearly indicate the presence of significant analgesic, neuropharmacological and anti-diarrheal properties of the plant, which demands further investigation including, compound isolation.

The effect of evaporative air chilling and storage temperature on quality and shelf life of fresh chicken carcasses.

PubMed

Mielnik, M B; Dainty, R H; Lundby, F; Mielnik, J

1999-07-01

The effect of evaporative air chilling on quality of fresh chicken carcasses was compared with air chilling as reference method. Cooling efficiency and total heat loss were significantly higher for evaporative air chilling. The chilling method was of great importance for weight loss. Chicken chilled in cold air lost considerably more weight than chicken cooled by evaporative air chilling; the difference was 1.8%. The chilling method also affected the skin color and the amount of moisture on skin surface. After evaporative air chilling, the chicken carcasses had a lighter color and more water on the back and under the wings. The moisture content in skin and meat, cooking loss, and pH were not affected by chilling method. Odor attributes of raw chicken and odor and flavor attributes of cooked chicken did not show any significant differences between the two chilling methods. The shelf life of chicken stored at 4 and -1 C were not affected significantly by chilling method. Storage time and temperature appeared to be the decisive factors for sensory and microbiological quality of fresh chicken carcasses.

Treating nailbiting: a comparative analysis of mild aversion and competing response therapies.

PubMed

Silber, K P; Haynes, C E

1992-01-01

This study compared two methods of treating nail-biting. One method involved the use of a mild aversive stimulus in which subjects painted a bitter substance on their nails, and the other required the subject to perform a competing response whenever they had the urge to bite or found themselves biting their nails. Both methods included self-monitoring of the behaviour, and a third group of subjects performed self-monitoring alone as a control condition. The study lasted four weeks. Twenty-one subjects, seven per group, participated. Both methods resulted in significant improvements in nail length, with the competing response method showing the most beneficial effect. There was no significant improvement for the control group. The competing response condition also yielded significant improvements along other dimensions such as degree of skin damage and subjects own ratings of their control over their habit. These were not seen for the other two conditions. The benefits of this abridged version of Azrin and Nunn's (Behaviour Research and Therapy, 11, 619-628, 1973) habit reversal method in terms of treatment success, use of therapist time and client satisfaction, are discussed.

Assessing differential expression in two-color microarrays: a resampling-based empirical Bayes approach.

PubMed

Li, Dongmei; Le Pape, Marc A; Parikh, Nisha I; Chen, Will X; Dye, Timothy D

2013-01-01

Microarrays are widely used for examining differential gene expression, identifying single nucleotide polymorphisms, and detecting methylation loci. Multiple testing methods in microarray data analysis aim at controlling both Type I and Type II error rates; however, real microarray data do not always fit their distribution assumptions. Smyth's ubiquitous parametric method, for example, inadequately accommodates violations of normality assumptions, resulting in inflated Type I error rates. The Significance Analysis of Microarrays, another widely used microarray data analysis method, is based on a permutation test and is robust to non-normally distributed data; however, the Significance Analysis of Microarrays method fold change criteria are problematic, and can critically alter the conclusion of a study, as a result of compositional changes of the control data set in the analysis. We propose a novel approach, combining resampling with empirical Bayes methods: the Resampling-based empirical Bayes Methods. This approach not only reduces false discovery rates for non-normally distributed microarray data, but it is also impervious to fold change threshold since no control data set selection is needed. Through simulation studies, sensitivities, specificities, total rejections, and false discovery rates are compared across the Smyth's parametric method, the Significance Analysis of Microarrays, and the Resampling-based empirical Bayes Methods. Differences in false discovery rates controls between each approach are illustrated through a preterm delivery methylation study. The results show that the Resampling-based empirical Bayes Methods offer significantly higher specificity and lower false discovery rates compared to Smyth's parametric method when data are not normally distributed. The Resampling-based empirical Bayes Methods also offers higher statistical power than the Significance Analysis of Microarrays method when the proportion of significantly differentially expressed genes is large for both normally and non-normally distributed data. Finally, the Resampling-based empirical Bayes Methods are generalizable to next generation sequencing RNA-seq data analysis.

Validity of Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis to Estimation Fat-Free Mass in the Army Cadets.

PubMed

Langer, Raquel D; Borges, Juliano H; Pascoa, Mauro A; Cirolini, Vagner X; Guerra-Júnior, Gil; Gonçalves, Ezequiel M

2016-03-11

Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) is a fast, practical, non-invasive, and frequently used method for fat-free mass (FFM) estimation. The aims of this study were to validate predictive equations of BIA to FFM estimation in Army cadets and to develop and validate a specific BIA equation for this population. A total of 396 males, Brazilian Army cadets, aged 17-24 years were included. The study used eight published predictive BIA equations, a specific equation in FFM estimation, and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) as a reference method. Student's t-test (for paired sample), linear regression analysis, and Bland-Altman method were used to test the validity of the BIA equations. Predictive BIA equations showed significant differences in FFM compared to DXA (p < 0.05) and large limits of agreement by Bland-Altman. Predictive BIA equations explained 68% to 88% of FFM variance. Specific BIA equations showed no significant differences in FFM, compared to DXA values. Published BIA predictive equations showed poor accuracy in this sample. The specific BIA equations, developed in this study, demonstrated validity for this sample, although should be used with caution in samples with a large range of FFM.

Radiation Heat Transfer Between Diffuse-Gray Surfaces Using Higher Order Finite Elements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gould, Dana C.

2000-01-01

This paper presents recent work on developing methods for analyzing radiation heat transfer between diffuse-gray surfaces using p-version finite elements. The work was motivated by a thermal analysis of a High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) wing structure which showed the importance of radiation heat transfer throughout the structure. The analysis also showed that refining the finite element mesh to accurately capture the temperature distribution on the internal structure led to very large meshes with unacceptably long execution times. Traditional methods for calculating surface-to-surface radiation are based on assumptions that are not appropriate for p-version finite elements. Two methods for determining internal radiation heat transfer are developed for one and two-dimensional p-version finite elements. In the first method, higher-order elements are divided into a number of sub-elements. Traditional methods are used to determine radiation heat flux along each sub-element and then mapped back to the parent element. In the second method, the radiation heat transfer equations are numerically integrated over the higher-order element. Comparisons with analytical solutions show that the integration scheme is generally more accurate than the sub-element method. Comparison to results from traditional finite elements shows that significant reduction in the number of elements in the mesh is possible using higher-order (p-version) finite elements.

Optimizing Dynamical Network Structure for Pinning Control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orouskhani, Yasin; Jalili, Mahdi; Yu, Xinghuo

2016-04-01

Controlling dynamics of a network from any initial state to a final desired state has many applications in different disciplines from engineering to biology and social sciences. In this work, we optimize the network structure for pinning control. The problem is formulated as four optimization tasks: i) optimizing the locations of driver nodes, ii) optimizing the feedback gains, iii) optimizing simultaneously the locations of driver nodes and feedback gains, and iv) optimizing the connection weights. A newly developed population-based optimization technique (cat swarm optimization) is used as the optimization method. In order to verify the methods, we use both real-world networks, and model scale-free and small-world networks. Extensive simulation results show that the optimal placement of driver nodes significantly outperforms heuristic methods including placing drivers based on various centrality measures (degree, betweenness, closeness and clustering coefficient). The pinning controllability is further improved by optimizing the feedback gains. We also show that one can significantly improve the controllability by optimizing the connection weights.

Does Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure Improve Outcome of Acute Respiratory Failure after Open-heart Surgery?

PubMed Central

Elgebaly, Ahmed Said

2017-01-01

Background: Respiratory failure is of concern in the postoperative period after cardiac surgeries. Invasive ventilation (intermittent positive pressure ventilation [IPPV]) carries the risks and complications of intubation and mechanical ventilation (MV). Aims: Noninvasive positive pressure ventilation (NIPPV) is an alternative method and as effective as IPPV in treating insufficiency of respiration with less complications and minimal effects on respiratory and hemodynamic parameters next to open-heart surgery. Design: This is a prospective, randomized and controlled study. Materials and Methods: Forty-four patients scheduled for cardiac surgery were divided into two equal groups: Group I (IPPV) and Group II (NIPPV). Heart rate (HR), mean arterial pressure (MAP), respiratory rate (RR), oxygen saturation (SpO2), arterial blood gas, weaning time, reintubation, tracheotomy rate, MV time, postoperative hospital stay, and ventilator-associated pneumonia during the period of hospital stay were recorded. Results: There was statistically significant difference in HR between groups with higher in Group I at 30 and 60 min and at 12 and 24 h. According to MAP, it started to increase significantly at hypoxemia, 15 min, 30 min, 4 h, 12 h, and at 24 h which was higher in Group I also. RR, PaO2, and PaCO2 showed significant higher in Group II at 15, 30, and 60 min and 4 h. According to pH, there was a significant difference between groups at 15, 30, and 60 min and at 4, 12, and 24 h postoperatively. SpO2 showed higher significant values in Group I at 15 and 30 min and at 12 h postoperatively. Duration of postoperative supportive ventilation was higher in Group I than that of Group II with statistically significant difference. Complications were statistically insignificant between Group I and Group II. Conclusion: Our study showed superiority of invasive over noninvasive mode of ventilator support. However, NIPPV (bilevel positive airway pressure) was proved to be a safe method. PMID:28994676

A new collage steganographic algorithm using cartoon design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yi, Shuang; Zhou, Yicong; Pun, Chi-Man; Chen, C. L. Philip

2014-02-01

Existing collage steganographic methods suffer from low payload of embedding messages. To improve the payload while providing a high level of security protection to messages, this paper introduces a new collage steganographic algorithm using cartoon design. It embeds messages into the least significant bits (LSBs) of color cartoon objects, applies different permutations to each object, and adds objects to a cartoon cover image to obtain the stego image. Computer simulations and comparisons demonstrate that the proposed algorithm shows significantly higher capacity of embedding messages compared with existing collage steganographic methods.

Application of multiattribute decision-making methods for the determination of relative significance factor of impact categories.

PubMed

Noh, Jaesung; Lee, Kun Mo

2003-05-01

A relative significance factor (f(i)) of an impact category is the external weight of the impact category. The objective of this study is to propose a systematic and easy-to-use method for the determination of f(i). Multiattribute decision-making (MADM) methods including the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), the rank-order centroid method, and the fuzzy method were evaluated for this purpose. The results and practical aspects of using the three methods are compared. Each method shows the same trend, with minor differences in the value of f(i). Thus, all three methods can be applied to the determination of f(i). The rank order centroid method reduces the number of pairwise comparisons by placing the alternatives in order, although it has inherent weakness over the fuzzy method in expressing the degree of vagueness associated with assigning weights to criteria and alternatives. The rank order centroid method is considered a practical method for the determination of f(i) because it is easier and simpler to use compared to the AHP and the fuzzy method.

Reliability of functional and predictive methods to estimate the hip joint centre in human motion analysis in healthy adults.

PubMed

Kainz, Hans; Hajek, Martin; Modenese, Luca; Saxby, David J; Lloyd, David G; Carty, Christopher P

2017-03-01

In human motion analysis predictive or functional methods are used to estimate the location of the hip joint centre (HJC). It has been shown that the Harrington regression equations (HRE) and geometric sphere fit (GSF) method are the most accurate predictive and functional methods, respectively. To date, the comparative reliability of both approaches has not been assessed. The aims of this study were to (1) compare the reliability of the HRE and the GSF methods, (2) analyse the impact of the number of thigh markers used in the GSF method on the reliability, (3) evaluate how alterations to the movements that comprise the functional trials impact HJC estimations using the GSF method, and (4) assess the influence of the initial guess in the GSF method on the HJC estimation. Fourteen healthy adults were tested on two occasions using a three-dimensional motion capturing system. Skin surface marker positions were acquired while participants performed quite stance, perturbed and non-perturbed functional trials, and walking trials. Results showed that the HRE were more reliable in locating the HJC than the GSF method. However, comparison of inter-session hip kinematics during gait did not show any significant difference between the approaches. Different initial guesses in the GSF method did not result in significant differences in the final HJC location. The GSF method was sensitive to the functional trial performance and therefore it is important to standardize the functional trial performance to ensure a repeatable estimate of the HJC when using the GSF method. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Methods and statistics for combining motif match scores.

PubMed

Bailey, T L; Gribskov, M

1998-01-01

Position-specific scoring matrices are useful for representing and searching for protein sequence motifs. A sequence family can often be described by a group of one or more motifs, and an effective search must combine the scores for matching a sequence to each of the motifs in the group. We describe three methods for combining match scores and estimating the statistical significance of the combined scores and evaluate the search quality (classification accuracy) and the accuracy of the estimate of statistical significance of each. The three methods are: 1) sum of scores, 2) sum of reduced variates, 3) product of score p-values. We show that method 3) is superior to the other two methods in both regards, and that combining motif scores indeed gives better search accuracy. The MAST sequence homology search algorithm utilizing the product of p-values scoring method is available for interactive use and downloading at URL http:/(/)www.sdsc.edu/MEME.

Robust control of nonlinear MAGLEV suspension system with mismatched uncertainties via DOBC approach.

PubMed

Yang, Jun; Zolotas, Argyrios; Chen, Wen-Hua; Michail, Konstantinos; Li, Shihua

2011-07-01

Robust control of a class of uncertain systems that have disturbances and uncertainties not satisfying "matching" condition is investigated in this paper via a disturbance observer based control (DOBC) approach. In the context of this paper, "matched" disturbances/uncertainties stand for the disturbances/uncertainties entering the system through the same channels as control inputs. By properly designing a disturbance compensation gain, a novel composite controller is proposed to counteract the "mismatched" lumped disturbances from the output channels. The proposed method significantly extends the applicability of the DOBC methods. Rigorous stability analysis of the closed-loop system with the proposed method is established under mild assumptions. The proposed method is applied to a nonlinear MAGnetic LEViation (MAGLEV) suspension system. Simulation shows that compared to the widely used integral control method, the proposed method provides significantly improved disturbance rejection and robustness against load variation. Copyright © 2011 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Validation of multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis versus dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry to measure body fat percentage in overweight/obese Colombian adults.

PubMed

Ramírez-Vélez, Robinson; Tordecilla-Sanders, Alejandra; Correa-Bautista, Jorge Enrique; González-Ruíz, Katherine; González-Jiménez, Emilio; Triana-Reina, Hector Reynaldo; García-Hermoso, Antonio; Schmidt-RioValle, Jacqueline

2018-01-01

To verify the validity of multi-frequency bioelectrical impedance analysis (mBCA) for predicting body fat percentage (BF%) in overweight/obese adults using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) as the reference method. Forty-eight adults participated (54% women, mean age = 41.0 ± 7.3 years old). The Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to evaluate the correlation between BIA and BF% assessed by DXA. The concordance between BF% measured by both methods was obtained with Lin's concordance correlation coefficient and Bland-Altman difference plots. Measures of BF% were estimated as 39.0 (SD = 6.1) and 38.3 (SD = 6.5) using DXA and mBCA, respectively. The Pearson's correlation coefficient reflected a strong correlation (r =.921, P = .001). The paired t-test showed a significant mean difference between these methods for obese men BF% of -0.6 [(SD 1.95; 95% CI = -4.0 to 3.0), P =.037]. Overall, the bias of the mBCA was -0.6 [(SD 2.2; 95% CI = -5.0 to 3.7), P =.041], which indicated that the mBCA method significantly underestimated BF% in comparison to the reference method. Finally, in both genders, Lin's concordance correlation coefficient showed a strong agreement. More specifically the DXA value was ρc = 0.943 (95% CI = 0.775 to 0.950) and the mBCA value was ρc = 0.948 (95% CI = 0.778 to 0.978). Our analysis showed a strong agreement between the two methods as reflected in the range of BF%. These results show that mBCA and DXA are comparable methods for measuring body composition with higher body fat percentages. However, due to broad limits of agreement, we can only recommend mBCA for groups of populations. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Novel nanoliposomal encapsulated omega-3 fatty acids and their applications in food.

PubMed

Rasti, Babak; Erfanian, Arezoo; Selamat, Jinap

2017-09-01

The aim of the present research was to evaluate the application, stability and suitability of ω3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) incorporated nanoliposomes in food enrichment. Nanoliposomal ω3 PUFAs was prepared by Mozafari method, and their application in bread and milk was compared with unencapsulated (fish oil) and microencapsulated ω3 PUFAs. Sensory evaluation was conducted to determine the perceptible sensory difference/similarity between control, unencapsulated, microencapsulated, and nanoliposomal ω3 PUFAs enriched foods. Results showed no significant (p=0.11) detectable difference between control and nanoliposomal ω3 PUFAs enriched samples while, samples enriched with unencapsulated or microencapsulated ω3 PUFAs showed significant (p=0.02) fishy flavor. Moreover, significantly (p<0.01) higher ω3 PUFAs % recovery and lower peroxide and anisidine values were observed in nanoliposomal ω3 PUFAs enriched samples in comparison with other samples. In conclusion, an effective and reproducible method for application of ω3 PUFAs in the food system was developed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of the Masako maneuver and neuromuscular electrical stimulation on the improvement of swallowing function in patients with dysphagia caused by stroke

PubMed Central

Byeon, Haewon

2016-01-01

[Purpose] The aim of this study was to compare improvements in swallowing function by the intervention of the Masako maneuver and neuromuscular electrical stimulation in patients with dysphagia caused by stroke. [Subjects and Methods] The Masako maneuver (n=23) and neuromuscular electrical stimulation (n=24) were conducted in 47 patients with dysphagia caused by stroke over a period of 4 weeks. Swallowing recovery was recorded using the functional dysphagia scale based on videofluoroscopic studies. [Results] Mean functional dysphagia scale values for the Masako maneuver and neuromuscular electrical stimulation groups decreased after the treatments. However, the pre-post functional dysphagia scale values showed no statistically significant differences between the groups. [Conclusion] The Masako maneuver and neuromuscular electrical stimulation each showed significant effects on the improvement of swallowing function for the patients with dysphagia caused by stroke, but no significant difference was observed between the two treatment methods. PMID:27512266

The effects of prone bridge exercise on trunk muscle thickness in chronic low back pain patients.

PubMed

Kong, Yong-Soo; Lee, Woo-Jin; Park, Seol; Jang, Gwon-Uk

2015-07-01

[Purpose] This study aimed to investigate the effects of prone bridge exercise on trunk muscle thickness. [Subjects and Methods] Thirty-seven chronic low back pain patients participated in this study. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of three exercise groups, namely, a prone bridge exercise group, supine bridge exercise on a Swiss ball group, and supine bridge exercise group. The thicknesses of the transverse abdominis (TrA), internal oblique (IO), and external oblique (EO) were measured using ultrasound. [Results] After eight weeks of training, the three groups showed significant increases in the thicknesses of the TrA, IO, and EO. Among the groups, TrA and IO showed significantly different muscle thicknesses. [Conclusion] The prone bridge exercise significantly affected the thicknesses of the TrA, IO, and EO unlike the supine bridge exercises. Based on the results of this study, the prone bridge exercise is a more effective method to improve trunk stability than conventional supine bridge exercises.

Generalizing DTW to the multi-dimensional case requires an adaptive approach

PubMed Central

Hu, Bing; Jin, Hongxia; Wang, Jun; Keogh, Eamonn

2017-01-01

In recent years Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) has emerged as the distance measure of choice for virtually all time series data mining applications. For example, virtually all applications that process data from wearable devices use DTW as a core sub-routine. This is the result of significant progress in improving DTW’s efficiency, together with multiple empirical studies showing that DTW-based classifiers at least equal (and generally surpass) the accuracy of all their rivals across dozens of datasets. Thus far, most of the research has considered only the one-dimensional case, with practitioners generalizing to the multi-dimensional case in one of two ways, dependent or independent warping. In general, it appears the community believes either that the two ways are equivalent, or that the choice is irrelevant. In this work, we show that this is not the case. The two most commonly used multi-dimensional DTW methods can produce different classifications, and neither one dominates over the other. This seems to suggest that one should learn the best method for a particular application. However, we will show that this is not necessary; a simple, principled rule can be used on a case-by-case basis to predict which of the two methods we should trust at the time of classification. Our method allows us to ensure that classification results are at least as accurate as the better of the two rival methods, and, in many cases, our method is significantly more accurate. We demonstrate our ideas with the most extensive set of multi-dimensional time series classification experiments ever attempted. PMID:29104448

The effects of two methods of reflexology and stretching exercises on the severity of restless leg syndrome among hemodialysis patients.

PubMed

Shahgholian, Nahid; Jazi, Shahrzad Khojandi; Karimian, Jahangir; Valiani, Mahboubeh

2016-01-01

Restless leg syndrome prevalence is high among the patients undergoing hemodialysis. Due to several side effects of medicational treatments, the patients prefer non-medicational methods. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of two methods of reflexology and stretching exercises on the severity of restless leg syndrome among patients undergoing hemodialysis. This study is a randomized clinical trial that was done on 90 qualified patients undergoing hemodialysis in selected hospitals of Isfahan, who were diagnosed with restless leg syndrome through standard restless leg syndrome questionnaire. They were randomly assigned by random number table to three groups: Reflexology, stretching exercises, and control groups through random allocation. Foot reflexology and stretching exercises were conducted three times a week for 30-40 min within straight 4 weeks. Data analysis was performed by SPSS version 18 using descriptive and inferential statistical analyses [one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), paired t-test, and least significant difference (LSD) post hoc test]. There was a significant difference in the mean scores of restless leg syndrome severity between reflexology and stretching exercises groups, compared to control (P < 0.001), but there was no significant difference between the two study groups (P < 0.001). Changes in the mean score of restless leg syndrome severity were significantly higher in reflexology and stretching exercises groups compared to the control group (P < 0.001), but it showed no significant difference between reflexology massage and stretching exercises groups. Our obtained results showed that reflexology and stretching exercises can reduce the severity of restless leg syndrome. These two methods of treatment are recommended to the patients.

Influential factors of red-light running at signalized intersection and prediction using a rare events logistic regression model.

PubMed

Ren, Yilong; Wang, Yunpeng; Wu, Xinkai; Yu, Guizhen; Ding, Chuan

2016-10-01

Red light running (RLR) has become a major safety concern at signalized intersection. To prevent RLR related crashes, it is critical to identify the factors that significantly impact the drivers' behaviors of RLR, and to predict potential RLR in real time. In this research, 9-month's RLR events extracted from high-resolution traffic data collected by loop detectors from three signalized intersections were applied to identify the factors that significantly affect RLR behaviors. The data analysis indicated that occupancy time, time gap, used yellow time, time left to yellow start, whether the preceding vehicle runs through the intersection during yellow, and whether there is a vehicle passing through the intersection on the adjacent lane were significantly factors for RLR behaviors. Furthermore, due to the rare events nature of RLR, a modified rare events logistic regression model was developed for RLR prediction. The rare events logistic regression method has been applied in many fields for rare events studies and shows impressive performance, but so far none of previous research has applied this method to study RLR. The results showed that the rare events logistic regression model performed significantly better than the standard logistic regression model. More importantly, the proposed RLR prediction method is purely based on loop detector data collected from a single advance loop detector located 400 feet away from stop-bar. This brings great potential for future field applications of the proposed method since loops have been widely implemented in many intersections and can collect data in real time. This research is expected to contribute to the improvement of intersection safety significantly. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated sub-cortical brain structure segmentation combining spatial and deep convolutional features.

PubMed

Kushibar, Kaisar; Valverde, Sergi; González-Villà, Sandra; Bernal, Jose; Cabezas, Mariano; Oliver, Arnau; Lladó, Xavier

2018-06-15

Sub-cortical brain structure segmentation in Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) has attracted the interest of the research community for a long time as morphological changes in these structures are related to different neurodegenerative disorders. However, manual segmentation of these structures can be tedious and prone to variability, highlighting the need for robust automated segmentation methods. In this paper, we present a novel convolutional neural network based approach for accurate segmentation of the sub-cortical brain structures that combines both convolutional and prior spatial features for improving the segmentation accuracy. In order to increase the accuracy of the automated segmentation, we propose to train the network using a restricted sample selection to force the network to learn the most difficult parts of the structures. We evaluate the accuracy of the proposed method on the public MICCAI 2012 challenge and IBSR 18 datasets, comparing it with different traditional and deep learning state-of-the-art methods. On the MICCAI 2012 dataset, our method shows an excellent performance comparable to the best participant strategy on the challenge, while performing significantly better than state-of-the-art techniques such as FreeSurfer and FIRST. On the IBSR 18 dataset, our method also exhibits a significant increase in the performance with respect to not only FreeSurfer and FIRST, but also comparable or better results than other recent deep learning approaches. Moreover, our experiments show that both the addition of the spatial priors and the restricted sampling strategy have a significant effect on the accuracy of the proposed method. In order to encourage the reproducibility and the use of the proposed method, a public version of our approach is available to download for the neuroimaging community. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Microgeographic and temporal genetic variation in populations of the bluetongue virus vector Culicoides variipennis (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae).

PubMed

Tabachnick, W J

1992-05-01

Seven Colorado populations of the bluetongue virus vector Culicoides varipennis (Coquillett) were analyzed for genetic variation at 19-21 isozyme loci. Permanent populations, which overwinter as larvae, showed little temporal genetic change at 19 loci. PGD and MDH showed seasonal changes in gene frequencies, attributable to selection at two permanent populations. Two temporary populations showed low heterozygosity compared with permanent populations. Independent estimates of gene flow, calculated using FST and the private allele method, were Nm* = 2.15 and 6.95, respectively. Colorado C. variipennis permanent populations showed high levels of gene flow which prevented significant genetic differentiation due to genetic drift. Temporary populations showed significant gene frequency differences from nearby permanent populations due to the "founder effect" associated with chance colonization.

Assessing viability of extracorporeal preserved muscle transplants using external field stimulation: a novel tool to improve methods prolonging bridge-to-transplantation time

PubMed Central

Taeger, Christian D.; Friedrich, Oliver; Dragu, Adrian; Weigand, Annika; Hobe, Frieder; Drechsler, Caroline; Geppert, Carol I.; Arkudas, Andreas; Münch, Frank; Buchholz, Rainer; Pollmann, Charlotte; Schramm, Axel; Birkholz, Torsten; Horch, Raymund E.; Präbst, Konstantin

2015-01-01

Preventing ischemia-related cell damage is a priority when preserving tissue for transplantation. Perfusion protocols have been established for a variety of applications and proven to be superior to procedures used in clinical routine. Extracorporeal perfusion of muscle tissue though cumbersome is highly desirable since it is highly susceptible to ischemia-related damage. To show the efficacy of different perfusion protocols external field stimulation can be used to immediately visualize improvement or deterioration of the tissue during active and running perfusion protocols. This method has been used to show the superiority of extracorporeal perfusion using porcine rectus abdominis muscles perfused with heparinized saline solution. Perfused muscles showed statistically significant higher ability to exert force compared to nonperfused ones. These findings can be confirmed using Annexin V as marker for cell damage, perfusion of muscle tissue limits damage significantly compared to nonperfused tissue. The combination of extracorporeal perfusion and external field stimulation may improve organ conservation research. PMID:26145230

Anti-inflammatory, Analgesic and Antiulcer properties of Porphyra vietnamensis.

PubMed

Bhatia, Saurabh; Sharma, Kiran; Sharma, Ajay; Nagpal, Kalpana; Bera, Tanmoy

2015-01-01

Aim of the present work was to investigate the anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antiulcer effects of red seaweed Porphyra vietnamensis (P. vietnamenis). Aqueous (POR) and alcoholic (PE) fractions were successfully isolated from P. vietnamenis. Further biological investigations were performed using a classic test of paw edema induced by carrageenan, writhing induced by acetic acid, hot plate method and naproxen induced gastro-duodenal ulcer. Among the fractions POR showed better activity. POR and PE significantly (p < 0.05) reduced carrageenan induced paw edema in a dose dependent manner. In the writhing test POR significantly (p < 0.05) reduced abdominal writhes than PE. In hot plate method POR showed better analgesic activity than PE. POR showed comparable ulcers reducing potential (p<0.01) to that of omeprazole, and has more ulcer reducing potential then PE. The results of this study demonstrated that P. vietnamenis aqueous fraction possesses biological activity that is close to the standards taken for the treatment of peripheral painful or/and inflammatory and ulcer conditions.

Test Results for Entry Guidance Methods for Space Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hanson, John M.; Jones, Robert E.

2004-01-01

There are a number of approaches to advanced guidance and control that have the potential for achieving the goals of significantly increasing reusable launch vehicle (or any space vehicle that enters an atmosphere) safety and reliability, and reducing the cost. This paper examines some approaches to entry guidance. An effort called Integration and Testing of Advanced Guidance and Control Technologies has recently completed a rigorous testing phase where these algorithms faced high-fidelity vehicle models and were required to perform a variety of representative tests. The algorithm developers spent substantial effort improving the algorithm performance in the testing. This paper lists the test cases used to demonstrate that the desired results are achieved, shows an automated test scoring method that greatly reduces the evaluation effort required, and displays results of the tests. Results show a significant improvement over previous guidance approaches. The two best-scoring algorithm approaches show roughly equivalent results and are ready to be applied to future vehicle concepts.

Test Results for Entry Guidance Methods for Reusable Launch Vehicles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hanson, John M.; Jones, Robert E.

2003-01-01

There are a number of approaches to advanced guidance and control (AG&C) that have the potential for achieving the goals of significantly increasing reusable launch vehicle (RLV) safety and reliability, and reducing the cost. This paper examines some approaches to entry guidance. An effort called Integration and Testing of Advanced Guidance and Control Technologies (ITAGCT) has recently completed a rigorous testing phase where these algorithms faced high-fidelity vehicle models and were required to perform a variety of representative tests. The algorithm developers spent substantial effort improving the algorithm performance in the testing. This paper lists the test cases used to demonstrate that the desired results are achieved, shows an automated test scoring method that greatly reduces the evaluation effort required, and displays results of the tests. Results show a significant improvement over previous guidance approaches. The two best-scoring algorithm approaches show roughly equivalent results and are ready to be applied to future reusable vehicle concepts.

Accessibility of long-term family planning methods: a comparison study between Output Based Approach (OBA) clients verses non-OBA clients in the voucher supported facilities in Kenya.

PubMed

Oyugi, Boniface; Kioko, Urbanus; Kaboro, Stephen Mbugua; Gikonyo, Shadrack; Okumu, Clarice; Ogola-Munene, Sarah; Kalsi, Shaminder; Thiani, Simon; Korir, Julius; Odundo, Paul; Baltazaar, Billy; Ranji, Moses; Muraguri, Nicholas; Nzioka, Charles

2017-03-27

The study seeks to evaluate the difference in access of long-term family planning (LTFP) methods among the output based approach (OBA) and non-OBA clients within the OBA facility. The study utilises a quasi experimental design. A two tailed unpaired t-test with unequal variance is used to test for the significance variation in the mean access. The difference in difference (DiD) estimates of program effect on long term family planning methods is done to estimate the causal effect by exploiting the group level difference on two or more dimensions. The study also uses a linear regression model to evaluate the predictors of choice of long-term family planning methods. Data was analysed using SPSS version 17. All the methods (Bilateral tubal ligation-BTL, Vasectomy, intrauterine contraceptive device -IUCD, Implants, and Total or combined long-term family planning methods -LTFP) showed a statistical significant difference in the mean utilization between OBA versus non-OBA clients. The difference in difference estimates reveal that the difference in access between OBA and non OBA clients can significantly be attributed to the implementation of the OBA program for intrauterine contraceptive device (p = 0.002), Implants (p = 0.004), and total or combined long-term family planning methods (p = 0.001). The county of residence is a significant determinant of access to all long-term family planning methods except vasectomy and the year of registration is a significant determinant of access especially for implants and total or combined long-term family planning methods. The management level and facility type does not play a role in determining the type of long-term family planning method preferred; however, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as management level influences the choice of all methods (Bilateral tubal ligation, intrauterine contraceptive device, Implants, and combined methods) except vasectomy. The adjusted R 2 value, representing the percentage of the variance explained by various models, is larger than 18% for implants and total or combined long-term family planning. The study showed that the voucher services in Kenya has been effective in providing long-term family planning services and improving access of care provided to women of reproductive age. Therefore, voucher scheme can be used as a tool for bridging the gap of unmet needs of family planning in Kenya and could potentially be more effective if rolled out to other counties.

The Role of Need for Contraception in the Evaluation of Interventions to Improve Access to Family-Planning Methods

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leon, Federico R.; Lundgren, Rebecka; Sinai, Irit; Jennings, Victoria

2011-01-01

A nonrandomized experiment carried out in Jharkhand, India, shows how the effects of interventions designed to improve access to family-planning methods can be erroneously regarded as trivial when contraceptive use is utilized as dependent variable, ignoring women's need for contraception. Significant effects of the intervention were observed on…

Dynamic sequence analysis of a decision making task of multielement target tracking and its usage as a learning method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, Ziho

This dissertation is divided into four parts: 1) Development of effective methods for comparing visual scanning paths (or scanpaths) for a dynamic task of multiple moving targets, 2) application of the methods to compare the scanpaths of experts and novices for a conflict detection task of multiple aircraft on radar screen, 3) a post-hoc analysis of other eye movement characteristics of experts and novices, and 4) finding out whether the scanpaths of experts can be used to teach the novices. In order to compare experts' and novices' scanpaths, two methods are developed. The first proposed method is the matrix comparisons using the Mantel test. The second proposed method is the maximum transition-based agglomerative hierarchical clustering (MTAHC) where comparisons of multi-level visual groupings are held out. The matrix comparison method was useful for a small number of targets during the preliminary experiment, but turned out to be inapplicable to a realistic case when tens of aircraft were presented on screen; however, MTAHC was effective with large number of aircraft on screen. The experiments with experts and novices on the aircraft conflict detection task showed that their scanpaths are different. The MTAHC result was able to explicitly show how experts visually grouped multiple aircraft based on similar altitudes while novices tended to group them based on convergence. Also, the MTAHC results showed that novices paid much attention to the converging aircraft groups even if they are safely separated by altitude; therefore, less attention was given to the actual conflicting pairs resulting in low correct conflict detection rates. Since the analysis showed the scanpath differences, experts' scanpaths were shown to novices in order to find out its effectiveness. The scanpath treatment group showed indications that they changed their visual movements from trajectory-based to altitude-based movements. Between the treatment and the non-treatment group, there were no significant differences in terms of number of correct detections; however, the treatment group made significantly fewer false alarms.

Simulation Study of Effects of the Blind Deconvolution on Ultrasound Image

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Xingwu; You, Junchen

2018-03-01

Ultrasonic image restoration is an essential subject in Medical Ultrasound Imaging. However, without enough and precise system knowledge, some traditional image restoration methods based on the system prior knowledge often fail to improve the image quality. In this paper, we use the simulated ultrasound image to find the effectiveness of the blind deconvolution method for ultrasound image restoration. Experimental results demonstrate that the blind deconvolution method can be applied to the ultrasound image restoration and achieve the satisfactory restoration results without the precise prior knowledge, compared with the traditional image restoration method. And with the inaccurate small initial PSF, the results shows blind deconvolution could improve the overall image quality of ultrasound images, like much better SNR and image resolution, and also show the time consumption of these methods. it has no significant increasing on GPU platform.

A Method for Scheduling Air Traffic with Uncertain En Route Capacity Constraints

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Arneson, Heather; Bloem, Michael

2009-01-01

A method for scheduling ground delay and airborne holding for flights scheduled to fly through airspace with uncertain capacity constraints is presented. The method iteratively solves linear programs for departure rates and airborne holding as new probabilistic information about future airspace constraints becomes available. The objective function is the expected value of the weighted sum of ground and airborne delay. In order to limit operationally costly changes to departure rates, they are updated only when such an update would lead to a significant cost reduction. Simulation results show a 13% cost reduction over a rough approximation of current practices. Comparison between the proposed as needed replanning method and a similar method that uses fixed frequency replanning shows a typical cost reduction of 1% to 2%, and even up to a 20% cost reduction in some cases.

Production of pure indinavir free base nanoparticles by a supercritical anti-solvent (SAS) method.

PubMed

Imperiale, Julieta C; Bevilacqua, Gabriela; Rosa, Paulo de Tarso Vieira E; Sosnik, Alejandro

2014-12-01

This work investigated the production of pure indinavir free base nanoparticles by a supercritical anti-solvent method to improve the drug dissolution in intestine-like medium. To increase the dissolution of the drug by means of a supercritical fluid processing method. Acetone was used as solvent and supercritical CO2 as antisolvent. Products were characterized by dynamic light scattering (size, size distribution), scanning electron microscopy (morphology), differential scanning calorimetry (thermal behaviour) and X-rays diffraction (crystallinity). Processed indinavir resulted in particles of significantly smaller size than the original drug. Particles showed at least one dimension at the nanometer scale with needle or rod-like morphology. Results of X-rays powder diffraction suggested the formation of a mixture of polymorphs. Differential scanning calorimetry analysis showed a main melting endotherm at 152 °C. Less prominent transitions due to the presence of small amounts of bound water (in the raw drug) or an unstable polymorph (in processed IDV) were also visible. Finally, drug particle size reduction significantly increased the dissolution rate with respect to the raw drug. Conversely, the slight increase of the intrinsic solubility of the nanoparticles was not significant. A supercritical anti-solvent method enabled the nanonization of indinavir free base in one single step with high yield. The processing led to faster dissolution that would improve the oral bioavailability of the drug.

Trends in evaporation of a large subtropical lake

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Cheng; Wang, Yongwei; Wang, Wei; Liu, Shoudong; Piao, Meihua; Xiao, Wei; Lee, Xuhui

2017-07-01

How rising temperature and changing solar radiation affect evaporation of natural water bodies remains poor understood. In this study, evaporation from Lake Taihu, a large (area 2400 km2) freshwater lake in the Yangtze River Delta, China, was simulated by the CLM4-LISSS offline lake model and estimated with pan evaporation data. Both methods were calibrated against lake evaporation measured directly with eddy covariance in 2012. Results show a significant increasing trend of annual lake evaporation from 1979 to 2013, at a rate of 29.6 mm decade-1 according to the lake model and 25.4 mm decade-1 according to the pan method. The mean annual evaporation during this period shows good agreement between these two methods (977 mm according to the model and 1007 mm according to the pan method). A stepwise linear regression reveals that downward shortwave radiation was the most significant contributor to the modeled evaporation trend, while air temperature was the most significant contributor to the pan evaporation trend. Wind speed had little impact on the modeled lake evaporation but had a negative contribution to the pan evaporation trend offsetting some of the temperature effect. Reference evaporation was not a good proxy for the lake evaporation because it was on average 20.6 % too high and its increasing trend was too large (56.5 mm decade-1).

Calculation of left ventricular volumes and ejection fraction from dynamic cardiac-gated 15O-water PET/CT: 5D-PET.

PubMed

Nordström, Jonny; Kero, Tanja; Harms, Hendrik Johannes; Widström, Charles; Flachskampf, Frank A; Sörensen, Jens; Lubberink, Mark

2017-11-14

Quantitative measurement of myocardial blood flow (MBF) is of increasing interest in the clinical assessment of patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD). 15 O-water positron emission tomography (PET) is considered the gold standard for non-invasive MBF measurements. However, calculation of left ventricular (LV) volumes and ejection fraction (EF) is not possible from standard 15 O-water uptake images. The purpose of the present work was to investigate the possibility of calculating LV volumes and LVEF from cardiac-gated parametric blood volume (V B ) 15 O-water images and from first pass (FP) images. Sixteen patients with mitral or aortic regurgitation underwent an eight-gate dynamic cardiac-gated 15 O-water PET/CT scan and cardiac MRI. V B and FP images were generated for each gate. Calculations of end-systolic volume (ESV), end-diastolic volume (EDV), stroke volume (SV) and LVEF were performed with automatic segmentation of V B and FP images, using commercially available software. LV volumes and LVEF were calculated with surface-, count-, and volume-based methods, and the results were compared with gold standard MRI. Using V B images, high correlations between PET and MRI ESV (r = 0.89, p < 0.001), EDV (r = 0.85, p < 0.001), SV (r = 0.74, p = 0.006) and LVEF (r = 0.72, p = 0.008) were found for the volume-based method. Correlations for FP images were slightly, but not significantly, lower than those for V B images when compared to MRI. Surface- and count-based methods showed no significant difference compared with the volume-based correlations with MRI. The volume-based method showed the best agreement with MRI with no significant difference on average for EDV and LVEF but with an overestimation of values for ESV (14%, p = 0.005) and SV (18%, p = 0.004) when using V B images. Using FP images, none of the parameters showed a significant difference from MRI. Inter-operator repeatability was excellent for all parameters (ICC > 0.86, p < 0.001). Calculation of LV volumes and LVEF from dynamic 15 O-water PET is feasible and shows good correlation with MRI. However, the analysis method is laborious, and future work is needed for more automation to make the method more easily applicable in a clinical setting.

Calculation of Mitral Valve Area in Mitral Stenosis: Comparison of Continuity Equation and Pressure Half Time With Two-Dimensional Planimetry in Patients With and Without Associated Aortic or Mitral Regurgitation or Atrial Fibrillation.

PubMed

Sattarzadeh, Roya; Tavoosi, Anahita; Saadat, Mohammad; Derakhshan, Leila; Khosravi, Bakhtyar; Geraiely, Babak

2017-11-01

Accurate measurement of Mitral Valve Area (MVA) is essential to determining the Mitral Stenosis (MS) severity and to achieving the best management strategies for this disease. The goal of the present study is to compare mitral valve area (MVA) measurement by Continuity Equation (CE) and Pressure Half-Time (PHT) methods with that of 2D-Planimetry (PL) in patients with moderate to severe mitral stenosis (MS). This comparison also was performed in subgroups of patients with significant Aortic Insufficiency (AI), Mitral Regurgitation (MR) and Atrial Fibrillation (AF). We studied 70 patients with moderate to severe MS who were referred to echocardiography clinic. MVA was determined by PL, CE and PHT methods. The agreement and correlations between MVA's obtained from various methods were determined by kappa index, Bland-Altman analysis, and linear regression analysis. The mean values for MVA calculated by CE was 0.81 cm (±0.27) and showed good correlation with those calculated by PL (0.95 cm, ±0.26 ) in whole population (r=0.771, P<0.001) and MR subgroup (r=0.763, P<0.001) and normal sinus rhythm and normal valve subgroups (r=0.858, P<0.001 and r=0.867, P<0.001, respectively). But CE methods didn't show any correlation in AF and AI subgroups. MVA measured by PHT had a good correlation with that measured by PL in whole population (r=0.770, P<0.001) and also in NSR (r=0.814, P<0.001) and normal valve subgroup (r=0.781, P<0.001). Subgroup with significant AI and those with significant MR showed moderate correlation (r=0.625, P=0.017 and r=0.595, P=0.041, respectively). Bland Altman Analysis showed that CE would estimate MVA smaller in comparison with PL in the whole population and all subgroups and PHT would estimate MVA larger in comparison with PL in the whole population and all subgroups. The mean bias for CE and PHT are 0.14 cm and -0.06 cm respectively. In patients with moderate to severe mitral stenosis, in the absence of concomitant AF, AI or MR, the accuracy of CE or PHT method in measuring MVA is nearly equal. But in the presence of significant AI or MR, PHT method is obviously superior to CE and in the presence of AF neither have sufficient accuracy.

Effect of Chemistry Triangle Oriented Learning Media on Cooperative, Individual and Conventional Method on Chemistry Learning Result

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Latisma D, L.; Kurniawan, W.; Seprima, S.; Nirbayani, E. S.; Ellizar, E.; Hardeli, H.

2018-04-01

The purpose of this study was to see which method are well used with the Chemistry Triangle-oriented learning media. This quasi experimental research involves first grade of senior high school students in six schools namely each two SMA N in Solok city, in Pasaman and two SMKN in Pariaman. The sampling technique was done by Cluster Random Sampling. Data were collected by test and analyzed by one-way anova and Kruskall Wallish test. The results showed that the high school students in Solok learning taught by cooperative method is better than the results of student learning taught by conventional and Individual methods, both for students who have high initial ability and low-ability. Research in SMK showed that the overall student learning outcomes taught by conventional method is better than the student learning outcomes taught by cooperative and individual methods. Student learning outcomes that have high initial ability taught by individual method is better than student learning outcomes that are taught by cooperative method and for students who have low initial ability, there is no difference in student learning outcomes taught by cooperative, individual and conventional methods. Learning in high school in Pasaman showed no significant difference in learning outcomes of the three methods undertaken.

The influence of pelvic adjustment on vertical jump height in female university students with functional leg length inequality.

PubMed

Gong, Wontae

2015-01-01

[Purpose] This study aimed to investigate the effect of pelvic adjustment on vertical jump height (VJH) in female university students with functional leg length inequality (FLLI). [Subjects] Thirty female university students with FLLI were divided into a pelvic adjustment group (n = 15) and a stretching (control) group (n = 15). [Methods] VJH was measured using an OptoGait. [Results] After the intervention, jump height improved significantly compared with the pre-intervention height only in the pelvic adjustment group, while FLLI showed statistically significant improvement in both groups. [Conclusion] Pelvic adjustment as per the Gonstead method can be applied as a method of reducing FLLI and increasing VJH.

Application of Taguchi optimization on the cassava starch wastewater electrocoagulation using batch recycle method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sudibyo, Hermida, L.; Suwardi

2017-11-01

Tapioca waste water is very difficult to treat; hence many tapioca factories could not treat it well. One of method which able to overcome this problem is electrodeposition. This process has high performance when it conducted using batch recycle process and use aluminum bipolar electrode. However, the optimum operation conditions are having a significant effect in the tapioca wastewater treatment using bath recycle process. In this research, The Taguchi method was successfully applied to know the optimum condition and the interaction between parameters in electrocoagulation process. The results show that current density, conductivity, electrode distance, and pH have a significant effect on the turbidity removal of cassava starch waste water.

Reliability and Validity of Isometric Knee Extensor Strength Test With Hand-Held Dynamometer Depending on Its Fixation: A Pilot Study

PubMed Central

Kim, Won Kuel; Seo, Kyung Mook; Kang, Si Hyun

2014-01-01

Objective To determine the reliability and validity of hand-held dynamometer (HHD) depending on its fixation in measuring isometric knee extensor strength by comparing the results with an isokinetic dynamometer. Methods Twenty-seven healthy female volunteers participated in this study. The subjects were tested in seated and supine position using three measurement methods: isometric knee extension by isokinetic dynamometer, non-fixed HHD, and fixed HHD. During the measurement, the knee joints of subjects were fixed at a 35° angle from the extended position. The fixed HHD measurement was conducted with the HHD fixed to distal tibia with a Velcro strap; non-fixed HHD was performed with a hand-held method without Velcro fixation. All the measurements were repeated three times and among them, the maximum values of peak torque were used for the analysis. Results The data from the fixed HHD method showed higher validity than the non-fixed method compared with the results of the isokinetic dynamometer. Pearson correlation coefficients (r) between fixed HHD and isokinetic dynamometer method were statistically significant (supine-right: r=0.806, p<0.05; seating-right: r=0.473, p<0.05; supine-left: r=0.524, p<0.05), whereas Pearson correlation coefficients between non-fixed dynamometer and isokinetic dynamometer methods were not statistically significant, except for the result of the supine position of the left leg (r=0.384, p<0.05). Both fixed and non-fixed HHD methods showed excellent inter-rater reliability. However, the fixed HHD method showed a higher reliability than the non-fixed HHD method by considering the intraclass correlation coefficient (fixed HHD, 0.952-0.984; non-fixed HHD, 0.940-0.963). Conclusion Fixation of HHD during measurement in the supine position increases the reliability and validity in measuring the quadriceps strength. PMID:24639931

Comparison of prosthetic models produced by traditional and additive manufacturing methods.

PubMed

Park, Jin-Young; Kim, Hae-Young; Kim, Ji-Hwan; Kim, Jae-Hong; Kim, Woong-Chul

2015-08-01

The purpose of this study was to verify the clinical-feasibility of additive manufacturing by comparing the accuracy of four different manufacturing methods for metal coping: the conventional lost wax technique (CLWT); subtractive methods with wax blank milling (WBM); and two additive methods, multi jet modeling (MJM), and micro-stereolithography (Micro-SLA). Thirty study models were created using an acrylic model with the maxillary upper right canine, first premolar, and first molar teeth. Based on the scan files from a non-contact blue light scanner (Identica; Medit Co. Ltd., Seoul, Korea), thirty cores were produced using the WBM, MJM, and Micro-SLA methods, respectively, and another thirty frameworks were produced using the CLWT method. To measure the marginal and internal gap, the silicone replica method was adopted, and the silicone images obtained were evaluated using a digital microscope (KH-7700; Hirox, Tokyo, Japan) at 140X magnification. Analyses were performed using two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey post hoc test (α=.05). The mean marginal gaps and internal gaps showed significant differences according to tooth type (P<.001 and P<.001, respectively) and manufacturing method (P<.037 and P<.001, respectively). Micro-SLA did not show any significant difference from CLWT regarding mean marginal gap compared to the WBM and MJM methods. The mean values of gaps resulting from the four different manufacturing methods were within a clinically allowable range, and, thus, the clinical use of additive manufacturing methods is acceptable as an alternative to the traditional lost wax-technique and subtractive manufacturing.

Comparative study of the ''Misgav Ladach'' and traditional Pfannenstiel surgical techniques for cesarean section.

PubMed

Belci, D; Kos, M; Zoricić, D; Kuharić, L; Slivar, A; Begić-Razem, E; Grdinić, I

2007-06-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate the advantages of the Misgav Ladach surgical technique compared to traditional cesarean section. A prospective randomized trial of 111 women undergoing cesarean section was carried out in the Pula General Hospital. Forty-nine operations were performed using the Pfannenstiel method of cesarean section, 55 by the Misgav Ladach method and 7 by lower midline laparotomy. It was proved that the cases where the Misgav Ladach method was implemented, compared to the Pfannenstiel method, showed a significantly shorter delivery/extraction and operative time (P=0.0009), the incision pain on the second postoperative day was significantly lower (0.021), we recorded a quicker stand up and walking time (P=0.013), significantly fewer analgesic injections and a shorter duration of analgesia were required (P=0.0009) and the bowel function was restored to normal sooner (P=0.001). The Misgav Ladach method of cesarean section has advantages over the Pfannenstiel method in so far as it is significantly quicker to perform, with diminished postoperative pain and less use of postoperative analgesics. The recovery of physiologic function is faster. No differences were found in intraoperative bleeding, maternal morbidity, scar appearance, uterus postoperative involution and the assessment of the inflammation response to the operative technique.

Recommendation advertising method based on behavior retargeting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Yao; YIN, Xin-Chun; CHEN, Zhi-Min

2011-10-01

Online advertising has become an important business in e-commerce. Ad recommended algorithms are the most critical part in recommendation systems. We propose a recommendation advertising method based on behavior retargeting which can avoid leakage click of advertising due to objective reasons and can observe the changes of the user's interest in time. Experiments show that our new method can have a significant effect and can be further to apply to online system.

Gravimetric method for in vitro calibration of skin hydration measurements.

PubMed

Martinsen, Ørjan G; Grimnes, Sverre; Nilsen, Jon K; Tronstad, Christian; Jang, Wooyoung; Kim, Hongsig; Shin, Kunsoo; Naderi, Majid; Thielmann, Frank

2008-02-01

A novel method for in vitro calibration of skin hydration measurements is presented. The method combines gravimetric and electrical measurements and reveals an exponential dependency of measured electrical susceptance to absolute water content in the epidermal stratum corneum. The results also show that absorption of water into the stratum corneum exhibits three different phases with significant differences in absorption time constant. These phases probably correspond to bound, loosely bound, and bulk water.

Effect of storytelling on hopefulness in girl students

PubMed Central

Shafieyan, Shima; Soleymani, Mohammad Reza; Samouei, Raheleh; Afshar, Mina

2017-01-01

BACKGROUND AND AIM: One of the methods that help students in learning critical thinking and decision-making skills is storytelling. Story helps the students to place themselves in the same situation as the main protagonist and try different ways and finally select and implement the best possible method. The goal of this study is to investigate the effect of storytelling on hopefulness of students, age 8–11 in Isfahan's 2nd educational district. METHODS: This is an applied, quasi-experimental study. The study population comprised of 34 randomly selected students attending one of the schools in Isfahan's 2nd educational district. The data gathering tool was the standard Kazdin hopefulness scale (α = 0.72) and data were gathered before and after 8 storytelling sessions for the intervention group. The gathered data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical (paired and independent t-test) with the help of SPSS Version 18 software. RESULTS: The study's findings showed a significant difference in the average hopefulness score of students in study group in pre- and posttest (P = 0.04). Furthermore, independent t-test results showed a significant difference in hopefulness score of intervention and control (P = 0.001). The average hopefulness score of the control group after storytelling sessions was higher than that of the intervention and control. CONCLUSION: The results show the effectiveness of storytelling as a method for improving hopefulness in students. PMID:29296602

Physical labeling of papillomavirus-infected, immortal, and cancerous cervical epithelial cells reveal surface changes at immortal stage.

PubMed

Swaminathan Iyer, K; Gaikwad, R M; Woodworth, C D; Volkov, D O; Sokolov, Igor

2012-06-01

A significant change of surface features of malignant cervical epithelial cells compared to normal cells has been previously reported. Here, we are studying the question at which progressive stage leading to cervical cancer the surface alteration happens. A non-traditional method to identify malignant cervical epithelial cells in vitro, which is based on physical (in contrast to specific biochemical) labelling of cells with fluorescent silica micron-size beads, is used here to examine cells at progressive stages leading to cervical cancer which include normal epithelial cells, cells infected with human papillomavirus type-16 (HPV-16), cells immortalized by HPV-16, and carcinoma cells. The study shows a statistically significant (at p < 0.01) difference between both immortal and cancer cells and a group consisting of normal and infected. There is no significant difference between normal and infected cells. Immortal cells demonstrate the signal which is closer to cancer cells than to either normal or infected cells. This implies that the cell surface, surface cellular brush changes substantially when cells become immortal. Physical labeling of the cell surface represents a substantial departure from the traditional biochemical labeling methods. The results presented show the potential significance of physical properties of the cell surface for development of clinical methods for early detection of cervical cancer, even at the stage of immortalized, premalignant cells.

Physical Labeling of Papillomavirus-Infected, Immortal, and Cancerous Cervical Epithelial Cells Reveal Surface Changes at Immortal Stage

PubMed Central

Iyer, K. Swaminathan; Gaikwad, R. M.; Woodworth, C. D.; Volkov, D. O.

2013-01-01

A significant change of surface features of malignant cervical epithelial cells compared to normal cells has been previously reported. Here, we are studying the question at which progressive stage leading to cervical cancer the surface alteration happens. A non-traditional method to identify malignant cervical epithelial cells in vitro, which is based on physical (in contrast to specific biochemical) labelling of cells with fluorescent silica micron-size beads, is used here to examine cells at progressive stages leading to cervical cancer which include normal epithelial cells, cells infected with human papillomavirus type-16 (HPV-16), cells immortalized by HPV-16, and carcinoma cells. The study shows a statistically significant (at p <0.01) difference between both immortal and cancer cells and a group consisting of normal and infected. There is no significant difference between normal and infected cells. Immortal cells demonstrate the signal which is closer to cancer cells than to either normal or infected cells. This implies that the cell surface, surface cellular brush changes substantially when cells become immortal. Physical labeling of the cell surface represents a substantial departure from the traditional biochemical labeling methods. The results presented show the potential significance of physical properties of the cell surface for development of clinical methods for early detection of cervical cancer, even at the stage of immortalized, pre-malignant cells. PMID:22351422

Benefits of a working memory training program for inattention in daily life: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Spencer-Smith, Megan; Klingberg, Torkel

2015-01-01

Many common disorders across the lifespan feature impaired working memory (WM). Reported benefits of a WM training program include improving inattention in daily life, but this has not been evaluated in a meta-analysis. This study aimed to evaluate whether one WM training method has benefits for inattention in daily life by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis. We searched Medline and PsycINFO, relevant journals and contacted authors for studies with an intervention and control group reporting post-training estimates of inattention in daily life. To reduce the influence of different WM training methods on the findings, the review was restricted to trials evaluating the Cogmed method. A meta-analysis calculated the pooled standardised difference in means (SMD) between intervention and control groups. A total of 622 studies were identified and 12 studies with 13 group comparisons met inclusion criteria. The meta-analysis showed a significant training effect on inattention in daily life, SMD=-0.47, 95% CI -0.65, -0.29, p<.00001. Subgroup analyses showed this significant effect was observed in groups of children and adults as well as users with and without ADHD, and in studies using control groups that were active and non-adaptive, wait-list and passive as well as studies using specific or general measures. Seven of the studies reported follow-up assessment and a meta-analysis showed persisting training benefits for inattention in daily life, SMD=-0.33, 95% CI -0.57 -0.09, p=.006. Additional meta-analyses confirmed improvements after training on visuospatial WM, SMD=0.66, 95% CI 0.43, 0.89, p<.00001, and verbal WM tasks, SMD=0.40, 95% CI 0.18, 0.62, p=.0004. Benefits of a WM training program generalise to improvements in everyday functioning. Initial evidence shows that the Cogmed method has significant benefits for inattention in daily life with a clinically relevant effect size.

Tropical Tropospheric Ozone (TTO) Maps from Nimbus 7 and Earth-Probe TOMS by the Modified-Residual Method. 1; Validation, Evaluation and Trends based on Atlantic Regional Time Series

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thompson, Anne M.; Hudson, Robert D.

1998-01-01

The well-known wave-one pattern seen in tropical total ozone [Shiotani, 1992; Ziemke et al., 1996, 1998] has been used to develop a modified-residual (MR) method for retrieving time-averaged stratospheric ozone and tropospheric ozone column amount from TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer) over the 14 complete calendar years of Nimbus 7 observations (1979-1992) and from TOMS on the Earth-Probe (1996-present) and ADEOS platforms (1996- 1997). Nine- to sixteen-day averaged tropical tropospheric ozone (TTO) maps, validated with ozonesondes, show a seasonality expected from dynamical and chemical influences. The maps may be viewed on a homepage: http://metosrv2.umd.edu/tropo. Stratospheric column ozone, which is also derived by the modified-residual method, compares well with sondes (to within 6-7 DU) and with stratospheric ozone column derived from other satellites (within 8-10 DU). Validation of the TTO time-series is presently limited to ozonesonde comparisons with Atlantic stations and sites on the adjacent continents (Ascension Island, Natal, Brazil; Brazzaville); for the sounding periods, TTO at all locations agrees with the sonde record to +/-7 DU. TTO time-series and the magnitude of the wave-one pattern show ENSO signals in the strongest El Nifio periods from 1979-1998. From 12degN and 12degS, zonally averaged tropospheric ozone shows no significant trend from 1980-1990. Trends are also not significant during this period in localized regions, e.g. from just west of South America across to southern Africa. This is consistent with the ozonesonde record at Natal, Brazil (the only tropical ozone data publicly available for the 1980's), which shows a not statistically significant increase. The lack of trend in tropospheric ozone agrees with a statistical analysis based on another method for deriving TTO from TOMS, the so-called Convective-Cloud-Differential approach of Ziemke et al. [1998].

Psychophysics of reading. XVII. Low-vision performance with four types of electronically magnified text.

PubMed

Harland, S; Legge, G E; Luebker, A

1998-03-01

Most people with low vision need magnification to read. Page navigation is the process of moving a magnifier during reading. Modern electronic technology can provide many alternatives for navigating through text. This study compared reading speeds for four methods of displaying text. The four methods varied in their page-navigation demands. The closed-circuit television (CCTV) and MOUSE methods involved manual navigation. The DRIFT method (horizontally drifting text) involved no manual navigation, but did involve both smooth-pursuit and saccadic eye movements. The rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) method involved no manual navigation, and relatively few eye movements. There were 7 normal subjects and 12 low-vision subjects (7 with central-field loss, CFL group, and 5 with central fields intact, CFI group). The subjects read 70-word passages at speeds that yielded good comprehension. Taking the CCTV reading speed as a benchmark, neither the normal nor low-vision subjects had significantly different speeds with the MOUSE method. As expected from the reduced navigational demands, normal subjects read faster with the DRIFT method (85% faster) and the RSVP method (169%). The CFI group read significantly faster with DRIFT (43%) and RSVP (38%). The CFL group showed no significant differences in reading speed for the four methods.

Hybrid genetic algorithm-neural network: feature extraction for unpreprocessed microarray data.

PubMed

Tong, Dong Ling; Schierz, Amanda C

2011-09-01

Suitable techniques for microarray analysis have been widely researched, particularly for the study of marker genes expressed to a specific type of cancer. Most of the machine learning methods that have been applied to significant gene selection focus on the classification ability rather than the selection ability of the method. These methods also require the microarray data to be preprocessed before analysis takes place. The objective of this study is to develop a hybrid genetic algorithm-neural network (GANN) model that emphasises feature selection and can operate on unpreprocessed microarray data. The GANN is a hybrid model where the fitness value of the genetic algorithm (GA) is based upon the number of samples correctly labelled by a standard feedforward artificial neural network (ANN). The model is evaluated by using two benchmark microarray datasets with different array platforms and differing number of classes (a 2-class oligonucleotide microarray data for acute leukaemia and a 4-class complementary DNA (cDNA) microarray dataset for SRBCTs (small round blue cell tumours)). The underlying concept of the GANN algorithm is to select highly informative genes by co-evolving both the GA fitness function and the ANN weights at the same time. The novel GANN selected approximately 50% of the same genes as the original studies. This may indicate that these common genes are more biologically significant than other genes in the datasets. The remaining 50% of the significant genes identified were used to build predictive models and for both datasets, the models based on the set of genes extracted by the GANN method produced more accurate results. The results also suggest that the GANN method not only can detect genes that are exclusively associated with a single cancer type but can also explore the genes that are differentially expressed in multiple cancer types. The results show that the GANN model has successfully extracted statistically significant genes from the unpreprocessed microarray data as well as extracting known biologically significant genes. We also show that assessing the biological significance of genes based on classification accuracy may be misleading and though the GANN's set of extra genes prove to be more statistically significant than those selected by other methods, a biological assessment of these genes is highly recommended to confirm their functionality. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of the lactose Tergitol-7, m-Endo LES, Colilert 18, Readycult Coliforms 100, Water-Check-100, 3M Petrifilm EC and DryCult Coliform test methods for detection of total coliforms and Escherichia coli in water samples.

PubMed

Hörman, Ari; Hänninen, Marja-Liisa

2006-10-01

In this study we compared the reference membrane filtration (MF) lactose Tergitol-7 (LTTC) method ISO 9308-1:2000 with the MF m-Endo LES method SFS 3016:2001, the defined substrate chromogenic/fluorogenic Colilert 18, Readycult Coliforms and Water Check methods, and ready-made culture media, 3M Petrifilm EC and DryCult Coli methods for the detection of coliforms and Escherichia coli in various water samples. When the results of E. coli detection were compared between test methods, the highest agreement (both tests negative or positive) with the LTTC method was calculated for the m-Endo LES method (83.6%), followed by Colilert 18 (82.7%), Water-Check (81.8%) and Readycult (78.4%), whereas Petrifilm EC (70.6%) and DryCult Coli (68.9%) showed the weakest agreement. The m-Endo LES method was the only method showing no statistical difference in E. coli counts compared with the LTTC method, whereas the Colilert 18 and Readycult methods gave significantly higher counts for E. coli than the LTTC method. In general, those tests based on the analysis of a 1-ml sample (Petrifilm EC and DryCult Coli) showed weak sensitivity (39.5-52.5%) but high specificity (90.9-78.8%).

Pharmacological Evaluation of Naproxen Metal Complexes on Antinociceptive, Anxiolytic, CNS Depressant, and Hypoglycemic Properties

PubMed Central

Das, Narhari; Abdur Rahman, S. M.

2016-01-01

Purpose. The present study was designed to investigate the antinociceptive, anxiolytic, CNS depressant, and hypoglycemic effects of the naproxen metal complexes. Methods. The antinociceptive activity was evaluated by acetic acid-induced writhing method and radiant heat tail-flick method while anxiolytic activity was evaluated by elevated plus maze model. The CNS depressant activity of naproxen metal complexes was assessed using phenobarbitone-induced sleeping time test and the hypoglycemic test was performed using oral glucose tolerance test. Results. Metal complexes significantly (P < 0.001) reduced the number of abdominal muscle contractions induced by 0.7% acetic acid solution in a dose dependent manner. At the dose of 25 mg/kg body weight p.o. copper, cobalt, and zinc complexes exhibited higher antinociceptive activity having 59.15%, 60.56%, and 57.75% of writhing inhibition, respectively, than the parent ligand naproxen (54.93%). In tail-flick test, at both doses of 25 and 50 mg/kg, the copper, cobalt, silver, and zinc complexes showed higher antinociceptive activity after 90 minutes than the parent drug naproxen. In elevated plus maze (EPM) model the cobalt and zinc complexes of naproxen showed significant anxiolytic effects in dose dependent manner, while the copper, cobalt, and zinc complexes showed significant CNS depressant and hypoglycemic activity. Conclusion. The present study demonstrated that copper, cobalt, and zinc complexes possess higher antinociceptive, anxiolytic, CNS depressant, and hypoglycemic properties than the parent ligand. PMID:27478435

Semiautomatic three-dimensional CT ventricular volumetry in patients with congenital heart disease: agreement between two methods with different user interaction.

PubMed

Goo, Hyun Woo; Park, Sang-Hyub

2015-12-01

To assess agreement between two semi-automatic, three-dimensional (3D) computed tomography (CT) ventricular volumetry methods with different user interactions in patients with congenital heart disease. In 30 patients with congenital heart disease (median age 8 years, range 5 days-33 years; 20 men), dual-source, multi-section, electrocardiography-synchronized cardiac CT was obtained at the end-systolic (n = 22) and/or end-diastolic (n = 28) phase. Nineteen left ventricle end-systolic (LV ESV), 28 left ventricle end-diastolic (LV EDV), 22 right ventricle end-systolic (RV ESV), and 28 right ventricle end-diastolic volumes (RV EDV) were successfully calculated using two semi-automatic, 3D segmentation methods with different user interactions (high in method 1, low in method 2). The calculated ventricular volumes of the two methods were compared and correlated. A P value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. LV ESV (35.95 ± 23.49 ml), LV EDV (88.76 ± 61.83 ml), and RV ESV (46.87 ± 47.39 ml) measured by method 2 were slightly but significantly smaller than those measured by method 1 (41.25 ± 26.94 ml, 92.20 ± 62.69 ml, 53.61 ± 50.08 ml for LV ESV, LV EDV, and RV ESV, respectively; P ≤ 0.02). In contrast, no statistically significant difference in RV EDV (122.57 ± 88.57 ml in method 1, 123.83 ± 89.89 ml in method 2; P = 0.36) was found between the two methods. All ventricular volumes showed very high correlation (R = 0.978, 0.993, 0.985, 0.997 for LV ESV, LV EDV, RV ESV, and RV EDV, respectively; P < 0.001) between the two methods. In patients with congenital heart disease, 3D CT ventricular volumetry shows good agreement and high correlation between the two methods, but method 2 tends to slightly underestimate LV ESV, LV EDV, and RV ESV.

Moxibustion and other acupuncture point stimulation methods to treat breech presentation: a systematic review of clinical trials

PubMed Central

Li, Xun; Hu, Jun; Wang, Xiaoyi; Zhang, Huirui; Liu, Jianping

2009-01-01

Background Moxibustion, acupuncture and other acupoint stimulations are commonly used for the correction of breech presentation. This systematic review aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of moxibustion and other acupoint stimulations to treat breech presentation. Methods We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and controlled clinical trials (CCTs) on moxibustion, acupuncture or any other acupoint stimulating methods for breech presentation in pregnant women. All searches in PubMed, the Cochrane Library (2008 Issue 2), China National Knowledge Information (CNKI), Chinese Scientific Journal Database (VIP) and WanFang Database ended in July 2008. Two authors extracted and analyzed the data independently. Results Ten RCTs involving 2090 participants and seven CCTs involving 1409 participants were included in the present study. Meta-analysis showed significant differences between moxibustion and no treatment (RR 1.35, 95% CI 1.20 to 1.51; 3 RCTs). Comparison between moxibustion and knee-chest position did not show significant differences (RR 1.30, 95% CI 0.95 to 1.79; 3 RCTs). Moxibustion plus other therapeutic methods showed significant beneficial effects (RR 1.36, 95% CI 1.21 to 1.54; 2 RCTs). Laser stimulation was more effective than assuming the knee-chest position plus pelvis rotating. Moxibustion was more effective than no treatment (RR 1.29, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.42; 2 CCTs) but was not more effective than the knee-chest position treatment (RR 1.22, 95% CI 1.11 to 1.34; 2 CCTs). Laser stimulation at Zhiyin (BL67) was more effective than the knee-chest position treatment (RR 1.30, 95% CI 1.10 to 1.54; 2 CCTs,). Conclusion Moxibustion, acupuncture and laser acupoint stimulation tend to be effective in the correction of breech presentation. PMID:19245719

Application of Abbreviated Protocol of Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Breast Cancer Screening in Dense Breast Tissue.

PubMed

Chen, Shuang-Qing; Huang, Min; Shen, Yu-Ying; Liu, Chen-Lu; Xu, Chuan-Xiao

2017-03-01

The study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of an abbreviated protocol (AP) of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in comparison to a full diagnostic protocol (FDP) of MRI in the breast cancer screening with dense breast tissue. There are 478 female participants with dense breast tissue and negative mammography results, who were imaged with MRI using AP and FDP. The AP and FDP images were analyzed separately, and the sensitivity and specificity of breast cancer detection were calculated. The chi-square test and receiver operating characteristics curves were used to assess the breast cancer diagnostic capabilities of the two protocols. Sixteen cases of breast cancer from 478 patients with dense breasts were detected using the FDP method, with pathologic confirmation of nine cases of ductal carcinoma in situ, six cases of invasive ductal carcinoma, and one case of mucinous carcinoma. Fifteen cases of breast cancer were successfully screened using the AP method. The sensitivity showed no obvious significant difference between AP and FDP (χ 2  = 0.592, P = 0.623), but the specificity showed a statistically significant difference (χ 2  = 4.619, P = 0.036). The receiver operating characteristics curves showed high efficacy of both methods in the detection of breast cancer in dense breast tissue (the areas under the curve were 0.931 ± 0.025 and 0.947 ± 0.024, respectively), and the ability to diagnose breast cancer was not statistically significantly different between the two methods. The AP of MRI may improve the detection rate of breast cancer in dense breast tissue, and it may be useful in efficient breast cancer screening. Copyright © 2017 The Association of University Radiologists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Temporal and spatial characteristics of extreme precipitation events in the Midwest of Jilin Province based on multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis method and copula functions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Enliang; Zhang, Jiquan; Si, Ha; Dong, Zhenhua; Cao, Tiehua; Lan, Wu

2017-10-01

Environmental changes have brought about significant changes and challenges to water resources and management in the world; these include increasing climate variability, land use change, intensive agriculture, and rapid urbanization and industrial development, especially much more frequency extreme precipitation events. All of which greatly affect water resource and the development of social economy. In this study, we take extreme precipitation events in the Midwest of Jilin Province as an example; daily precipitation data during 1960-2014 are used. The threshold of extreme precipitation events is defined by multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA) method. Extreme precipitation (EP), extreme precipitation ratio (EPR), and intensity of extreme precipitation (EPI) are selected as the extreme precipitation indicators, and then the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test is employed to determine the optimal probability distribution function of extreme precipitation indicators. On this basis, copulas connect nonparametric estimation method and the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) method is adopted to determine the bivariate copula function. Finally, we analyze the characteristics of single variable extremum and bivariate joint probability distribution of the extreme precipitation events. The results show that the threshold of extreme precipitation events in semi-arid areas is far less than that in subhumid areas. The extreme precipitation frequency shows a significant decline while the extreme precipitation intensity shows a trend of growth; there are significant differences in spatiotemporal of extreme precipitation events. The spatial variation trend of the joint return period gets shorter from the west to the east. The spatial distribution of co-occurrence return period takes on contrary changes and it is longer than the joint return period.

Evaluation of the Surface Characteristics of Various Implant Abutment Materials Using Confocal Microscopy and White Light Interferometry.

PubMed

Park, Jun-Beom; Yang, Seung-Min; Ko, Youngkyung

2015-12-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the surface characteristics of various implant abutment materials, such as of titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V; Ma), machined cobalt-chrome-molybdenum alloy (CCM), titanium nitride coating on a titanium alloy disc (TiN), anodic oxidized titanium alloy disc (AO), composite resin coating on a titanium alloy disc (Res), and zirconia disc (Zr), using confocal microscopy and white light interferometry. Measurements from the 2 methods were evaluated to see if these methods would give equivalent results. The precision of measurements were evaluated by the coefficient of variation. Five discs each of Ma, CCM, TiN, AO, Res, and Zr were used. The surface roughness was evaluated by confocal laser microscopy and white light interferometry. Confocal microscopy showed that the Res group showed significantly greater Ra, Rq, Rz, Sa, Sq, and Sz values compared with those of the Ma group (P < 0.05). The white light interferometry results showed that the Res group had significantly higher Ra, Rq, Rz, Rt, Sa, Sq, Sz, and Sdr values compared with the Ma group (P < 0.05). All the roughness parameters obtained from the 2 methods differed, and the Sa values of the Zr group from confocal microscopy were greater by 0.163 μm than those obtained by white light interferometry. Least difference was seen in the TiN group where the difference was 0.058 μm. Roughness parameters of different abutment materials varied significantly. Precision of measurement differed according to the characteristics of the material used. White light interferometry could be recommended for measurement of TiN and AO. Confocal microscopy gave more precise measurements for Ma and CCM groups. The optical characteristics of the surface should be considered before choosing the examination method.

Controlled study on the cognitive and psychological effect of coloring and drawing in mild Alzheimer's disease patients.

PubMed

Hattori, Hideyuki; Hattori, Chikako; Hokao, Chieko; Mizushima, Kumiko; Mase, Toru

2011-10-01

Art therapy has been reported to have effects on mental symptoms in patients with dementia, and its usefulness is expected. We performed a controlled trial to evaluate the usefulness of art therapy compared with calculation training in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease.   Thirty-nine patients with Alzheimer's disease showing slightly decreased cognitive function allowing treatment on an outpatient basis were randomly allocated to art therapy and control (learning therapy using calculation) groups, and intervention was performed once weekly for 12weeks.   Comparison of the results of evaluation between before and after therapy in each group showed significant improvement in the Apathy Scale in the art therapy group (P=0.014) and in the Mini-Mental State Examination score (P=0.015) in the calculation drill group, but no significant differences in the other items between the two groups. Patients showing a 10% or greater improvement were compared between the two groups. Significant improvement in the quality of life (QOL) was observed in the art therapy compared with the calculation training group (P=0.038, odds ratio, 5.54). anova concerning improvement after each method revealed no significant difference in any item. These results suggested improvement in at least the vitality and the QOL of patients with mild Alzheimer's disease after art therapy compared with calculation, but no marked comprehensive differences between the two methods. In non-pharmacological therapy for dementia, studies attaching importance to the motivation and satisfaction of patients and their family members rather than the superiority of methods may be necessary in the future. © 2011 Japan Geriatrics Society.

Immediate Effects of Ankle Balance Taping with Kinesiology Tape for Amateur Soccer Players with Lateral Ankle Sprain: A Randomized Cross-Over Design

PubMed Central

Kim, Myoung Kwon; Shin, Young Jun

2017-01-01

Background The objective of this study was to investigate the immediate effect on gait function when ankle balance taping is applied to amateur soccer players with lateral ankle sprain. Material/Methods A cross-over randomized design was used. Twenty-two soccer players with an ankle sprain underwent 3 interventions in a random order. Subjects were randomly assigned to ankle balance taping, placebo taping, and no taping groups. The assessment was performed using the GAITRite portable walkway system, which records the location and timing of each footfall during ambulation. Results Significant differences were found in the velocity, step length, stride length, and H-H base support among the 3 different taping methods (p<0.05). The ankle balance taping group showed significantly greater velocity, step length, and stride length in comparison to the placebo and no taping group. The ankle balance taping group showed a statistically significant decrease (p<0.05) in the H-H base support compared to the placebo and no taping groups, and the placebo group showed significantly greater velocity in comparison to the no taping group (p<0.05). Conclusions We conclude that ankle balance taping that uses kinesiology tape instantly increased the walking ability of amateur soccer players with lateral ankle sprain. Therefore, ankle balance taping is a useful alternative to prevent and treat ankle sprain of soccer players. PMID:29158472

An In vitro Comparison and Evaluation of Sealing Ability of Newly Introduced C-point System, Cold Lateral Condensation, and Thermoplasticized Gutta-Percha Obturating Technique: A Dye Extraction Study.

PubMed

Sinhal, Tapati Manohar; Shah, Ruchi Rani Purvesh; Jais, Pratik Subhas; Shah, Nimisha Chinmay; Hadwani, Krupali Dhirubhai; Rothe, Tushar; Sinhal, Neha Nilesh

2018-01-01

The aim of this study is to compare and to evaluate sealing ability of newly introduced C-point system, cold lateral condensation, and thermoplasticized gutta-percha obturating technique using a dye extraction method. Sixty extracted maxillary central incisors were decoronated below the cementoenamel junction. Working length was established, and biomechanical preparation was done using K3 rotary files with standard irrigation protocol. Teeth were divided into three groups according to the obturation protocol; Group I-Cold lateral condensation, Group II-Thermoplasticized gutta-percha, and Group III-C-Point obturating system. After obturation all samples were subjected to microleakage assessment using dye extraction method. Obtained scores will be statistical analyzed using ANOVA test and post hoc Tukey's test. One-way analysis of variance revealed that there is significant difference among the three groups with P value (0.000 < 0.05). Tukey's HSD post hoc tests for multiple comparisons test shows that the Group II and III perform significantly better than Group I. Group III performs better than Group II with no significant difference. All the obturating technique showed some degree of microleakage. Root canals filled with C-point system showed least microleakage followed by thermoplasticized obturating technique with no significant difference among them. C-point obturation system could be an alternative to the cold lateral condensation technique.

Analysis of Mental Workload in Online Shopping: Are Augmented and Virtual Reality Consistent?

PubMed

Zhao, Xiaojun; Shi, Changxiu; You, Xuqun; Zong, Chenming

2017-01-01

A market research company (Nielsen) reported that consumers in the Asia-Pacific region have become the most active group in online shopping. Focusing on augmented reality (AR), which is one of three major techniques used to change the method of shopping in the future, this study used a mixed design to discuss the influences of the method of online shopping, user gender, cognitive style, product value, and sensory channel on mental workload in virtual reality (VR) and AR situations. The results showed that males' mental workloads were significantly higher than females'. For males, high-value products' mental workload was significantly higher than that of low-value products. In the VR situation, the visual mental workload of field-independent and field-dependent consumers showed a significant difference, but the difference was reduced under audio-visual conditions. In the AR situation, the visual mental workload of field-independent and field-dependent consumers showed a significant difference, but the difference increased under audio-visual conditions. This study provided a psychological study of online shopping with AR and VR technology with applications in the future. Based on the perspective of embodied cognition, AR online shopping may be potential focus of research and market application. For the future design of online shopping platforms and the updating of user experience, this study provides a reference.

Analysis of Mental Workload in Online Shopping: Are Augmented and Virtual Reality Consistent?

PubMed Central

Zhao, Xiaojun; Shi, Changxiu; You, Xuqun; Zong, Chenming

2017-01-01

A market research company (Nielsen) reported that consumers in the Asia-Pacific region have become the most active group in online shopping. Focusing on augmented reality (AR), which is one of three major techniques used to change the method of shopping in the future, this study used a mixed design to discuss the influences of the method of online shopping, user gender, cognitive style, product value, and sensory channel on mental workload in virtual reality (VR) and AR situations. The results showed that males’ mental workloads were significantly higher than females’. For males, high-value products’ mental workload was significantly higher than that of low-value products. In the VR situation, the visual mental workload of field-independent and field-dependent consumers showed a significant difference, but the difference was reduced under audio–visual conditions. In the AR situation, the visual mental workload of field-independent and field-dependent consumers showed a significant difference, but the difference increased under audio–visual conditions. This study provided a psychological study of online shopping with AR and VR technology with applications in the future. Based on the perspective of embodied cognition, AR online shopping may be potential focus of research and market application. For the future design of online shopping platforms and the updating of user experience, this study provides a reference. PMID:28184207

The importance of the keyword-generation method in keyword mnemonics.

PubMed

Campos, Alfredo; Amor, Angeles; González, María Angeles

2004-01-01

Keyword mnemonics is under certain conditions an effective approach for learning foreign-language vocabulary. It appears to be effective for words with high image vividness but not for words with low image vividness. In this study, two experiments were performed to assess the efficacy of a new keyword-generation procedure (peer generation). In Experiment 1, a sample of 363 high-school students was randomly into four groups. The subjects were required to learn L1 equivalents of a list of 16 Latin words (8 with high image vividness, 8 with low image vividness), using a) the rote method, or the keyword method with b) keywords and images generated and supplied by the experimenter, c) keywords and images generated by themselves, or d) keywords and images previously generated by peers (i.e., subjects with similar sociodemographic characteristics). Recall was tested immediately and one week later. For high-vivideness words, recall was significantly better in the keyword groups than the rote method group. For low-vividness words, learning method had no significant effect. Experiment 2 was basically identical, except that the word lists comprised 32 words (16 high-vividness, 16 low-vividness). In this experiment, the peer-generated-keyword group showed significantly better recall of high-vividness words than the rote method groups and the subject generated keyword group; again, however, learning method had no significant effect on recall of low-vividness words.

A Comprehensive Study of Gridding Methods for GPS Horizontal Velocity Fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Yanqiang; Jiang, Zaisen; Liu, Xiaoxia; Wei, Wenxin; Zhu, Shuang; Zhang, Long; Zou, Zhenyu; Xiong, Xiaohui; Wang, Qixin; Du, Jiliang

2017-03-01

Four gridding methods for GPS velocities are compared in terms of their precision, applicability and robustness by analyzing simulated data with uncertainties from 0.0 to ±3.0 mm/a. When the input data are 1° × 1° grid sampled and the uncertainty of the additional error is greater than ±1.0 mm/a, the gridding results show that the least-squares collocation method is highly robust while the robustness of the Kriging method is low. In contrast, the spherical harmonics and the multi-surface function are moderately robust, and the regional singular values for the multi-surface function method and the edge effects for the spherical harmonics method become more significant with increasing uncertainty of the input data. When the input data (with additional errors of ±2.0 mm/a) are decimated by 50% from the 1° × 1° grid data and then erased in three 6° × 12° regions, the gridding results in these three regions indicate that the least-squares collocation and the spherical harmonics methods have good performances, while the multi-surface function and the Kriging methods may lead to singular values. The gridding techniques are also applied to GPS horizontal velocities with an average error of ±0.8 mm/a over the Chinese mainland and the surrounding areas, and the results show that the least-squares collocation method has the best performance, followed by the Kriging and multi-surface function methods. Furthermore, the edge effects of the spherical harmonics method are significantly affected by the sparseness and geometric distribution of the input data. In general, the least-squares collocation method is superior in terms of its robustness, edge effect, error distribution and stability, while the other methods have several positive features.

Measurement of admixture proportions and description of admixture structure in different US populations

PubMed Central

Halder, Indrani; Yang, Bao-Zhu; Kranzler, Henry R.; Stein, Murray B.; Shriver, Mark D.; Gelernter, Joel

2010-01-01

Variation in individual admixture proportions leads to heterogeneity within populations. Though novel methods and marker panels have been developed to quantify individual admixture, empirical data describing individual admixture distributions are limited. We investigated variation in individual admixture in four US populations [European American (EA), African American (AA) and Hispanics from Connecticut (EC) and California (WC)] assuming three-way intermixture among Europeans, Africans and Indigenous Americans. Admixture estimates were inferred using a panel of 36 microsatellites and 1 SNP, which have significant allele frequency differences between ancestral populations, and by using both a maximum likelihood (ML) based method and a Bayesian method implemented in the program STRUCTURE. Simulation studies showed that estimates obtained with this marker panel are within 96% of expected values. EAs had the lowest non-European admixture with both methods, but showed greater homogeneity with STRUCTURE than with ML. All other samples showed a high degree of variation in admixture estimates with both methods, were highly concordant and showed evidence of admixture stratification. With both methods, AA subjects had 16% European and <10% Indigenous American admixture on average. EC Hispanics had higher mean African admixture and the WC Hispanics higher mean Indigenous American admixture, possibly reflecting their different continental origins. PMID:19572378

The effect of different cooking methods on fatty acid composition and antioxidant activity of n-3 fatty acids fortified tilapia meat with or without clove essential oil.

PubMed

Ramezani-Fard, Ehsan; Romano, Nicholas; Goh, Yong-Meng; Oskoueian, Ehsan; Ehteshami, Fariborz; Ebrahimi, Mahdi

2016-07-01

Tilapia farmers are increasingly relying on dietary fish oil alternatives which substantially reduces health beneficial n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in tilapia products.? This may be further exacerbated depending on the cooking method.? This study aimed to evaluate the effects of different cooking methods on the fatty acid composition and oxidative stability of tilapia minced meat after prior fish oil fortifications with or without clove essential oil. Results showed that frying tilapia in either sunflower or palm oil significantly increased the saturated fatty acid and linoleic acid content, respectively, of tilapia. However, fish oil fortifications significantly increased the n-3 PUFA content, but tended to decrease oxidative stability, particularly when microwaving. This was mitigated by clove essential oil, which significantly improved oxidative stability after cooking. Results indicate that n-3 PUFA and clove essential oil fortifications is an effective method to deliver and protect these beneficial fatty acids for human consumers. ?

MACH 3: Past and future approaches to intelligent tutoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Acchione-Noel, Sylvia; Psotka, Joseph

1993-01-01

In 1986, the U.S. Army Research Institute created an intelligent tutoring system as a proof-of-concept for artificial intelligence applications in Army training. The Maintenance Aid Computer HAWK Intelligent Institutional Instructor (MACH 3) taught student mechanics to maintain and troubleshoot the AN/MPQ-57 High Power Illuminator Radar (HPIR) of the HAWK Air Defense Missile System. In 1989, TRADOC Analysis Command compared the effectiveness of MACH 3 to traditional paper-based troubleshooting drills. For the study, all students received lecture and hands-on training as usual. However, during troubleshooting drills, students traced faults using either MACH 3 or the traditional paper-based method. Class records showed that the MACH 3 group completed significantly more troubleshooting tasks and progressed through tasks of greater difficulty than the paper-based group. Upon completion of training, students took written, practical, and oral essay tests. Mean test scores showed that students performed similarly regardless of the drill method used. However, significantly different standard deviations showed that the MACH 3 group performed more consistently than the paper-based group. Furthermore, significantly different time measures showed that the MACH 3 group reached faster troubleshooting solutions on the actual radar transmitter than the paper-based group. We will present the study results and discuss how updating the design of the MACH 3 can include desktop computing in a virtual environment.

A comparison of DNA extraction procedures for the detection of Mycobacterium ulcerans, the causative agent of Buruli ulcer, in clinical and environmental specimens.

PubMed

Durnez, Lies; Stragier, Pieter; Roebben, Karen; Ablordey, Anthony; Leirs, Herwig; Portaels, Françoise

2009-02-01

Mycobacterium ulcerans is the causative agent of Buruli ulcer, the third most common mycobacterial disease in humans after tuberculosis and leprosy. Although the disease is associated with aquatic ecosystems, cultivation of the bacillus from the environment is difficult to achieve. Therefore, at the moment, research is based on the detection by PCR of the insertion sequence IS2404 present in M. ulcerans and some closely related mycobacteria. In the present study, we compared four DNA extraction methods for detection of M. ulcerans DNA, namely the one tube cell lysis and DNA extraction procedure (OT), the FastPrep procedure (FP), the modified Boom procedure (MB), and the Maxwell 16 Procedure (M16). The methods were performed on serial dilutions of M. ulcerans, followed by PCR analysis with different PCR targets in M. ulcerans to determine the detection limit (DL) of each method. The purity of the extracted DNA and the time and effort needed were compared as well. All methods were performed on environmental specimens and the two best methods (MB and M16) were tested on clinical specimens for detection of M. ulcerans DNA. When comparing the DLs of the DNA extraction methods, the MB and M16 had a significantly lower DL than the OT and FP. For the different PCR targets, IS2404 showed a significantly lower DL than mlsA, MIRU1, MIRU5 and VNTR6. The FP and M16 were considerably faster than the MB and OT, while the purity of the DNA extracted with the MB was significantly higher than the DNA extracted with the other methods. The MB performed best on the environmental and clinical specimens. This comparative study shows that the modified Boom procedure, although lengthy, provides a better method of DNA extraction than the other methods tested for detection and identification of M. ulcerans in both clinical and environmental specimens.

Comparison of high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and Griess reagent-spectroscopic methods for the measurement of nitrate in serum from healthy individuals in the Nordic countries.

PubMed

Larsen, Tine Lise; Nilsen, Valentina; Andersen, Dag Olav; Francis, George; Rustad, Pål; Mansoor, Mohammad Azam

2008-12-01

Bioavailability of NO can be estimated by measuring the concentration of nitrate (NO(3)) in serum. However, the methods used for the measurement NO(3) in plasma or serum show a great degree of variation. Therefore, we compared two analytical methods for the measurement of NO(3) in serum. The concentration of NO(3) in 600 serum samples collected from healthy individuals was determined by the HPLC and by the Griess reagent-spectroscopic method. The concentration of NO(3) in the samples was 29.4+/-16.1 micromol/L and 26.2+/-14.0 micromol/L (mean+/-SD) measured by HPLC and Griess reagent-spectroscopic method respectively (p<0.0001). We detected a significant correlation between the two methods (R=0.81, p<0.0001). A significant correlation between the two methods may suggest that either method can be used for the measurement of NO(3) in serum, however the Griess reagent-spectroscopic method measures lower concentrations of NO(3) than the HPLC method.

Microwave-assisted Derivatization of Fatty Acids for Its Measurement in Milk Using High-Performance Liquid Chromatography.

PubMed

Shrestha, Rojeet; Miura, Yusuke; Hirano, Ken-Ichi; Chen, Zhen; Okabe, Hiroaki; Chiba, Hitoshi; Hui, Shu-Ping

2018-01-01

Fatty acid (FA) profiling of milk has important applications in human health and nutrition. Conventional methods for the saponification and derivatization of FA are time-consuming and laborious. We aimed to develop a simple, rapid, and economical method for the determination of FA in milk. We applied a beneficial approach of microwave-assisted saponification (MAS) of milk fats and microwave-assisted derivatization (MAD) of FA to its hydrazides, integrated with HPLC-based analysis. The optimal conditions for MAS and MAD were determined. Microwave irradiation significantly reduced the sample preparation time from 80 min in the conventional method to less than 3 min. We used three internal standards for the measurement of short-, medium- and long-chain FA. The proposed method showed satisfactory analytical sensitivity, recovery and reproducibility. There was a significant correlation in the milk FA concentrations between the proposed and conventional methods. Being quick, economic, and convenient, the proposed method for the milk FA measurement can be substitute for the convention method.

a Landmark Extraction Method Associated with Geometric Features and Location Distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, W.; Li, J.; Wang, Y.; Xiao, Y.; Liu, P.; Zhang, S.

2018-04-01

Landmark plays an important role in spatial cognition and spatial knowledge organization. Significance measuring model is the main method of landmark extraction. It is difficult to take account of the spatial distribution pattern of landmarks because that the significance of landmark is built in one-dimensional space. In this paper, we start with the geometric features of the ground object, an extraction method based on the target height, target gap and field of view is proposed. According to the influence region of Voronoi Diagram, the description of target gap is established to the geometric representation of the distribution of adjacent targets. Then, segmentation process of the visual domain of Voronoi K order adjacent is given to set up target view under the multi view; finally, through three kinds of weighted geometric features, the landmarks are identified. Comparative experiments show that this method has a certain coincidence degree with the results of traditional significance measuring model, which verifies the effectiveness and reliability of the method and reduces the complexity of landmark extraction process without losing the reference value of landmark.

A Penalized Robust Method for Identifying Gene-Environment Interactions

PubMed Central

Shi, Xingjie; Liu, Jin; Huang, Jian; Zhou, Yong; Xie, Yang; Ma, Shuangge

2015-01-01

In high-throughput studies, an important objective is to identify gene-environment interactions associated with disease outcomes and phenotypes. Many commonly adopted methods assume specific parametric or semiparametric models, which may be subject to model mis-specification. In addition, they usually use significance level as the criterion for selecting important interactions. In this study, we adopt the rank-based estimation, which is much less sensitive to model specification than some of the existing methods and includes several commonly encountered data and models as special cases. Penalization is adopted for the identification of gene-environment interactions. It achieves simultaneous estimation and identification and does not rely on significance level. For computation feasibility, a smoothed rank estimation is further proposed. Simulation shows that under certain scenarios, for example with contaminated or heavy-tailed data, the proposed method can significantly outperform the existing alternatives with more accurate identification. We analyze a lung cancer prognosis study with gene expression measurements under the AFT (accelerated failure time) model. The proposed method identifies interactions different from those using the alternatives. Some of the identified genes have important implications. PMID:24616063

Detrended Partial-Cross-Correlation Analysis: A New Method for Analyzing Correlations in Complex System

PubMed Central

Yuan, Naiming; Fu, Zuntao; Zhang, Huan; Piao, Lin; Xoplaki, Elena; Luterbacher, Juerg

2015-01-01

In this paper, a new method, detrended partial-cross-correlation analysis (DPCCA), is proposed. Based on detrended cross-correlation analysis (DCCA), this method is improved by including partial-correlation technique, which can be applied to quantify the relations of two non-stationary signals (with influences of other signals removed) on different time scales. We illustrate the advantages of this method by performing two numerical tests. Test I shows the advantages of DPCCA in handling non-stationary signals, while Test II reveals the “intrinsic” relations between two considered time series with potential influences of other unconsidered signals removed. To further show the utility of DPCCA in natural complex systems, we provide new evidence on the winter-time Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and the winter-time Nino3 Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly (Nino3-SSTA) affecting the Summer Rainfall over the middle-lower reaches of the Yangtze River (SRYR). By applying DPCCA, better significant correlations between SRYR and Nino3-SSTA on time scales of 6 ~ 8 years are found over the period 1951 ~ 2012, while significant correlations between SRYR and PDO on time scales of 35 years arise. With these physically explainable results, we have confidence that DPCCA is an useful method in addressing complex systems. PMID:25634341

A non-radioisotopic quantitative competitive polymerase chain reaction method: application in measurement of human herpesvirus 7 load.

PubMed

Kidd, I M; Clark, D A; Emery, V C

2000-06-01

Quantitative-competitive polymerase chain reaction (QCPCR) is a well-optimised and objective methodology for the determination of viral load in clinical specimens. A major advantage of QCPCR is the ability to control for the differential modulation of the PCR process in the presence of potentially inhibitory material. QCPCR protocols were developed previously for CMV, HHV-6, HHV-7 and HHV-8 and relied upon radioactively labelled primers, followed by autoradiography of the separated and digested PCR products to quantify viral load. Whilst this approach offers high accuracy and dynamic range, non-radioactive approaches would be attractive. Here, an alternative detection system is reported, based on simple ethidium bromide staining and computer analysis of the separated reaction products, which enables its adoption in the analysis of a large number of samples. In calibration experiments using cloned HHV-7 DNA, the ethidium bromide detection method showed an improved correlation with known copy number over that obtained with the isotopic method. In addition, 67 HHV-7 PCR positive blood samples, derived from immunocompromised patients, were quantified using both detection techniques. The results showed a highly significant correlation with no significant difference between the two methods. The applicability of the computerised densitometry method in the routine laboratory is discussed.

Application of the stepwise focusing method to optimize the cost-effectiveness of genome-wide association studies with limited research budgets for genotyping and phenotyping.

PubMed

Ohashi, J; Clark, A G

2005-05-01

The recent cataloguing of a large number of SNPs enables us to perform genome-wide association studies for detecting common genetic variants associated with disease. Such studies, however, generally have limited research budgets for genotyping and phenotyping. It is therefore necessary to optimize the study design by determining the most cost-effective numbers of SNPs and individuals to analyze. In this report we applied the stepwise focusing method, with two-stage design, developed by Satagopan et al. (2002) and Saito & Kamatani (2002), to optimize the cost-effectiveness of a genome-wide direct association study using a transmission/disequilibrium test (TDT). The stepwise focusing method consists of two steps: a large number of SNPs are examined in the first focusing step, and then all the SNPs showing a significant P-value are tested again using a larger set of individuals in the second focusing step. In the framework of optimization, the numbers of SNPs and families and the significance levels in the first and second steps were regarded as variables to be considered. Our results showed that the stepwise focusing method achieves a distinct gain of power compared to a conventional method with the same research budget.

Altered intrinsic regional brain activity in male patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea: a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging study

PubMed Central

Peng, De-Chang; Dai, Xi-Jian; Gong, Hong-Han; Li, Hai-Jun; Nie, Xiao; Zhang, Wei

2014-01-01

Background Previous studies have demonstrated that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with abnormal brain structural deficits. However, little is known about the changes in local synchronization of spontaneous activity in patients with OSA. The primary aim of the present study was to investigate spontaneous brain activity in patients with OSA compared with good sleepers (GSs) using regional homogeneity (ReHo) analysis based on resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods Twenty-five untreated male patients with severe OSA and 25 male GSs matched for age and years of education were included in this study. The ReHo method was calculated to assess the strength of local signal synchrony and was compared between the two groups. The observed mean ReHo values were entered into Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software to assess their correlation with behavioral performance. Results Compared with GSs, patients with OSA showed significantly lower ReHo in the right medial frontal gyrus (BA11), right superior frontal gyrus (BA10), right cluster of the precuneus and angular gyrus (BA39), and left superior parietal lobule (BA7), and higher ReHo in the right posterior lobe of the cerebellum, right cingulate gyrus (BA23), and bilateral cluster covering the lentiform nucleus, putamen, and insula (BA13). The lower mean ReHo value in the right cluster of the precuneus and angular gyrus had a significant negative correlation with sleep time (r=−0.430, P=0.032), and higher ReHo in the right posterior lobe of the cerebellum showed a significant positive correlation with stage 3 sleep (r=0.458, P=0.021) and in the right cingulate gyrus showed a significant positive correlation with percent rapid eye movement sleep (r=0.405, P=0.045). Conclusion Patients with OSA showed significant regional spontaneous activity deficits in default mode network areas. The ReHo method is a useful noninvasive imaging tool for detection of early changes in cerebral ReHo in patients with OSA. PMID:25278755

Improved pressure contour analysis for estimating cardiac stroke volume using pulse wave velocity measurement.

PubMed

Kamoi, Shun; Pretty, Christopher; Balmer, Joel; Davidson, Shaun; Pironet, Antoine; Desaive, Thomas; Shaw, Geoffrey M; Chase, J Geoffrey

2017-04-24

Pressure contour analysis is commonly used to estimate cardiac performance for patients suffering from cardiovascular dysfunction in the intensive care unit. However, the existing techniques for continuous estimation of stroke volume (SV) from pressure measurement can be unreliable during hemodynamic instability, which is inevitable for patients requiring significant treatment. For this reason, pressure contour methods must be improved to capture changes in vascular properties and thus provide accurate conversion from pressure to flow. This paper presents a novel pressure contour method utilizing pulse wave velocity (PWV) measurement to capture vascular properties. A three-element Windkessel model combined with the reservoir-wave concept are used to decompose the pressure contour into components related to storage and flow. The model parameters are identified beat-to-beat from the water-hammer equation using measured PWV, wave component of the pressure, and an estimate of subject-specific aortic dimension. SV is then calculated by converting pressure to flow using identified model parameters. The accuracy of this novel method is investigated using data from porcine experiments (N = 4 Pietrain pigs, 20-24.5 kg), where hemodynamic properties were significantly altered using dobutamine, fluid administration, and mechanical ventilation. In the experiment, left ventricular volume was measured using admittance catheter, and aortic pressure waveforms were measured at two locations, the aortic arch and abdominal aorta. Bland-Altman analysis comparing gold-standard SV measured by the admittance catheter and estimated SV from the novel method showed average limits of agreement of ±26% across significant hemodynamic alterations. This result shows the method is capable of estimating clinically acceptable absolute SV values according to Critchely and Critchely. The novel pressure contour method presented can accurately estimate and track SV even when hemodynamic properties are significantly altered. Integrating PWV measurements into pressure contour analysis improves identification of beat-to-beat changes in Windkessel model parameters, and thus, provides accurate estimate of blood flow from measured pressure contour. The method has great potential for overcoming weaknesses associated with current pressure contour methods for estimating SV.

Modeling Local Item Dependence Due to Common Test Format with a Multidimensional Rasch Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baghaei, Purya; Aryadoust, Vahid

2015-01-01

Research shows that test method can exert a significant impact on test takers' performance and thereby contaminate test scores. We argue that common test method can exert the same effect as common stimuli and violate the conditional independence assumption of item response theory models because, in general, subsets of items which have a shared…

The Teaching of General Solution Methods to Pattern Finding Problems through Focusing on an Evaluation and Improvement Process.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ishida, Junichi

1997-01-01

Examines the effects of a teaching strategy in which fifth-grade students evaluated the strengths or weaknesses of solution methods to pattern finding problems, including an experimental and control group each consisting of 34 elementary students, in Japan. The experimental group showed a significantly better performance on the retention test…

Analysis of Sampling Methodologies for Noise Pollution Assessment and the Impact on the Population.

PubMed

Rey Gozalo, Guillermo; Barrigón Morillas, Juan Miguel

2016-05-11

Today, noise pollution is an increasing environmental stressor. Noise maps are recognised as the main tool for assessing and managing environmental noise, but their accuracy largely depends on the sampling method used. The sampling methods most commonly used by different researchers (grid, legislative road types and categorisation methods) were analysed and compared using the city of Talca (Chile) as a test case. The results show that the stratification of sound values in road categories has a significantly lower prediction error and a higher capacity for discrimination and prediction than in the legislative road types used by the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications in Chile. Also, the use of one or another method implies significant differences in the assessment of population exposure to noise pollution. Thus, the selection of a suitable method for performing noise maps through measurements is essential to achieve an accurate assessment of the impact of noise pollution on the population.

Non-orthogonal spin-adaptation of coupled cluster methods: A new implementation of methods including quadruple excitations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Matthews, Devin A., E-mail: dmatthews@utexas.edu; Stanton, John F.

2015-02-14

The theory of non-orthogonal spin-adaptation for closed-shell molecular systems is applied to coupled cluster methods with quadruple excitations (CCSDTQ). Calculations at this level of detail are of critical importance in describing the properties of molecular systems to an accuracy which can meet or exceed modern experimental techniques. Such calculations are of significant (and growing) importance in such fields as thermodynamics, kinetics, and atomic and molecular spectroscopies. With respect to the implementation of CCSDTQ and related methods, we show that there are significant advantages to non-orthogonal spin-adaption with respect to simplification and factorization of the working equations and to creating anmore » efficient implementation. The resulting algorithm is implemented in the CFOUR program suite for CCSDT, CCSDTQ, and various approximate methods (CCSD(T), CC3, CCSDT-n, and CCSDT(Q))« less

Sample entropy applied to the analysis of synthetic time series and tachograms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muñoz-Diosdado, A.; Gálvez-Coyt, G. G.; Solís-Montufar, E.

2017-01-01

Entropy is a method of non-linear analysis that allows an estimate of the irregularity of a system, however, there are different types of computational entropy that were considered and tested in order to obtain one that would give an index of signals complexity taking into account the data number of the analysed time series, the computational resources demanded by the method, and the accuracy of the calculation. An algorithm for the generation of fractal time-series with a certain value of β was used for the characterization of the different entropy algorithms. We obtained a significant variation for most of the algorithms in terms of the series size, which could result counterproductive for the study of real signals of different lengths. The chosen method was sample entropy, which shows great independence of the series size. With this method, time series of heart interbeat intervals or tachograms of healthy subjects and patients with congestive heart failure were analysed. The calculation of sample entropy was carried out for 24-hour tachograms and time subseries of 6-hours for sleepiness and wakefulness. The comparison between the two populations shows a significant difference that is accentuated when the patient is sleeping.

Density-cluster NMA: A new protein decomposition technique for coarse-grained normal mode analysis.

PubMed

Demerdash, Omar N A; Mitchell, Julie C

2012-07-01

Normal mode analysis has emerged as a useful technique for investigating protein motions on long time scales. This is largely due to the advent of coarse-graining techniques, particularly Hooke's Law-based potentials and the rotational-translational blocking (RTB) method for reducing the size of the force-constant matrix, the Hessian. Here we present a new method for domain decomposition for use in RTB that is based on hierarchical clustering of atomic density gradients, which we call Density-Cluster RTB (DCRTB). The method reduces the number of degrees of freedom by 85-90% compared with the standard blocking approaches. We compared the normal modes from DCRTB against standard RTB using 1-4 residues in sequence in a single block, with good agreement between the two methods. We also show that Density-Cluster RTB and standard RTB perform well in capturing the experimentally determined direction of conformational change. Significantly, we report superior correlation of DCRTB with B-factors compared with 1-4 residue per block RTB. Finally, we show significant reduction in computational cost for Density-Cluster RTB that is nearly 100-fold for many examples. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Application of histogram analysis for the evaluation of vascular permeability in glioma by the K2 parameter obtained with the dynamic susceptibility contrast method: Comparisons with Ktrans obtained with the dynamic contrast enhance method and cerebral blood volume.

PubMed

Taoka, Toshiaki; Kawai, Hisashi; Nakane, Toshiki; Hori, Saeka; Ochi, Tomoko; Miyasaka, Toshiteru; Sakamoto, Masahiko; Kichikawa, Kimihiko; Naganawa, Shinji

2016-09-01

The "K2" value is a factor that represents the vascular permeability of tumors and can be calculated from datasets obtained with the dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) method. The purpose of the current study was to correlate K2 with Ktrans, which is a well-established permeability parameter obtained with the dynamic contrast enhance (DCE) method, and determine the usefulness of K2 for glioma grading with histogram analysis. The subjects were 22 glioma patients (Grade II: 5, III: 6, IV: 11) who underwent DSC studies, including eight patients in which both DSC and DCE studies were performed on separate days within 10days. We performed histogram analysis of regions of interest of the tumors and acquired 20th percentile values for leakage-corrected cerebral blood volume (rCBV20%ile), K2 (K220%ile), and for patients who underwent a DCE study, Ktrans (Ktrans20%ile). We evaluated the correlation between K220%ile and Ktrans20%ile and the statistical difference between rCBV20%ile and K220%ile. We found a statistically significant correlation between K220%ile and Ktrans20%ile (r=0.717, p<0.05). rCBV20%ile showed a significant difference between Grades II and III and between Grades II and IV, whereas K220%ile showed a statistically significant (p<0.05) difference between Grades II and IV and between Grades III and IV. The K2 value calculated from the DSC dataset, which can be obtained with a short acquisition time, showed a correlation with Ktrans obtained with the DCE method and may be useful for glioma grading when analyzed with histogram analysis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Correlations between the Various Methods of Estimating Prostate Volume: Transabdominal, Transrectal, and Three-Dimensional US

PubMed Central

Kim, Seung Hyup

2008-01-01

Objective To evaluate the correlations between prostate volumes estimated by transabdominal, transrectal, and three-dimensional US and the factors affecting the differences. Materials and Methods The prostate volumes of 94 consecutive patients were measured by both transabdominal and transrectal US. Next, the prostate volumes of 58 other patients was measured by both transrectal and three-dimensional US. We evaluated the degree of correlation and mean difference in each comparison. We also analyzed possible factors affecting the differences, such as the experiences of examiners in transrectal US, bladder volume, and prostate volume. Results In the comparison of transabdominal and transrectal US methods, the mean difference was 8.4 ± 10.5 mL and correlation coefficient (r) was 0.775 (p < 0.01). The experienced examiner for the transrectal US method had the highest correlation (r = 0.967) and the significantly smallest difference (5.4 ± 3.9 mL) compared to the other examiners (the beginner and the trained; p < 0.05). Prostate volume measured by transrectal US showed a weak correlation with the difference (r = 0.360, p < 0.05). Bladder volume did not show significant correlation with the difference (r = -0.043, p > 0.05). The comparison between the transrectal and three-dimensional US methods revealed a mean difference of 3.7 ± 3.4 mL and the correlation coefficient was 0.924 for the experienced examiner. Furthermore, no significant difference existed between examiners (p > 0.05). Prostate volume measured by transrectal US showed a positive correlation with the difference for the beginner only (r = 0.405, p < 0.05). Conclusion In the prostate volume estimation by US, experience in transrectal US is important in the correlation with transabdominal US, but not with three-dimensional US. Also, less experienced examiners' assessment of the prostate volume can be affected by prostate volume itself. PMID:18385560

Contactless Abdominal Fat Reduction With Selective RF™ Evaluated by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): Case Study.

PubMed

Downie, Jeanine; Kaspar, Miroslav

2016-04-01

Noninvasive body shaping methods seem to be an ascending part of the aesthetics market. As a result, the pressure to develop reliable methods for the collection and presentation of their results has also increased. The most used techniques currently include ultrasound measurements of fat thickness in the treated area, caliper measurements, bioimpedance-based scale measurements or circumferential tape measurements. Although these are the most used techniques, almost all of them have some limitations in reproducibility and/or accuracy. This study shows Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as the new method for the presentation of results in the body shaping industry. Six subjects were treated by a contactless selective radiofrequency device (BTL Vanquish ME, BTL Industries Inc., Boston, MA). The MRI fat thickness was measured at the baseline and at 4-weeks following the treatment. In addition to MRI images and measurements, digital photographs and anthropometric evaluations such as weight, abdominal circumference, and caliper fat thickness measurements were recorded. Abdominal fat thickness measurements from the MRI were performed from the same slices determined by the same tissue artefacts. The MRI fat thickness difference between the baseline measurement and follow up visit showed an average reduction of 5.36 mm as calculated from the data of 5 subjects. One subject dropped out of study due to non-study related issues. The results were statistically significant based on the Student's T-test evaluation. Magnetic resonance imaging abdominal fat thickness measurements seems to be the best method for the evaluation of fat thickness reduction after non-invasive body shaping treatments. In this study, this method shows average fat thickness reduction of 5.36 mm while the weight of the subjects didn't change significantly. A large spot size measuring 1317 cm(2) (204 square inches) covers the abdomen flank to flank. The average thickness of 5.36 mm of the fat layer reduced under the applicator translates into significant cumulative circumferential reduction. The reduction was not related with dieting.

Nonlinear features for classification and pose estimation of machined parts from single views

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Talukder, Ashit; Casasent, David P.

1998-10-01

A new nonlinear feature extraction method is presented for classification and pose estimation of objects from single views. The feature extraction method is called the maximum representation and discrimination feature (MRDF) method. The nonlinear MRDF transformations to use are obtained in closed form, and offer significant advantages compared to nonlinear neural network implementations. The features extracted are useful for both object discrimination (classification) and object representation (pose estimation). We consider MRDFs on image data, provide a new 2-stage nonlinear MRDF solution, and show it specializes to well-known linear and nonlinear image processing transforms under certain conditions. We show the use of MRDF in estimating the class and pose of images of rendered solid CAD models of machine parts from single views using a feature-space trajectory neural network classifier. We show new results with better classification and pose estimation accuracy than are achieved by standard principal component analysis and Fukunaga-Koontz feature extraction methods.

New Method To Estimate Total Polyphenol Excretion: Comparison of Fast Blue BB versus Folin-Ciocalteu Performance in Urine.

PubMed

Hinojosa-Nogueira, Daniel; Muros, Joaquín; Rufián-Henares, José A; Pastoriza, Silvia

2017-05-24

Polyphenols are bioactive substances of vegetal origin with a significant impact on human health. The assessment of polyphenol intake and excretion is therefore important. The Folin-Ciocalteu (F-C) method is the reference assay to measure polyphenols in foods as well as their excretion in urine. However, many substances can influence the method, making it necessary to conduct a prior cleanup using solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridges. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of the Fast Blue BB reagent (FBBB) as a new tool to measure the excretion of polyphenols in urine. Contrary to F-C, FBBB showed no interference in urine, negating the time-consuming and costly SPE cleanup. In addition, it showed excellent linearity (r 2 = 0.9997), with a recovery of 96.4% and a precision of 1.86-2.11%. The FBBB method was validated to measure the excretion of polyphenols in spot urine samples from Spanish children, showing a good correlation between polyphenol intake and excretion.

Compressed Sensing Quantum Process Tomography for Superconducting Quantum Gates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodionov, Andrey

An important challenge in quantum information science and quantum computing is the experimental realization of high-fidelity quantum operations on multi-qubit systems. Quantum process tomography (QPT) is a procedure devised to fully characterize a quantum operation. We first present the results of the estimation of the process matrix for superconducting multi-qubit quantum gates using the full data set employing various methods: linear inversion, maximum likelihood, and least-squares. To alleviate the problem of exponential resource scaling needed to characterize a multi-qubit system, we next investigate a compressed sensing (CS) method for QPT of two-qubit and three-qubit quantum gates. Using experimental data for two-qubit controlled-Z gates, taken with both Xmon and superconducting phase qubits, we obtain estimates for the process matrices with reasonably high fidelities compared to full QPT, despite using significantly reduced sets of initial states and measurement configurations. We show that the CS method still works when the amount of data is so small that the standard QPT would have an underdetermined system of equations. We also apply the CS method to the analysis of the three-qubit Toffoli gate with simulated noise, and similarly show that the method works well for a substantially reduced set of data. For the CS calculations we use two different bases in which the process matrix is approximately sparse (the Pauli-error basis and the singular value decomposition basis), and show that the resulting estimates of the process matrices match with reasonably high fidelity. For both two-qubit and three-qubit gates, we characterize the quantum process by its process matrix and average state fidelity, as well as by the corresponding standard deviation defined via the variation of the state fidelity for different initial states. We calculate the standard deviation of the average state fidelity both analytically and numerically, using a Monte Carlo method. Overall, we show that CS QPT offers a significant reduction in the needed amount of experimental data for two-qubit and three-qubit quantum gates.

Effect of different cooking methods on total phenolic contents and antioxidant activities of four Boletus mushrooms.

PubMed

Sun, Liping; Bai, Xue; Zhuang, Yongliang

2014-11-01

The influences of cooking methods (steaming, pressure-cooking, microwaving, frying and boiling) on total phenolic contents and antioxidant activities of fruit body of Boletus mushrooms (B. aereus, B. badius, B. pinophilus and B. edulis) have been evaluated. The results showed that microwaving was better in retention of total phenolics than other cooking methods, while boiling significantly decreased the contents of total phenolics in samples under study. Effects of different cooking methods on phenolic acids profiles of Boletus mushrooms showed varieties with both the species of mushroom and the cooking method. Effects of cooking treatments on antioxidant activities of Boletus mushrooms were evaluated by in vitro assays of hydroxyl radical (OH·) -scavenging activity, reducing power and 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radicals (DPPH·) -scavenging activity. Results indicated the changes of antioxidant activities of four Boletus mushrooms were different in five cooking methods. This study could provide some information to encourage food industry to recommend particular cooking methods.

A novel scene-based non-uniformity correction method for SWIR push-broom hyperspectral sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Bin-Lin; Hao, Shi-Jing; Sun, De-Xin; Liu, Yin-Nian

2017-09-01

A novel scene-based non-uniformity correction (NUC) method for short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) push-broom hyperspectral sensors is proposed and evaluated. This method relies on the assumption that for each band there will be ground objects with similar reflectance to form uniform regions when a sufficient number of scanning lines are acquired. The uniform regions are extracted automatically through a sorting algorithm, and are used to compute the corresponding NUC coefficients. SWIR hyperspectral data from airborne experiment are used to verify and evaluate the proposed method, and results show that stripes in the scenes have been well corrected without any significant information loss, and the non-uniformity is less than 0.5%. In addition, the proposed method is compared to two other regular methods, and they are evaluated based on their adaptability to the various scenes, non-uniformity, roughness and spectral fidelity. It turns out that the proposed method shows strong adaptability, high accuracy and efficiency.

Comparison of genetic algorithm methods for fuel management optimization

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

DeChaine, M.D.; Feltus, M.A.

1995-12-31

The CIGARO system was developed for genetic algorithm fuel management optimization. Tests are performed to find the best fuel location swap mutation operator probability and to compare genetic algorithm to a truly random search method. Tests showed the fuel swap probability should be between 0% and 10%, and a 50% definitely hampered the optimization. The genetic algorithm performed significantly better than the random search method, which did not even satisfy the peak normalized power constraint.

Evaluation of the application of ERTS-1 data to the regional land use planning process. [Northeast Wisconsin

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clapp, J. L. (Principal Investigator); Green, T., III; Hanson, G. F.; Kiefer, R. W.; Niemann, B. J., Jr.

1974-01-01

The author has identified the following significant results. Employing simple and economical extraction methods, ERTS can provide valuable data to the planners at the state or regional level with a frequency never before possible. Interactive computer methods of working directly with ERTS digital information show much promise for providing land use information at a more specific level, since the data format production rate of ERTS justifies improved methods of analysis.

Comparison of a novel surface laser scanning anthropometric technique to traditional methods for facial parameter measurements.

PubMed

Joe, Paula S; Ito, Yasushi; Shih, Alan M; Oestenstad, Riedar K; Lungu, Claudiu T

2012-01-01

This study was designed to determine if three-dimensional (3D) laser scanning techniques could be used to collect accurate anthropometric measurements, compared with traditional methods. The use of an alternative 3D method would allow for quick collection of data that could be used to change the parameters used for facepiece design, improving fit and protection for a wider variety of faces. In our study, 10 facial dimensions were collected using both the traditional calipers and tape method and a Konica-Minolta Vivid9i laser scanner. Scans were combined using RapidForm XOR software to create a single complete facial geometry of the subject as a triangulated surface with an associated texture image from which to obtain measurements. A paired t-test was performed on subject means in each measurement by method. Nine subjects were used in this study: five males (one African-American and four Caucasian females) and four females displaying a range of facial dimensions. Five measurements showed significant differences (p<0.05), with most accounted for by subject movements or amended by scanning technique modifications. Laser scanning measurements showed high precision and accuracy when compared with traditional methods. Significant differences found can be very small changes in measurements and are unlikely to present a practical difference. The laser scanning technique demonstrated reliable and quick anthropometric data collection for use in future projects in redesigning respirators.

Glucose absorption in acute peritoneal dialysis.

PubMed

Podel, J; Hodelin-Wetzel, R; Saha, D C; Burns, G

2000-04-01

During acute peritoneal dialysis (APD), it is known that glucose found in the dialysate solution contributes to the provision of significant calories. It has been well documented in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) that glucose absorption occurs. In APD, however, it remains unclear how much glucose absorption actually does occur. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether it is appropriate to use the formula used to calculate glucose absorption in CAPD (Grodstein et al) among patients undergoing APD. Actual measurements of glucose absorption (Method I) were calculated in 9 patients undergoing APD treatment for >24 hours who were admitted to the intensive care unit. Glucose absorption using the Grodstein et al formula (Method II) was also determined and compared with the results of actual measurements. The data was then further analyzed based on the factors that influence glucose absorption, specifically dwell time and concentration. The mean total amount of glucose absorbed was 43% +/- 15%. However, when dwell time and concentration were further examined, significant differences were noted. Method I showed a cumulative increase over time. Method II showed that absorption was fixed. This suggests that with the variation in dwell time commonly seen in the acute care setting, the use of Method II may not be accurate. In each of the 2 methods, a significant difference in glucose absorption was noted when comparing the use of 1.5% and 4.25% dialysate concentrations. The established formula designed for CAPD should not be used for calculating glucose absorption in patients receiving APD because variation in dwell time and concentration should be taken into account. Because of the time constraints and staffing required to calculate each exchange individually, combined with the results of the study, we recommend the use of the percentage estimate of 40% to 50%.

Mesh fixation in endoscopic inguinal hernia repair: evaluation of methodology based on a systematic review of randomised clinical trials.

PubMed

Lederhuber, Hans; Stiede, Franziska; Axer, Stephan; Dahlstrand, Ursula

2017-11-01

The issue of mesh fixation in endoscopic inguinal hernia repair is frequently debated and still no conclusive data exist on differences between methods regarding long-term outcome and postoperative complications. The quantity of trials and the simultaneous lack of high-quality evidence raise the question how future trials should be planned. PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library were searched, using the filters "randomised clinical trials" and "humans". Trials that compared one method of mesh fixation with another fixation method or with non-fixation in endoscopic inguinal hernia repair were eligible. To be included, the trial was required to have assessed at least one of the following primary outcome parameters: recurrence; surgical site infection; chronic pain; or quality-of-life. Fourteen trials assessing 2161 patients and 2562 hernia repairs were included. Only two trials were rated as low risk for bias. Eight trials evaluated recurrence or surgical site infection; none of these could show significant differences between methods of fixation. Two of 11 trials assessing chronic pain described significant differences between methods of fixation. One of two trials evaluating quality-of-life showed significant differences between fixation methods in certain functions. High-quality evidence for differences between the assessed mesh fixation techniques is still lacking. From a socioeconomic and ethical point of view, it is necessary that future trials will be properly designed. As small- and medium-sized single-centre trials have proven unable to find answers, register studies or multi-centre studies with an evident focus on methodology and study design are needed in order to answer questions about mesh fixation in inguinal hernia repair.

Comparative Accuracy of Facial Models Fabricated Using Traditional and 3D Imaging Techniques.

PubMed

Lincoln, Ketu P; Sun, Albert Y T; Prihoda, Thomas J; Sutton, Alan J

2016-04-01

The purpose of this investigation was to compare the accuracy of facial models fabricated using facial moulage impression methods to the three-dimensional printed (3DP) fabrication methods using soft tissue images obtained from cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and 3D stereophotogrammetry (3D-SPG) scans. A reference phantom model was fabricated using a 3D-SPG image of a human control form with ten fiducial markers placed on common anthropometric landmarks. This image was converted into the investigation control phantom model (CPM) using 3DP methods. The CPM was attached to a camera tripod for ease of image capture. Three CBCT and three 3D-SPG images of the CPM were captured. The DICOM and STL files from the three 3dMD and three CBCT were imported to the 3DP, and six testing models were made. Reversible hydrocolloid and dental stone were used to make three facial moulages of the CPM, and the impressions/casts were poured in type IV gypsum dental stone. A coordinate measuring machine (CMM) was used to measure the distances between each of the ten fiducial markers. Each measurement was made using one point as a static reference to the other nine points. The same measuring procedures were accomplished on all specimens. All measurements were compared between specimens and the control. The data were analyzed using ANOVA and Tukey pairwise comparison of the raters, methods, and fiducial markers. The ANOVA multiple comparisons showed significant difference among the three methods (p < 0.05). Further, the interaction of methods versus fiducial markers also showed significant difference (p < 0.05). The CBCT and facial moulage method showed the greatest accuracy. 3DP models fabricated using 3D-SPG showed statistical difference in comparison to the models fabricated using the traditional method of facial moulage and 3DP models fabricated from CBCT imaging. 3DP models fabricated using 3D-SPG were less accurate than the CPM and models fabricated using facial moulage and CBCT imaging techniques. © 2015 by the American College of Prosthodontists.

New Computational Methods for the Prediction and Analysis of Helicopter Noise

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Strawn, Roger C.; Oliker, Leonid; Biswas, Rupak

1996-01-01

This paper describes several new methods to predict and analyze rotorcraft noise. These methods are: 1) a combined computational fluid dynamics and Kirchhoff scheme for far-field noise predictions, 2) parallel computer implementation of the Kirchhoff integrations, 3) audio and visual rendering of the computed acoustic predictions over large far-field regions, and 4) acoustic tracebacks to the Kirchhoff surface to pinpoint the sources of the rotor noise. The paper describes each method and presents sample results for three test cases. The first case consists of in-plane high-speed impulsive noise and the other two cases show idealized parallel and oblique blade-vortex interactions. The computed results show good agreement with available experimental data but convey much more information about the far-field noise propagation. When taken together, these new analysis methods exploit the power of new computer technologies and offer the potential to significantly improve our prediction and understanding of rotorcraft noise.

Spot counting on fluorescence in situ hybridization in suspension images using Gaussian mixture model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Sijia; Sa, Ruhan; Maguire, Orla; Minderman, Hans; Chaudhary, Vipin

2015-03-01

Cytogenetic abnormalities are important diagnostic and prognostic criteria for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). A flow cytometry-based imaging approach for FISH in suspension (FISH-IS) was established that enables the automated analysis of several log-magnitude higher number of cells compared to the microscopy-based approaches. The rotational positioning can occur leading to discordance between spot count. As a solution of counting error from overlapping spots, in this study, a Gaussian Mixture Model based classification method is proposed. The Akaike information criterion (AIC) and Bayesian information criterion (BIC) of GMM are used as global image features of this classification method. Via Random Forest classifier, the result shows that the proposed method is able to detect closely overlapping spots which cannot be separated by existing image segmentation based spot detection methods. The experiment results show that by the proposed method we can obtain a significant improvement in spot counting accuracy.

Reconstruction method for running shape of rotor blade considering nonlinear stiffness and loads

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yongliang; Kang, Da; Zhong, Jingjun

2017-10-01

The aerodynamic and centrifugal loads acting on the rotating blade make the blade configuration deformed comparing to its shape at rest. Accurate prediction of the running blade configuration plays a significant role in examining and analyzing turbomachinery performance. Considering nonlinear stiffness and loads, a reconstruction method is presented to address transformation of a rotating blade from cold to hot state. When calculating blade deformations, the blade stiffness and load conditions are updated simultaneously as blade shape varies. The reconstruction procedure is iterated till a converged hot blade shape is obtained. This method has been employed to determine the operating blade shapes of a test rotor blade and the Stage 37 rotor blade. The calculated results are compared with the experiments. The results show that the proposed method used for blade operating shape prediction is effective. The studies also show that this method can improve precision of finite element analysis and aerodynamic performance analysis.

Simultaneous Aerodynamic Analysis and Design Optimization (SAADO) for a 3-D Flexible Wing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gumbert, Clyde R.; Hou, Gene J.-W.

2001-01-01

The formulation and implementation of an optimization method called Simultaneous Aerodynamic Analysis and Design Optimization (SAADO) are extended from single discipline analysis (aerodynamics only) to multidisciplinary analysis - in this case, static aero-structural analysis - and applied to a simple 3-D wing problem. The method aims to reduce the computational expense incurred in performing shape optimization using state-of-the-art Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) flow analysis, Finite Element Method (FEM) structural analysis and sensitivity analysis tools. Results for this small problem show that the method reaches the same local optimum as conventional optimization. However, unlike its application to the win,, (single discipline analysis), the method. as I implemented here, may not show significant reduction in the computational cost. Similar reductions were seen in the two-design-variable (DV) problem results but not in the 8-DV results given here.

Antimicrobial activity of essential oil from Schinus molle Linn.

PubMed

Gundidza, M

1993-11-01

The essential oil from the fresh leaves of Schinus molle isolated by hydrodistillation was tested for antibacterial activity using the hole plate diffusion method and for antifungal activity using the mycelium or single cell growth inhibition method. Results obtained showed that the volatile oil exhibited significant activity against the following bacterial species: Klebsiella pneumoniae, Alcaligenes faecalis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Leuconostoc cremoris, Enterobacter aerogenes, Proteus vulgaris, Clostridium sporogenes, Acinetobacter calcoacetica, Escherichia coli, Beneckea natriegens, Citrobacter freundii, Serratia marcescens, Bacillus subtilis and Brochothrix thermosphacata. The fungal species Aspergillus ochraceus, Aspergillus parasiticus, Fusarium culmorum and Alternaria alternata exhibited significant sensitivity to the volatile oil.

Storytelling: a measure of anxiety in hospitalized children.

PubMed

Hudson, C J; Leeper, J D; Strickland, M P; Jessee, P

1987-01-01

This study investigates the use of storytelling as a method of measuring children's anxiety during hospitalization. Sixty-seven hospitalized children were asked to create stories about pictures they were shown. The stories were categorized as negative or positive in tone and, hence, the children were categorized as anxious or not anxious. Children who told negative stories displayed significantly more negative behaviors and showed significantly higher anxiety levels and poorer adjustment to hospitalization as measured by observational methods. The most anxious children were male, black, and rural. Implications for practitioners who work with children in medical settings are discussed.

Application of a time-series methodology to Federal program allocations. [Modified Box and Jenkins method

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bronfman, B. H.

Time-series analysis provides a useful tool in the evaluation of public policy outputs. It is shown that the general Box and Jenkins method, when extended to allow for multiple interrupts, enables researchers simultaneously to examine changes in drift and level of a series, and to select the best fit model for the series. As applied to urban renewal allocations, results show significant changes in the level of the series, corresponding to changes in party control of the Executive. No support is given to the ''incrementalism'' hypotheses as no significant changes in drift are found.

The clinical performance evaluation of novel protein chips for eleven biomarkers detection and the diagnostic model study.

PubMed

Luo, Yuan; Zhu, Xu; Zhang, Pengjun; Shen, Qian; Wang, Zi; Wen, Xinyu; Wang, Ling; Gao, Jing; Dong, Jin; Yang, Caie; Wu, Tangming; Zhu, Zheng; Tian, Yaping

2015-01-01

We aimed to develop and validate two novel protein chips, which are based on microarray chemiluminescence immunoassay and can simultaneously detected 11 biomarkers, and then to evaluate their clinical diagnostic value by comparing with the traditional methods. Protein chips were evaluated for limit of detection, specificity, common interferences, linearity, precision and accuracy. 11 biomarkers were simultaneously detected by traditional methods and protein chips in 3683 samples, which included 1723 cancer patients, 1798 benign diseases patients and 162 healthy controls. After assay validation, protein chips demonstrated high sensitivity, high specificity, good linearity, low imprecision and were free of common interferences. Compared with the traditional methods, protein chips have good correlation in the detection of all the 13 kinds of biomarkers (r≥0.935, P<0.001). For specific cancer detection, there were no statistically significant differences between the traditional method and novel protein chips, except that male protein chip showed significantly better diagnostic value on NSE detection (P=0.004) but significantly worse value on pro-GRP detection (P=0.012), female chip showed significantly better diagnostic value on pro-GRP detection (P=0.005). Furthermore, both male and female multivariate diagnostic models had significantly better diagnostic value than single detection of PGI, PG II, pro-GRP, NSE and CA125 (P<0.05). In addition, male models had significantly better diagnostic value than single CA199 and free-PSA (P<0.05), while female models observed significantly better diagnostic value than single CA724 and β-HCG (P<0.05). For total disease or cancer detection, the AUC of multivariate logistic regression for the male and female disease detection was 0.981 (95% CI: 0.975-0.987) and 0.836 (95% CI: 0.798-0.874), respectively. While, that for total cancer detection was 0.691 (95% CI: 0.666-0.717) and 0.753 (95% CI: 0.731-0.775), respectively. The new designed protein chips are simple, multiplex and reliable clinical assays and the multi-parameter diagnostic models based on them could significantly improve their clinical performance.

The clinical performance evaluation of novel protein chips for eleven biomarkers detection and the diagnostic model study

PubMed Central

Luo, Yuan; Zhu, Xu; Zhang, Pengjun; Shen, Qian; Wang, Zi; Wen, Xinyu; Wang, Ling; Gao, Jing; Dong, Jin; Yang, Caie; Wu, Tangming; Zhu, Zheng; Tian, Yaping

2015-01-01

We aimed to develop and validate two novel protein chips, which are based on microarray chemiluminescence immunoassay and can simultaneously detected 11 biomarkers, and then to evaluate their clinical diagnostic value by comparing with the traditional methods. Protein chips were evaluated for limit of detection, specificity, common interferences, linearity, precision and accuracy. 11 biomarkers were simultaneously detected by traditional methods and protein chips in 3683 samples, which included 1723 cancer patients, 1798 benign diseases patients and 162 healthy controls. After assay validation, protein chips demonstrated high sensitivity, high specificity, good linearity, low imprecision and were free of common interferences. Compared with the traditional methods, protein chips have good correlation in the detection of all the 13 kinds of biomarkers (r≥0.935, P<0.001). For specific cancer detection, there were no statistically significant differences between the traditional method and novel protein chips, except that male protein chip showed significantly better diagnostic value on NSE detection (P=0.004) but significantly worse value on pro-GRP detection (P=0.012), female chip showed significantly better diagnostic value on pro-GRP detection (P=0.005). Furthermore, both male and female multivariate diagnostic models had significantly better diagnostic value than single detection of PGI, PG II, pro-GRP, NSE and CA125 (P<0.05). In addition, male models had significantly better diagnostic value than single CA199 and free-PSA (P<0.05), while female models observed significantly better diagnostic value than single CA724 and β-HCG (P<0.05). For total disease or cancer detection, the AUC of multivariate logistic regression for the male and female disease detection was 0.981 (95% CI: 0.975-0.987) and 0.836 (95% CI: 0.798-0.874), respectively. While, that for total cancer detection was 0.691 (95% CI: 0.666-0.717) and 0.753 (95% CI: 0.731-0.775), respectively. The new designed protein chips are simple, multiplex and reliable clinical assays and the multi-parameter diagnostic models based on them could significantly improve their clinical performance. PMID:26884957

Difference of Diagnostic Rates and Analytical Methods in the Test Positions of Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potentials

PubMed Central

Park, Jeong Mee; Yong, Sang Yeol; Kim, Jong Heon; Kim, Hee; Park, Sang-Yoo

2014-01-01

Objective To compare the differences of diagnostic rates, of the two widely used test positions, in measuring vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (VEMP) and selecting the most appropriate analytical method for diagnostic criteria for the patients with vertigo. Methods Thirty-two patients with vertigo were tested in two comparative testing positions: turning the head to the opposite side of the evaluating side and bowing while in seated position, and bowing while in supine positions. Abnormalities were determined by prolonged latency of p13 or n23, shortening of the interpeak latency, and absence of VEMP formation. Results Using the three criteria above for determining abnormalities, both the seated and supine positions showed no significant differences in diagnostic rates, however, the concordance correlation of the two positions was low. When using only the prolonged latency of p13 or n23 in the two positions, diagnostic rates were not significantly different and their concordance correlation was high. On the other hand, using only the shortened interpeak latency in both positions showed no significant difference of diagnostic rates, and the degree of agreement between two positions was low. Conclusion Bowing while in seated position with the head turned in the opposite direction to the area being evaluated is found to be the best VEMP test position due to the consistent level of sternocleidomastoid muscle tension and the high level of compliance. Also, among other diagnostic analysis methods, using prolonged latency of p13 or n23 as the criterion is found to be the most appropriate method of analysis for the VEMP test. PMID:24855617

Comparison of body composition between fashion models and women in general

PubMed Central

Park, Sunhee

2017-01-01

[Purpose] The present study compared the physical characteristics and body composition of professional fashion models and women in general, utilizing the skinfold test. [Methods] The research sample consisted of 90 professional fashion models presently active in Korea and 100 females in the general population, all selected through convenience sampling. Measurement was done following standardized methods and procedures set by the International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry. Body density (mg/ mm) and body fat (%) were measured at the biceps, triceps, subscapular, and suprailiac areas. [Results] The results showed that the biceps, triceps, subscapular, and suprailiac areas of professional fashion models were significantly thinner than those of women in general (p<.001), and that their waist size was also significantly smaller (p<.001). However, hip circumference showed no significant difference. Body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, and body fat (%) in professional fashion models were significantly lower than those in women in general (p<.001), while the body density in professional fashion models was significantly greater (p<.001). [Conclusion] Body density in professional fashion models is higher, due to taller stature, than in women in general. Moreover, there is an effort on the part of fashion models to lose weight in order to maintain a thin body and a low weight for occupational reasons. PMID:29370670

Assessment of changing interdependencies between human electroencephalograms using nonlinear methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pereda, E.; Rial, R.; Gamundi, A.; González, J.

2001-01-01

We investigate the problems that might arise when two recently developed methods for detecting interdependencies between time series using state space embedding are applied to signals of different complexity. With this aim, these methods were used to assess the interdependencies between two electroencephalographic channels from 10 adult human subjects during different vigilance states. The significance and nature of the measured interdependencies were checked by comparing the results of the original data with those of different types of surrogates. We found that even with proper reconstructions of the dynamics of the time series, both methods may give wrong statistical evidence of decreasing interdependencies during deep sleep due to changes in the complexity of each individual channel. The main factor responsible for this result was the use of an insufficient number of neighbors in the calculations. Once this problem was surmounted, both methods showed the existence of a significant relationship between the channels which was mostly of linear type and increased from awake to slow wave sleep. We conclude that the significance of the qualitative results provided for both methods must be carefully tested before drawing any conclusion about the implications of such results.

Normalized Rotational Multiple Yield Surface Framework (NRMYSF) stress-strain curve prediction method based on small strain triaxial test data on undisturbed Auckland residual clay soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noor, M. J. Md; Ibrahim, A.; Rahman, A. S. A.

2018-04-01

Small strain triaxial test measurement is considered to be significantly accurate compared to the external strain measurement using conventional method due to systematic errors normally associated with the test. Three submersible miniature linear variable differential transducer (LVDT) mounted on yokes which clamped directly onto the soil sample at equally 120° from the others. The device setup using 0.4 N resolution load cell and 16 bit AD converter was capable of consistently resolving displacement of less than 1µm and measuring axial strains ranging from less than 0.001% to 2.5%. Further analysis of small strain local measurement data was performed using new Normalized Multiple Yield Surface Framework (NRMYSF) method and compared with existing Rotational Multiple Yield Surface Framework (RMYSF) prediction method. The prediction of shear strength based on combined intrinsic curvilinear shear strength envelope using small strain triaxial test data confirmed the significant improvement and reliability of the measurement and analysis methods. Moreover, the NRMYSF method shows an excellent data prediction and significant improvement toward more reliable prediction of soil strength that can reduce the cost and time of experimental laboratory test.

Pain and efficacy rating of a microprocessor-controlled metered injection system for local anaesthesia in minor hand surgery.

PubMed

Nimigan, André S; Gan, Bing Siang

2011-01-01

Purpose. Little attention has been given to syringe design and local anaesthetic administration methods. A microprocessor-controlled anaesthetic delivery device has become available that may minimize discomfort during injection. The purpose of this study was to document the pain experience associated with the use of this system and to compare it with use of a conventional syringe. Methods. A prospective, randomized clinical trial was designed. 40 patients undergoing carpal tunnel release were block randomized according to sex into a two groups: a traditional syringe group and a microprocessor-controlled device group. The primary outcome measure was surgical pain and local anaesthetic administration pain. Secondary outcomes included volume of anaesthetic used and injection time. Results. Analysis showed that equivalent anaesthesia was achieved in the microprocessor-controlled group despite using a significantly lower volume of local anaesthetic (P = .0002). This same group, however, has significantly longer injection times (P < .0001). Pain during the injection process or during surgery was not different between the two groups. Conclusions. This RCT comparing traditional and microprocessor controlled methods of administering local anaesthetic showed similar levels of discomfort in both groups. While the microprocessor-controlled group used less volume, the total time for the administration was significantly greater.

Statistical Methods for Identifying Sequence Motifs Affecting Point Mutations

PubMed Central

Zhu, Yicheng; Neeman, Teresa; Yap, Von Bing; Huttley, Gavin A.

2017-01-01

Mutation processes differ between types of point mutation, genomic locations, cells, and biological species. For some point mutations, specific neighboring bases are known to be mechanistically influential. Beyond these cases, numerous questions remain unresolved, including: what are the sequence motifs that affect point mutations? How large are the motifs? Are they strand symmetric? And, do they vary between samples? We present new log-linear models that allow explicit examination of these questions, along with sequence logo style visualization to enable identifying specific motifs. We demonstrate the performance of these methods by analyzing mutation processes in human germline and malignant melanoma. We recapitulate the known CpG effect, and identify novel motifs, including a highly significant motif associated with A→G mutations. We show that major effects of neighbors on germline mutation lie within ±2 of the mutating base. Models are also presented for contrasting the entire mutation spectra (the distribution of the different point mutations). We show the spectra vary significantly between autosomes and X-chromosome, with a difference in T→C transition dominating. Analyses of malignant melanoma confirmed reported characteristic features of this cancer, including statistically significant strand asymmetry, and markedly different neighboring influences. The methods we present are made freely available as a Python library https://bitbucket.org/pycogent3/mutationmotif. PMID:27974498

Correlation between radiographic analysis of alveolar bone density around dental implant and resonance frequency of dental implant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prawoko, S. S.; Nelwan, L. C.; Odang, R. W.; Kusdhany, L. S.

2017-08-01

The histomorphometric test is the gold standard for dental implant stability quantification; however, it is invasive, and therefore, it is inapplicable to clinical patients. Consequently, accurate and objective alternative methods are required. Resonance frequency analysis (RFA) and digital radiographic analysis are noninvasive methods with excellent objectivity and reproducibility. To analyze the correlation between the radiographic analysis of alveolar bone density around a dental implant and the resonance frequency of the dental implant. Digital radiographic images for 35 samples were obtained, and the resonance frequency of the dental implant was acquired using Osstell ISQ immediately after dental implant placement and on third-month follow-up. The alveolar bone density around the dental implant was subsequently analyzed using SIDEXIS-XG software. No significant correlation was reported between the alveolar bone density around the dental implant and the resonance frequency of the dental implant (r = -0.102 at baseline, r = 0.146 at follow-up, p > 0.05). However, the alveolar bone density and resonance frequency showed a significant difference throughout the healing period (p = 0.005 and p = 0.000, respectively). Conclusion: Digital dental radiographs and Osstell ISQ showed excellent objectivity and reproducibility in quantifying dental implant stability. Nonetheless, no significant correlation was observed between the results obtained using these two methods.

Bilateral Symmetry before and Six Months after Aberration-Free™ Correction with the SCHWIND AMARIS TotalTech Laser: Clinical Outcomes

PubMed Central

Arbelaez, Maria Clara; Vidal, Camila; Arba-Mosquera, Samuel

2010-01-01

Purpose To compare the preoperative and postoperative bilateral symmetry between OD and OS eyes that have undergone femto-LASIK using the Ziemer LDV femtosecond laser system, the SCHWIND AMARIS Excimer Laser and the Aberrationfree™ profiles implemented in the SCHWIND Custom Ablation Manager software. Methods A total of 25 LASIK patients were bilaterally evaluated at the six-month follow-up visit. In all cases standard examinations, pre- and postoperative analysis with corneal wavefront topography (OPTIKON Scout) were performed. Aberration-free™ aspheric treatments were devised using the Custom Ablation Manager software and ablations were performed by means of the SCHWIND AMARIS flying-spot excimer laser system (both SCHWIND eyetech- solutions). In all cases LASIK flaps were created using an LDV femtosecond laser (Ziemer Group). The OD/OS bilateral symmetry was evaluated in terms of corneal wavefront aberration. Results Preoperatively, 11 Zernike terms showed significant bilateral (OS-vs.-OD) symmetry, and only 6 Zernike terms were significantly different. Overall, 23 out of the 25 patients showed significant bilateral symmetry, and only 2 out of 25 patients showed significant differences. None of the aberration metrics changed from pre- to postoperative values by a clinically relevant amount. At the 6-month postoperative visit, 12 Zernike terms showed significant symmetry, and 8 terms were significantly different. Overall, 22 out of 25 patients showed significant bilateral symmetry (OS vs. OD), and only 3 out of 25 patients showed significant differences. Also, this postoperative examination revealed that 6 Zernike terms lost significant OS-vs.-OD symmetry, but 4 Zernike terms gained significant symmetry. Finally, 4 patients lost significant bilaterality, and 2 patients gained significant bilaterality: bilateral symmetry between eyes was better maintained in those patients with a clear preoperative bilateral symmetry. Conclusions Aberration-Free Treatments with the SCHWIND AMARIS did not induce clinically significant aberrations, maintained the global OD-vs.-OS bilateral symmetry, as well as the bilateral symmetry between corresponding Zernike terms (which influences binocular summation).

Measuring persistent temporomandibular joint nociception in rats and two mice strains.

PubMed

Kramer, Phillip R; Kerins, Carolyn A; Schneiderman, Emet; Bellinger, Larry L

2010-04-19

Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pain has been reported to last for prolonged periods in humans. In rodents a variety of methods have been used to measure TMJ nociception, but for most of these methods the period of measurement has been minutes to a couple of hours. In addition, most measurement protocols required restraint or training of the animal. Previous studies from our laboratory demonstrated that feeding behavior, particularly meal duration, was an indicator of TMJ nociception in unrestrained and untrained male and female Sprague-Dawley rats for up to two days. In this study, we first found that injection of complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) into the TMJ of rats significantly lengthened meal duration for 19 days and also decreased meal frequency for 42 days. Interestingly, the meal duration varied significantly from day to day within the 19 day period. TMJ interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) were significantly elevated in the TMJ tissues of CFA-injected animals and the level of these markers was attenuated as the meal duration decreased with time. Control animals injected with saline into the TMJ or CFA into the knee did not show a significant lengthening in meal duration but did show a decrease in meal frequency. In a second study, DBA/1LacJ mice given TMJ CFA injections showed a significantly lengthened meal duration on four of the seven days measured using end-of-the meal definition of 5 or 10 min. No other meal pattern changed significantly. Two days post-CFA injection, the DBA/1LacJ mice showed significantly elevated interleukin-6 (IL-6), but not elevated IL-1 beta. Seven days post-injection, both IL-6 and IL-1 beta were significantly elevated. No change in CGRP was detected. In this study C57Bl/6 mice also received TMJ CFA injections, but they did not show a lengthening in any meal pattern or significant increases in IL-1 beta, IL-6 or CGRP. Our data show, for the first time, that meal duration can be used to measure CFA-induced nociception in the TMJ over the course of several weeks in unrestrained rats and for up to seven days in the DBA/1LacJ mouse strain. In addition, C57Bl/6 mice are resistant to CFA-induced TMJ nociception at the same dose used in the DBA/1LacJ mice. (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A New Method to Grow SiC: Solvent-Laser Heated Floating Zone

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Woodworth, Andrew A.; Neudeck, Philip G.; Sayir, Ali

2012-01-01

The solvent-laser heated floating zone (solvent-LHFZ) growth method is being developed to grow long single crystal SiC fibers. The technique combines the single crystal fiber growth ability of laser heated floating zone with solvent based growth techniques (e.g. traveling solvent method) ability to grow SiC from the liquid phase. Initial investigations reported in this paper show that the solvent-LHFZ method readily grows single crystal SiC (retains polytype and orientation), but has a significant amount of inhomogeneous strain and solvent rich inclusions.

UPLC-ESI-MS/MS and HPTLC Method for Quantitative Estimation of Cytotoxic Glycosides and Aglycone in Bioactivity Guided Fractions of Solanum nigrum L.

PubMed Central

Chester, Karishma; Paliwal, Sarvesh; Khan, Washim; Ahmad, Sayeed

2017-01-01

Solanum nigrum L., is traditionally used for the management of the various liver disorders. Investigating the effect of polarity based fractionation of S. nigrum for its hepatoprotective effect on Hep G2 cells in vitro to provide base of its activity by quantifying in steroidal glycosides responsible for hepatoprotective potential. A new UPLC-ESI-MS/MS method following a high performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) has been developed and validated for quantification of steroidal glycosides and aglycone (solasonine, solamargine, and solasodine, respectively). The in vitro antioxidant potential, total phenolics, and flavonoid content were also determined in different fractions. The newly developed UPLC-ESI-MS/MS and HPTLC methods were linear (r2 ≥ 0.99), precise, accurate, and showing recovery more than 97%. The n-butanol enriched fraction of S. nigrum berries was found to be the most potent hepatoprotective fraction against all other fractions as it showed significantly (p < 0.01) better in vitro anti-oxidant potential than other fractions. Quantification by both methods revealed that, content of steroidal glycosides and aglycones are more than 20% in n-butanol fraction as compared to other fractions. The screened steroidal glycoside n-butanol enriched fraction underwent bioefficacy studies against D-galactosamine and H2O2 induced toxicity in HepG2 cell line showing significant (p < 0.05) liver protection. However, developed method can be used for the quality control analysis with respect to targeted metabolites and it can be explored for the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic analysis in future. PMID:28729835

Development and use of quantitative competitive PCR assays for relative quantifying rumen anaerobic fungal populations in both in vitro and in vivo systems.

PubMed

Sekhavati, Mohammad H; Mesgaran, Mohsen Danesh; Nassiri, Mohammad R; Mohammadabadi, Tahereh; Rezaii, Farkhondeh; Fani Maleki, Adham

2009-10-01

This paper describes the use of a quantitative competitive polymerase chain reaction (QC-PCR) assay; using PCR primers to the rRNA locus of rumen fungi and a standard-control DNA including design and validation. In order to test the efficiency of this method for quantifying anaerobic rumen fungi, it has been attempted to evaluate this method in in vitro conditions by comparing with an assay based on measuring cell wall chitin. The changes in fungal growth have been studied when they are grown in in vitro on either untreated (US) or sodium hydroxide treated wheat straw (TS). Results showed that rumen fungi growth was significantly higher in treated samples compared with untreated during the 12d incubation (P<0.05) and plotting the chitin assay's results against the competitive PCR's showed high positive correlation (R(2)> or =0.87). The low mean values of the coefficients of variance in repeatability in the QC-PCR method against the chitin assay demonstrated more reliability of this new approach. And finally, the efficiency of this method was investigated in in vivo conditions. Samples of rumen fluid were collected from four fistulated Holstein steers which were fed four different diets (basal diet, high starch, high sucrose and starch plus sucrose) in rotation. The results of QC-PCR showed that addition of these non-structural carbohydrates to the basal diets caused a significant decrease in rumen anaerobic fungi biomass. The QC-PCR method appears to be a reliable and can be used for rumen samples.

Spectroflurimetric estimation of the new antiviral agent ledipasvir in presence of sofosbuvir

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salama, Fathy M.; Attia, Khalid A.; Abouserie, Ahmed A.; El-Olemy, Ahmed; Abolmagd, Ebrahim

2018-02-01

A spectroflurimetric method has been developed and validated for the selective quantitative determination of ledipasvir in presence of sofosbuvir. In this method the native fluorescence of ledipasvir in ethanol at 405 nm was measured after excitation at 340 nm. The proposed method was validated according to ICH guidelines and show high sensitivity, accuracy and precision. Furthermore this method was successfully applied to the analysis of ledipasvir in pharmaceutical dosage form without interference from sofosbuvir and other additives and the results were statistically compared to a reported method and found no significant difference.

Determining the Full Halo Coronal Mass Ejection Characteristics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fainshtein, V. G.

2010-11-01

Observing halo coronal mass ejections (HCMEs) in the coronagraph field of view allows one to only determine the apparent parameters in the plane of the sky. Recently, several methods have been proposed allowing one to find some true geometrical and kinematical parameters of HCMEs. In most cases, a simple cone model was used to describe the CME shape. Observations show that various modifications of the cone model ("ice cream models") are most appropriate for describing the shapes of individual CMEs. This paper uses the method of determining full HCME parameters proposed by the author earlier, for determining the parameters of 45 full HCMEs, with various modifications of their shapes. I show that the determined CME characteristics depend significantly on the chosen CME shape. I conclude that the absence of criteria for a preliminary evaluation of the CME shape is a major source of error in determining the true parameters of a full HCME with any of the known methods. I show that, regardless of the chosen CME form, the trajectory of practically all the HCMEs in question deviate from the radial direction towards the Sun-Earth axis at the initial stage of their movement, and their angular size, on average, significantly exceeds that of all the observable CMEs.

Modeling Strain Rate Effect of Heterogeneous Materials Using SPH Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, G. W.; Wang, X. J.; Li, Q. M.

2010-11-01

The strain rate effect on the dynamic compressive failure of heterogeneous material based on the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method is studied. The SPH method employs a rate-insensitive elasto-plastic damage model incorporated with a Weibull distribution law to reflect the mechanical behavior of heterogeneous rock-like materials. A series of simulations are performed for heterogeneous specimens by applying axial velocity conditions, which induce different strain-rate loadings to the specimen. A detailed failure process of the specimens in terms of microscopic crack-activities and the macro-mechanical response are discussed. Failure mechanisms between the low and high strain rate cases are compared. The result shows that the strain-rate effects on the rock strength are mainly caused by the changing internal pressure due to the inertial effects as well as the material heterogeneity. It also demonstrates that the inertial effect becomes significant only when the induced strain rate exceeds a threshold, below which, the dynamic strength enhancement can be explained due to the heterogeneities in the material. It also shows that the dynamic strength is affected more significantly for a relatively more heterogeneous specimen, which coincides with the experimental results showing that the poor quality specimen had a relatively larger increase in the dynamic strength.

Non-linear dual-phase-lag model for analyzing heat transfer phenomena in living tissues during thermal ablation.

PubMed

Kumar, P; Kumar, Dinesh; Rai, K N

2016-08-01

In this article, a non-linear dual-phase-lag (DPL) bio-heat transfer model based on temperature dependent metabolic heat generation rate is derived to analyze the heat transfer phenomena in living tissues during thermal ablation treatment. The numerical solution of the present non-linear problem has been done by finite element Runge-Kutta (4,5) method which combines the essence of Runge-Kutta (4,5) method together with finite difference scheme. Our study demonstrates that at the thermal ablation position temperature predicted by non-linear and linear DPL models show significant differences. A comparison has been made among non-linear DPL, thermal wave and Pennes model and it has been found that non-linear DPL and thermal wave bio-heat model show almost same nature whereas non-linear Pennes model shows significantly different temperature profile at the initial stage of thermal ablation treatment. The effect of Fourier number and Vernotte number (relaxation Fourier number) on temperature profile in presence and absence of externally applied heat source has been studied in detail and it has been observed that the presence of externally applied heat source term highly affects the efficiency of thermal treatment method. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Isolation and identification of Salmonella from curry samples and its sensitivity to commercial antibiotics and aqueous extracts of Camelia sinensis (L.) and Trachyspermum ammi (L.)

PubMed Central

Gunasegaran, Thanes; Rathinam, Xavier; Kasi, Marimuthu; Sathasivam, Kathiresan; Sreenivasan, Sasidharan; Subramaniam, Sreeramanan

2011-01-01

Objective To isolate Salmonella from curry samples and to evaluate the drug sensitivity of the food-borne Salmonella and its susceptibility to specific plant extracts. Methods Salmonella was isolated from the curry samples by standard microbiological methods and was confirmed by biochemical tests. The antibiotic susceptibility test was conducted by disc diffusion method using commercially available antibiotics such as ampicillin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, kanamycin, and penicillin. In addition, the susceptibility of the food-borne Salmonella was also evaluated against the aqueous extracts of Camelia sinensis (L.) Theaceae (tea leaves) and the Trachyspermum ammi (L.) Apiaceae ( ajwain or omum seeds). Results Out of fifty curry samples, only seven samples were identified to have Salmonella contamination. The Salmonella isolates showed a significant drug resistance pattern except for kanamycin. The plant extracts showed a considerable antibacterial activity against the isolates, indicating the presence of antimicrobial principle which can be exploited after complete pharmacological investigations. Conclusions The present study demonstrates the occurrence of Salmonella in the curry samples, and shows significant drug resistance against most of the commercially available antibiotics, except kanamycin. Antimicrobial effect of the plant extracts against the food-bone Salmonella suggests that dietary including medicinal herbs would be one strategy to manage food borne pathogens. PMID:23569772

Vertical and horizontal proportions of the face and their correlation to phi among Indians in Moradabad population: A survey.

PubMed

Anand, Shruti; Tripathi, Siddhi; Chopra, Anubhav; Khaneja, Karan; Agarwal, Swatantra

2015-01-01

The purpose was to examine the existence of divine proportions among the Indian faces in Moradabad population. Totally, 100 patients (50 males; 50 females) aged 25-45 years were selected for the study. All facial photographs were analyzed based on the method of Ricketts assessing the divine proportions in vertical and transverse facial planes. Six horizontal and seven vertical ratios were determined, which were then compared with the phi ratio. The horizontal ratio results showed that three male and female ratios were not significantly different from each other (P > 0.05), and interchilion/nose width ratio was highly significant (P < 0.001). The horizontal mean ratios for females as well as males were highly significant from the phi ratio (P < 0.001) except for interchilion/interdacryon ratio, which was significant (P < 0.05) for females and not significant (P > 0.05) for males. The vertical ratio results showed that there was a highly significant difference (P < 0.001) for forehead height/stomion-soft menton ratio and no significant difference for two ratios between the mean ratios of males and females. All the vertical mean ratios for both the groups were highly significant (P < 0.001), except for the intereye-soft menton/intereye-stomion ratio, which was significant (P < 0.05) for female group and not significant (P > 0.05) for the male group. Although, the golden proportion is a prominent and recurring theme in esthetics, it should not be embraced as the only method by which human beauty is measured to the exclusion of others factors.

In vitro antioxidant and antihyperlipidemic activities of Bauhinia variegata Linn

PubMed Central

Rajani, G.P.; Ashok, Purnima

2009-01-01

Objectives: To evaluate the ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Bauhinia variegata Linn. for in vitro antioxidant and antihyperlipidemic activity. Materials and Methods: Ethanolic and aqueous extracts of the stem bark and root of B. variegata Linn. were prepared and assessed for in vitro antioxidant activity by various methods namely total reducing power, scavenging of various free radicals such as 1,2-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), super oxide, nitric oxide, and hydrogen peroxide. The percentage scavenging of various free radicals were compared with standard antioxidants such as ascorbic acid and butylated hydroxyl anisole (BHA). The extracts were also evaluated for antihyperlipidemic activity in Triton WR-1339 (iso-octyl polyoxyethylene phenol)-induced hyperlipidemic albino rats by estimating serum triglyceride, very low density lipids (VLDL), cholesterol, low-density lipids (LDL), and high-density lipid (HDL) levels. Result: Significant antioxidant activity was observed in all the methods, (P < 0.01) for reducing power and (P < 0.001) for scavenging DPPH, super oxide, nitric oxide, and hydrogen peroxide radicals. The extracts showed significant reduction (P < 0.01) in cholesterol at 6 and 24 h and (P < 0.05) at 48 h. There was significant reduction (P < 0.01) in triglyceride level at 6, 24, and 48 h. The VLDL level was also significantly (P < 0.05) reduced from 24 h and maximum reduction (P < 0.01) was seen at 48 h. There was significant increase (P < 0.01) in HDL at 6, 24, and 48 h. Conclusion: From the results, it is evident that alcoholic and aqueous extracts of B. variegata Linn. can effectively decrease plasma cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL, and VLDL and increase plasma HDL levels. In addition, the alcoholic and aqueous extracts have shown significant antioxidant activity. By the virtue of its antioxidant activity, B. variegata Linn. may show antihyperlipidemic activity. PMID:20177495

Digital versus conventional techniques for pattern fabrication of implant-supported frameworks

PubMed Central

Alikhasi, Marzieh; Rohanian, Ahmad; Ghodsi, Safoura; Kolde, Amin Mohammadpour

2018-01-01

Objective: The aim of this experimental study was to compare retention of frameworks cast from wax patterns fabricated by three different methods. Materials and Methods: Thirty-six implant analogs connected to one-piece abutments were divided randomly into three groups according to the wax pattern fabrication method (n = 12). Computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) milling machine, three-dimensional printer, and conventional technique were used for fabrication of waxing patterns. All laboratory procedures were performed by an expert-reliable technician to eliminate intra-operator bias. The wax patterns were cast, finished, and seated on related abutment analogs. The number of adjustment times was recorded and analyzed by Kruskal–Wallis test. Frameworks were cemented on the corresponding analogs with zinc phosphate cement and tensile resistance test was used to measure retention value. Statistical Analysis Used: One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc Tukey tests were used for statistical analysis. Level of significance was set at P < 0.05. Results: The mean retentive values of 680.36 ± 21.93 N, 440.48 ± 85.98 N, and 407.23 ± 67.48 N were recorded for CAD/CAM, rapid prototyping, and conventional group, respectively. One-way ANOVA test revealed significant differences among the three groups (P < 0.001). The post hoc Tukey test showed significantly higher retention for CAD/CAM group (P < 0.001), while there was no significant difference between the two other groups (P = 0.54). CAD/CAM group required significantly more adjustments (P < 0.001). Conclusions: CAD/CAM-fabricated wax patterns showed significantly higher retention for implant-supported cement-retained frameworks; this could be a valuable help when there are limitations in the retention of single-unit implant restorations. PMID:29657528

Significant body point labeling and tracking.

PubMed

Azhar, Faisal; Tjahjadi, Tardi

2014-09-01

In this paper, a method is presented to label and track anatomical landmarks (e.g., head, hand/arm, feet), which are referred to as significant body points (SBPs), using implicit body models. By considering the human body as an inverted pendulum model, ellipse fitting and contour moments are applied to classify it as being in Stand, Sit, or Lie posture. A convex hull of the silhouette contour is used to determine the locations of SBPs. The particle filter or a motion flow-based method is used to predict SBPs in occlusion. Stick figures of various activities are generated by connecting the SBPs. The qualitative and quantitative evaluation show that the proposed method robustly labels and tracks SBPs in various activities of two different (low and high) resolution data sets.

Influence of capital expenditure and income original region to the income per capita in Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Muda, Iskandar; Annisa Fitri Hutapea, Azura

2018-03-01

This study aims to determine the Capital Expenditure and Income Original Region is considered to have a significantly positive effect on the increase in income per capita in the Government of North Sumatera Province and West Java Province. The method of research in this thesis is by using a causal research design, with a sample of 25 districts/cities in North Sumatera Province and West Java Province. This study was conducted for the period 2012-2015. The type of data used is secondary data. The method of analysis used in this research is SEM method using software AMOS. The result of this hypothesis shows that simultaneously both independent variables significantly influence to increase of income per capita.

An orientation soil survey at the Pebble Cu-Au-Mo porphyry deposit, Alaska

USGS Publications Warehouse

Smith, Steven M.; Eppinger, Robert G.; Fey, David L.; Kelley, Karen D.; Giles, S.A.

2009-01-01

Soil samples were collected in 2007 and 2008 along three traverses across the giant Pebble Cu-Au-Mo porphyry deposit. Within each soil pit, four subsamples were collected following recommended protocols for each of ten commonly-used and proprietary leach/digestion techniques. The significance of geochemical patterns generated by these techniques was classified by visual inspection of plots showing individual element concentration by each analytical method along the 2007 traverse. A simple matrix by element versus method, populated with a value based on the significance classification, provides a method for ranking the utility of methods and elements at this deposit. The interpretation of a complex multi-element dataset derived from multiple analytical techniques is challenging. An example of vanadium results from a single leach technique is used to illustrate the several possible interpretations of the data.

[Efficiency of rehabilitation methods in the treatment of arm lymphedema after breast cancer surgery].

PubMed

Petruseviciene, Daiva; Krisciūnas, Aleksandras; Sameniene, Jūrate

2002-01-01

In this article we analyze influence of rehabilitation methods in treatment of arm lymphedema. In Kaunas oncological hospital were examined 60 women after surgery for breast cancer. The work objective was to evaluate efficiency of rehabilitation methods in treatment of arm lymphedema and in evaluate movement amplitude of shoulder joint. Two groups of women depending on rehabilitation start were evaluated. The same methods of rehabilitation were applied to both groups: physical therapy, electrostimulation, massage, lymphodrainage with apparate. Our study indicated that women, who were treated at early period of rehabilitation (3 months), showed statistically significantly (p < 0.01) better results in increase of movement amplitude of shoulder joint. However, results of treatment of arm lymphedema, comparing with women who started rehabilitation after 12 months, were equally successful--results were not statistically significantly better (p > 0.05).

Molecular docking and ex vivo and in vitro anticholinesterase activity studies of Salvia sp. and highlighted rosmarinic acid.

PubMed

Demirezer, Lütfiye Ömür; Gürbüz, Perihan; Kelicen Uğur, Emine Pelin; Bodur, Mine; Özenver, Nadire; Uz, Ayse; Güvenalp, Zühal

2015-01-01

To evaluate acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory activity and antioxidant capacity of the major molecule from Salvia sp., rosmarinic acid, as a drug candidate molecule for treatment of Alzheimer disease (AD). The AChE inhibitory activity of different extracts from Salvia trichoclada, Salvia verticillata, and Salvia fruticosa was determined by the Ellman and isolated guinea pig ileum methods, and the antioxidant capacity was determined with DPPH. The AChE inhibitory activity of the major molecule rosmarinic acid was determined by in silico docking and isolated guinea pig ileum methods. The methanol extract of Salvia trichoclada showed the highest inhibition on AChE. The same extract and rosmarinic acid showed significant contraction responses on isolated guinea pig ileum. All the extracts and rosmarinic acid showed high radical scavenging capacities. Docking results of rosmarinic acid showed high affinity to the selected target, AChE. In this study in vitro and ex vivo studies and in silico docking research of rosmarinic acid were used simultaneously for the first time. Rosmarinic acid showed promising results in all the methods tested.

Hand-eye calibration for rigid laparoscopes using an invariant point.

PubMed

Thompson, Stephen; Stoyanov, Danail; Schneider, Crispin; Gurusamy, Kurinchi; Ourselin, Sébastien; Davidson, Brian; Hawkes, David; Clarkson, Matthew J

2016-06-01

Laparoscopic liver resection has significant advantages over open surgery due to less patient trauma and faster recovery times, yet it can be difficult due to the restricted field of view and lack of haptic feedback. Image guidance provides a potential solution but one current challenge is in accurate "hand-eye" calibration, which determines the position and orientation of the laparoscope camera relative to the tracking markers. In this paper, we propose a simple and clinically feasible calibration method based on a single invariant point. The method requires no additional hardware, can be constructed by theatre staff during surgical setup, requires minimal image processing and can be visualised in real time. Real-time visualisation allows the surgical team to assess the calibration accuracy before use in surgery. In addition, in the laboratory, we have developed a laparoscope with an electromagnetic tracking sensor attached to the camera end and an optical tracking marker attached to the distal end. This enables a comparison of tracking performance. We have evaluated our method in the laboratory and compared it to two widely used methods, "Tsai's method" and "direct" calibration. The new method is of comparable accuracy to existing methods, and we show RMS projected error due to calibration of 1.95 mm for optical tracking and 0.85 mm for EM tracking, versus 4.13 and 1.00 mm respectively, using existing methods. The new method has also been shown to be workable under sterile conditions in the operating room. We have proposed a new method of hand-eye calibration, based on a single invariant point. Initial experience has shown that the method provides visual feedback, satisfactory accuracy and can be performed during surgery. We also show that an EM sensor placed near the camera would provide significantly improved image overlay accuracy.

Evaluation of the rapid and slow maxillary expansion using cone-beam computed tomography: a randomized clinical trial

PubMed Central

Pereira, Juliana da S.; Jacob, Helder B.; Locks, Arno; Brunetto, Mauricio; Ribeiro, Gerson L. U.

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE: The aim of this randomized clinical trial was to evaluate the dental, dentoalveolar, and skeletal changes occurring right after the rapid maxillary expansion (RME) and slow maxillary expansion (SME) treatment using Haas-type expander. METHODS: All subjects performed cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) before installation of expanders (T1) and right after screw stabilization (T2). Patients who did not follow the research parameters were excluded. The final sample resulted in 21 patients in RME group (mean age of 8.43 years) and 16 patients in SME group (mean age of 8.70 years). Based on the skewness and kurtosis statistics, the variables were judged to be normally distributed and paired t-test and student t-test were performed at significance level of 5%. RESULTS: Intermolar angle changed significantly due to treatment and RME showed greater buccal tipping than SME. RME showed significant changes in other four measurements due to treatment: maxilla moved forward and mandible showed backward rotation and, at transversal level both skeletal and dentoalveolar showed significant changes due to maxillary expansion. SME showed significant dentoalveolar changes due to maxillary expansion. CONCLUSIONS: Only intermolar angle showed significant difference between the two modalities of maxillary expansion with greater buccal tipping for RME. Also, RME produced skeletal maxillary expansion and SME did not. Both maxillary expansion modalities were efficient to promote transversal gain at dentoalveolar level. Sagittal and vertical measurements did not show differences between groups, but RME promoted a forward movement of the maxilla and backward rotation of the mandible. PMID:28658357

Evaluating the Good Ontology Design Guideline (GoodOD) with the Ontology Quality Requirements and Evaluation Method and Metrics (OQuaRE)

PubMed Central

Duque-Ramos, Astrid; Boeker, Martin; Jansen, Ludger; Schulz, Stefan; Iniesta, Miguela; Fernández-Breis, Jesualdo Tomás

2014-01-01

Objective To (1) evaluate the GoodOD guideline for ontology development by applying the OQuaRE evaluation method and metrics to the ontology artefacts that were produced by students in a randomized controlled trial, and (2) informally compare the OQuaRE evaluation method with gold standard and competency questions based evaluation methods, respectively. Background In the last decades many methods for ontology construction and ontology evaluation have been proposed. However, none of them has become a standard and there is no empirical evidence of comparative evaluation of such methods. This paper brings together GoodOD and OQuaRE. GoodOD is a guideline for developing robust ontologies. It was previously evaluated in a randomized controlled trial employing metrics based on gold standard ontologies and competency questions as outcome parameters. OQuaRE is a method for ontology quality evaluation which adapts the SQuaRE standard for software product quality to ontologies and has been successfully used for evaluating the quality of ontologies. Methods In this paper, we evaluate the effect of training in ontology construction based on the GoodOD guideline within the OQuaRE quality evaluation framework and compare the results with those obtained for the previous studies based on the same data. Results Our results show a significant effect of the GoodOD training over developed ontologies by topics: (a) a highly significant effect was detected in three topics from the analysis of the ontologies of untrained and trained students; (b) both positive and negative training effects with respect to the gold standard were found for five topics. Conclusion The GoodOD guideline had a significant effect over the quality of the ontologies developed. Our results show that GoodOD ontologies can be effectively evaluated using OQuaRE and that OQuaRE is able to provide additional useful information about the quality of the GoodOD ontologies. PMID:25148262

The predictive validity of a situational judgement test, a clinical problem solving test and the core medical training selection methods for performance in specialty training .

PubMed

Patterson, Fiona; Lopes, Safiatu; Harding, Stephen; Vaux, Emma; Berkin, Liz; Black, David

2017-02-01

The aim of this study was to follow up a sample of physicians who began core medical training (CMT) in 2009. This paper examines the long-term validity of CMT and GP selection methods in predicting performance in the Membership of Royal College of Physicians (MRCP(UK)) examinations. We performed a longitudinal study, examining the extent to which the GP and CMT selection methods (T1) predict performance in the MRCP(UK) examinations (T2). A total of 2,569 applicants from 2008-09 who completed CMT and GP selection methods were included in the study. Looking at MRCP(UK) part 1, part 2 written and PACES scores, both CMT and GP selection methods show evidence of predictive validity for the outcome variables, and hierarchical regressions show the GP methods add significant value to the CMT selection process. CMT selection methods predict performance in important outcomes and have good evidence of validity; the GP methods may have an additional role alongside the CMT selection methods. © Royal College of Physicians 2017. All rights reserved.

47 CFR 76.54 - Significantly viewed signals; method to be followed for special showings.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... located, in whole or in part, and on all other system community units, franchisees, and franchise.... 339(d). (j) Notwithstanding the requirements of this section, the signal of a television broadcast...

Solving large-scale fixed cost integer linear programming models for grid-based location problems with heuristic techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noor-E-Alam, Md.; Doucette, John

2015-08-01

Grid-based location problems (GBLPs) can be used to solve location problems in business, engineering, resource exploitation, and even in the field of medical sciences. To solve these decision problems, an integer linear programming (ILP) model is designed and developed to provide the optimal solution for GBLPs considering fixed cost criteria. Preliminary results show that the ILP model is efficient in solving small to moderate-sized problems. However, this ILP model becomes intractable in solving large-scale instances. Therefore, a decomposition heuristic is proposed to solve these large-scale GBLPs, which demonstrates significant reduction of solution runtimes. To benchmark the proposed heuristic, results are compared with the exact solution via ILP. The experimental results show that the proposed method significantly outperforms the exact method in runtime with minimal (and in most cases, no) loss of optimality.

Trends in Canadian Sociology Master's Theses in Relation to Research Ethics Review, 1995-2004.

PubMed

van den Hoonaard, Will C

2006-12-01

THIS PAPER EXAMINES TRENDS IN CANADIAN Master's theses in sociology, 1995-2004, in the course the implementation of Canada's national research-ethics guidelines (2001), using data available from ProQuest Dissertations. While there has been no decline in the number of theses completed during this period, nearly 1/4 fewer theses now involve research participants. The proportion of theses using quantitative methods shows decline; theses using qualitative methods, however, have increased significantly over time. A closer inspection qualitative theses shows an impressive increase in the proportion of theses using interviews, while the decrease in theses using field work is even more dramatic, from 40% to 5%. The decrease of theses involving field work is particularly alarming for a significant segment of sociology that must derive its material mainly from field work. Data drawn from a larger study supplement the findings in this article.

Multiple intelligences and alternative teaching strategies: The effects on student academic achievement, conceptual understanding, and attitude

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baragona, Michelle

The purpose of this study was to investigate the interactions between multiple intelligence strengths and alternative teaching methods on student academic achievement, conceptual understanding and attitudes. The design was a quasi-experimental study, in which students enrolled in Principles of Anatomy and Physiology, a developmental biology course, received lecture only, problem-based learning with lecture, or peer teaching with lecture. These students completed the Multiple Intelligence Inventory to determine their intelligence strengths, the Students' Motivation Toward Science Learning questionnaire to determine student attitudes towards learning in science, multiple choice tests to determine academic achievement, and open-ended questions to determine conceptual understanding. Effects of intelligence types and teaching methods on academic achievement and conceptual understanding were determined statistically by repeated measures ANOVAs. No significance occurred in academic achievement scores due to lab group or due to teaching method used; however, significant interactions between group and teaching method did occur in students with strengths in logical-mathematical, interpersonal, kinesthetic, and intrapersonal intelligences. Post-hoc analysis using Tukey HSD tests revealed students with strengths in logical-mathematical intelligence and enrolled in Group Three scored significantly higher when taught by problem-based learning (PBL) as compared to peer teaching (PT). No significance occurred in conceptual understanding scores due to lab group or due to teaching method used; however, significant interactions between group and teaching method did occur in students with strengths in musical, kinesthetic, intrapersonal, and spatial intelligences. Post-hoc analysis using Tukey HSD tests revealed students with strengths in logical-mathematical intelligence and enrolled in Group Three scored significantly higher when taught by lecture as compared to PBL. Students with strengths in intrapersonal intelligence and enrolled in Group One scored significantly lower when taught by lecture as compared to PBL. Results of a repeated measures ANOVA for student attitudes showed significant increases in positive student attitudes toward science learning for all three types of teaching method between pretest and posttest; but there were no significant differences in posttest attitude scores by type of teaching method.

Formulation Development of Spherical Crystal Agglomerates of Itraconazole for Preparation of Directly Compressible Tablets with Enhanced Bioavailability.

PubMed

Fadke, Janki; Desai, Jagruti; Thakkar, Hetal

2015-12-01

The objective of the present work was to formulate tablet dosage form of itraconazole with enhanced bioavailability. Spherical crystal agglomerates (SCA) of itraconazole prepared by quasi emulsification solvent diffusion method using Soluplus and polyethylene glycol 4000 (PEG 4000) showed increased solubility (540 μg/ml) in 0.1 N hydrochloric acid as compared to pure drug (12 μg/ml). A Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) study indicated compatibility of drug with the excipients. The developed SCA were spherical with smooth surface having an average size of 412 μm. The significantly improved micromeritic properties compared to the plain drug suggested its suitability for direct compression. The antifungal activity of itraconazole was retained in the SCA form as evidenced from the results of the disc diffusion method. The optimized SCA formulation could be easily compressed into tablet with desirable characteristics of hardness (5 kg/cm(2)) and disintegration time (6.3 min). The in vitro dissolution studies showed significant difference in the dissolution profiles of pure drug (21%) and SCA formulation (85%) which was even greater than that of marketed preparation (75%). In vivo pharmacokinetic showed significant enhancement in C max and AUC0-t with relative bioavailability of 225%. The SCA formulation seems to be promising for enhancement of oral bioavailability of itraconazole.

[Effects of different catch modes on soil enzyme activities and bacterial community in the rhizosphere of cucumber].

PubMed

Li, Min; Wu, Feng-zhi

2014-12-01

Effects of different catch modes on soil enzyme activities and bacterial community in the rhizosphere of cucumber (Cucumis sativus) were analyzed by conventional chemical method, PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and real-time PCR methods. Pot experiment was carried out in the greenhouse for three consecutive years with cucumber as the main crop, and scallion (Allium fistulosum), wheat (Triticum aestivum) and oilseed rape (Brassica campestri) as catch crops. Results showed that, with the increase of crop planting times, soil urease, neutral phosphatase and invertase activities in the wheat treatment were significantly) higher than in the scallion and oilseed rape treatments, and these enzyme activities in the oilseed rape treatment were significantly higher than in the scallion treatment. PCR-DGGR analysis showed that cucumber rhizosphere bacterial community structures were different among treatments. Scallion and wheat treatments maintained relatively higher diversity indices of bacterial community structure. qPCR results showed that the abundance of soil bacterial community in the wheat treatment was significantly higher than in the scallion and oilseed rape treatments. In conclusion, different catch treatments affected soil enzyme activities and bacteria community and changed the soil environment. Wheat used as summer catch crop could maintain relatively higher soil enzyme activities, bacterial community diversity and abundance.

Income analysis of goat farmers on the farmers group in district of Serdang Bedagai

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manurung, J. N.; Hasnudi; Supriana, T.

2018-02-01

The farmers group are expected to reduce the production cost of goat breeding and improve the income of farmers which impact on the welfare of goat farmers. This research aim to analyze the factors that influence the income of farmers group, in sub-district Dolok Masihul Pegajahan, and Dolok Merawan, Serdang Bedagai. The method used is survey method with 90 respondents. Data was analysed by multiple linear regression. The result showed, simultaneously goat cost, sale price of goat, fixed cost and variable cost had significant effect on income of goat farmers. Partially, goat cost, variable cost and sale price of goat had significant effect on income of goat farmers, while fixed cost had no significant effect.

Significantly enhanced high-frequency permeability for composites with amorphous-membrane-fillers prepared using an infiltration method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Z. W.; Yang, Z. H.

2016-03-01

Amorphous-membrane-filler composites have been fabricated using an infiltration method. The composites are able to significantly increase the permeability by 200%, as compared to general amorphous flake composites. SEM and magnetic measurement show that the amorphous flakes in membrane are in-plane arrangement. A model, which considers the effect of flake arrangement on demagnetizing factor Nd and permeability, is proposed. The effect of the arrangement of flakes is equivalent to an effective Nd, which is equal to 1/3 and zero for random and complete in-plane arrangements, respectively. Due to in-plane arrangement of amorphous flakes, the decreased Nd leads to significantly enhanced permeability for the amorphous-membrane-filler composites, based on the Maxwell-Garret mixing law.

Automatic brain caudate nuclei segmentation and classification in diagnostic of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

PubMed

Igual, Laura; Soliva, Joan Carles; Escalera, Sergio; Gimeno, Roger; Vilarroya, Oscar; Radeva, Petia

2012-12-01

We present a fully automatic diagnostic imaging test for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder diagnosis assistance based on previously found evidences of caudate nucleus volumetric abnormalities. The proposed method consists of different steps: a new automatic method for external and internal segmentation of caudate based on Machine Learning methodologies; the definition of a set of new volume relation features, 3D Dissociated Dipoles, used for caudate representation and classification. We separately validate the contributions using real data from a pediatric population and show precise internal caudate segmentation and discrimination power of the diagnostic test, showing significant performance improvements in comparison to other state-of-the-art methods. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Temporary Thermocouple Attachment for Thermal/Vacuum Testing at Non-Extreme Temperatures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ungar, Eugene K.; Wright, Sarah E.

2016-01-01

Post-test examination and data analysis that followed a two week long vacuum test showed that numerous self-stick thermocouples became detached from the test article. The thermocouples were reattached with thermally conductive epoxy and the test was repeated to obtain the required data. Because the thermocouple detachment resulted in significant expense and rework, it was decided to investigate the temporary attachment methods used around NASA and to perform a test to assess their efficacy. The present work describes the original test and the analysis that showed that the thermocouples had become detached, temporary thermocouple attachment methods assessed in the retest and in the thermocouple attachment test, and makes a recommendation for attachment methods for future tests.

Community level patterns in diverse systems: A case study of litter fauna in a Mexican pine-oak forest using higher taxa surrogates and re-sampling methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moreno, Claudia E.; Guevara, Roger; Sánchez-Rojas, Gerardo; Téllez, Dianeis; Verdú, José R.

2008-01-01

Environmental assessment at the community level in highly diverse ecosystems is limited by taxonomic constraints and statistical methods requiring true replicates. Our objective was to show how diverse systems can be studied at the community level using higher taxa as biodiversity surrogates, and re-sampling methods to allow comparisons. To illustrate this we compared the abundance, richness, evenness and diversity of the litter fauna in a pine-oak forest in central Mexico among seasons, sites and collecting methods. We also assessed changes in the abundance of trophic guilds and evaluated the relationships between community parameters and litter attributes. With the direct search method we observed differences in the rate of taxa accumulation between sites. Bootstrap analysis showed that abundance varied significantly between seasons and sampling methods, but not between sites. In contrast, diversity and evenness were significantly higher at the managed than at the non-managed site. Tree regression models show that abundance varied mainly between seasons, whereas taxa richness was affected by litter attributes (composition and moisture content). The abundance of trophic guilds varied among methods and seasons, but overall we found that parasitoids, predators and detrivores decreased under management. Therefore, although our results suggest that management has positive effects on the richness and diversity of litter fauna, the analysis of trophic guilds revealed a contrasting story. Our results indicate that functional groups and re-sampling methods may be used as tools for describing community patterns in highly diverse systems. Also, the higher taxa surrogacy could be seen as a preliminary approach when it is not possible to identify the specimens at a low taxonomic level in a reasonable period of time and in a context of limited financial resources, but further studies are needed to test whether the results are specific to a system or whether they are general with regards to land management.

Evaluation of bilirubin interference and accuracy of six creatinine assays compared with isotope dilution-liquid chromatography mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Nah, Hyunjin; Lee, Sang-Guk; Lee, Kyeong-Seob; Won, Jae-Hee; Kim, Hyun Ok; Kim, Jeong-Ho

2016-02-01

The aim of this study was to estimate bilirubin interference and accuracy of six routine methods for measuring creatinine compared with isotope dilution-liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (ID-LC/MS). A total of 40 clinical serum samples from 31 patients with serum total bilirubin concentration >68.4μmol/L were collected. Serum creatinine was measured using two enzymatic reagents and four Jaffe reagents as well as ID-LC/MS. Correlations between bilirubin concentration and percent difference in creatinine compared with ID-LC/MS were analyzed to investigate bilirubin interference. Bias estimations between the six reagents and ID-LC/MS were performed. Recovery tests using National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Standard Reference Material (SRM) 967a were also performed. Both the enzymatic methods showed no bilirubin interference. However, three of the four Jaffe methods demonstrated significant bilirubin concentration-dependent interference in samples with creatinine levels <53μmol/L, and two of them showed significant bilirubin interference in samples with creatinine levels ranging from 53.0 to 97.2μmol/L. Comparison of these methods with ID-LC/MS using patients' samples with elevated bilirubin revealed that the tested methods failed to achieve the bias goal at especially low levels of creatinine. In addition, recovery test using NIST SRM 967a showed that bias in one Jaffe method and two enzymatic methods did not achieve the bias goal at either low or high level of creatinine, indicating they had calibration bias. One enzymatic method failed to achieve all the bias goals in both comparison experiment and recovery test. It is important to understand that both bilirubin interference and calibration traceability to ID-LC/MS should be considered to improve the accuracy of creatinine measurement. Copyright © 2015 The Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Method for computing energy release rate using the elastic work factor approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rhee, K. Y.; Ernst, H. A.

1992-01-01

The elastic work factor eta(el) concept was applied to composite structures for the calculation of total energy release rate by using a single specimen. Cracked lap shear specimens with four different unidirectional fiber orientation were used to examine the dependence of eta(el) on the material properties. Also, three different thickness ratios (lap/strap) were used to determine how geometric conditions affect eta(el). The eta(el) values were calculated in two different ways: compliance method and crack closure method. The results show that the two methods produce comparable eta(el) values and, while eta(el) is affected significantly by geometric conditions, it is reasonably independent of material properties for the given geometry. The results also showed that the elastic work factor can be used to calculate total energy release rate using a single specimen.

Optimization of the Agar-gel Method for Isolation of Migrating Ascaris suum Larvae From the Liver and Lungs of Pigs

PubMed Central

Saeed, I; Roepstorff, A; Rasmussen, T; Høg, M; Jungersen, G

2001-01-01

Experiments on use of an agar-gel method for recovery of migrating Ascaris suum larvae from the liver and lungs of pigs were conducted to obtain fast standardized methods. Subsamples of blended tissues of pig liver and lungs were mixed with agar to a final concentration of 1% agar and the larvae allowed to migrate out of the agar-gel into 0.9% NaCl at 38°C. The results showed that within 3 h more than 88% of the recoverable larvae migrated out of the liver agar-gel and more than 83% of the obtained larvae migrated out of the lung agar-gel. The larvae were subsequently available in a very clean suspension which reduced the sample counting time. Blending the liver for 60 sec in a commercial blender showed significantly higher larvae recovery than blending for 30 sec. Addition of gentamycin to reduce bacterial growth during incubation, glucose to increase larval motility during migration or ice to increase sedimentation of migrated larvae did not influence larvae recovery significantly. PMID:11503373

Antioxidant Peptides Identified from Ovotransferrin by the ORAC Method Did Not Show Anti-Inflammatory and Antioxidant Activities in Endothelial Cells.

PubMed

Jahandideh, Forough; Chakrabarti, Subhadeep; Davidge, Sandra T; Wu, Jianping

2016-01-13

Oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) is a widely used method of measuring antioxidant capacities of various antioxidant components. Surprisingly, 16 antioxidant peptides previously identified from egg protein ovotransferrin using the ORAC method did not show any anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities in cells. After simulated gastro-intestinal digestion (GID), several peptide digests significantly reduced the expression of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)-induced pro-inflammatory intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) by 65.7 ± 10.4% and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) by 53.5 ± 9.6% to 61.0 ± 14.5%, but only GWNI reduced TNF-α-activated superoxide generation by 71.0 ± 12.9% when tested with dihydroethidium (DHE) assay. Mass spectrometer analysis identified two new peptides, GWN and GW, in the GWNI digest; however, only GW reduced TNF-α-induced VCAM-1 expression (64.3 ± 20.6%) significantly compared to the TNF-α treated cells. Our study suggested that ORAC lacked biological relevance in assessing bioactive peptides.

Partitioning of monomethylmercury between freshwater algae and water.

PubMed

Miles, C J; Moye, H A; Phlips, E J; Sargent, B

2001-11-01

Phytoplankton-water monomethylmercury (MeHg) partition constants (KpI) have been determined in the laboratory for two green algae Selenastrum capricornutum and Cosmarium botrytis, the blue-green algae Schizothrix calcicola, and the diatom Thallasiosira spp., algal species that are commonly found in natural surface waters. Two methods were used to determine KpI, the Freundlich isotherm method and the flow-through/dialysis bag method. Both methods yielded KpI values of about 10(6.6) for S. capricornutum and were not significantly different. The KpI for the four algae studied were similar except for Schizothrix, which was significantly lower than S. capricornutum. The KpI for MeHg and S. capricornutum (exponential growth) was not significantly different in systems with predominantly MeHgOH or MeHgCl species. This is consistent with other studies that show metal speciation controls uptake kinetics, but the reactivity with intracellular components controls steady-state concentrations. Partitioning constants determined with exponential and stationary phase S. capricornutum cells at the same conditions were not significantly different, while the partitioning constant for exponential phase, phosphorus-limited cells was significantly lower, suggesting that P-limitation alters the ecophysiology of S. capricornutum sufficiently to impact partitioning, which may then ultimately affect mercury levels in higher trophic species.

Highly Effective DNA Extraction Method for Nuclear Short Tandem Repeat Testing of Skeletal Remains from Mass Graves

PubMed Central

Davoren, Jon; Vanek, Daniel; Konjhodzić, Rijad; Crews, John; Huffine, Edwin; Parsons, Thomas J.

2007-01-01

Aim To quantitatively compare a silica extraction method with a commonly used phenol/chloroform extraction method for DNA analysis of specimens exhumed from mass graves. Methods DNA was extracted from twenty randomly chosen femur samples, using the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) silica method, based on Qiagen Blood Maxi Kit, and compared with the DNA extracted by the standard phenol/chloroform-based method. The efficacy of extraction methods was compared by real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to measure DNA quantity and the presence of inhibitors and by amplification with the PowerPlex 16 (PP16) multiplex nuclear short tandem repeat (STR) kit. Results DNA quantification results showed that the silica-based method extracted on average 1.94 ng of DNA per gram of bone (range 0.25-9.58 ng/g), compared with only 0.68 ng/g by the organic method extracted (range 0.0016-4.4880 ng/g). Inhibition tests showed that there were on average significantly lower levels of PCR inhibitors in DNA isolated by the organic method. When amplified with PP16, all samples extracted by silica-based method produced 16 full loci profiles, while only 75% of the DNA extracts obtained by organic technique amplified 16 loci profiles. Conclusions The silica-based extraction method showed better results in nuclear STR typing from degraded bone samples than a commonly used phenol/chloroform method. PMID:17696302

Stimulated pressure profile at rest: a noninvasive method for assessing urethral sphincter function.

PubMed

Meyer, S; Kuntzer, T; De Grandi, P; Bachelard, O; Schreyer, A

1998-10-01

To validate a method for assessing urethral sphincter muscle function by recording rises in intraurethral pressure during repetitive pudendal nerve stimulations. A supine urethral pressure profile at rest was performed on 12 stress-continent and 28 stress-incontinent patients during repetitive pudendal nerve stimulations applied near the ischial spine, and the intraurethral pressure increases were calculated for each third of the urethral functional length. No significant difference in intraurethral pressure increases was seen between continent and stress-incontinent women. On the various regression curves, the intraurethral pressure increases showed a significant correlation with maximal urethral closure pressure values at rest and at stress (r = 0.36 to 0.54) and with the patient's age (r = 0.46), but not with pudendal nerve conduction times to the urethral sphincter on either side (r = 0.14 and 0.19). This method (1) measures intraurethral pressure increases that correlate well with the anatomic location of the urethral sphincter muscle, (2) shows there is no significant difference between them in continent and stress-incontinent patients, except in patients with a low-pressure urethra, and (3) demonstrates that they correlate well with the maximal urethral closure pressure and the patient's age, but not with pudendal motor latencies to the urethral sphincter. This method gives us a mapping of the urethral sphincter activity, explaining why some patients with a low-pressure urethra have less urinary loss than others with the same urethral closure pressure.

Evaluation of Techniques for Measuring Microbial Hazards in Bathing Waters: A Comparative Study

PubMed Central

Schang, Christelle; Henry, Rebekah; Kolotelo, Peter A.; Prosser, Toby; Crosbie, Nick; Grant, Trish; Cottam, Darren; O’Brien, Peter; Coutts, Scott; Deletic, Ana; McCarthy, David T.

2016-01-01

Recreational water quality is commonly monitored by means of culture based faecal indicator organism (FIOs) assays. However, these methods are costly and time-consuming; a serious disadvantage when combined with issues such as non-specificity and user bias. New culture and molecular methods have been developed to counter these drawbacks. This study compared industry-standard IDEXX methods (Colilert and Enterolert) with three alternative approaches: 1) TECTA™ system for E. coli and enterococci; 2) US EPA’s 1611 method (qPCR based enterococci enumeration); and 3) Next Generation Sequencing (NGS). Water samples (233) were collected from riverine, estuarine and marine environments over the 2014–2015 summer period and analysed by the four methods. The results demonstrated that E. coli and coliform densities, inferred by the IDEXX system, correlated strongly with the TECTA™ system. The TECTA™ system had further advantages in faster turnaround times (~12 hrs from sample receipt to result compared to 24 hrs); no staff time required for interpretation and less user bias (results are automatically calculated, compared to subjective colorimetric decisions). The US EPA Method 1611 qPCR method also showed significant correlation with the IDEXX enterococci method; but had significant disadvantages such as highly technical analysis and higher operational costs (330% of IDEXX). The NGS method demonstrated statistically significant correlations between IDEXX and the proportions of sequences belonging to FIOs, Enterobacteriaceae, and Enterococcaceae. While costs (3,000% of IDEXX) and analysis time (300% of IDEXX) were found to be significant drawbacks of NGS, rapid technological advances in this field will soon see it widely adopted. PMID:27213772

Effect of different cooking methods on minerals, vitamins and nutritional quality indices of kutum roach (Rutilus frisii kutum).

PubMed

Hosseini, Hedayat; Mahmoudzadeh, Maryam; Rezaei, Masoud; Mahmoudzadeh, Leila; Khaksar, Ramin; Khosroshahi, Nader Karimian; Babakhani, Aria

2014-04-01

In this study, the influence of four cooking methods (baking, boiling, microwaving and frying) was evaluated on the nutritional value of kutum roach. Proximate, fatty acid composition, vitamin and mineral contents and also nutritional quality indices (NQI) of kutum roach were investigated before and after cooking treatment. All treated samples showed increase in protein, ash and lipid contents and decrease in the content of total omega-3 fatty acids (n-3) in comparison to raw fish fillets (control group). Cooking methods had no significant effect on omega-6 fatty acids (n-6) except for frying that increased it. Nonetheless, all of the cooking methods reduced vitamin B1, A and D contents. Boiling significantly decreased mineral contents including Na, K, P and Zn. Considering the overall nutritional quality indices, vitamin and mineral contents, baking is the best cooking method among other applied methods. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Physical exercises for breast cancer survivors: effects of 10 weeks of training on upper limb circumferences

PubMed Central

Di Blasio, Andrea; Morano, Teresa; Bucci, Ines; Di Santo, Serena; D’Arielli, Alberto; Castro, Cristina Gonzalez; Cugusi, Lucia; Cianchetti, Ettore; Napolitano, Giorgio

2016-01-01

[Purpose] The aims of this study were to verify the effects on upper limb circumferences and total body extracellular water of 10 weeks of Nordic Walking (NW) and Walking (W), both alone and combined with a series of exercises created for breast cancer survivors, the ISA method. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty breast cancer survivors were randomly assigned to 4 different training groups and evaluated for upper limb circumferences, total body and extracellular water. [Results] The breast cancer survivors who performed NW, alone and combined with the ISA method, and Walking combined with the ISA method (but not alone) showed significantly reduced arm and forearm circumferences homolateral to the surgical intervention. [Conclusion] For breast cancer survivors, NW, alone and combined with the ISA method, and Walking combined with the ISA method should be prescribed to prevent the onset and to treat light forms of upper limb lymphedema because Walking training practiced alone had no significant effect on upper limb circumference reduction. PMID:27821934

Multiple autoclave cycle effects on cyclic fatigue of nickel-titanium rotary files produced by new manufacturing methods.

PubMed

Hilfer, Paul B; Bergeron, Brian E; Mayerchak, Michael J; Roberts, Howard W; Jeansonne, Billie G

2011-01-01

Novel nickel-titanium rotary files with proprietary manufacturing techniques have recently been marketed. The purpose of this study was to assess multiple autoclave cycle effects on cyclic fatigue of GT Series X files (Dentsply Tulsa Dental Specialties, Tulsa, OK) and Twisted Files (SybronEndo, Orange, CA) METHODS: A jig using a 5-mm radius curve with 90° of maximum file flexure was used to induce cyclic fatigue failure. Files (n = 10) representing each experimental group (GT Series X 20/.04 and 20/.06; Twisted Files 25/.04 and 25/.06) were first tested to establish baseline mean cycles to failure (MCF). Experimental groups (n = 20) were then cycled to 25% of the established baseline MCF and then autoclaved. Additional autoclaving was accomplished at 50% and 75% of MCF followed by continual testing until failure. Control groups (n = 20) underwent the same procedures except autoclaving was not accomplished. The GT Series X (20/.04 and 20/.06) files showed no significant difference (p = 0.918/p = 0.096) in MCF for experimental versus control files. Twisted Files (25/.04) showed no significant difference (p = 0.432) in MCF between experimental and control groups. However, the Twisted Files (25/.06) experimental group showed a significantly lower (p = 0.0175) MCF compared with the controls. Under the conditions of this evaluation, autoclave sterilization significantly decreased cyclic fatigue resistance of one of the four file groups tested. Repeated autoclaving significantly reduced the MCF of 25/.06 Twisted Files; however, 25/.04 Twisted Files and both GT Series X files tested were not significantly affected by the same conditions. Published by Elsevier Inc.

The relationship between emotional intelligence with administrators’ performance at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences

PubMed Central

Sadeghi, Tooraj; Saeidi, Masumeh; Moghaddam, Habibolah Taghizade; Ghodsi, Mohammad Jafari; Hoseini, Rasoul

2018-01-01

Background The leadership of an organization requires specific features to adapt to changes and to survive and grow in new environments, and emotional intelligence is one of the most important attributes that can help leaders and managers respond to these changes. Objective This study aimed to determine the relationship between emotional intelligence with administrators’ performance at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 basic and middle managers of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran who were selected by census method in 2016. The instrument of data collecting was the “Inventory Shrinkage”, and the “Organizational performance evaluation forms”. The data were analyzed by SPSS version 16 using descriptive statistics and Spearman correlation. Results The results showed there was a significant negative correlation between emotional intelligence and organizational performance in administrators (r=−0.214, p=0.032). The findings also showed that among the components of emotional intelligence and administrators’ performance, only components of empathy, was there a significant negative correlation (r=−0.199, p=0.047). Also, there was no statistically significant relationship between emotional intelligence and demographic variables such as work experience, age, marital status and education level (p>0.05). There was no significant relationship between organizational performance and demographic variables, either (p>0.05). But between the components of emotional intelligence, only for social skills and work place of administrators, a significant positive correlation was confirmed (r=0.203, p=0.043). Conclusions The results of this study showed that there was a negative and significant correlation between the components of emotional intelligence and administrators’ performance of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences administrators, only in the empathy component. PMID:29765573

Adaptation of an urban land surface model to a tropical suburban area: Offline evaluation, sensitivity analysis, and optimization of TEB/ISBA (SURFEX)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harshan, Suraj

The main objective of the present thesis is the improvement of the TEB/ISBA (SURFEX) urban land surface model (ULSM) through comprehensive evaluation, sensitivity analysis, and optimization experiments using energy balance and radiative and air temperature data observed during 11 months at a tropical sub-urban site in Singapore. Overall the performance of the model is satisfactory, with a small underestimation of net radiation and an overestimation of sensible heat flux. Weaknesses in predicting the latent heat flux are apparent with smaller model values during daytime and the model also significantly underpredicts both the daytime peak and nighttime storage heat. Surface temperatures of all facets are generally overpredicted. Significant variation exists in the model behaviour between dry and wet seasons. The vegetation parametrization used in the model is inadequate to represent the moisture dynamics, producing unrealistically low latent heat fluxes during a particularly dry period. The comprehensive evaluation of the USLM shows the need for accurate estimation of input parameter values for present site. Since obtaining many of these parameters through empirical methods is not feasible, the present study employed a two step approach aimed at providing information about the most sensitive parameters and an optimized parameter set from model calibration. Two well established sensitivity analysis methods (global: Sobol and local: Morris) and a state-of-the-art multiobjective evolutionary algorithm (Borg) were employed for sensitivity analysis and parameter estimation. Experiments were carried out for three different weather periods. The analysis indicates that roof related parameters are the most important ones in controlling the behaviour of the sensible heat flux and net radiation flux, with roof and road albedo as the most influential parameters. Soil moisture initialization parameters are important in controlling the latent heat flux. The built (town) fraction has a significant influence on all fluxes considered. Comparison between the Sobol and Morris methods shows similar sensitivities, indicating the robustness of the present analysis and that the Morris method can be employed as a computationally cheaper alternative of Sobol's method. Optimization as well as the sensitivity experiments for the three periods (dry, wet and mixed), show a noticeable difference in parameter sensitivity and parameter convergence, indicating inadequacies in model formulation. Existence of a significant proportion of less sensitive parameters might be indicating an over-parametrized model. Borg MOEA showed great promise in optimizing the input parameters set. The optimized model modified using the site specific values for thermal roughness length parametrization shows an improvement in the performances of outgoing longwave radiation flux, overall surface temperature, heat storage flux and sensible heat flux.

Trends in incidence of lung cancer in Croatia from 2001 to 2013: gender and regional differences

PubMed Central

Siroglavić, Katarina-Josipa; Polić Vižintin, Marina; Tripković, Ingrid; Šekerija, Mario; Kukulj, Suzana

2017-01-01

Aim To provide an overview of the lung cancer incidence trends in the City of Zagreb (Zagreb), Split-Dalmatia County (SDC), and Croatia in the period from 2001 to 2013. Method Incidence data were obtained from the Croatian National Cancer Registry. For calculating incidence rates per 100 000 population, we used population estimates for the period 2001-2013 from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics. Age-standardized rates of lung cancer incidence were calculated by the direct standardization method using the European Standard Population. To describe incidence trends, we used joinpoint regression analysis. Results Joinpoint analysis showed a statistically significant decrease in lung cancer incidence in men in all regions, with an annual percentage change (APC) of -2.2% for Croatia, 1.9% for Zagreb, and -2.0% for SDC. In women, joinpoint analysis showed a statistically significant increase in the incidence for Croatia, with APC of 1.4%, a statistically significant increase of 1.0% for Zagreb, and no significant change in trend for SDC. In both genders, joinpoint analysis showed a significant decrease in age-standardized incidence rates of lung cancer, with APC of -1.3% for Croatia, -1.1% for Zagreb, and -1.6% for SDC. Conclusion There was an increase in female lung cancer incidence rate and a decrease in male lung cancer incidence rate in Croatia in 2001-20013 period, with similar patterns observed in all the investigated regions. These results highlight the importance of smoking prevention and cessation policies, especially among women and young people. PMID:29094814

A Pilot Study on the Potential Use of Tomatis Method to Improve L2 Reading Fluency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chou, Peter Tze-Ming

2012-01-01

This was a pilot study that used the Tomatis Method to see the effects it had on L2 reading fluency in a group of Taiwanese learners. Eight volunteers participated in this study undertaking 40-hours of before-and-after-experimental treatments. The results from the analysis showed that the participants had significant improvements in the areas of…

Ethanol production from lignocellulose

DOEpatents

Ingram, Lonnie O.; Wood, Brent E.

2001-01-01

This invention presents a method of improving enzymatic degradation of lignocellulose, as in the production of ethanol from lignocellulosic material, through the use of ultrasonic treatment. The invention shows that ultrasonic treatment reduces cellulase requirements by 1/3 to 1/2. With the cost of enzymes being a major problem in the cost-effective production of ethanol from lignocellulosic material, this invention presents a significant improvement over presently available methods.

Curcuminoid content of Curcuma longa L. and Curcuma xanthorrhiza rhizome based on drying method with NMR and HPLC-UVD

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hadi, S.; Artanti, A. N.; Rinanto, Y.; Wahyuni, D. S. C.

2018-04-01

Curcuminoid, consisting of curcumin, demethoxycurcumin and bis demethoxycurcumin, is the major compound in Curcuma longa L. and Curcuma xanthorrhiza rhizome. It has been known to have a potent antioxidants, anticancer, antibacteria activity. Those rhizomes needs to be dried beforehand which influenced the active compounds concentration. The present work was conducted to assess the curcuminoid content of C. longa L. and C. xanthorrhiza based on drying method with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)-UVD. Samples were collected and dried using freeze-drying and oven method. The latter is the common method applied in most drying method at herbal medicine preparation procedure. All samples were extracted using 96% ethanol and analyzed using NMR and HPLC-UVD. Curcuminoid as a bioactive compound in the sample exhibited no significant difference and weak significant difference in C. xanthorrhiza and C. longa L., respectively. HLPC-UVD as a reliable analytical method for the quantification is subsequently used to confirm of the data obtained by NMR. It resulted that curcuminoid content showed no significant difference in both samples. This replied that curcuminoids content in both samples were stable into heating process. These results are useful information for simplicia standardization method in pharmaceutical products regarding to preparation procedure.

Influence of material uncertainties on the RLC parameters of wound inductors modeled using the finite element method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lossa, Geoffrey; Deblecker, Olivier; Grève, Zacharie De

2018-05-01

In this work, we highlight the influence of the material uncertainties (magnetic permeability, electric conductivity of a Mn-Zn ferrite core, and electric permittivity of wire insulation) on the RLC parameters of a wound inductor extracted from the finite element method. To that end, the finite element method is embedded in a Monte Carlo simulation. We show that considering mentioned different material properties as real random variables, leads to significant variations in the distributions of the RLC parameters.

Combining Structural Modeling with Ensemble Machine Learning to Accurately Predict Protein Fold Stability and Binding Affinity Effects upon Mutation

PubMed Central

Garcia Lopez, Sebastian; Kim, Philip M.

2014-01-01

Advances in sequencing have led to a rapid accumulation of mutations, some of which are associated with diseases. However, to draw mechanistic conclusions, a biochemical understanding of these mutations is necessary. For coding mutations, accurate prediction of significant changes in either the stability of proteins or their affinity to their binding partners is required. Traditional methods have used semi-empirical force fields, while newer methods employ machine learning of sequence and structural features. Here, we show how combining both of these approaches leads to a marked boost in accuracy. We introduce ELASPIC, a novel ensemble machine learning approach that is able to predict stability effects upon mutation in both, domain cores and domain-domain interfaces. We combine semi-empirical energy terms, sequence conservation, and a wide variety of molecular details with a Stochastic Gradient Boosting of Decision Trees (SGB-DT) algorithm. The accuracy of our predictions surpasses existing methods by a considerable margin, achieving correlation coefficients of 0.77 for stability, and 0.75 for affinity predictions. Notably, we integrated homology modeling to enable proteome-wide prediction and show that accurate prediction on modeled structures is possible. Lastly, ELASPIC showed significant differences between various types of disease-associated mutations, as well as between disease and common neutral mutations. Unlike pure sequence-based prediction methods that try to predict phenotypic effects of mutations, our predictions unravel the molecular details governing the protein instability, and help us better understand the molecular causes of diseases. PMID:25243403

A comparison of tumour size measurements with palpation, ultrasound and mammography in male breast cancer: first results of the prospective register study.

PubMed

Streng, Martin; Ignatov, Atanas; Reinisch, Mattea; Costa, Serban-Dan; Eggemann, Holm

2018-02-01

Precise presurgical diagnosis of tumour size is essential for adequate treatment of male breast cancer (MBC). This study is aimed to compare the accuracy of clinical measurement (CE), ultrasound (US) and mammography (MG) for preoperative estimation of tumour size. This study was conducted as a prospective, multicentre register study. One hundred and twenty-nine male patients with invasive breast cancer were included. CE, US and MG were performed in 107, 110 and 75 patients, respectively, and the estimated tumour size was compared with the histopathological (HP) tumour size. All methods tended to underestimate the HP tumour size. None of the methods were significantly more accurate than the others in determining the maximal tumour diameter. The sensitivity within 5 mm tolerance for US was 65.5%, which was better than for MG (61.3%) and CE (56.6%). In the group of patients with pT2 tumours, MG showed significantly better accuracy than US. The measurements obtained with each method were significantly correlated with the HP measurements. The highest correlation coefficient was observed for MG (0.788), followed by US (0.741) and CE (0.671). Our data demonstrate that MG and US have similar accuracy with regard to tumour size estimation. US assessment showed the highest sensitivity in determining tumour size, followed by MG and CE. However, MG demonstrated a significant advantage for estimating the real tumour size for pT2 tumours compared to US or CE.

The addition of albumin improves Schwann cells viability in nerve cryopreservation.

PubMed

González Porto, Sara Alicia; Domenech, Nieves; González Rodríguez, Alba; Avellaneda Oviedo, Edgar Mauricio; Blanco, Francisco J; Arufe Gonda, María C; Álvarez Jorge, Ángel; Sánchez Ibañez, Jacinto; Rendal Vázquez, Esther

2018-04-26

The purpose of the current study was to establish a valid protocol for nerve cryopreservation, and to evaluate if the addition of albumin supposed any advantage in the procedure. We compared a traditional cryopreservation method that uses dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) as cryoprotectant, to an alternative method that uses DMSO and albumin. Six Wistar Lewis rats were used to obtain twelve 20 mm fragments of sciatic nerve. In the first group, six fragments were cryopreserved in 199 media with 10% DMSO, with a temperature decreasing rate of 1 °C per minute. In the second group, six fragments were cryopreserved adding 4% human albumin. The unfreezing process consisted of sequential washings with saline in the first group, and saline and 20% albumin in the second group at 37 °C until the crioprotectant was removed. Structural evaluation was performed through histological analysis and electronic microscopy. The viability was assessed with the calcein-AM (CAM) and 4',6-diamino-2-fenilindol (DAPI) staining. Histological results showed a correct preservation of peripheral nerve architecture and no significant differences were found between the two groups. However, Schwann cells viability showed in the CAM-DAPI staining was significantly superior in the albumin group. The viability of Schwann cells was significantly increased when albumin was added to the nerve cryopreservation protocol. However, no significant structural differences were found between groups. Further studies need to be performed to assess the cryopreserved nerve functionality using this new method.

Iris pigmentation as a quantitative trait: variation in populations of European, East Asian and South Asian ancestry and association with candidate gene polymorphisms.

PubMed

Edwards, Melissa; Cha, David; Krithika, S; Johnson, Monique; Cook, Gillian; Parra, Esteban J

2016-03-01

In this study, we present a new quantitative method to measure iris colour based on high-resolution photographs. We applied this method to analyse iris colour variation in a sample of individuals of East Asian, European and South Asian ancestry. We show that measuring iris colour using the coordinates of the CIELAB colour space uncovers a significant amount of variation that is not captured using conventional categorical classifications, such as 'brown', 'blue' or 'green'. We tested the association of a selected panel of polymorphisms with iris colour in each population group. Six markers showed significant associations with iris colour in the European sample, three in the South Asian sample and two in the East Asian sample. We also observed that the marker HERC2 rs12913832, which is the main determinant of 'blue' versus 'brown' iris colour in European populations, is also significantly associated with central heterochromia in the European sample. © 2015 The Authors. Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Dictionary Pruning with Visual Word Significance for Medical Image Retrieval

PubMed Central

Zhang, Fan; Song, Yang; Cai, Weidong; Hauptmann, Alexander G.; Liu, Sidong; Pujol, Sonia; Kikinis, Ron; Fulham, Michael J; Feng, David Dagan; Chen, Mei

2016-01-01

Content-based medical image retrieval (CBMIR) is an active research area for disease diagnosis and treatment but it can be problematic given the small visual variations between anatomical structures. We propose a retrieval method based on a bag-of-visual-words (BoVW) to identify discriminative characteristics between different medical images with Pruned Dictionary based on Latent Semantic Topic description. We refer to this as the PD-LST retrieval. Our method has two main components. First, we calculate a topic-word significance value for each visual word given a certain latent topic to evaluate how the word is connected to this latent topic. The latent topics are learnt, based on the relationship between the images and words, and are employed to bridge the gap between low-level visual features and high-level semantics. These latent topics describe the images and words semantically and can thus facilitate more meaningful comparisons between the words. Second, we compute an overall-word significance value to evaluate the significance of a visual word within the entire dictionary. We designed an iterative ranking method to measure overall-word significance by considering the relationship between all latent topics and words. The words with higher values are considered meaningful with more significant discriminative power in differentiating medical images. We evaluated our method on two public medical imaging datasets and it showed improved retrieval accuracy and efficiency. PMID:27688597

Dictionary Pruning with Visual Word Significance for Medical Image Retrieval.

PubMed

Zhang, Fan; Song, Yang; Cai, Weidong; Hauptmann, Alexander G; Liu, Sidong; Pujol, Sonia; Kikinis, Ron; Fulham, Michael J; Feng, David Dagan; Chen, Mei

2016-02-12

Content-based medical image retrieval (CBMIR) is an active research area for disease diagnosis and treatment but it can be problematic given the small visual variations between anatomical structures. We propose a retrieval method based on a bag-of-visual-words (BoVW) to identify discriminative characteristics between different medical images with Pruned Dictionary based on Latent Semantic Topic description. We refer to this as the PD-LST retrieval. Our method has two main components. First, we calculate a topic-word significance value for each visual word given a certain latent topic to evaluate how the word is connected to this latent topic. The latent topics are learnt, based on the relationship between the images and words, and are employed to bridge the gap between low-level visual features and high-level semantics. These latent topics describe the images and words semantically and can thus facilitate more meaningful comparisons between the words. Second, we compute an overall-word significance value to evaluate the significance of a visual word within the entire dictionary. We designed an iterative ranking method to measure overall-word significance by considering the relationship between all latent topics and words. The words with higher values are considered meaningful with more significant discriminative power in differentiating medical images. We evaluated our method on two public medical imaging datasets and it showed improved retrieval accuracy and efficiency.

Comparison of immunomagnetic separation/adenosine triphosphate rapid method to traditional culture-based method for E. coli and enterococci enumeration in wastewater

USGS Publications Warehouse

Bushon, R.N.; Likirdopulos, C.A.; Brady, A.M.G.

2009-01-01

Untreated wastewater samples from California, North Carolina, and Ohio were analyzed by the immunomagnetic separation/adenosine triphosphate (IMS/ATP) method and the traditional culture-based method for E. coli and enterococci concentrations. The IMS/ATP method concentrates target bacteria by immunomagnetic separation and then quantifies captured bacteria by measuring bioluminescence induced by release of ATP from the bacterial cells. Results from this method are available within 1 h from the start of sample processing. Significant linear correlations were found between the IMS/ATP results and results from traditional culture-based methods for E. coli and enterococci enumeration for one location in California, two locations in North Carolina, and one location in Ohio (r??values ranged from 0.87 to 0.97). No significant linear relation was found for a second location in California that treats a complex mixture of residential and industrial wastewater. With the exception of one location, IMS/ATP showed promise as a rapid method for the quantification of faecal-indicator organisms in wastewater.

Comparison of Hi-C results using in-solution versus in-nucleus ligation.

PubMed

Nagano, Takashi; Várnai, Csilla; Schoenfelder, Stefan; Javierre, Biola-Maria; Wingett, Steven W; Fraser, Peter

2015-08-26

Chromosome conformation capture and various derivative methods such as 4C, 5C and Hi-C have emerged as standard tools to analyze the three-dimensional organization of the genome in the nucleus. These methods employ ligation of diluted cross-linked chromatin complexes, intended to favor proximity-dependent, intra-complex ligation. During development of single-cell Hi-C, we devised an alternative Hi-C protocol with ligation in preserved nuclei rather than in solution. Here we directly compare Hi-C methods employing in-nucleus ligation with the standard in-solution ligation. We show in-nucleus ligation results in consistently lower levels of inter-chromosomal contacts. Through chromatin mixing experiments we show that a significantly large fraction of inter-chromosomal contacts are the result of spurious ligation events formed during in-solution ligation. In-nucleus ligation significantly reduces this source of experimental noise, and results in improved reproducibility between replicates. We also find that in-nucleus ligation eliminates restriction fragment length bias found with in-solution ligation. These improvements result in greater reproducibility of long-range intra-chromosomal and inter-chromosomal contacts, as well as enhanced detection of structural features such as topologically associated domain boundaries. We conclude that in-nucleus ligation captures chromatin interactions more consistently over a wider range of distances, and significantly reduces both experimental noise and bias. In-nucleus ligation creates higher quality Hi-C libraries while simplifying the experimental procedure. We suggest that the entire range of 3C applications are likely to show similar benefits from in-nucleus ligation.

Longitudinal development of prefrontal function during early childhood.

PubMed

Moriguchi, Yusuke; Hiraki, Kazuo

2011-04-01

This is a longitudinal study on development of prefrontal function in young children. Prefrontal areas have been observed to develop dramatically during early childhood. To elucidate this development, we gave children cognitive shifting tasks related to prefrontal function at 3 years of age (Time 1) and 4 years of age (Time 2). We then monitored developmental changes in behavioral performance and examined prefrontal activation using near infrared spectroscopy. We found that children showed better behavioral performance and significantly stronger inferior prefrontal activation at Time 2 than they did at Time 1. Moreover, we demonstrated individual differences in prefrontal activation for the same behavioral tasks. Children who performed better in tasks at Time 1 showed significant activation of the right inferior prefrontal regions at Time 1 and significant activation of the bilateral inferior prefrontal regions at Time 2. Children who showed poorer performance at Time 1 exhibited no significant inferior prefrontal activation at Time 1 but significant left inferior prefrontal activation at Time 2. These results indicate the importance of the longitudinal method to address the link between cognitive and neural development. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automatic variable selection method and a comparison for quantitative analysis in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duan, Fajie; Fu, Xiao; Jiang, Jiajia; Huang, Tingting; Ma, Ling; Zhang, Cong

2018-05-01

In this work, an automatic variable selection method for quantitative analysis of soil samples using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is proposed, which is based on full spectrum correction (FSC) and modified iterative predictor weighting-partial least squares (mIPW-PLS). The method features automatic selection without artificial processes. To illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the method, a comparison with genetic algorithm (GA) and successive projections algorithm (SPA) for different elements (copper, barium and chromium) detection in soil was implemented. The experimental results showed that all the three methods could accomplish variable selection effectively, among which FSC-mIPW-PLS required significantly shorter computation time (12 s approximately for 40,000 initial variables) than the others. Moreover, improved quantification models were got with variable selection approaches. The root mean square errors of prediction (RMSEP) of models utilizing the new method were 27.47 (copper), 37.15 (barium) and 39.70 (chromium) mg/kg, which showed comparable prediction effect with GA and SPA.

Innovative Instrumentation and Analysis of the Temperature Measurement for High Temperature Gasification

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Seong W. Lee

The project entitled, ''Innovative Instrumentation and Analysis of the Temperature Measurement for High Temperature Gasification'', was successfully completed by the Principal Investigator, Dr. S. Lee and his research team in the Center for Advanced Energy Systems and Environmental Control Technologies at Morgan State University. The major results and outcomes were presented in semi-annual progress reports and annual project review meetings/presentations. Specifically, the literature survey including the gasifier temperature measurement, the ultrasonic application in cleaning application, and spray coating process and the gasifier simulator (cold model) testing has been successfully conducted during the first year. The results show that four factorsmore » (blower voltage, ultrasonic application, injection time intervals, particle weight) were considered as significant factors that affect the temperature measurement. Then the gasifier simulator (hot model) design and the fabrication as well as the systematic tests on hot model were completed to test the significant factors on temperature measurement in the second year. The advanced Industrial analytic methods such as statistics-based experimental design, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression methods were applied in the hot model tests. The results show that operational parameters (i.e. air flow rate, water flow rate, fine dust particle amount, ammonia addition) presented significant impact on the temperature measurement inside the gasifier simulator. The experimental design and ANOVA are very efficient way to design and analyze the experiments. The results show that the air flow rate and fine dust particle amount are statistically significant to the temperature measurement. The regression model provided the functional relation between the temperature and these factors with substantial accuracy. In the last year of the project period, the ultrasonic and subsonic cleaning methods and coating materials were tested/applied on the thermocouple cleaning according to the proposed approach. Different frequency, application time and power of the ultrasonic/subsonic output were tested. The results show that the ultrasonic approach is one of the best methods to clean the thermocouple tips during the routine operation of the gasifier. In addition, the real time data acquisition system was also designed and applied in the experiments. This advanced instrumentation provided the efficient and accurate data acquisition for this project. In summary, the accomplishment of the project provided useful information of the ultrasonic cleaning method applied in thermocouple tip cleaning. The temperature measurement could be much improved both in accuracy and duration provided that the proposed approach is widely used in the gasification facilities.« less

Photoinduced deposition of gold nanoparticles on TiO2-WO3 nanotube films as efficient photoanodes for solar water splitting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Momeni, Mohamad Mohsen; Ghayeb, Yousef

2016-06-01

Gold-modified TiO2-WO3 nanotubes with different amounts of gold were obtained by two methods; photoassisted deposition and one-step electrochemical anodizing method. The morphology, crystallinity and elemental composition were studied by FE-SEM, XRD and EDX. The photoelectrochemical performance was examined under Xe light illumination in 1 M NaOH electrolyte. Characterization of the as-prepared TiO2-WO3 samples indicated that sodium tungstate concentration in anodizing solution significantly influenced the morphology and photoelectrochemical activity of fabricated films. Also, photoelectrochemical characterizations show that the photocatalytic activity of Au/TiO2-WO3 nanotubes was improved as compared with that of bare TiO2-WO3 nanotubes. The experimental results showed that the photocatalytic activities of Au/TiO2-WO3 were significantly affected by the amount of Au nanoparticles. The amount of gold nanoparticles was effectively controlled by time of photoreduction of the chloroauric acid solution. These new photoanodes showed enhanced high photocurrent density with good stability and are a highly promising photoanodes for photocatalytic hydrogen production.

Surface photoelectric and visible light driven photocatalytic properties of zinc antimonate-based photocatalysts

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wu, Shaojun; Li, Guoqiang; Zhang, Yang

2013-03-15

Highlights: ► N-doped and pristine ZnSb{sub 2}O{sub 6} photocatalysts were synthesized by a facile method. ► N-doped ZnSb{sub 2}O{sub 6} shows a significant enhanced visible light photocatalytic activity. ► The N-doped ZnSb{sub 2}O{sub 6} shows the reduced surface photovoltage signals. - Abstract: The N-doped and pristine ZnSb{sub 2}O{sub 6} photocatalysts were synthesized by a facile method. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–vis spectroscopy, surface photovoltage spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The photocatalytic activities of the prepared samples were evaluated from the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under full arc and visible light irradiation of Xe lamp. Themore » XRD and UV–vis results indicated that the N-doping did not change the crystal structure, but decrease the band gap in comparison with the pristine one. The N-doped ZnSb{sub 2}O{sub 6} shows the reduced surface photovoltage signals and the significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity under two irradiation conditions.« less

An in-vitro evaluation of mechanical and esthetic properties of orthodontic sealants

PubMed Central

Premaraj, Thyagaseely Sheela; Rohani, Nima; Covey, David; Premaraj, Sundaralingam; Hua, Yi; Watanabe, Hidehiko

2014-01-01

Objective: To evaluate mechanical and esthetic Properties of two commercially available orthodontic sealants: Opal®Seal (OS) and L.E.D. Pro Seal (PS). Materials and Methods: Discs of each sealant were prepared to test the following properties: Micro hardness, wear resistance and color stability. Samples were randomly selected after the wear test for SEM imaging to analyze surface morphology. Results: OS was significantly harder than PS (P < 0.001). PS was significantly more wear resistant than OS (P < 0.05). PS showed a greater ∆E*ab (increased staining) when placed in wine or coffee showing a significant difference (P < 0.05). SEM showed particle size, shape and distribution were different for PS and OS reflecting the pattern seen on wear surfaces. Conclusion: Both orthodontic sealants are beneficial for protecting enamel. However with better wear properties PS was superior in resisting mechanical stresses. OS was more color stable. PMID:25512729

Keyboard before Head Tracking Depresses User Success in Remote Camera Control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Dingyun; Gedeon, Tom; Taylor, Ken

In remote mining, operators of complex machinery have more tasks or devices to control than they have hands. For example, operating a rock breaker requires two handed joystick control to position and fire the jackhammer, leaving the camera control to either automatic control or require the operator to switch between controls. We modelled such a teleoperated setting by performing experiments using a simple physical game analogue, being a half size table soccer game with two handles. The complex camera angles of the mining application were modelled by obscuring the direct view of the play area and the use of a Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) camera. The camera control was via either a keyboard or via head tracking using two different sets of head gestures called “head motion” and “head flicking” for turning camera motion on/off. Our results show that the head motion control was able to provide a comparable performance to using a keyboard, while head flicking was significantly worse. In addition, the sequence of use of the three control methods is highly significant. It appears that use of the keyboard first depresses successful use of the head tracking methods, with significantly better results when one of the head tracking methods was used first. Analysis of the qualitative survey data collected supports that the worst (by performance) method was disliked by participants. Surprisingly, use of that worst method as the first control method significantly enhanced performance using the other two control methods.

Minimal spanning tree algorithm for γ-ray source detection in sparse photon images: cluster parameters and selection strategies

DOE PAGES

Campana, R.; Bernieri, E.; Massaro, E.; ...

2013-05-22

We present that the minimal spanning tree (MST) algorithm is a graph-theoretical cluster-finding method. We previously applied it to γ-ray bidimensional images, showing that it is quite sensitive in finding faint sources. Possible sources are associated with the regions where the photon arrival directions clusterize. MST selects clusters starting from a particular “tree” connecting all the point of the image and performing a cut based on the angular distance between photons, with a number of events higher than a given threshold. In this paper, we show how a further filtering, based on some parameters linked to the cluster properties, canmore » be applied to reduce spurious detections. We find that the most efficient parameter for this secondary selection is the magnitudeM of a cluster, defined as the product of its number of events by its clustering degree. We test the sensitivity of the method by means of simulated and real Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) fields. Our results show that √M is strongly correlated with other statistical significance parameters, derived from a wavelet based algorithm and maximum likelihood (ML) analysis, and that it can be used as a good estimator of statistical significance of MST detections. Finally, we apply the method to a 2-year LAT image at energies higher than 3 GeV, and we show the presence of new clusters, likely associated with BL Lac objects.« less

[Comparison of red edge parameters of winter wheat canopy under late frost stress].

PubMed

Wu, Yong-feng; Hu, Xin; Lü, Guo-hua; Ren, De-chao; Jiang, Wei-guo; Song, Ji-qing

2014-08-01

In the present study, late frost experiments were implemented under a range of subfreezing temperatures (-1 - -9 degrees C) by using a field movable climate chamber (FMCC) and a cold climate chamber, respectively. Based on the spectra of winter wheat canopy measured at noon on the first day after the frost experiments, red edge parameters REP, Dr, SDr, Dr(min), Dr/Dr(min) and Dr/SDr were extracted using maximum first derivative spectrum method (FD), linear four-point interpolation method (FPI), polynomial fitting method (POLY), inverted Gaussian fitting method (IG) and linear extrapolation technique (LE), respectively. The capacity of the red edge parameters to detect late frost stress was explicated from the aspects of the early, sensitivity and stability through correlation analysis, linear regression modeling and fluctuation analysis. The result indicates that except for REP calculated from FPI and IG method in Experiment 1, REP from the other methods was correlated with frost temperatures (P < 0.05). Thereinto, significant levels (P) of POLY and LE methods all reached 0.01. Except for POLY method in Experiment 2, Dr/SDr from the other methods were all significantly correlated with frost temperatures (P < 0.01). REP showed a trend to shift to short-wave band with decreasing temperatures. The lower the temperature, the more obvious the trend is. Of all the REP, REP calculated by LE method had the highest correlation with frost temperatures which indicated that LE method is the best for REP extraction. In Experiment 1 and 2, only Dr(min) and Dr/Dr(min), calculated by FD method simultaneously achieved the requirements for the early (their correlations with frost temperatures showed a significant level P < 0.01), sensitivity (abso- lute value of the slope of fluctuation coefficient is greater than 2.0) and stability (their correlations with frost temperatures al- ways keep a consistent direction). Dr/SDr calculated from FD and IG methods always had a low sensitivity in Experiment 2. In Experiment 1, the sensitivity of Dr/SDr from FD was moderate and IG was high. REP calculated from LE method had a lowest sensitivity in the two experiments. Totally, Dr(min) and Dr/Dr(min) calculated by FD method have the strongest detection capacity for frost temperature, which will be helpful to conducting the research on early diagnosis of late frost injury to winter wheat.

An individual and dynamic Body Segment Inertial Parameter validation method using ground reaction forces.

PubMed

Hansen, Clint; Venture, Gentiane; Rezzoug, Nasser; Gorce, Philippe; Isableu, Brice

2014-05-07

Over the last decades a variety of research has been conducted with the goal to improve the Body Segment Inertial Parameters (BSIP) estimations but to our knowledge a real validation has never been completely successful, because no ground truth is available. The aim of this paper is to propose a validation method for a BSIP identification method (IM) and to confirm the results by comparing them with recalculated contact forces using inverse dynamics to those obtained by a force plate. Furthermore, the results are compared with the recently proposed estimation method by Dumas et al. (2007). Additionally, the results are cross validated with a high velocity overarm throwing movement. Throughout conditions higher correlations, smaller metrics and smaller RMSE can be found for the proposed BSIP estimation (IM) which shows its advantage compared to recently proposed methods as of Dumas et al. (2007). The purpose of the paper is to validate an already proposed method and to show that this method can be of significant advantage compared to conventional methods. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Multichannel-Hadamard calibration of high-order adaptive optics systems.

PubMed

Guo, Youming; Rao, Changhui; Bao, Hua; Zhang, Ang; Zhang, Xuejun; Wei, Kai

2014-06-02

we present a novel technique of calibrating the interaction matrix for high-order adaptive optics systems, called the multichannel-Hadamard method. In this method, the deformable mirror actuators are firstly divided into a series of channels according to their coupling relationship, and then the voltage-oriented Hadamard method is applied to these channels. Taking the 595-element adaptive optics system as an example, the procedure is described in detail. The optimal channel dividing is discussed and tested by numerical simulation. The proposed method is also compared with the voltage-oriented Hadamard only method and the multichannel only method by experiments. Results show that the multichannel-Hadamard method can produce significant improvement on interaction matrix measurement.

Antidiabetic and antihyperlipidemic effects of ethanolic extract of leaves of Punica granatum in alloxan-induced non–insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus albino rats

PubMed Central

Das, Swarnamoni; Barman, Sarajita

2012-01-01

Objectives: Punica granatum L., (Family: Punicaceae) is used in Indian Unani medicine for treatment of diabetes mellitus. Therefore, the present study was done to evaluate the antidiabetic and antihyperlipidemic effects of ethanolic extract of leaves of P. granatum in alloxan-induced diabetic rats. Materials and Methods: Healthy Wistar albino rats (100-150 g) were divided into four groups of six animals each. Groups A and B received normal saline [(10 ml/kg/day/per oral (p.o.)]; group C received ethanolic extract of leaves of P. granatum (500 mg/kg/p.o.); and group D received glibenclamide (0.5 mg/kg/day/p.o.). The extracts were given for 1 week in all groups. To induce diabetes, alloxan 150 mg/kg, intraperitoneal (i.p.) single dose was administered to groups B, C, and D. Blood glucose and serum lipids [Total Cholesterol (TC), Triglycerides (TG), Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL), and High Density Lipoproteins (HDL)] and the atherogenic index were estimated after one week. For mechanism of antidiabetic action glycogen estimation on the liver, cardiac and skeletal muscle, and intestinal glucose absorption was done. Results: Group B showed a significant (P<0.01) increase in blood glucose as compared to group A. Groups C and D showed significant decrease (P<0.01) in blood glucose level in comparison to group B. The test drug showed a significant (P<0.01) increase in glycogen content in the liver, cardiac, and skeletal muscle; it significantly (P<0.01) reduced intestinal glucose absorption. Groups C and D showed significant (P<0.01) decrease in serum TC, TG, LDL, and AI as compared to Group B, which showed a significant (P<0.01) increase. Groups C and D showed significant (P<0.01) increase in serum HDL as compared to Group B, which showed a significant (P<0.01) decrease in all values. Conclusion: P. granatum leaves possess significant antidiabetic and antihyperlipidemic activity. PMID:22529479

Chemistry by Way of Density Functional Theory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bauschlicher, Charles W., Jr.; Ricca, Alessandra; Partridge, Harry; Langohff, Stephen R.; Arnold, James O. (Technical Monitor)

1996-01-01

In this work we demonstrate that density functional theory (DFT) methods make an important contribution to understanding chemical systems and are an important additional method for the computational chemist. We report calibration calculations obtained with different functionals for the 55 G2 molecules to justify our selection of the B3LYP functional. We show that accurate geometries and vibrational frequencies obtained at the B3LYP level can be combined with traditional methods to simplify the calculation of accurate heats of formation. We illustrate the application of the B3LYP approach to a variety of chemical problems from the vibrational frequencies of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to transition metal systems. We show that the B3LYP method typically performs better than the MP2 method at a significantly lower computational cost. Thus the B3LYP method allows us to extend our studies to much larger systems while maintaining a high degree of accuracy. We show that for transition metal systems, the B3LYP bond energies are typically of sufficient accuracy that they can be used to explain experimental trends and even differentiate between different experimental values. We show that for boron clusters the B3LYP energetics are not as good as for many of the other systems presented, but even in this case the B3LYP approach is able to help understand the experimental trends.

The effects of aromatherapy on pruritus in patients undergoing hemodialysis.

PubMed

Ro, You-Ja; Ha, Hyae-Chung; Kim, Chun-Gill; Yeom, Hye-A

2002-08-01

This study was designed to investigate the effects of aromatherapy on pruritus in patients with chronic renal failure undergoing hemodialysis. The participants were 29 adult patients living in Seoul, Korea. Thirteen patients were assigned to the experimental group and received the aromatherapy massage on the arm 3 times a week for 4 weeks. Pruritus score, skin pH, stratum corneum hydration, and pruritus-related biochemical markers were measured before and after the treatment. The results showed that pruritus score was significantly decreased after aromatherapy. Skin pH showed no significant changes in either group while stratum corneum hydration increased significantly in the experimental group after aromatherapy. The results support the use aromatherapy as a useful and effective method of managing pruritus in patients undergoing hemodialysis.

Comparative evaluation of nickel discharge from brackets in artificial saliva at different time intervals

PubMed Central

Jithesh, C.; Venkataramana, V.; Penumatsa, Narendravarma; Reddy, S. N.; Poornima, K. Y.; Rajasigamani, K.

2015-01-01

Objectives: To determine and compare the potential difference of nickel release from three different orthodontic brackets, in different artificial pH, in different time intervals. Materials and Methods: Twenty-seven samples of three different orthodontic brackets were selected and grouped as 1, 2, and 3. Each group was divided into three subgroups depending on the type of orthodontic brackets, salivary pH and the time interval. The Nickel release from each subgroup were analyzed by using inductively coupled plasma-Atomic Emission Spectrophotometer (Perkin Elmer, Optima 2100 DV, USA) model. Quantitative analysis of nickel was performed three times, and the mean value was used as result. ANOVA (F-test) was used to test the significant difference among the groups at 0.05 level of significance (P < 0.05). The descriptive method of statistics was used to calculate the mean, standard deviation, minimum and maximum. SPSS 18 software ((SPSS.Ltd, Quarry bay, Hong Kong, PASW-statistics 18) was used to analyze the study. Result: The analysis shows a significant difference between three groups. The study shows that the nickel releases from the recycled stainless steel brackets have the highest at all 4.2 pH except in 120 h. Conclusion: The study result shows that the nickel release from the recycled stainless steel brackets is highest. Metal slot ceramic bracket release significantly less nickel. So, recycled stainless steel brackets should not be used for nickel allergic patients. Metal slot ceramic brackets are advisable. PMID:26538924

A novel surgical technique for a rat subcutaneous implantation of a tissue engineered scaffold

PubMed Central

Khorramirouz, Reza; Go, Jason L.; Noble, Christopher; Jana, Soumen; Maxson, Eva; Lerman, Amir; Young, Melissa D.

2018-01-01

Objectives Subcutaneous implantations in small animal models are currently required for preclinical studies of acellular tissue to evaluate biocompatibility, including host recellularization and immunogenic reactivity. Methods Three rat subcutaneous implantation methods were evaluated in six Sprague Dawley rats. An acellular xenograft made from porcine pericardium was used as the tissue-scaffold. Three implantation methods were performed; 1) Suture method is where a tissue-scaffold was implanted by suturing its border to the external oblique muscle, 2) Control method is where a tissue-scaffold was implanted without any suturing or support, 3) Frame method is where a tissue-scaffold was attached to a circular frame composed of polycaprolactone (PCL) biomaterial and placed subcutaneously. After 1 and 4 weeks, tissue-scaffolds were explanted and evaluated by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E), Masson’s trichrome, Picrosirius Red, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), immunohistochemistry, and mechanical testing. Results Macroscopically, tissue-scaffold degradation with the suture method and tissue-scaffold folding with the control method were observed after 4 weeks. In comparison, the frame method demonstrated intact tissue scaffolds after 4 weeks. H&E staining showed progressive cell repopulation over the course of the experiment in all groups with acute and chronic inflammation observed in suture and control methods throughout the duration of the study. Immunohistochemistry quantification of CD3, CD 31, CD 34, CD 163, and αSMA showed a statistically significant differences between the suture, control and frame methods (P < 0.05) at both time points. The average tensile strength was 4.03 ± 0.49, 7.45 ± 0.49 and 5.72 ± 1.34 (MPa) after 1 week and 0.55 ± 0.26, 0.12 ± 0.03 and 0.41 ± 0.32 (MPa) after 4 weeks in the suture, control, and frame methods; respectively. TEM analysis showed an increase in inflammatory cells in both suture and control methods following implantation. Conclusion Rat subcutaneous implantation with the frame method was performed with success and ease. The surgical approach used for the frame technique was found to be the best methodology for in vivo evaluation of tissue engineered acellular scaffolds, where the frame method did not compromise mechanical strength, but it reduced inflammation significantly. PMID:29519681

Experimental Study on the Viscosity and Adhesive Performance of Exogenous Liquid Fibrin Glue

PubMed Central

HAYASHI, Takuro; HASEGAWA, Mitsuhiro; INAMASU, Joji; ADACHI, Kazuhide; NAGAHISA, Shinya; HIROSE, Yuichi

2014-01-01

Exogenous fibrin glue (FG) is highly suitable for neurosurgical procedures, because of its viscosity and adhesive properties. Several FGs are commercially available, but only few reports detail their differences. In the present study, we investigated the viscosity and adhesive performance of two types of FG: one is derived from blood donated in Europe and the United States (CSL Behring's Beriplast®, BP) and the other is derived from blood donated in Japan (the Chemo-Sero-Therapeutic Research Institute's Bolheal®, BH). The viscosity test that measured fibrinogen viscosity revealed that BP had significantly higher viscosity than BH. Similarly, the dripping test showed that BP traveled a significantly shorter drip distance in the vertical direction than BH, although the transverse diameter of the coagulated FG did not differ statistically significantly. In the tensile strength test, BP showed superior adhesion performance over BH. The histological study of the hematoxylin-eosin-stained specimens in both groups showed favorable adhesion. Although further studies are required on its manufacturing and usage methods, FG shows differences in viscosity and adhesive performance according to the blood from which it is derived. We conclude that it is desirable to select the type and usage method of FG according to the characteristics of the surgical operation in question. Our findings suggest that FG produced from the blood donated in Europe and the United States might be more suitable for use in surgical procedures that demand an especially high degree of viscosity and rapid adhesive performance. PMID:25367586

Experimental study on the viscosity and adhesive performance of exogenous liquid fibrin glue.

PubMed

Hayashi, Takuro; Hasegawa, Mitsuhiro; Inamasu, Joji; Adachi, Kazuhide; Nagahisa, Shinya; Hirose, Yuichi

2014-01-01

Exogenous fibrin glue (FG) is highly suitable for neurosurgical procedures, because of its viscosity and adhesive properties. Several FGs are commercially available, but only few reports detail their differences. In the present study, we investigated the viscosity and adhesive performance of two types of FG: one is derived from blood donated in Europe and the United States (CSL Behring's Beriplast(®), BP) and the other is derived from blood donated in Japan (the Chemo-Sero-Therapeutic Research Institute's Bolheal(®), BH). The viscosity test that measured fibrinogen viscosity revealed that BP had significantly higher viscosity than BH. Similarly, the dripping test showed that BP traveled a significantly shorter drip distance in the vertical direction than BH, although the transverse diameter of the coagulated FG did not differ statistically significantly. In the tensile strength test, BP showed superior adhesion performance over BH. The histological study of the hematoxylin-eosin-stained specimens in both groups showed favorable adhesion. Although further studies are required on its manufacturing and usage methods, FG shows differences in viscosity and adhesive performance according to the blood from which it is derived. We conclude that it is desirable to select the type and usage method of FG according to the characteristics of the surgical operation in question. Our findings suggest that FG produced from the blood donated in Europe and the United States might be more suitable for use in surgical procedures that demand an especially high degree of viscosity and rapid adhesive performance.

[Comprehensive weighted recognition method for hydrological abrupt change: With the runoff series of Jiajiu hydrological station in Lancang River as an example].

PubMed

Gu, Hai Ting; Xie, Ping; Sang, Yan Fang; Wu, Zi Yi

2018-04-01

Abrupt change is an important manifestation of hydrological process with dramatic variation in the context of global climate change, the accurate recognition of which has great significance to understand hydrological process changes and carry out the actual hydrological and water resources works. The traditional method is not reliable at both ends of the samples. The results of the methods are often inconsistent. In order to solve the problem, we proposed a comprehensive weighted recognition method for hydrological abrupt change based on weighting by comparing of 12 commonly used methods for testing change points. The reliability of the method was verified by Monte Carlo statistical test. The results showed that the efficiency of the 12 methods was influenced by the factors including coefficient of variation (Cv), deviation coefficient (Cs) before the change point, mean value difference coefficient, Cv difference coefficient and Cs difference coefficient, but with no significant relationship with the mean value of the sequence. Based on the performance of each method, the weight of each test method was given following the results from statistical test. The sliding rank sum test method and the sliding run test method had the highest weight, whereas the RS test method had the lowest weight. By this means, the change points with the largest comprehensive weight could be selected as the final result when the results of the different methods were inconsistent. This method was used to analyze the daily maximum sequence of Jiajiu station in the lower reaches of the Lancang River (1-day, 3-day, 5-day, 7-day and 1-month). The results showed that each sequence had obvious jump variation in 2004, which was in agreement with the physical causes of hydrological process change and water conservancy construction. The rationality and reliability of the proposed method was verified.

Comparison of 7 culture methods for Salmonella serovar Enteritidis and Salmonella serovar Typhimurium isolation in poultry feces.

PubMed

Rodríguez, Francisco I; Procura, Francisco; Bueno, Dante J

2018-06-26

The present work compared 7 different culture methods and 3 selective-differential plating media for Salmonella ser. Enteritidis (SE) and S. ser. Typhimurium (ST) isolation using artificially contaminated poultry feces. The sensitivity (Se) and accuracy (AC) values increased when Modified Semisolid Rappaport Vassiliadis (MSRV) methods were used in place of the Tetrathionate (TT) or Tetrathionate Hajna broth (TTH) method in the enrichment step. However, there was no significant difference between the pre-enrichment incubation at 4 to 6 and 18 to 24 h for MSRV5 and MSRV24 methods, respectively. All Salmonella strains were recovered in the lowest dilutions tested for MSRV24 and 3 out of 4 for MSRV5 methods (2 to 10 cfu/25 g). The TT and TTH methods showed a detection limit between 2.2 × 101 and 1.0 × 106 cfu/25 g of fecal sample. The agreement was variable between the methods. However, there was a very good agreement between the MSRV5 and MSRV24 methods, and between tetrathionate direct (TTD, no pre-enrichment media used) and buffered peptone water 18 to 24 h Tetrathionate broth combination (TT24 method) for Salmonella strains. The 3 selective-differential plating media showed an agreement between fair and excellent. They performed a high Se and AC in the MSRV methods for Salmonella strains. There was a significant difference between center and periphery for MSRV methods, and there was a fair agreement between them for all strains. The MSRV methods are better than TT/TTH methods for the isolation of different strains of SE and ST in poultry fecal samples. The MSRV5 method can be used to reduce the time for the detection of SE and ST in these samples. Furthermore, a loopful of the periphery of the growth should be streaked onto differential-selective plating media, even in the absence of halo, to decrease the number of false negative results.

EXIMS: an improved data analysis pipeline based on a new peak picking method for EXploring Imaging Mass Spectrometry data.

PubMed

Wijetunge, Chalini D; Saeed, Isaam; Boughton, Berin A; Spraggins, Jeffrey M; Caprioli, Richard M; Bacic, Antony; Roessner, Ute; Halgamuge, Saman K

2015-10-01

Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Imaging Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-IMS) in 'omics' data acquisition generates detailed information about the spatial distribution of molecules in a given biological sample. Various data processing methods have been developed for exploring the resultant high volume data. However, most of these methods process data in the spectral domain and do not make the most of the important spatial information available through this technology. Therefore, we propose a novel streamlined data analysis pipeline specifically developed for MALDI-IMS data utilizing significant spatial information for identifying hidden significant molecular distribution patterns in these complex datasets. The proposed unsupervised algorithm uses Sliding Window Normalization (SWN) and a new spatial distribution based peak picking method developed based on Gray level Co-Occurrence (GCO) matrices followed by clustering of biomolecules. We also use gist descriptors and an improved version of GCO matrices to extract features from molecular images and minimum medoid distance to automatically estimate the number of possible groups. We evaluated our algorithm using a new MALDI-IMS metabolomics dataset of a plant (Eucalypt) leaf. The algorithm revealed hidden significant molecular distribution patterns in the dataset, which the current Component Analysis and Segmentation Map based approaches failed to extract. We further demonstrate the performance of our peak picking method over other traditional approaches by using a publicly available MALDI-IMS proteomics dataset of a rat brain. Although SWN did not show any significant improvement as compared with using no normalization, the visual assessment showed an improvement as compared to using the median normalization. The source code and sample data are freely available at http://exims.sourceforge.net/. awgcdw@student.unimelb.edu.au or chalini_w@live.com Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

MRI T2 Mapping of the Knee Articular Cartilage Using Different Acquisition Sequences and Calculation Methods at 1.5 Tesla.

PubMed

Mars, Mokhtar; Bouaziz, Mouna; Tbini, Zeineb; Ladeb, Fethi; Gharbi, Souha

2018-06-12

This study aims to determine how Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) acquisition techniques and calculation methods affect T2 values of knee cartilage at 1.5 Tesla and to identify sequences that can be used for high-resolution T2 mapping in short scanning times. This study was performed on phantom and twenty-nine patients who underwent MRI of the knee joint at 1.5 Tesla. The protocol includes T2 mapping sequences based on Single Echo Spin Echo (SESE), Multi-Echo Spin Echo (MESE), Fast Spin Echo (FSE) and Turbo Gradient Spin Echo (TGSE). The T2 relaxation times were quantified and evaluated using three calculation methods (MapIt, Syngo Offline and monoexponential fit). Signal to Noise Ratios (SNR) were measured in all sequences. All statistical analyses were performed using the t-test. The average T2 values in phantom were 41.7 ± 13.8 ms for SESE, 43.2 ± 14.4 ms for MESE, 42.4 ± 14.1 ms for FSE and 44 ± 14.5 ms for TGSE. In the patient study, the mean differences were 6.5 ± 8.2 ms, 7.8 ± 7.6 ms and 8.4 ± 14.2 ms for MESE, FSE and TGSE compared to SESE respectively; these statistical results were not significantly different (p > 0.05). The comparison between the three calculation methods showed no significant difference (p > 0.05). t-Test showed no significant difference between SNR values for all sequences. T2 values depend not only on the sequence type but also on the calculation method. None of the sequences revealed significant differences compared to the SESE reference sequence. TGSE with its short scanning time can be used for high-resolution T2 mapping. ©2018The Author(s). Published by S. Karger AG, Basel.

Comparison of lipid and calorie loss from donor human milk among 3 methods of simulated gavage feeding: one-hour, 2-hour, and intermittent gravity feedings.

PubMed

Brooks, Christine; Vickers, Amy Manning; Aryal, Subhash

2013-04-01

The objective of this study was to compare the differences in lipid loss from 24 samples of banked donor human milk (DHM) among 3 feeding methods: DHM given by syringe pump over 1 hour, 2 hours, and by bolus/gravity gavage. Comparative, descriptive. There were no human subjects. Twenty-four samples of 8 oz of DHM were divided into four 60-mL aliquots. Timed feedings were given by Medfusion 2001 syringe pumps with syringes connected to narrow-lumened extension sets designed for enteral feedings and connected to standard silastic enteral feeding tubes. Gravity feedings were given using the identical syringes connected to the same silastic feeding tubes. All aliquots were analyzed with the York Dairy Analyzer. Univariate repeated-measures analyses of variance were used for the omnibus testing for overall differences between the feeding methods. Lipid content expressed as grams per deciliter at the end of each feeding method was compared with the prefed control samples using the Dunnett's test. The Tukey correction was used for other pairwise multiple comparisons. The univariate repeated-measures analysis of variance conducted to test for overall differences between feeding methods showed a significant difference between the methods (F = 58.57, df = 3, 69, P < .0001). Post hoc analysis using the Dunnett's approach revealed that there was a significant difference in fat content between the control sample and the 1-hour and 2-hours feeding methods (P < .0001), but we did not find any significant difference in fat content between the control and the gravity feeding methods (P = .3296). Pairwise comparison using the Tukey correction revealed a significant difference between both gravity and 1-hour feeding methods (P < .0001), and gravity and 2-hour feeding method (P < .0001). There was no significant difference in lipid content between the 1-hour and 2-hour feeding methods (P = .2729). Unlike gravity feedings, the timed feedings resulted in a statistically significant loss of fat as compared with their controls. These findings should raise questions about how those infants in the neonatal intensive care unit are routinely gavage fed.

A Novel Roux-en-Y Reconstruction Involving the Use of Two Circular Staplers after Distal Subtotal Gastrectomy for Gastric Cancer.

PubMed

Hur, Hoon; Ahn, Chang Wook; Byun, Cheul Su; Shin, Ho Jung; Kim, Young Bae; Son, Sang-Yong; Han, Sang-Uk

2017-09-01

Although Roux-en-Y (R-Y) reconstruction after distal gastrectomy has several advantages, such as prevention of bile reflux into the remnant stomach, it is rarely used because of the technical difficulty. This prospective randomized clinical trial aimed to show the efficacy of a novel method of R-Y reconstruction involving the use of 2 circular staplers by comparing this novel method to Billroth-I (B-I) reconstruction. A total of 118 patients were randomly allocated into the R-Y (59 patients) and B-I reconstruction (59 patients) groups. R-Y anastomosis was performed using two circular staplers and no hand sewing. The primary end-point of this clinical trial was the reflux of bile into the remnant stomach evaluated using endoscopic and histological findings at 6 months after surgery. No significant differences in clinicopathological findings were observed between the 2 groups. Although anastomosis time was significantly longer for the patients of the R-Y group (P<0.001), no difference was detected between the 2 groups in terms of the total surgery duration (P=0.112). Endoscopic findings showed a significant reduction of bile reflux in the remnant stomach in the R-Y group (P<0.001), and the histological findings showed that reflux gastritis was more significant in the B-I group than in the R-Y group (P=0.026). The results of this randomized controlled clinical trial showed that compared with B-I reconstruction, R-Y reconstruction using circular staplers is a safe and feasible procedure. This clinical trial study was registered at www.ClinicalTrials.gov (registration No. NCT01142271).

Evaluation of Eight Methods for Aligning Orientation of Two Coordinate Systems.

PubMed

Mecheri, Hakim; Robert-Lachaine, Xavier; Larue, Christian; Plamondon, André

2016-08-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate eight methods for aligning the orientation of two different local coordinate systems. Alignment is very important when combining two different systems of motion analysis. Two of the methods were developed specifically for biomechanical studies, and because there have been at least three decades of algorithm development in robotics, it was decided to include six methods from this field. To compare these methods, an Xsens sensor and two Optotrak clusters were attached to a Plexiglas plate. The first optical marker cluster was fixed on the sensor and 20 trials were recorded. The error of alignment was calculated for each trial, and the mean, the standard deviation, and the maximum values of this error over all trials were reported. One-way repeated measures analysis of variance revealed that the alignment error differed significantly across the eight methods. Post-hoc tests showed that the alignment error from the methods based on angular velocities was significantly lower than for the other methods. The method using angular velocities performed the best, with an average error of 0.17 ± 0.08 deg. We therefore recommend this method, which is easy to perform and provides accurate alignment.

Validation of a modification to Performance-Tested Method 070601: Reveal Listeria Test for detection of Listeria spp. in selected foods and selected environmental samples.

PubMed

Alles, Susan; Peng, Linda X; Mozola, Mark A

2009-01-01

A modification to Performance-Tested Method (PTM) 070601, Reveal Listeria Test (Reveal), is described. The modified method uses a new media formulation, LESS enrichment broth, in single-step enrichment protocols for both foods and environmental sponge and swab samples. Food samples are enriched for 27-30 h at 30 degrees C and environmental samples for 24-48 h at 30 degrees C. Implementation of these abbreviated enrichment procedures allows test results to be obtained on a next-day basis. In testing of 14 food types in internal comparative studies with inoculated samples, there was a statistically significant difference in performance between the Reveal and reference culture [U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Bacteriological Analytical Manual (FDA/BAM) or U.S. Department of Agriculture-Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS)] methods for only a single food in one trial (pasteurized crab meat) at the 27 h enrichment time point, with more positive results obtained with the FDA/BAM reference method. No foods showed statistically significant differences in method performance at the 30 h time point. Independent laboratory testing of 3 foods again produced a statistically significant difference in results for crab meat at the 27 h time point; otherwise results of the Reveal and reference methods were statistically equivalent. Overall, considering both internal and independent laboratory trials, sensitivity of the Reveal method relative to the reference culture procedures in testing of foods was 85.9% at 27 h and 97.1% at 30 h. Results from 5 environmental surfaces inoculated with various strains of Listeria spp. showed that the Reveal method was more productive than the reference USDA-FSIS culture procedure for 3 surfaces (stainless steel, plastic, and cast iron), whereas results were statistically equivalent to the reference method for the other 2 surfaces (ceramic tile and sealed concrete). An independent laboratory trial with ceramic tile inoculated with L. monocytogenes confirmed the effectiveness of the Reveal method at the 24 h time point. Overall, sensitivity of the Reveal method at 24 h relative to that of the USDA-FSIS method was 153%. The Reveal method exhibited extremely high specificity, with only a single false-positive result in all trials combined for overall specificity of 99.5%.

New method to estimate paleoprecipitation using fossil amphibians and reptiles and the middle and late Miocene precipitation gradients in Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Böhme, M.; Ilg, A.; Ossig, A.; Küchenhoff, H.

2006-06-01

Existing methods for determining paleoprecipitation are subject to large errors (±350 400 mm or more using mammalian proxies), or are restricted to wet climate systems due to their strong facies dependence (paleobotanical proxies). Here we describe a new paleoprecipitation tool based on an indexing of ecophysiological groups within herpetological communities. In recent communities these indices show a highly significant correlation to annual precipitation (r2 = 0.88), and yield paleoprecipitation estimates with average errors of ±250 280 mm. The approach was validated by comparison with published paleoprecipitation estimates from other methods. The method expands the application of paleoprecipitation tools to dry climate systems and in this way contributes to the establishment of a more comprehensive paleoprecipitation database. This method is applied to two high-resolution time intervals from the European Neogene: the early middle Miocene (early Langhian) and the early late Miocene (early Tortonian). The results indicate that both periods show significant meridional precipitation gradients in Europe, these being stronger in the early Langhian (threefold decrease toward the south) than in the early Tortonian (twofold decrease toward the south). This pattern indicates a strengthening of climatic belts during the middle Miocene climatic optimum due to Southern Hemisphere cooling and an increased contribution of Arctic low-pressure cells to the precipitation from the late Miocene onward due to Northern Hemisphere cooling.

Assessment of metal(loid)s phytoavailability in intensive agricultural soils by the application of single extractions to rhizosphere soil.

PubMed

Pinto, Edgar; Almeida, Agostinho A; Ferreira, Isabel M P L V O

2015-03-01

The influence of soil properties on the phytoavailability of metal(loid)s in a soil-plant system was evaluated. The content of extractable metal(loid)s obtained by using different extraction methods was also compared. To perform this study, a test plant (Lactuca sativa) and rhizosphere soil were sampled at 5 different time points (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 weeks of plant growth). Four extraction methods (Mehlich 3, DTPA, NH4NO3 and CaCl2) were used. Significant positive correlations between the soil extractable content and lettuce shoot content were obtained for several metal(loid)s. The extraction with NH4NO3 showed the higher number of strong positive correlations indicating the suitability of this method to estimate metal(loid)s phytoavailability. The soil CEC, OM, pH, texture and oxides content significantly influenced the distribution of metal(loid)s between the phytoavailable and non-phytoavailable fractions. A reliable prediction model for Cr, V, Ni, As, Pb, Co, Cd, and Sb phytoavailability was obtained considering the amount of metal(loid) extracted by the NH4NO3 method and the main soil properties. This work shows that the analysis of rhizosphere soil by single extractions methods is a reliable approach to estimate metal(loid)s phytoavailability. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Exploring and accounting for publication bias in mental health: a brief overview of methods.

PubMed

Mavridis, Dimitris; Salanti, Georgia

2014-02-01

OBJECTIVE Publication bias undermines the integrity of published research. The aim of this paper is to present a synopsis of methods for exploring and accounting for publication bias. METHODS We discussed the main features of the following methods to assess publication bias: funnel plot analysis; trim-and-fill methods; regression techniques and selection models. We applied these methods to a well-known example of antidepressants trials that compared trials submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for regulatory approval. RESULTS The funnel plot-related methods (visual inspection, trim-and-fill, regression models) revealed an association between effect size and SE. Contours of statistical significance showed that asymmetry in the funnel plot is probably due to publication bias. Selection model found a significant correlation between effect size and propensity for publication. CONCLUSIONS Researchers should always consider the possible impact of publication bias. Funnel plot-related methods should be seen as a means of examining for small-study effects and not be directly equated with publication bias. Possible causes for funnel plot asymmetry should be explored. Contours of statistical significance may help disentangle whether asymmetry in a funnel plot is caused by publication bias or not. Selection models, although underused, could be useful resource when publication bias and heterogeneity are suspected because they address directly the problem of publication bias and not that of small-study effects.

The Choice of the Filtering Method in Microarrays Affects the Inference Regarding Dosage Compensation of the Active X-Chromosome

PubMed Central

Zeller, Tanja; Wild, Philipp S.; Truong, Vinh; Trégouët, David-Alexandre; Munzel, Thomas; Ziegler, Andreas; Cambien, François; Blankenberg, Stefan; Tiret, Laurence

2011-01-01

Background The hypothesis of dosage compensation of genes of the X chromosome, supported by previous microarray studies, was recently challenged by RNA-sequencing data. It was suggested that microarray studies were biased toward an over-estimation of X-linked expression levels as a consequence of the filtering of genes below the detection threshold of microarrays. Methodology/Principal Findings To investigate this hypothesis, we used microarray expression data from circulating monocytes in 1,467 individuals. In total, 25,349 and 1,156 probes were unambiguously assigned to autosomes and the X chromosome, respectively. Globally, there was a clear shift of X-linked expressions toward lower levels than autosomes. We compared the ratio of expression levels of X-linked to autosomal transcripts (X∶AA) using two different filtering methods: 1. gene expressions were filtered out using a detection threshold irrespective of gene chromosomal location (the standard method in microarrays); 2. equal proportions of genes were filtered out separately on the X and on autosomes. For a wide range of filtering proportions, the X∶AA ratio estimated with the first method was not significantly different from 1, the value expected if dosage compensation was achieved, whereas it was significantly lower than 1 with the second method, leading to the rejection of the hypothesis of dosage compensation. We further showed in simulated data that the choice of the most appropriate method was dependent on biological assumptions regarding the proportion of actively expressed genes on the X chromosome comparative to the autosomes and the extent of dosage compensation. Conclusion/Significance This study shows that the method used for filtering out lowly expressed genes in microarrays may have a major impact according to the hypothesis investigated. The hypothesis of dosage compensation of X-linked genes cannot be firmly accepted or rejected using microarray-based data. PMID:21912656

Evaluating the Good Ontology Design Guideline (GoodOD) with the ontology quality requirements and evaluation method and metrics (OQuaRE).

PubMed

Duque-Ramos, Astrid; Boeker, Martin; Jansen, Ludger; Schulz, Stefan; Iniesta, Miguela; Fernández-Breis, Jesualdo Tomás

2014-01-01

To (1) evaluate the GoodOD guideline for ontology development by applying the OQuaRE evaluation method and metrics to the ontology artefacts that were produced by students in a randomized controlled trial, and (2) informally compare the OQuaRE evaluation method with gold standard and competency questions based evaluation methods, respectively. In the last decades many methods for ontology construction and ontology evaluation have been proposed. However, none of them has become a standard and there is no empirical evidence of comparative evaluation of such methods. This paper brings together GoodOD and OQuaRE. GoodOD is a guideline for developing robust ontologies. It was previously evaluated in a randomized controlled trial employing metrics based on gold standard ontologies and competency questions as outcome parameters. OQuaRE is a method for ontology quality evaluation which adapts the SQuaRE standard for software product quality to ontologies and has been successfully used for evaluating the quality of ontologies. In this paper, we evaluate the effect of training in ontology construction based on the GoodOD guideline within the OQuaRE quality evaluation framework and compare the results with those obtained for the previous studies based on the same data. Our results show a significant effect of the GoodOD training over developed ontologies by topics: (a) a highly significant effect was detected in three topics from the analysis of the ontologies of untrained and trained students; (b) both positive and negative training effects with respect to the gold standard were found for five topics. The GoodOD guideline had a significant effect over the quality of the ontologies developed. Our results show that GoodOD ontologies can be effectively evaluated using OQuaRE and that OQuaRE is able to provide additional useful information about the quality of the GoodOD ontologies.

Evaluating Composite Sampling Methods of Bacillus spores at Low Concentrations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hess, Becky M.; Amidan, Brett G.; Anderson, Kevin K.

Restoring facility operations after the 2001 Amerithrax attacks took over three months to complete, highlighting the need to reduce remediation time. The most time intensive tasks were environmental sampling and sample analyses. Composite sampling allows disparate samples to be combined, with only a single analysis needed, making it a promising method to reduce response times. We developed a statistical experimental design to test three different composite sampling methods: 1) single medium single pass composite: a single cellulose sponge samples multiple coupons; 2) single medium multi-pass composite: a single cellulose sponge is used to sample multiple coupons; and 3) multi-medium post-samplemore » composite: a single cellulose sponge samples a single surface, and then multiple sponges are combined during sample extraction. Five spore concentrations of Bacillus atrophaeus Nakamura spores were tested; concentrations ranged from 5 to 100 CFU/coupon (0.00775 to 0.155CFU/cm2, respectively). Study variables included four clean surface materials (stainless steel, vinyl tile, ceramic tile, and painted wallboard) and three grime coated/dirty materials (stainless steel, vinyl tile, and ceramic tile). Analysis of variance for the clean study showed two significant factors: composite method (p-value < 0.0001) and coupon material (p-value = 0.0008). Recovery efficiency (RE) was higher overall using the post-sample composite (PSC) method compared to single medium composite from both clean and grime coated materials. RE with the PSC method for concentrations tested (10 to 100 CFU/coupon) was similar for ceramic tile, painted wall board, and stainless steel for clean materials. RE was lowest for vinyl tile with both composite methods. Statistical tests for the dirty study showed RE was significantly higher for vinyl and stainless steel materials, but significantly lower for ceramic tile. These results suggest post-sample compositing can be used to reduce sample analysis time when responding to a Bacillus anthracis contamination event of clean or dirty surfaces.« less

Optimal graph based segmentation using flow lines with application to airway wall segmentation.

PubMed

Petersen, Jens; Nielsen, Mads; Lo, Pechin; Saghir, Zaigham; Dirksen, Asger; de Bruijne, Marleen

2011-01-01

This paper introduces a novel optimal graph construction method that is applicable to multi-dimensional, multi-surface segmentation problems. Such problems are often solved by refining an initial coarse surface within the space given by graph columns. Conventional columns are not well suited for surfaces with high curvature or complex shapes but the proposed columns, based on properly generated flow lines, which are non-intersecting, guarantee solutions that do not self-intersect and are better able to handle such surfaces. The method is applied to segment human airway walls in computed tomography images. Comparison with manual annotations on 649 cross-sectional images from 15 different subjects shows significantly smaller contour distances and larger area of overlap than are obtained with recently published graph based methods. Airway abnormality measurements obtained with the method on 480 scan pairs from a lung cancer screening trial are reproducible and correlate significantly with lung function.

Using Residence Time Distributions (RTDs) to Address the Traceability of Raw Materials in Continuous Pharmaceutical Manufacturing.

PubMed

Engisch, William; Muzzio, Fernando

Continuous processing in pharmaceutical manufacturing is a relatively new approach that has generated significant attention. While it has been used for decades in other industries, showing significant advantages, the pharmaceutical industry has been slow in its adoption of continuous processing, primarily due to regulatory uncertainty. This paper aims to help address these concerns by introducing methods for batch definition, raw material traceability, and sensor frequency determination. All of the methods are based on established engineering and mathematical principles, especially the residence time distribution (RTD). This paper introduces a risk-based approach to address content uniformity challenges of continuous manufacturing. All of the detailed methods are discussed using a direct compaction manufacturing line as the main example, but the techniques can easily be applied to other continuous manufacturing methods such as wet and dry granulation, hot melt extrusion, capsule filling, etc.

[Treatment of bilateral vocal cord paralysis by hemi-phrenic nerve transfer].

PubMed

Song, W; Li, M; Zheng, H L; Sun, L; Chen, S C; Chen, D H; Liu, F; Zhu, M H; Zhang, C Y; Wang, W

2017-04-07

Objective: To investigate the surgical effect of reinnervation of bilateral posterior cricoarytenoid muscles(PCA) with left hemi-phrenic nerve and endoscopic laser arytenoid resection in bilateral vocal cord fold paralysis(BVFP) and to analyze the pros and cons of the two methods. Methods: One hundred and seventeen BVFP patients who underwent reinnervation of bilateral PCA using the left hemi-phrenic nerve approach (nerve group, n =52) or laser arytenoidectomy(laser group, n =65) were enrolled in this study from Jan.2009 to Dec.2015.Vocal perception evaluation, video stroboscopy, pulmonary function test and laryngeal electromyography were preformed in all patients both preoperatively and postoperative1y.Extubution rate was calculated postoperative1y. Results: Most of the vocal function parameters in nerve group were improved postoperatively compared with preoperative parameters, albeit without a significant difference( P >0.05), while laser group showed a significant deterioration in voice quality postoperative1y( P <0.05). The two groups showed significant difference in voice quality postoperative1y( P <0.05). Videostroboscopy showed that vocal fold on the operated side in both groups could abduct to various extent postoperatively, which showed significant difference when compared with preoperative abductive movements ( P <0.05). But the amplitude in nerve group was larger than that in laser group ( P <0.05). 89% of the patients in nerve group were inhale physiological vocal cord abductions. Postoperative glottal closure showed no significant difference in nerve group ( P >0.05), while showed various increment in laser group( P <0.05). Differences between the two groups were statistically significant( P <0.05). The pulmonary function in both groups was better after operation, reaching the reference value. Postoperative laryngeal electromyography confirmed successful reinnervation of the bilateral PCA muscles. The decannulation rate were 88.5% and 81.5% in nerve group and laser group respectively. In both groups, patients presented aspiration symptoms postoperatively, and rdieved soon, except 2 patients in laser group suffered repeated aspiration. Conclusions: Reinnervation of bilateral PCA muscles using left hemi-phrenic nerve can restore inspiratory vocal fold abduction to a satisfactory extent while preserving phonatory function at the preoperative level without evident morbidity, and do not affect swallowing function, greatly improving the quality of life of the patients.

Is Household Wealth Associated With Use of Long-Acting Reversible and Permanent Methods of Contraception? A Multi-Country Analysis

PubMed Central

Ugaz, Jorge I; Chatterji, Minki; Gribble, James N; Banke, Kathryn

2016-01-01

Abstract As programs continue to expand access to family planning information, services, and products, it is critical that these efforts be undertaken with an equity lens, ensuring that regardless of socioeconomic status, all women and couples can use the method that meets their needs. This study explores the relationship between household wealth and the use of long-acting and permanent methods (LAPMs) versus short-acting methods of contraception among modern method users, using multivariate analyses based on Demographic Health Survey data from 30 developing countries conducted between 2006 and 2013. Overall, and controlling for relevant individual and household characteristics including age, number of living children, education, and urban/rural residence, we found that wealthier women were more likely than poorer women to use LAPMs instead of short-acting methods: 20 of the 30 countries showed a positive and statistically significant association between wealth and LAPM use. For 10 of those countries, however, LAPM use was significantly higher only for the top (1 or 2) wealthiest quintiles. Eight countries showed no broad pattern of association, while in 2 countries—Bangladesh and India—poorer women were more likely to use LAPMs than wealthier women. The positive association between wealth and LAPM use was found most consistently in the Latin American and the Caribbean countries in our sample. These findings can help program implementers respond better to women’s needs for modern contraception, especially in reaching women from lower- and middle-income households. PMID:27016543

Is Household Wealth Associated With Use of Long-Acting Reversible and Permanent Methods of Contraception? A Multi-Country Analysis.

PubMed

Ugaz, Jorge I; Chatterji, Minki; Gribble, James N; Banke, Kathryn

2016-03-01

As programs continue to expand access to family planning information, services, and products, it is critical that these efforts be undertaken with an equity lens, ensuring that regardless of socioeconomic status, all women and couples can use the method that meets their needs. This study explores the relationship between household wealth and the use of long-acting and permanent methods (LAPMs) versus short-acting methods of contraception among modern method users, using multivariate analyses based on Demographic Health Survey data from 30 developing countries conducted between 2006 and 2013. Overall, and controlling for relevant individual and household characteristics including age, number of living children, education, and urban/rural residence, we found that wealthier women were more likely than poorer women to use LAPMs instead of short-acting methods: 20 of the 30 countries showed a positive and statistically significant association between wealth and LAPM use. For 10 of those countries, however, LAPM use was significantly higher only for the top (1 or 2) wealthiest quintiles. Eight countries showed no broad pattern of association, while in 2 countries-Bangladesh and India-poorer women were more likely to use LAPMs than wealthier women. The positive association between wealth and LAPM use was found most consistently in the Latin American and the Caribbean countries in our sample. These findings can help program implementers respond better to women's needs for modern contraception, especially in reaching women from lower- and middle-income households. © Ugaz et al.

Improving computer-aided detection assistance in breast cancer screening by removal of obviously false-positive findings.

PubMed

Mordang, Jan-Jurre; Gubern-Mérida, Albert; Bria, Alessandro; Tortorella, Francesco; den Heeten, Gerard; Karssemeijer, Nico

2017-04-01

Computer-aided detection (CADe) systems for mammography screening still mark many false positives. This can cause radiologists to lose confidence in CADe, especially when many false positives are obviously not suspicious to them. In this study, we focus on obvious false positives generated by microcalcification detection algorithms. We aim at reducing the number of obvious false-positive findings by adding an additional step in the detection method. In this step, a multiclass machine learning method is implemented in which dedicated classifiers learn to recognize the patterns of obvious false-positive subtypes that occur most frequently. The method is compared to a conventional two-class approach, where all false-positive subtypes are grouped together in one class, and to the baseline CADe system without the new false-positive removal step. The methods are evaluated on an independent dataset containing 1,542 screening examinations of which 80 examinations contain malignant microcalcifications. Analysis showed that the multiclass approach yielded a significantly higher sensitivity compared to the other two methods (P < 0.0002). At one obvious false positive per 100 images, the baseline CADe system detected 61% of the malignant examinations, while the systems with the two-class and multiclass false-positive reduction step detected 73% and 83%, respectively. Our study showed that by adding the proposed method to a CADe system, the number of obvious false positives can decrease significantly (P < 0.0002). © 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

The effect of distance learning via SMS on academic achievement and satisfaction of medical students.

PubMed

Sichani, Mehrdad Mohammadi; Mobarakeh, Shadi Reissizadeh; Omid, Athar

2018-01-01

Recently, medical education has made significant progress, and medical teachers are trying to find methods that have most impressive effects on learning. One of the useful learning methods is student active participation. One of the helpful teaching aids in this method is mobile technology. The present study aimed to determine the effect of sending educational questions through short message service (SMS) on academic achievement and satisfaction of medical students and compare that with lecture teaching. In an semi-experimental, two chapters of urology reference book, Smiths General Urology 17 th edition, were taught to 47 medical students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in urology course in 2013 academic year. Kidney tumors chapter was educated by sending questions through SMS, and bladder tumors part was taught in a lecture session. For each method, pretest and posttest were held, each consisting of thirty multiple choice questions. To examine the knowledge retention, a test session was held on the same terms for each chapter, 1 month later. At the end, survey forms were distributed to assess student's satisfaction with SMS learning method. Data were analyzed through using SPSS 20. The findings demonstrated a statistically significant difference between the two learning methods in the medication test scores. Evaluation of the satisfaction showed 78.72% of participants were not satisfied. The results of the study showed that distance learning through SMS in medical students could lead to increase knowledge, however, it was not effective on their satisfaction.

The relationship between ground reaction force in sit-to-stand movement and lower extremity function in community-dwelling Japanese older adults using long-term care insurance services

PubMed Central

Shen, Shaoshuai; Abe, Takumi; Tsuji, Taishi; Fujii, Keisuke; Ma, Jingyu; Okura, Tomohiro

2017-01-01

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate which of the four chair-rising methods has low-load and the highest success rate, and whether the GRF parameters in that method are useful for measuring lower extremity function among physically frail Japanese older adults. [Subjects and Methods] Fifty-two individuals participated in this study. The participants voluntarily attempted four types of Sit-to-stand test (one variation without and three variations with the use of their arms). The following parameters were measured: peak reaction force (F/w), two force development rate parameters (RFD1.25/w, RFD8.75/w) and two time-related parameters (T1, T2). Three additional commonly employed clinical tests (One-leg balance with eyes open, Timed up and go and 5-meter walk test) were also conducted. [Results] “Hands on a chair” chair-rising method produced the highest success rate among the four methods. All parameters were highly reliable between testing occasions. T2 showed strongly significant associations with Timed up and go and 5-meter walk test in males. RFD8.75/w showed significant associations with Timed up and go and 5-meter walk test in females. [Conclusion] Ground reaction force parameters in the Sit-to-stand test are a reliable and useful method for assessment of lower extremity function in physically frail Japanese older adults. PMID:28931988

The mechanical properties of stored red blood cells measured by a convenient microfluidic approach combining with mathematic model.

PubMed

Wang, Ying; You, Guoxing; Chen, Peipei; Li, Jianjun; Chen, Gan; Wang, Bo; Li, Penglong; Han, Dong; Zhou, Hong; Zhao, Lian

2016-03-01

The mechanical properties of red blood cells (RBCs) are critical to the rheological and hemodynamic behavior of blood. Although measurements of the mechanical properties of RBCs have been studied for many years, the existing methods, such as ektacytometry, micropipette aspiration, and microfluidic approaches, still have limitations. Mechanical changes to RBCs during storage play an important role in transfusions, and so need to be evaluated pre-transfusion, which demands a convenient and rapid detection method. We present a microfluidic approach that focuses on the mechanical properties of single cell under physiological shear flow and does not require any high-end equipment, like a high-speed camera. Using this method, the images of stretched RBCs under physical shear can be obtained. The subsequent analysis, combined with mathematic models, gives the deformability distribution, the morphology distribution, the normalized curvature, and the Young's modulus (E) of the stored RBCs. The deformability index and the morphology distribution show that the deformability of RBCs decreases significantly with storage time. The normalized curvature, which is defined as the curvature of the cell tail during stretching in flow, suggests that the surface charge of the stored RBCs decreases significantly. According to the mathematic model, which derives from the relation between shear stress and the adherent cells' extension ratio, the Young's moduli of the stored RBCs are also calculated and show significant increase with storage. Therefore, the present method is capable of representing the mechanical properties and can distinguish the mechanical changes of the RBCs during storage. The advantages of this method are the small sample needed, high-throughput, and easy-use, which make it promising for the quality monitoring of RBCs.

GSA-PCA: gene set generation by principal component analysis of the Laplacian matrix of a metabolic network

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Gene Set Analysis (GSA) has proven to be a useful approach to microarray analysis. However, most of the method development for GSA has focused on the statistical tests to be used rather than on the generation of sets that will be tested. Existing methods of set generation are often overly simplistic. The creation of sets from individual pathways (in isolation) is a poor reflection of the complexity of the underlying metabolic network. We have developed a novel approach to set generation via the use of Principal Component Analysis of the Laplacian matrix of a metabolic network. We have analysed a relatively simple data set to show the difference in results between our method and the current state-of-the-art pathway-based sets. Results The sets generated with this method are semi-exhaustive and capture much of the topological complexity of the metabolic network. The semi-exhaustive nature of this method has also allowed us to design a hypergeometric enrichment test to determine which genes are likely responsible for set significance. We show that our method finds significant aspects of biology that would be missed (i.e. false negatives) and addresses the false positive rates found with the use of simple pathway-based sets. Conclusions The set generation step for GSA is often neglected but is a crucial part of the analysis as it defines the full context for the analysis. As such, set generation methods should be robust and yield as complete a representation of the extant biological knowledge as possible. The method reported here achieves this goal and is demonstrably superior to previous set analysis methods. PMID:22876834

The Search Conference as a Method in Planning Community Health Promotion Actions

PubMed Central

Magnus, Eva; Knudtsen, Margunn Skjei; Wist, Guri; Weiss, Daniel; Lillefjell, Monica

2016-01-01

Aims: The aim of this article is to describe and discuss how the search conference can be used as a method for planning health promotion actions in local communities. Design and methods: The article draws on experiences with using the method for an innovative project in health promotion in three Norwegian municipalities. The method is described both in general and how it was specifically adopted for the project. Results and conclusions: The search conference as a method was used to develop evidence-based health promotion action plans. With its use of both bottom-up and top-down approaches, this method is a relevant strategy for involving a community in the planning stages of health promotion actions in line with political expectations of participation, ownership, and evidence-based initiatives. Significance for public health This article describe and discuss how the Search conference can be used as a method when working with knowledge based health promotion actions in local communities. The article describe the sequences of the conference and shows how this have been adapted when planning and prioritizing health promotion actions in three Norwegian municipalities. The significance of the article is that it shows how central elements in the planning of health promotion actions, as participation and involvements as well as evidence was a fundamental thinking in how the conference were accomplished. The article continue discussing how the method function as both a top-down and a bottom-up strategy, and in what way working evidence based can be in conflict with a bottom-up strategy. The experiences described can be used as guidance planning knowledge based health promotion actions in communities. PMID:27747199

The relationship of written examination performance to safe driving : a literature review with recommended methods for developing exams.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1984-01-01

This report reviews the literature concerning written driver license examinations. The research literature shows that current written examinations are poor predictors of unsafe drivers. Although some studies demonstrate significant relationships betw...

Color dithering methods for LEGO-like 3D printing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Pei-Li; Sie, Yuping

2015-01-01

Color dithering methods for LEGO-like 3D printing are proposed in this study. The first method is work for opaque color brick building. It is a modification of classic error diffusion. Many color primaries can be chosen. However, RGBYKW is recommended as its image quality is good and the number of color primary is limited. For translucent color bricks, multi-layer color building can enhance the image quality significantly. A LUT-based method is proposed to speed the dithering proceeding and make the color distribution even smoother. Simulation results show the proposed multi-layer dithering method can really improve the image quality of LEGO-like 3D printing.

Tactile Cueing for Target Acquisition and Identification

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-09-01

method of coding tactile information, and the method of presenting elevation information were studied. Results: Subjects were divided into video game experienced...VGP) subjects and non- video game (NVGP) experienced subjects. VGPs showed a significantly lower’ target acquisition time with the 12...that video game players performed better with the highest level of tactile resolution, while non- video game players performed better with simpler pattern and a lower resolution display.

Refined composite multiscale weighted-permutation entropy of financial time series

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yongping; Shang, Pengjian

2018-04-01

For quantifying the complexity of nonlinear systems, multiscale weighted-permutation entropy (MWPE) has recently been proposed. MWPE has incorporated amplitude information and been applied to account for the multiple inherent dynamics of time series. However, MWPE may be unreliable, because its estimated values show large fluctuation for slight variation of the data locations, and a significant distinction only for the different length of time series. Therefore, we propose the refined composite multiscale weighted-permutation entropy (RCMWPE). By comparing the RCMWPE results with other methods' results on both synthetic data and financial time series, RCMWPE method shows not only the advantages inherited from MWPE but also lower sensitivity to the data locations, more stable and much less dependent on the length of time series. Moreover, we present and discuss the results of RCMWPE method on the daily price return series from Asian and European stock markets. There are significant differences between Asian markets and European markets, and the entropy values of Hang Seng Index (HSI) are close to but higher than those of European markets. The reliability of the proposed RCMWPE method has been supported by simulations on generated and real data. It could be applied to a variety of fields to quantify the complexity of the systems over multiple scales more accurately.

Advanced Guidance and Control Methods for Reusable Launch Vehicles: Test Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hanson, John M.; Jones, Robert E.; Krupp, Don R.; Fogle, Frank R. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

There are a number of approaches to advanced guidance and control (AG&C) that have the potential for achieving the goals of significantly increasing reusable launch vehicle (RLV) safety/reliability and reducing the cost. In this paper, we examine some of these methods and compare the results. We briefly introduce the various methods under test, list the test cases used to demonstrate that the desired results are achieved, show an automated test scoring method that greatly reduces the evaluation effort required, and display results of the tests. Results are shown for the algorithms that have entered testing so far.

Methods for the design and analysis of power optimized finite-state machines using clock gating

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chodorowski, Piotr

2017-11-01

The paper discusses two methods of design of power optimized FSMs. Both methods use clock gating techniques. The main objective of the research was to write a program capable of generating automatic hardware description of finite-state machines in VHDL and testbenches to help power analysis. The creation of relevant output files is detailed step by step. The program was tested using the LGSynth91 FSM benchmark package. An analysis of the generated circuits shows that the second method presented in this paper leads to significant reduction of power consumption.

[Comparison of thromboelastography and routine coagulation tests for evaluation of blood coagulation function in patients].

PubMed

Chen, Guan-Yi; Ou Yang, Xi-Lin; Wu, Jing-Hui; Wang, Li-Hua; Yang, Jin-Hua; Gu, Li-Nan; Lu, Zhu-Jie; Zhao, Xiao-Zi

2015-04-01

To investigate the correlation and consistency between thromboelastography(TEG) and routine coagulation tests, and to evaluate the value of the two methods in determining the blood coagulation of patients. The TEG, routine coagulation tests and platelet counts of 182 patients from the Intensive Care Unit(ICU) and Department of Gastroenterology in our hospital from January to September 2014 were performed and analyzed retrospectively for their correlation, Kappa identity test analysis and chi-square test, and the diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of both methods in the patients with bleeding were evaluated. The TEG R time and PT, R time and APTT showed a linear dependence (P<0.01). The relationship between the TEG K value, α-Angle, MA and Fibrinogen showed a linear dependence (P<0.001). And the relationship between the TEG K value, α-Angle, MA and the platelet count were in a linear dependent way (P<0.001). The Kappa values of the TEG R time with PT and APTT were 0.038 (P>0.05) and 0.061 (P>0.05), respectively. The chi-square test values of the TEG R time with PT and APTT were 35.309 (P<0.001) and 15.848 (P<0.001), respectively. The Fibrinogen and the TEG K value, α-Angle, MA value had statistical significance (P<0.001), with a Kappa value of 0.323, 0.288 and 0.427, respectively. The chi-square test values between Fibrinogen and the TEG K value, α-Angle, MA value were not statistically significant, with X2=1.091 (P=0.296), X2=1.361 (P=0.243), X2=0.108 (P=0.742). The Kappa values of the platelet count and the TEG K value, α-Angle, MA value were 0.379, 0.208 and 0.352, respectively, which were also statistically significant difference (P<0.001). The chi-square test values between the platelet count and the TEG K value, α-Angle, MA value showed a statistically significant difference (P<0.001), with X2=37.5, X2=37.23, X2=26.630. The diagnostic sensitivity of the two methods for the patients with bleeding was less than 50%. There was a significant correlation between some TEG parameters and routine coagulation tests, but the consistency is weak. Moreover, the diagnostic sensitivity of two methods in the patients with bleeding is low. It was concluded that the TEG cannot replace the conventional coagulation tests, and the preferable method remains uncertain which could reflect the risk of bleeding.

[Clinical observation of basic fibroblast growth factor combined with topical oxygen therapy in enhancing burn wound healing].

PubMed

Nie, Kaiyu; Li, Pengcheng; Zeng, Xueqin; Sun, Guangfeng; Jin, Wenhu; Wei, Zairong; Wang, Bo; Qi, Jianping; Wang, Yuming; Wang, Dali

2010-06-01

To investigate the efficacy of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) combined with topical oxygen therapy for deep II degree burn wounds, by comparing the effects of bFGF combined with topical oxygen therapy and bFGF with routine therapy. From February 2004 to July 2009, 85 patients with deep II degree burn wounds (117 wounds) were enrolled and divided into 4 groups randomly according to different treatments. There was no significant difference in sex, age, disease course, wound size, and wound treatment size among 4 groups (P > 0.05). In group A, 18 patients (28 wounds) were treated routinely; in group B, 23 patients (30 wounds) were treated with routine methods and topical oxygen therapy; in group C, 19 patients (25 wounds) were treated with routine methods and bFGF therapy; and in group D, 25 patients (34 wounds) were treated with routine methods and bFGF/topical oxygen therapy. Topical oxygen therapy was administered to the wound for 90 minutes per day for 3 weeks. The bFGF therapy was applied everyday (150 U/cm2) for 3 weeks. All cases were followed up 6-12 months (9 months on average). The wound healing times in groups A, B, C, and D were (27.3 +/- 6.6), (24.2 +/- 5.8), (22.2 +/- 6.8), and (18.2 +/- 4.8) days, respectively; showing significant difference between group A and group D (P < 0.05). The wound healing rates in groups A, B, C, and D were 67.8% +/- 12.1%, 85.1% +/- 7.5%, 89.2% +/- 8.3%, and 96.1% +/- 5.6%, respectively; showing significant differences between group A and groups B, C, D (P < 0.05). The therapic effective rates in groups A, B, C, and D were 75%, 90%, 92%, and 100%, respectively; showing significant difference between group A and group D (P < 0.05). The Vancouver scar scale scoring of group D 6 months after treatment was better than that of group A (P < 0.05). The bFGF combined with topical oxygen therapy can enhance deep II degree burn wound healing. Furthermore, the therapy method is simple and convenient.

Improved regulatory element prediction based on tissue-specific local epigenomic signatures

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

He, Yupeng; Gorkin, David U.; Dickel, Diane E.

Accurate enhancer identification is critical for understanding the spatiotemporal transcriptional regulation during development as well as the functional impact of disease-related noncoding genetic variants. Computational methods have been developed to predict the genomic locations of active enhancers based on histone modifications, but the accuracy and resolution of these methods remain limited. Here, we present an algorithm, regulator y element prediction based on tissue-specific local epigenetic marks (REPTILE), which integrates histone modification and whole-genome cytosine DNA methylation profiles to identify the precise location of enhancers. We tested the ability of REPTILE to identify enhancers previously validated in reporter assays. Compared withmore » existing methods, REPTILE shows consistently superior performance across diverse cell and tissue types, and the enhancer locations are significantly more refined. We show that, by incorporating base-resolution methylation data, REPTILE greatly improves upon current methods for annotation of enhancers across a variety of cell and tissue types.« less

A method of emotion contagion for crowd evacuation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cao, Mengxiao; Zhang, Guijuan; Wang, Mengsi; Lu, Dianjie; Liu, Hong

2017-10-01

The current evacuation model does not consider the impact of emotion and personality on crowd evacuation. Thus, there is large difference between evacuation results and the real-life behavior of the crowd. In order to generate more realistic crowd evacuation results, we present a method of emotion contagion for crowd evacuation. First, we combine OCEAN (Openness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness) model and SIS (Susceptible Infected Susceptible) model to construct the P-SIS (Personalized SIS) emotional contagion model. The P-SIS model shows the diversity of individuals in crowd effectively. Second, we couple the P-SIS model with the social force model to simulate emotional contagion on crowd evacuation. Finally, the photo-realistic rendering method is employed to obtain the animation of crowd evacuation. Experimental results show that our method can simulate crowd evacuation realistically and has guiding significance for crowd evacuation in the emergency circumstances.

Sex Ratio and Abundance Fluctuations of Sarcosaprophagous Calyptratae (Diptera): Field Evaluation of Two Sampling Techniques.

PubMed

Mulieri, P R; Olea, M S; Patitucci, L D; Battán-Horenstein, M

2018-06-07

Abundance of sarcosaprophagous Calyptratae species was monitored by using baited traps and active captures with hand net. Analysis of field data collected in three protected areas in the Valdivian temperate forest of South America (Lanín National Park, Lago Puelo National Park, and Los Alerces National Park) indicated that bottle traps baited with putrescine is a reliable method to estimate local abundance of sarcosaprophagous species by comparison to the active capture method. Also, we describe and compare general patterns of sex bias for four dominant species: Sarconesia magellanica (Le Guillou), Calliphora vicina Robineau-Desvoidy, Microcerella spinigena (Rondani), and Oxysarcodexia varia (Walker). From these analyses, it can be concluded that abundance fluctuations of flies showed significant relationship between the sampling methods. This study showed that besides the expected interspecific differences in trapping efficiency, there are acute intraspecific differences of sex ratios between sampling methods.

Improved regulatory element prediction based on tissue-specific local epigenomic signatures

DOE PAGES

He, Yupeng; Gorkin, David U.; Dickel, Diane E.; ...

2017-02-13

Accurate enhancer identification is critical for understanding the spatiotemporal transcriptional regulation during development as well as the functional impact of disease-related noncoding genetic variants. Computational methods have been developed to predict the genomic locations of active enhancers based on histone modifications, but the accuracy and resolution of these methods remain limited. Here, we present an algorithm, regulator y element prediction based on tissue-specific local epigenetic marks (REPTILE), which integrates histone modification and whole-genome cytosine DNA methylation profiles to identify the precise location of enhancers. We tested the ability of REPTILE to identify enhancers previously validated in reporter assays. Compared withmore » existing methods, REPTILE shows consistently superior performance across diverse cell and tissue types, and the enhancer locations are significantly more refined. We show that, by incorporating base-resolution methylation data, REPTILE greatly improves upon current methods for annotation of enhancers across a variety of cell and tissue types.« less

Evaluating significance in linear mixed-effects models in R.

PubMed

Luke, Steven G

2017-08-01

Mixed-effects models are being used ever more frequently in the analysis of experimental data. However, in the lme4 package in R the standards for evaluating significance of fixed effects in these models (i.e., obtaining p-values) are somewhat vague. There are good reasons for this, but as researchers who are using these models are required in many cases to report p-values, some method for evaluating the significance of the model output is needed. This paper reports the results of simulations showing that the two most common methods for evaluating significance, using likelihood ratio tests and applying the z distribution to the Wald t values from the model output (t-as-z), are somewhat anti-conservative, especially for smaller sample sizes. Other methods for evaluating significance, including parametric bootstrapping and the Kenward-Roger and Satterthwaite approximations for degrees of freedom, were also evaluated. The results of these simulations suggest that Type 1 error rates are closest to .05 when models are fitted using REML and p-values are derived using the Kenward-Roger or Satterthwaite approximations, as these approximations both produced acceptable Type 1 error rates even for smaller samples.

Evaluation of Non-Ozone-Depleting-Chemical Cleaning Methods for Space Mechanisms Using a Vacuum Spiral Orbit Rolling Contact Tribometer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jansen, Mark J.; Jones, William R., Jr.; Wheeler, Donald R.; Keller, Dennis J.

2000-01-01

Because CFC 113, an ozone depleting chemical (ODC), can no longer be produced, alternative bearing cleaning methods must be studied. The objective of this work was to study the effect of the new cleaning methods on lubricant lifetime using a vacuum bearing simulator (spiral orbit rolling contact tribometer). Four alternative cleaning methods were studied: ultra-violet (UV) ozone, aqueous levigated alumina slurry (ALAS), super critical fluid (SCF) CO2 and aqueous Brulin 815GD. Baseline tests were done using CFC 113. Test conditions were the following: a vacuum of at least 1.3 x 10(exp -6) Pa, 440C steel components, a rotational speed of 10 RPM, a lubricant charge of between 60-75 micrograms, a perfluoropolyalkylether lubricant (Z-25), and a load of 200N (44.6 lbs., a mean Hertzian stress of 1.5 GPa). Normalized lubricant lifetime was determined by dividing the total number of ball orbits by the amount of lubricant. The failure condition was a friction coefficient of 0.38. Post-test XPS analysis was also performed, showing slight variations in post-cleaning surface chemistry. Statistical analysis of the resultant data was conducted and it was determined that the data sets were most directly comparable when subjected to a natural log transformation. The natural log life (NL-Life) data for each cleaning method were reasonably normally (statistically) distributed and yielded standard deviations that were not significantly different among the five cleaning methods investigated. This made comparison of their NL-Life means very straightforward using a Bonferroni multiple comparison of means procedure. This procedure showed that the ALAS, UV-ozone and CFC 113 methods were not statistically significantly different from one another with respect to mean NL-Life. It also found that the SCF CO2 method yielded a significantly higher mean NL-Life than the mean NL-Lives of the ALAS, UV-ozone and CFC 113 methods. It also determined that the aqueous Brulin 815GD method yielded a mean NL-Life that was statistically significantly higher than the mean NL-Lives of each of the other four methods. Baseline tests using CFC 113 cleaned parts yielded a mean NL-Life 3.62 orbits/micro-g. ALAS and UV-ozone yielded similar mean NL-Life (3.31 orbits/mg and 3.33 orbits/micro-g, respectively). SCF CO2, gave a mean NL-Life of 4.08 orbits/mg and aqueous Brulin 8l5GD data yielded the longest mean NL-Life (4.66 orbits/micro-g).

Constraints as a destriping tool for Hires images

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cao, YU; Prince, Thomas A.

1994-01-01

Images produced from the Maximum Correlation Method sometimes suffer from visible striping artifacts, especially for areas of extended sources. Possible causes are different baseline levels and calibration errors in the detectors. We incorporated these factors into the MCM algorithm, and tested the effects of different constraints on the output image. The result shows significant visual improvement over the standard MCM Method. In some areas the new images show intelligible structures that are otherwise corrupted by striping artifacts, and the removal of these artifacts could enhance performance of object classification algorithms. The constraints were also tested on low surface brightness areas, and were found to be effective in reducing the noise level.

Analysis of the sleep quality of elderly people using biomedical signals.

PubMed

Moreno-Alsasua, L; Garcia-Zapirain, B; Mendez-Zorrilla, A

2015-01-01

This paper presents a technical solution that analyses sleep signals captured by biomedical sensors to find possible disorders during rest. Specifically, the method evaluates electrooculogram (EOG) signals, skin conductance (GSR), air flow (AS), and body temperature. Next, a quantitative sleep quality analysis determines significant changes in the biological signals, and any similarities between them in a given time period. Filtering techniques such as the Fourier transform method and IIR filters process the signal and identify significant variations. Once these changes have been identified, all significant data is compared and a quantitative and statistical analysis is carried out to determine the level of a person's rest. To evaluate the correlation and significant differences, a statistical analysis has been calculated showing correlation between EOG and AS signals (p=0,005), EOG, and GSR signals (p=0,037) and, finally, the EOG and Body temperature (p=0,04). Doctors could use this information to monitor changes within a patient.

Five-equation and robust three-equation methods for solution verification of large eddy simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dutta, Rabijit; Xing, Tao

2018-02-01

This study evaluates the recently developed general framework for solution verification methods for large eddy simulation (LES) using implicitly filtered LES of periodic channel flows at friction Reynolds number of 395 on eight systematically refined grids. The seven-equation method shows that the coupling error based on Hypothesis I is much smaller as compared with the numerical and modeling errors and therefore can be neglected. The authors recommend five-equation method based on Hypothesis II, which shows a monotonic convergence behavior of the predicted numerical benchmark ( S C ), and provides realistic error estimates without the need of fixing the orders of accuracy for either numerical or modeling errors. Based on the results from seven-equation and five-equation methods, less expensive three and four-equation methods for practical LES applications were derived. It was found that the new three-equation method is robust as it can be applied to any convergence types and reasonably predict the error trends. It was also observed that the numerical and modeling errors usually have opposite signs, which suggests error cancellation play an essential role in LES. When Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) based error estimation method is applied, it shows significant error in the prediction of S C on coarse meshes. However, it predicts reasonable S C when the grids resolve at least 80% of the total turbulent kinetic energy.

Simulation and experimental analysis of nanoindentation and mechanical properties of amorphous NiAl alloys.

PubMed

Wang, Chih-Hao; Fang, Te-Hua; Cheng, Po-Chien; Chiang, Chia-Chin; Chao, Kuan-Chi

2015-06-01

This paper used numerical and experimental methods to investigate the mechanical properties of amorphous NiAl alloys during the nanoindentation process. A simulation was performed using the many-body tight-binding potential method. Temperature, plastic deformation, elastic recovery, and hardness were evaluated. The experimental method was based on nanoindentation measurements, allowing a precise prediction of Young's modulus and hardness values for comparison with the simulation results. The indentation simulation results showed a significant increase of NiAl hardness and elastic recovery with increasing Ni content. Furthermore, the results showed that hardness and Young's modulus increase with increasing Ni content. The simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental results. Adhesion test of amorphous NiAl alloys at room temperature is also described in this study.

Classification of Aerial Photogrammetric 3d Point Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Becker, C.; Häni, N.; Rosinskaya, E.; d'Angelo, E.; Strecha, C.

2017-05-01

We present a powerful method to extract per-point semantic class labels from aerial photogrammetry data. Labelling this kind of data is important for tasks such as environmental modelling, object classification and scene understanding. Unlike previous point cloud classification methods that rely exclusively on geometric features, we show that incorporating color information yields a significant increase in accuracy in detecting semantic classes. We test our classification method on three real-world photogrammetry datasets that were generated with Pix4Dmapper Pro, and with varying point densities. We show that off-the-shelf machine learning techniques coupled with our new features allow us to train highly accurate classifiers that generalize well to unseen data, processing point clouds containing 10 million points in less than 3 minutes on a desktop computer.

Students awareness of learning styles and their perceptions to a mixed method approach for learning.

PubMed

Bhagat, Anumeha; Vyas, Rashmi; Singh, Tejinder

2015-08-01

Individualization of instructional method does not contribute significantly to learning outcomes although it is known that students have differing learning styles (LSs). Hence, in order to maximally enhance learning, one must try to use a mixed method approach. Our hypothesis was that awareness of preferred LS and motivation to incorporate multiple learning strategies might enhance learning outcomes. Our aim was to determine the impact of awareness of LS among medical undergraduates and motivating students to use mixed methods of learning. Before awareness lecture, LS preferences were determined using Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic (VARK) questionnaire. Awareness of LS was assessed using a validated questionnaire. Through a lecture, students were oriented to various LSs, impact of LS on their performance, and benefit of using mixed method approach for learning. Subsequently, group discussions were organized. After 3 months, VARK preferences and awareness of LSs were reassessed. Student narratives were collected. Qualitative analysis of the data was done. There was a significant increase in the number of students who were aware of LS. The number of participants showing a change in VARK scores for various modalities of learning was also significant (P < 0.001). Thus, awareness of LSs motivated students to adapt other learning strategies and use mixed methods for learning.

Evaluating the statistical performance of less applied algorithms in classification of worldview-3 imagery data in an urbanized landscape

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ranaie, Mehrdad; Soffianian, Alireza; Pourmanafi, Saeid; Mirghaffari, Noorollah; Tarkesh, Mostafa

2018-03-01

In recent decade, analyzing the remotely sensed imagery is considered as one of the most common and widely used procedures in the environmental studies. In this case, supervised image classification techniques play a central role. Hence, taking a high resolution Worldview-3 over a mixed urbanized landscape in Iran, three less applied image classification methods including Bagged CART, Stochastic gradient boosting model and Neural network with feature extraction were tested and compared with two prevalent methods: random forest and support vector machine with linear kernel. To do so, each method was run ten time and three validation techniques was used to estimate the accuracy statistics consist of cross validation, independent validation and validation with total of train data. Moreover, using ANOVA and Tukey test, statistical difference significance between the classification methods was significantly surveyed. In general, the results showed that random forest with marginal difference compared to Bagged CART and stochastic gradient boosting model is the best performing method whilst based on independent validation there was no significant difference between the performances of classification methods. It should be finally noted that neural network with feature extraction and linear support vector machine had better processing speed than other.

Incorporating advanced language models into the P300 speller using particle filtering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Speier, W.; Arnold, C. W.; Deshpande, A.; Knall, J.; Pouratian, N.

2015-08-01

Objective. The P300 speller is a common brain-computer interface (BCI) application designed to communicate language by detecting event related potentials in a subject’s electroencephalogram signal. Information about the structure of natural language can be valuable for BCI communication, but attempts to use this information have thus far been limited to rudimentary n-gram models. While more sophisticated language models are prevalent in natural language processing literature, current BCI analysis methods based on dynamic programming cannot handle their complexity. Approach. Sampling methods can overcome this complexity by estimating the posterior distribution without searching the entire state space of the model. In this study, we implement sequential importance resampling, a commonly used particle filtering (PF) algorithm, to integrate a probabilistic automaton language model. Main result. This method was first evaluated offline on a dataset of 15 healthy subjects, which showed significant increases in speed and accuracy when compared to standard classification methods as well as a recently published approach using a hidden Markov model (HMM). An online pilot study verified these results as the average speed and accuracy achieved using the PF method was significantly higher than that using the HMM method. Significance. These findings strongly support the integration of domain-specific knowledge into BCI classification to improve system performance.

Design and control of the phase current of a brushless dc motor to eliminate cogging torque

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jang, G. H.; Lee, C. J.

2006-04-01

This paper presents a design and control method of the phase current to reduce the torque ripple of a brushless dc (BLDC) motor by eliminating cogging torque. The cogging torque is the main source of torque ripple and consequently of speed error, and it is also the excitation source to generate the vibration and noise of a motor. This research proposes a modified current wave form, which is composed of main and auxiliary currents. The former is the conventional current to generate the commutating torque. The latter generates the torque with the same magnitude and opposite sign of the corresponding cogging torque at the given position in order to eliminate the cogging torque. Time-stepping finite element method simulation considering pulse-width-modulation switching method has been performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, and it shows that this proposed method reduces torque ripple by 36%. A digital-signal-processor-based controller is also developed to implement the proposed method, and it shows that this proposed method reduces the speed ripple significantly.

Segmentation of Vasculature from Fluorescently Labeled Endothelial Cells in Multi-Photon Microscopy Images.

PubMed

Bates, Russell; Irving, Benjamin; Markelc, Bostjan; Kaeppler, Jakob; Brown, Graham; Muschel, Ruth J; Brady, Sir Michael; Grau, Vicente; Schnabel, Julia A

2017-08-09

Vasculature is known to be of key biological significance, especially in the study of tumors. As such, considerable effort has been focused on the automated segmentation of vasculature in medical and pre-clinical images. The majority of vascular segmentation methods focus on bloodpool labeling methods, however, particularly in the study of tumors it is of particular interest to be able to visualize both perfused and non-perfused vasculature. Imaging vasculature by highlighting the endothelium provides a way to separate the morphology of vasculature from the potentially confounding factor of perfusion. Here we present a method for the segmentation of tumor vasculature in 3D fluorescence microscopy images using signals from the endothelial and surrounding cells. We show that our method can provide complete and semantically meaningful segmentations of complex vasculature using a supervoxel-Markov Random Field approach. We show that in terms of extracting meaningful segmentations of the vasculature, our method out-performs both a state-ofthe- art method, specific to these data, as well as more classical vasculature segmentation methods.

Evaluation of the accuracy of Demirjian method for estimation of dental age among 6-12 years of children in Navi Mumbai: A radiographic study.

PubMed

Hegde, Rahul J; Khare, Sumedh Suhas; Saraf, Tanvi A; Trivedi, Sonal; Naidu, Sonal

2015-01-01

Dental formation is superior to eruption as a method of dental age (DA) assessment. Eruption is only a brief occurrence, whereas formation may be related at different chronologic age levels, thereby providing a precise index for determining DA. The study was designed to determine the nature of inter-relationship between chronologic and DA. Age estimation depending upon tooth formation was done by Demirjian method and accuracy of Demirjian method was also evaluated. The sample for the study consisted of 197 children of Navi Mumbai. Significant positive correlation was found between chronologic age and DA that is, (r = 0.995), (P < 0.0001) for boys and (r = 0.995), (P < 0.0001) for girls. When age estimation was done by Demirjian method, mean the difference between true age (chronologic age) and assessed (DA) was 2 days for boys and 37 days for girls. Demirjian method showed high accuracy when applied to Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra - India) population. Demirjian method showed high accuracy when applied to Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra - India) population.

The importance of dental aesthetics among dental students assessment of knowledge

PubMed Central

Manipal, Sunayana; Mohan, C. S. Anand; Kumar, D. Lokesh; Cholan, Priyanka K.; Ahmed, Adil; Adusumilli, Preethi

2014-01-01

Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the dental esthetics awareness among dental students in a private university in Chennai as none is available in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Materials and Methods: The dental esthetics awareness questionnaire consisting of a battery of 19 questions under five aspects that is, physical, functional, social, knowledge, and psychological aspects was administered to a sample of 100 dental college students aged between 18 and 27 years in a private college in Chennai, India. Gender variations on the responses of their effects and the impact on dental esthetics awareness had been analyzed using a Chi-square test. Results: With respect to physical aspects, pigmentation shows more significance as students want to get treated for their pigmentation of lips and gums. With respect to functional aspects, eating shows more significance as students have difficulty while eating. In social aspects, habits show more significance as it affects their esthetics. With respect to psychological aspects, mental depression shows more significance as students feel more deprived due to their unesthetic appearance. Conclusion: This study shows a high level of self-consciousness and the findings of the studies prove that even the slightest of variations have a greater impact on the above-mentioned dimensions in particular to psychological, functional, and physical aspects. PMID:24818095

Effects of Schroth and Pilates exercises on the Cobb angle and weight distribution of patients with scoliosis.

PubMed

Kim, Gichul; HwangBo, Pil-Neo

2016-03-01

[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of Schroth and Pilates exercises on the Cobb angle and body weight distribution of patients with idiopathic scoliosis. [Subjects] Twenty-four scoliosis patients with a Cobb angle of ≥20° were divided into the Schroth exercise group (SEG, n = 12) and the Pilates exercise group (PEG, n = 12). [Methods] The SEG and PEG performed Schroth and Pilates exercises, respectively, three times a week for 12 weeks. The Cobb angle was measured in the standing position with a radiography apparatus, and weight load was measured with Gait View Pro 1.0. [Results] In the intragroup comparison, both groups showed significant changes in the Cobb angle. For weight distribution, the SEG showed significant differences in the total weight between the concave and convex sides, but the PEG did not show significant differences. Furthermore, in the intragroup comparison, the SEG showed significant differences in the changes in the Cobb angle and weight distribution compared with the PEG. [Conclusion] Both Schroth and Pilates exercises were effective in changing the Cobb angle and weight distribution of scoliosis patients; however, the intergroup comparison showed that the Schroth exercise was more effective than the Pilates exercise.

MOCC: A Fast and Robust Correlation-Based Method for Interest Point Matching under Large Scale Changes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Feng; Huang, Qingming; Wang, Hao; Gao, Wen

2010-12-01

Similarity measures based on correlation have been used extensively for matching tasks. However, traditional correlation-based image matching methods are sensitive to rotation and scale changes. This paper presents a fast correlation-based method for matching two images with large rotation and significant scale changes. Multiscale oriented corner correlation (MOCC) is used to evaluate the degree of similarity between the feature points. The method is rotation invariant and capable of matching image pairs with scale changes up to a factor of 7. Moreover, MOCC is much faster in comparison with the state-of-the-art matching methods. Experimental results on real images show the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Statistical significance of seasonal warming/cooling trends

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ludescher, Josef; Bunde, Armin; Schellnhuber, Hans Joachim

2017-04-01

The question whether a seasonal climate trend (e.g., the increase of summer temperatures in Antarctica in the last decades) is of anthropogenic or natural origin is of great importance for mitigation and adaption measures alike. The conventional significance analysis assumes that (i) the seasonal climate trends can be quantified by linear regression, (ii) the different seasonal records can be treated as independent records, and (iii) the persistence in each of these seasonal records can be characterized by short-term memory described by an autoregressive process of first order. Here we show that assumption ii is not valid, due to strong intraannual correlations by which different seasons are correlated. We also show that, even in the absence of correlations, for Gaussian white noise, the conventional analysis leads to a strong overestimation of the significance of the seasonal trends, because multiple testing has not been taken into account. In addition, when the data exhibit long-term memory (which is the case in most climate records), assumption iii leads to a further overestimation of the trend significance. Combining Monte Carlo simulations with the Holm-Bonferroni method, we demonstrate how to obtain reliable estimates of the significance of the seasonal climate trends in long-term correlated records. For an illustration, we apply our method to representative temperature records from West Antarctica, which is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth and belongs to the crucial tipping elements in the Earth system.

Normative Data for an Instrumental Assessment of the Upper-Limb Functionality.

PubMed

Caimmi, Marco; Guanziroli, Eleonora; Malosio, Matteo; Pedrocchi, Nicola; Vicentini, Federico; Molinari Tosatti, Lorenzo; Molteni, Franco

2015-01-01

Upper-limb movement analysis is important to monitor objectively rehabilitation interventions, contributing to improving the overall treatments outcomes. Simple, fast, easy-to-use, and applicable methods are required to allow routinely functional evaluation of patients with different pathologies and clinical conditions. This paper describes the Reaching and Hand-to-Mouth Evaluation Method, a fast procedure to assess the upper-limb motor control and functional ability, providing a set of normative data from 42 healthy subjects of different ages, evaluated for both the dominant and the nondominant limb motor performance. Sixteen of them were reevaluated after two weeks to perform test-retest reliability analysis. Data were clustered into three subgroups of different ages to test the method sensitivity to motor control differences. Experimental data show notable test-retest reliability in all tasks. Data from older and younger subjects show significant differences in the measures related to the ability for coordination thus showing the high sensitivity of the method to motor control differences. The presented method, provided with control data from healthy subjects, appears to be a suitable and reliable tool for the upper-limb functional assessment in the clinical environment.

Normative Data for an Instrumental Assessment of the Upper-Limb Functionality

PubMed Central

Caimmi, Marco; Guanziroli, Eleonora; Malosio, Matteo; Pedrocchi, Nicola; Vicentini, Federico; Molinari Tosatti, Lorenzo; Molteni, Franco

2015-01-01

Upper-limb movement analysis is important to monitor objectively rehabilitation interventions, contributing to improving the overall treatments outcomes. Simple, fast, easy-to-use, and applicable methods are required to allow routinely functional evaluation of patients with different pathologies and clinical conditions. This paper describes the Reaching and Hand-to-Mouth Evaluation Method, a fast procedure to assess the upper-limb motor control and functional ability, providing a set of normative data from 42 healthy subjects of different ages, evaluated for both the dominant and the nondominant limb motor performance. Sixteen of them were reevaluated after two weeks to perform test-retest reliability analysis. Data were clustered into three subgroups of different ages to test the method sensitivity to motor control differences. Experimental data show notable test-retest reliability in all tasks. Data from older and younger subjects show significant differences in the measures related to the ability for coordination thus showing the high sensitivity of the method to motor control differences. The presented method, provided with control data from healthy subjects, appears to be a suitable and reliable tool for the upper-limb functional assessment in the clinical environment. PMID:26539500

Image-guided spatial localization of heterogeneous compartments for magnetic resonance

PubMed Central

An, Li; Shen, Jun

2015-01-01

Purpose: Image-guided localization SPectral Localization Achieved by Sensitivity Heterogeneity (SPLASH) allows rapid measurement of signals from irregularly shaped anatomical compartments without using phase encoding gradients. Here, the authors propose a novel method to address the issue of heterogeneous signal distribution within the localized compartments. Methods: Each compartment was subdivided into multiple subcompartments and their spectra were solved by Tikhonov regularization to enforce smoothness within each compartment. The spectrum of a given compartment was generated by combining the spectra of the components of that compartment. The proposed method was first tested using Monte Carlo simulations and then applied to reconstructing in vivo spectra from irregularly shaped ischemic stroke and normal tissue compartments. Results: Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that the proposed regularized SPLASH method significantly reduces localization and metabolite quantification errors. In vivo results show that the intracompartment regularization results in ∼40% reduction of error in metabolite quantification. Conclusions: The proposed method significantly reduces localization errors and metabolite quantification errors caused by intracompartment heterogeneous signal distribution. PMID:26328977

Employment of sawtooth-shaped-function excitation signal and oversampling for improving resistance measurement accuracy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Ling; Li, Shujuan; Yan, Wenjuan; Li, Gang

2016-10-01

In order to achieve higher measurement accuracy of routine resistance without increasing the complexity and cost of the system circuit of existing methods, this paper presents a novel method that exploits a shaped-function excitation signal and oversampling technology. The excitation signal source for resistance measurement is modulated by the sawtooth-shaped-function signal, and oversampling technology is employed to increase the resolution and the accuracy of the measurement system. Compared with the traditional method of using constant amplitude excitation signal, this method can effectively enhance the measuring accuracy by almost one order of magnitude and reduce the root mean square error by 3.75 times under the same measurement conditions. The results of experiments show that the novel method can attain the aim of significantly improve the measurement accuracy of resistance on the premise of not increasing the system cost and complexity of the circuit, which is significantly valuable for applying in electronic instruments.

Reliability apportionment approach for spacecraft solar array using fuzzy reasoning Petri net and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Jianing; Yan, Shaoze; Xie, Liyang; Gao, Peng

2012-07-01

The reliability apportionment of spacecraft solar array is of significant importance for spacecraft designers in the early stage of design. However, it is difficult to use the existing methods to resolve reliability apportionment problem because of the data insufficiency and the uncertainty of the relations among the components in the mechanical system. This paper proposes a new method which combines the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation with fuzzy reasoning Petri net (FRPN) to accomplish the reliability apportionment of the solar array. The proposed method extends the previous fuzzy methods and focuses on the characteristics of the subsystems and the intrinsic associations among the components. The analysis results show that the synchronization mechanism may obtain the highest reliability value and the solar panels and hinges may get the lowest reliability before design and manufacturing. Our developed method is of practical significance for the reliability apportionment of solar array where the design information has not been clearly identified, particularly in early stage of design.

The effect of distance learning via SMS on academic achievement and satisfaction of medical students

PubMed Central

Sichani, Mehrdad Mohammadi; Mobarakeh, Shadi Reissizadeh; Omid, Athar

2018-01-01

INTRODUCTION: Recently, medical education has made significant progress, and medical teachers are trying to find methods that have most impressive effects on learning. One of the useful learning methods is student active participation. One of the helpful teaching aids in this method is mobile technology. The present study aimed to determine the effect of sending educational questions through short message service (SMS) on academic achievement and satisfaction of medical students and compare that with lecture teaching. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: In an semi-experimental, two chapters of urology reference book, Smiths General Urology 17th edition, were taught to 47 medical students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in urology course in 2013 academic year. Kidney tumors chapter was educated by sending questions through SMS, and bladder tumors part was taught in a lecture session. For each method, pretest and posttest were held, each consisting of thirty multiple choice questions. To examine the knowledge retention, a test session was held on the same terms for each chapter, 1 month later. At the end, survey forms were distributed to assess student's satisfaction with SMS learning method. Data were analyzed through using SPSS 20. RESULTS: The findings demonstrated a statistically significant difference between the two learning methods in the medication test scores. Evaluation of the satisfaction showed 78.72% of participants were not satisfied. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the study showed that distance learning through SMS in medical students could lead to increase knowledge, however, it was not effective on their satisfaction. PMID:29629390

Analysis of cancer-related fatigue based on smart bracelet devices.

PubMed

Shen, Hong; Hou, Honglun; Tian, Wei; Wu, MingHui; Chen, Tianzhou; Zhong, Xian

2016-01-01

Fatigue is the most common symptom associated with cancer and its treatment, and profoundly affects all aspects of quality of life for cancer patients. It is very important to measure and manage cancer-related fatigue. Usually, the cancer-related fatigue scores, which estimate the degree of fatigue, are self-reported by cancer patients using standardized assessment tools. But most of the classical methods used for measurement of fatigue are subjective and inconvenient. In this study, we try to establish a new method to assess cancer-related fatigue objectively and accurately by using smart bracelet. All patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer wore smart bracelet for recording the physical activity including step count and sleep time before and after chemotherapy. Meantime, their psychological state was assessed by completing questionnaire tables as cancer-related fatigue scores. Step count record by smart bracelet reflecting the physical performance dramatically decreased in the initial days of chemotherapy and recovered in the next few days. Statistical analysis showed a strong and significant correlation between self-reported cancer-related fatigue and physical performance (P= 0.000, r=-0.929). Sleep time was also significantly correlated with fatigue (P= 0.000, r= 0.723). Multiple regression analysis showed that physical performance and sleep time are significant predictors of fatigue. Measuring activity using smart bracelets may be an appropriate method for quantitative and objective measurement of cancer-related fatigue by using smart bracelet devices.

[Compatible biomass models of natural spruce (Picea asperata)].

PubMed

Wang, Jin Chi; Deng, Hua Feng; Huang, Guo Sheng; Wang, Xue Jun; Zhang, Lu

2017-10-01

By using nonlinear measurement error method, the compatible tree volume and above ground biomass equations were established based on the volume and biomass data of 150 sampling trees of natural spruce (Picea asperata). Two approaches, controlling directly under total aboveground biomass and controlling jointly from level to level, were used to design the compatible system for the total aboveground biomass and the biomass of four components (stem, bark, branch and foliage), and the total ground biomass could be estimated independently or estimated simultaneously in the system. The results showed that the R 2 of the one variable and bivariate compatible tree volume and aboveground biomass equations were all above 0.85, and the maximum value reached 0.99. The prediction effect of the volume equations could be improved significantly when tree height was included as predictor, while it was not significant in biomass estimation. For the compatible biomass systems, the one variable model based on controlling jointly from level to level was better than the model using controlling directly under total above ground biomass, but the bivariate models of the two methods were similar. Comparing the imitative effects of the one variable and bivariate compatible biomass models, the results showed that the increase of explainable variables could significantly improve the fitness of branch and foliage biomass, but had little effect on other components. Besides, there was almost no difference between the two methods of estimation based on the comparison.

Effects of low-level laser therapy, electroacupuncture, and radiofrequency on the pigmentation and skin tone of adult women

PubMed Central

Kim, Hee-Kyoung; Min, Kyoung-Ok; Choi, Jung-Hyun; Kim, Soon-Hee

2016-01-01

[Purpose] In this study, the effects of low-level laser therapy (LLLT), electroacupuncture (EA), and radiofrequency (RF), which are used in physical therapy, on the pigmentation and skin tone of adult women’s faces were investigated to provide basic data for skin interventions. [Subjects and Methods] Thirty adult females were assigned to either an LLLT group (n=10), an EA group (n=10), or an RF group (n=10). The intervention was performed in two 15-minute sessions per week for six weeks. Subjects’ skin tone and pigmentation were observed before and after the intervention. [Results] The EA group showed significant reductions in pigmentation in the left and right eye rims, as well as in the left cheek. The RF group showed significant post-intervention reductions in pigmentation under the left eye, as well as in the left and right eye rims and the left cheek. The LLLT group showed significant increases in skin tone in the forehead and both eye rims. The RF group showed significant increases in skin tone under both eyes. [Conclusion] The application of LLLT, EA, and RF had positive effects on pigmentation and skin tone of adult women’s faces. PMID:27313340

Meta-analysis of haplotype-association studies: comparison of methods and empirical evaluation of the literature

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Meta-analysis is a popular methodology in several fields of medical research, including genetic association studies. However, the methods used for meta-analysis of association studies that report haplotypes have not been studied in detail. In this work, methods for performing meta-analysis of haplotype association studies are summarized, compared and presented in a unified framework along with an empirical evaluation of the literature. Results We present multivariate methods that use summary-based data as well as methods that use binary and count data in a generalized linear mixed model framework (logistic regression, multinomial regression and Poisson regression). The methods presented here avoid the inflation of the type I error rate that could be the result of the traditional approach of comparing a haplotype against the remaining ones, whereas, they can be fitted using standard software. Moreover, formal global tests are presented for assessing the statistical significance of the overall association. Although the methods presented here assume that the haplotypes are directly observed, they can be easily extended to allow for such an uncertainty by weighting the haplotypes by their probability. Conclusions An empirical evaluation of the published literature and a comparison against the meta-analyses that use single nucleotide polymorphisms, suggests that the studies reporting meta-analysis of haplotypes contain approximately half of the included studies and produce significant results twice more often. We show that this excess of statistically significant results, stems from the sub-optimal method of analysis used and, in approximately half of the cases, the statistical significance is refuted if the data are properly re-analyzed. Illustrative examples of code are given in Stata and it is anticipated that the methods developed in this work will be widely applied in the meta-analysis of haplotype association studies. PMID:21247440

Modified Peritoneal Dialysis Catheter Insertion: Comparison with a Conventional Method

PubMed Central

Lee, Yong Kyu; Yang, Pil-Sung; Park, Kyoung Sook; Choi, Kyu Hun

2015-01-01

Purpose The conventional trocar and cannula method in peritoneal dialysis (PD) catheter insertion has its limitation in clinical setting. The aim of this study was to compare a modified method for percutaneous PD catheter insertion with the conventional method, and demonstrate advantages of the modified method. Materials and Methods Patients at a single center who had percutaneous PD catheters inserted by nephrologists from January 2006 until September 2012, using either a modified method (group M) or the conventional trocar and cannula method (group C), were retrospectively analyzed, in terms of baseline characteristics, complications experienced up to 3 months after the procedure, and the suitability of the procedure for patients. Results Group M included 82 subjects, while group C included 66 cases. The overall early complication rate in group M (1.2%) was significantly lower than that in group C (19.7%) (p<0.001). The catheter revision rate during timeframe for early complications was significantly lower in group M (0%) than in group C (6.1%) (p=0.024). When comparing Procedure time (1 h 3 min±16 min vs. 1 h 36 min±19 min, p<0.01), immediate post-procedural pain (2.43±1.80 vs. 3.14±2.07, p<0.05), and post-procedure days until ambulation (3.95±1.13 days vs. 6.17±1.34 days, p<0.01), group M was significantly lower than group C. There was no significant difference in total hospitalization period (14.71±7.05 days vs. 13.86±3.7 days). Conclusion Our modified PD catheter insertion method shows its advantages in early complication rate, early complications revision rate, and the patients' conveniences. PMID:26069120

Statistical Methods Applied to Gamma-ray Spectroscopy Algorithms in Nuclear Security Missions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fagan, Deborah K.; Robinson, Sean M.; Runkle, Robert C.

2012-10-01

In a wide range of nuclear security missions, gamma-ray spectroscopy is a critical research and development priority. One particularly relevant challenge is the interdiction of special nuclear material for which gamma-ray spectroscopy supports the goals of detecting and identifying gamma-ray sources. This manuscript examines the existing set of spectroscopy methods, attempts to categorize them by the statistical methods on which they rely, and identifies methods that have yet to be considered. Our examination shows that current methods effectively estimate the effect of counting uncertainty but in many cases do not address larger sources of decision uncertainty—ones that are significantly moremore » complex. We thus explore the premise that significantly improving algorithm performance requires greater coupling between the problem physics that drives data acquisition and statistical methods that analyze such data. Untapped statistical methods, such as Bayes Modeling Averaging and hierarchical and empirical Bayes methods have the potential to reduce decision uncertainty by more rigorously and comprehensively incorporating all sources of uncertainty. We expect that application of such methods will demonstrate progress in meeting the needs of nuclear security missions by improving on the existing numerical infrastructure for which these analyses have not been conducted.« less

Advances in environmental and occupational respiratory diseases in 2009.

PubMed

Peden, David B; Bush, Robert K

2010-03-01

The year 2009 led to a number of significant advances in environmental and occupational allergic diseases. The role of exposure to environmental pollutants, respiratory viruses, and allergen exposure showed significant advances. New allergens were identified. Occupational asthma and the relationship of complementary and alternative medicine to allergic diseases were extensively reviewed. New approaches to immunotherapy, novel vaccine techniques, and methods to reduce risks for severe allergic disease were addressed.

Statistical trend analysis and extreme distribution of significant wave height from 1958 to 1999 - an application to the Italian Seas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martucci, G.; Carniel, S.; Chiggiato, J.; Sclavo, M.; Lionello, P.; Galati, M. B.

2009-09-01

The study is a statistical analysis of sea states timeseries derived using the wave model WAM forced by the ERA-40 dataset in selected areas near the Italian coasts. For the period 1 January 1958 to 31 December 1999 the analysis yields: (i) the existence of a negative trend in the annual- and winter-averaged sea state heights; (ii) the existence of a turning-point in late 70's in the annual-averaged trend of sea state heights at a site in the Northern Adriatic Sea; (iii) the overall absence of a significant trend in the annual-averaged mean durations of sea states over thresholds; (iv) the assessment of the extreme values on a time-scale of thousand years. The analysis uses two methods to obtain samples of extremes from the independent sea states: the r-largest annual maxima and the peak-over-threshold. The two methods show statistical differences in retrieving the return values and more generally in describing the significant wave field. The study shows the existence of decadal negative trends in the significant wave heights and by this it conveys useful information on the wave climatology of the Italian seas during the second half of the 20th century.

The Evaluation of Head and Craniocervical Posture among Patients with and without Temporomandibular Joint Disorders- A Comparative Study.

PubMed

Saddu, Shweta Channavir; Dyasanoor, Sujatha; Valappila, Nidhin J; Ravi, Beena Varma

2015-08-01

Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) are the most common non-dental cause of orofacial pain with a multifactorial aetiology. To evaluate the head and craniocervical posture between individuals with and without TMD and its sub types by photographic and radiographic method. Thirty four TMD patients diagnosed according to Research Diagnostic Criteria for TMD's (RDC/TMD) and were divided into 2 groups: Group I (muscle disorder), Group II (disc displacement). Control group comprised of 34 age and sex matched subjects without TMD. Lateral view photographs were taken and the head posture angle was measured. Craniocervical posture was assessed on lateral skull radiograph with two angles (Craniocervical Angle, Cervical Curvature Angle) and two distances (Suboccipital Space, Atlas-Axis Distance). To compare the results, t-test was used with significance level of 0.05. Head posture showed no statistical significant difference (p > 0.05) between Group I, II and control group in both photographic and radiographic methods. The cervical curvature angle showed significant difference (p = 0.045) in Group I only. Atlas-Axis Distance was statistically significant in Group II (p = 0.001). The present study confirmed that there is a negative association of head posture and TMD whereas, cervical lordosis was present in Group I only.

Comparison of reproducibility of natural head position using two methods.

PubMed

Khan, Abdul Rahim; Rajesh, R N G; Dinesh, M R; Sanjay, N; Girish, K S; Venkataraghavan, Karthik

2012-01-01

Lateral cephalometric radiographs have become virtually indispensable to orthodontists in the treatment of patients. They are important in orthodontic growth analysis, diagnosis, treatment planning, monitoring of therapy and evaluation of final treatment outcome. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the maximum reproducibility with minimum variation of natural head position using two methods, i.e. the mirror method and the fluid level device method. The study included two sets of 40 lateral cephalograms taken using two methods of obtaining natural head position: (1) The mirror method and (2) fluid level device method, with a time interval of 2 months. Inclusion criteria • Subjects were randomly selected aged between 18 to 26 years Exclusion criteria • History of orthodontic treatment • Any history of respiratory tract problem or chronic mouth breathing • Any congenital deformity • History of traumatically-induced deformity • History of myofacial pain syndrome • Any previous history of head and neck surgery. The result showed that both the methods for obtaining natural head position-the mirror method and fluid level device method were comparable, but maximum reproducibility was more with the fluid level device as shown by the Dahlberg's coefficient and Bland-Altman plot. The minimum variance was seen with the fluid level device method as shown by Precision and Pearson correlation. The mirror method and the fluid level device method used for obtaining natural head position were comparable without any significance, and the fluid level device method was more reproducible and showed less variance when compared to mirror method for obtaining natural head position. Fluid level device method was more reproducible and shows less variance when compared to mirror method for obtaining natural head position.

Effect of storytelling on hopefulness in girl students.

PubMed

Shafieyan, Shima; Soleymani, Mohammad Reza; Samouei, Raheleh; Afshar, Mina

2017-01-01

One of the methods that help students in learning critical thinking and decision-making skills is storytelling. Story helps the students to place themselves in the same situation as the main protagonist and try different ways and finally select and implement the best possible method. The goal of this study is to investigate the effect of storytelling on hopefulness of students, age 8-11 in Isfahan's 2 nd educational district. This is an applied, quasi-experimental study. The study population comprised of 34 randomly selected students attending one of the schools in Isfahan's 2 nd educational district. The data gathering tool was the standard Kazdin hopefulness scale (α = 0.72) and data were gathered before and after 8 storytelling sessions for the intervention group. The gathered data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical (paired and independent t -test) with the help of SPSS Version 18 software. The study's findings showed a significant difference in the average hopefulness score of students in study group in pre- and posttest ( P = 0.04). Furthermore, independent t -test results showed a significant difference in hopefulness score of intervention and control ( P = 0.001). The average hopefulness score of the control group after storytelling sessions was higher than that of the intervention and control. The results show the effectiveness of storytelling as a method for improving hopefulness in students.

HLA-DRB1 shared epitope alleles in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: relation to autoantibodies and disease severity in a south Indian population.

PubMed

Konda Mohan, Vasanth; Ganesan, Nalini; Gopalakrishnan, Rajasekhar; Venkatesan, Vettriselvi

2017-10-01

To investigate the presence of the 'shared epitope' (SE) in the HLA-DRB1 alleles in patients with RA and to ascertain the frequency of the HLA-DRB1 alleles with autoantibodies (anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide [anti-CCP] rheumatoid factor [RF]) and disease severity. A total of 200 RA patients and 200 apparently healthy subjects participated in the study. HLA-DRB1 were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction with sequence-specific primer (PCR-SSP). Anti-CCP and RF in serum were determined by in vitro quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) was measured by Westergren method. Disease activity was assessed by using the disease activity score-28 (DAS-28). Chi-square test and Student's t-test were used in the statistical analysis. A significant increase in the frequency of HLA-DRB1*01, *04, *10 and *14 were identified in RA patients and showed a strong association with the disease susceptibility. While the frequencies of HLA-DRB1*03, *07, *11 and *13 were significantly lower in RA patients than in controls. The other HLA-DRB1 alleles *08, *09, *12, *15 and *16 showed no significant difference. The frequency of anti-CCP and RF antibodies did not showed significant difference in SE-positive patients compared with SE-negative patients. DAS-28 values of RA patients showed no significant difference between SE-positive and SE-negative groups. Our results indicate that HLA-DRB1*01, *04, *10 and *14 alleles are related with RA, while HLA-DRB1*03, *07, *11 and *13 protect against RA in our population. On the other hand, we failed to provide evidence for the association of the autoantibodies and DAS-28 with SE-positive RA patients. © 2016 Asia Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

A comparison of the effects of reflexology and relaxation on pain in women with multiple sclerosis.

PubMed

Nazari, Fatemeh; Soheili, Mozhgan; Hosseini, SayedMohsen; Shaygannejad, Vahid

2016-03-01

Pain is a common and significant symptom in many individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). The presence and severity of pain in individuals with MS has also been shown to be associated with higher levels of depression, functional impairment, and fatigue. It is common for MS patients and their caregivers to worry about narcotic addiction in the management of chronic pain. Therefore, this study aimed to determine and compare the effects of reflexology and relaxation on pain in women suffering from MS. This study was a single-blind randomized clinical trial performed on 75 patients with MS referred to the MS Clinic of Ayatollah Kashani Hospital (Isfahan, Iran). After simple non-random sampling, using the minimization method, participants were randomly assigned to the three groups of reflexology, relaxation, and control. In the experimental groups, foot reflexology and relaxation interventions (Jacobson and Benson) were performed within 4 weeks, twice a week for 40 min. The control group received routine care and medical treatment as directed by a doctor. Data were collected using the Numerical Rating Scale before, immediately after, and 2 months after interventions in all three groups. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 18 and descriptive and inferential statistical tests. Findings obtained from analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed no significant differences between mean pain intensity scores in the three groups preintervention and 2 months after interventions (p > 0.05). However, this difference was statistically significant immediately after the study (p < 0.05). Findings obtained from repeated measures ANOVA showed that the severity of pain significantly differed during different times in reflexology and relaxation (p < 0.05); however, this difference was not significant in the control group (p > 0.05). Furthermore, Fisher's least significant difference (LSD) revealed a significantly higher reduction in pain intensity scores in the reflexology group after the intervention, compared with the two other groups, but showed no significant differences between relaxation and control groups. There were no significant differences between the three groups 2 months after the interventions (p > 0.05). The results showed that both interventions are effective on relieving pain in women with MS; however, it appears that the effect of reflexology on pain reduction is greater than that of relaxation. Hence, these two methods can be recommended as effective techniques.

SeHCAT retention values as measured with a collimated and an uncollimated gamma camera: a method comparison study.

PubMed

Wright, James W; Lovell, Lesley A; Gemmell, Howard G; McKiddie, Fergus; Staff, Roger T

2013-07-01

TauroH-23-(Se) selena-25-homocholic acid retention values are used in the diagnosis of bile acid malabsorption. The standard method for measuring values is with an uncollimated gamma camera, which can create some logistic difficulties, with other background sources of activity, which are irrelevant when a collimator is used, becoming significant. In this study we compare the retention values obtained with a collimated and an uncollimated gamma camera in phantoms and in 23 patients. Bland-Altman plots were created using the data, which showed a mean bias in retention of 0.10% in the phantom study and 0.55% in the patient study between methods. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test with the null hypothesis of zero median difference between uncollimated and collimated methods was not statistically significant to P values less than 0.05 in the patient and phantom studies. In the patient study, on using a fixed boundary of retention (10%) between positive and negative status, the status of one patient was changed from negative (12%) to positive (9%). We conclude that measurement of retention with a collimated gamma camera is similar but not identical to that of uncollimated values. The clinical significance of this shift is unclear, as the threshold of significance and the method of integrating this measure with other clinical factors into management remain unclear.

Contrast improvement of continuous wave diffuse optical tomography reconstruction by hybrid approach using least square and genetic algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Patra, Rusha; Dutta, Pranab K.

2015-07-01

Reconstruction of the absorption coefficient of tissue with good contrast is of key importance in functional diffuse optical imaging. A hybrid approach using model-based iterative image reconstruction and a genetic algorithm is proposed to enhance the contrast of the reconstructed image. The proposed method yields an observed contrast of 98.4%, mean square error of 0.638×10-3, and object centroid error of (0.001 to 0.22) mm. Experimental validation of the proposed method has also been provided with tissue-like phantoms which shows a significant improvement in image quality and thus establishes the potential of the method for functional diffuse optical tomography reconstruction with continuous wave setup. A case study of finger joint imaging is illustrated as well to show the prospect of the proposed method in clinical diagnosis. The method can also be applied to the concentration measurement of a region of interest in a turbid medium.

Quasi-Newton parallel geometry optimization methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burger, Steven K.; Ayers, Paul W.

2010-07-01

Algorithms for parallel unconstrained minimization of molecular systems are examined. The overall framework of minimization is the same except for the choice of directions for updating the quasi-Newton Hessian. Ideally these directions are chosen so the updated Hessian gives steps that are same as using the Newton method. Three approaches to determine the directions for updating are presented: the straightforward approach of simply cycling through the Cartesian unit vectors (finite difference), a concurrent set of minimizations, and the Lanczos method. We show the importance of using preconditioning and a multiple secant update in these approaches. For the Lanczos algorithm, an initial set of directions is required to start the method, and a number of possibilities are explored. To test the methods we used the standard 50-dimensional analytic Rosenbrock function. Results are also reported for the histidine dipeptide, the isoleucine tripeptide, and cyclic adenosine monophosphate. All of these systems show a significant speed-up with the number of processors up to about eight processors.

Evaluation of the efficacy of twelve mitochondrial protein-coding genes as barcodes for mollusk DNA barcoding.

PubMed

Yu, Hong; Kong, Lingfeng; Li, Qi

2016-01-01

In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of 12 mitochondrial protein-coding genes from 238 mitochondrial genomes of 140 molluscan species as potential DNA barcodes for mollusks. Three barcoding methods (distance, monophyly and character-based methods) were used in species identification. The species recovery rates based on genetic distances for the 12 genes ranged from 70.83 to 83.33%. There were no significant differences in intra- or interspecific variability among the 12 genes. The monophyly and character-based methods provided higher resolution than the distance-based method in species delimitation. Especially in closely related taxa, the character-based method showed some advantages. The results suggested that besides the standard COI barcode, other 11 mitochondrial protein-coding genes could also be potentially used as a molecular diagnostic for molluscan species discrimination. Our results also showed that the combination of mitochondrial genes did not enhance the efficacy for species identification and a single mitochondrial gene would be fully competent.

Comparing the validity of the payment card and structured haggling willingness to pay methods: The case of a diabetes prevention program in rural Kenya.

PubMed

Kangethe, Anne; Franic, Duska M; Corso, Phaedra S

2016-11-01

The objective of this study was to compare the theoretical validity of two willingness-to-pay (WTP) methods, the commonly used payment card (PC) and the recently developed structured haggling (SH), for estimating the potential benefits of a diabetes prevention program in rural Kenya. A convenience sample of adult residents from a rural county in Kenya (Kiambu), with no history of diabetes, was randomly assigned to one of two WTP methods, PC or SH, using structured face-to-face interviews from December 2011 to February 2012. A total of 376 respondents completed the interviews using PC (n = 185) or SH (n = 191). More than 95% of respondents were willing to pay something for program access. The study showed that both methods were feasible in rural Kenya. SH resulted in a higher annual mean WTP than PC, Ksh504.05 (US$7.25) versus Ksh619.95 (US$5.90), respectively (p < 0.01). Based on theory, it was hypothesized that certain predisposing factors would result in greater WTP. Greater socio-economic status (measured using income proxies) resulted in greater unconditional WTP for both the PC and SH groups (t-tests and bivariate correlations) and conditional WTP (GLM models). GLM for PC showed being male, employed and having distant relatives with diabetes were significant predictors for WTP, while for SH being educated, employed and owning a vehicle were significant predictors. Both PC and SH showed theoretical validity in rural Kenya. However, the use of SH over PC in rural Kenya may be the better choice given that SH more closely mirrors marketplace transactions in this setting and the use of SH resulted in more significant variables in the GLM models. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparison of projection skills of deterministic ensemble methods using pseudo-simulation data generated from multivariate Gaussian distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oh, Seok-Geun; Suh, Myoung-Seok

2017-07-01

The projection skills of five ensemble methods were analyzed according to simulation skills, training period, and ensemble members, using 198 sets of pseudo-simulation data (PSD) produced by random number generation assuming the simulated temperature of regional climate models. The PSD sets were classified into 18 categories according to the relative magnitude of bias, variance ratio, and correlation coefficient, where each category had 11 sets (including 1 truth set) with 50 samples. The ensemble methods used were as follows: equal weighted averaging without bias correction (EWA_NBC), EWA with bias correction (EWA_WBC), weighted ensemble averaging based on root mean square errors and correlation (WEA_RAC), WEA based on the Taylor score (WEA_Tay), and multivariate linear regression (Mul_Reg). The projection skills of the ensemble methods improved generally as compared with the best member for each category. However, their projection skills are significantly affected by the simulation skills of the ensemble member. The weighted ensemble methods showed better projection skills than non-weighted methods, in particular, for the PSD categories having systematic biases and various correlation coefficients. The EWA_NBC showed considerably lower projection skills than the other methods, in particular, for the PSD categories with systematic biases. Although Mul_Reg showed relatively good skills, it showed strong sensitivity to the PSD categories, training periods, and number of members. On the other hand, the WEA_Tay and WEA_RAC showed relatively superior skills in both the accuracy and reliability for all the sensitivity experiments. This indicates that WEA_Tay and WEA_RAC are applicable even for simulation data with systematic biases, a short training period, and a small number of ensemble members.

Tensor-GMRES method for large sparse systems of nonlinear equations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Feng, Dan; Pulliam, Thomas H.

1994-01-01

This paper introduces a tensor-Krylov method, the tensor-GMRES method, for large sparse systems of nonlinear equations. This method is a coupling of tensor model formation and solution techniques for nonlinear equations with Krylov subspace projection techniques for unsymmetric systems of linear equations. Traditional tensor methods for nonlinear equations are based on a quadratic model of the nonlinear function, a standard linear model augmented by a simple second order term. These methods are shown to be significantly more efficient than standard methods both on nonsingular problems and on problems where the Jacobian matrix at the solution is singular. A major disadvantage of the traditional tensor methods is that the solution of the tensor model requires the factorization of the Jacobian matrix, which may not be suitable for problems where the Jacobian matrix is large and has a 'bad' sparsity structure for an efficient factorization. We overcome this difficulty by forming and solving the tensor model using an extension of a Newton-GMRES scheme. Like traditional tensor methods, we show that the new tensor method has significant computational advantages over the analogous Newton counterpart. Consistent with Krylov subspace based methods, the new tensor method does not depend on the factorization of the Jacobian matrix. As a matter of fact, the Jacobian matrix is never needed explicitly.

Investigation of work-related disorders in truck drivers using RULA method.

PubMed

Massaccesi, M; Pagnotta, A; Soccetti, A; Masali, M; Masiero, C; Greco, F

2003-07-01

A high incidence of spinal disorders is observed in professional drivers; in particular, back and neck pain result in high rates of morbidity and low retirement age. A sample of 77 drivers, of rubbish-collection vehicles who sit in a standard posture and of road-washing vehicles, who drive with the neck and trunk flexed, bent and twisted, was studied using RULA, a method for the evaluation of the exposure to risk factors associated with work-related upper-limb disorders. Results showed a significant association between trunk and neck scores and all self-reported pains, aches or discomforts in the trunk or neck regions in all subjects. In particular, the neck score was significant in both postures, reflecting high loading of the neck. Significantly different posture scores were also recorded for drivers using an adjustable vs. a non-adjustable seat. In this first RULA study of the working posture of professional truck drivers, the method proved to be a suitable tool for the rapid evaluation of the loading of neck and trunk.

Comparison of speech performance in labial and lingual orthodontic patients: A prospective study

PubMed Central

Rai, Ambesh Kumar; Rozario, Joe E.; Ganeshkar, Sanjay V.

2014-01-01

Background: The intensity and duration of speech difficulty inherently associated with lingual therapy is a significant issue of concern in orthodontics. This study was designed to evaluate and to compare the duration of changes in speech between labial and lingual orthodontics. Materials and Methods: A prospective longitudinal clinical study was designed to assess speech of 24 patients undergoing labial or lingual orthodontic treatment. An objective spectrographic evaluation of/s/sound was done using software PRAAT version 5.0.47, a semiobjective auditive evaluation of articulation was done by four speech pathologists and a subjective assessment of speech was done by four laypersons. The tests were performed before (T1), within 24 h (T2), after 1 week (T3) and after 1 month (T4) of the start of therapy. The Mann-Whitney U-test for independent samples was used to assess the significance difference between the labial and lingual appliances. A speech alteration with P < 0.05 was considered to be significant. Results: The objective method showed a significant difference to be present between the two groups for the/s/sound in the middle position (P < 0.001) at T3. The semiobjective assessment showed worst speech performance in the lingual group to be present at T3 for vowels and blends (P < 0.01) and at T3 and T4 for alveolar and palatal consonants (P < 0.01). The subjective assessment also showed a significant difference between the two groups at T3 (P < 0.01) and T4 (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Both appliance systems caused a comparable speech difficulty immediately after bonding (T2). Although the speech recovered within a week in the labial group (T3), the lingual group continued to experience discomfort even after a month (T4). PMID:25540661

[EFFECT OF BONE MARROW MESENCHYMAL STEM CELLS ON GASTRIC ULCER REPAIRING].

PubMed

Wang, Guozhong; Li, Chengjun; Fan, Xichao; Li, Bo; Xiao, Wei; Jin, Li

2015-07-01

To explore the ettect and mechanisms of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) on healing quality of acetic acid-induced gastric ulcer. Forty-eight clean grade male Wistar rats were used to establish the model of gastric ulcer with acetic acid and were randomly divided into 3 groups after 3 days of modeling, 16 rats each group. After the abdominal cavity was open and stomach was pulled out, no treatment was given in group A, 150 µL phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and 150 µL BMSCs at passage 4+PBS (1 x 10(8) cells/100 µL) were injected into the gastric wall surrounding the ulcer at 5 different points in groups B and C respectively. After 10 days, the ulcer area was measured, the mucosal thickness and the number of dilated glands were tested in the regenerative mucosa by histological method. And the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was detected at ulcerative margin by immunohistochemical method. The ulcer area in group C was significantly smaller than that of groups A and B (P < 0.01), but no significant difference was found between groups A and B (P > 0.05). HE staining showed that group C had thicker regenerative gastric mucosa, less dilated glands, and more regular mucosal structure than groups A and B, showing significant differences in regenerative gastric mucosa thickness and dilated glands number (P < 0.01), but no significant difference between groups A and B (P > 0.05). Immunohistochemical staining showed that the positive expression of VEGF in the ulcer margin mucosa of group C was significantly higher than that of groups A and B. The integral absorbance (IA) value of VEGF expression in group C was significantly higher than that in groups A and B (P < 0.01), but no significant difference between groups A and B (P > 0.05). BMSCs can accelerate ulcer healing by the secretion of VEGF, and improve the quality of ulcer healing.

Identification of high versus lower risk clinical subgroups in a group of adult patients with supratentorial anaplastic astrocytomas.

PubMed

Decaestecker, C; Salmon, I; Camby, I; Dewitte, O; Pasteels, J L; Brotchi, J; Van Ham, P; Kiss, R

1995-05-01

The present work investigates whether computer-assisted techniques can contribute any significant information to the characterization of astrocytic tumor aggressiveness. Two complementary computer-assisted methods were used. The first method made use of the digital image analysis of Feulgen-stained nuclei, making it possible to compute 15 morphonuclear and 8 nuclear DNA content-related (ploidy level) parameters. The second method enabled the most discriminatory parameters to be determined. This second method is the Decision Tree technique, which forms part of the Supervised Learning Algorithms. These two techniques were applied to a series of 250 supratentorial astrocytic tumors of the adult. This series included 39 low-grade (astrocytomas, AST) and 211 high-grade (47 anaplastic astrocytomas, ANA, and 164 glioblastomas, GBM) astrocytic tumors. The results show that some AST, ANA and GBM did not fit within simple logical rules. These "complex" cases were labeled NC-AST, NC-ANA and NC-GBM because they were "non-classical" (NC) with respect to their cytological features. An analysis of survival data revealed that the patients with NC-GBM had the same survival period as patients with GBM. In sharp contrast, patients with ANA survived significantly longer than patients with NC-ANA. In fact, the patients with ANA had the same survival period as patients who died from AST, while the patients with NC-ANA had a survival period similar to those with GBM. All these data show that the computer-assisted techniques used in this study can actually provide the pathologist with significant information on the characterization of astrocytic tumor aggressiveness.

Association of Interleukin 23 Receptor Polymorphisms with Anti-Topoisomerase-I Positivity and Pulmonary Hypertension in Systemic Sclerosis

PubMed Central

AGARWAL, SANDEEP K.; GOURH, PRAVITT; SHETE, SANJAY; PAZ, GENE; DIVECHA, DIPAL; REVEILLE, JOHN D.; ASSASSI, SHERVIN; TAN, FILEMON K.; MAYES, MAUREEN D.; ARNETT, FRANK C.

2010-01-01

Objective IL23R has been identified as a susceptibility gene for development of multiple autoimmune diseases. We investigated the possible association of IL23R with systemic sclerosis (SSc), an autoimmune disease that leads to the development of cutaneous and visceral fibrosis. Methods We tested 9 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in IL23R for association with SSc in a cohort of 1402 SSc cases and 1038 controls. IL23R SNP tested were previously identified as SNP showing associations with inflammatory bowel disease. Results Case-control comparisons revealed no statistically significant differences between patients and healthy controls with any of the IL23R polymorphisms. Analyses of subsets of SSc patients showed that rs11209026 (Arg381Gln variant) was associated with anti-topoisomerase I antibody (ATA)-positive SSc (p = 0.001)) and rs11465804 SNP was associated with diffuse and ATA-positive SSc (p = 0.0001, p = 0.0026, respectively). These associations remained significant after accounting for multiple comparisons using the false discovery rate method. Wild-type genotype at both rs11209026 and rs11465804 showed significant protection against the presence of pulmonary hypertension (PHT). (p = 3×10−5, p = 1×10−5, respectively). Conclusion Polymorphisms in IL23R are associated with susceptibility to ATA-positive SSc and protective against development of PHT in patients with SSc. PMID:19918037

The axenic treatments for Kappaphycus alvarezii (Rhodophyta) seedling in laboratory culture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adharini, R. I.; Setyawan, A. R.; Jayanti, A. D.; Suadi; Suyono, E. A.

2018-03-01

Obtaining an algae axenic culture in the culture medium are challenging. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of the application of several methods to reduce bacterial contamination in culture medium. The study was conducted using a complete randomized design in 3 stages, stage 1 using iodine immersion method with 4 treatments, stage 2 using immersion of antibiotics mixture with 3 different concentrations, stage 3 using mixture of antibiotic and medium with 3 concentration. The results showed that in stage 1, the lowest bacteria density was in treatment 4 (15 % betadine with 60’) (675.27 idv·mm-2), stage 2 showed that treatment 1 (50 mg·L-1) had the lowest bacteria density (265.62 idv·mm-2). Stage 3 showed that treatment 3 (10 mg·L-1) had the lowest density of bacteria (24.78 idv·mm-2). Based on the ANOVA test, stage 1 has no significant difference (> 0.05), in stage 2 there was a significant difference with treatment 1 was the best treatment, in stage 3 there was a significant difference and treatment 4 was the best result. Iodine 15 % with 60' immersion time; immersion with 50 mg·L-1 antibiotic, and mixture of medium with 10 mg·L-1 antibiotic gave the best results in reducing bacterial contamination.

Using Neuroplasticity-Based Auditory Training to Improve Verbal Memory in Schizophrenia

PubMed Central

Fisher, Melissa; Holland, Christine; Merzenich, Michael M.; Vinogradov, Sophia

2009-01-01

Objective Impaired verbal memory in schizophrenia is a key rate-limiting factor for functional outcome, does not respond to currently available medications, and shows only modest improvement after conventional behavioral remediation. The authors investigated an innovative approach to the remediation of verbal memory in schizophrenia, based on principles derived from the basic neuroscience of learning-induced neuroplasticity. The authors report interim findings in this ongoing study. Method Fifty-five clinically stable schizophrenia subjects were randomly assigned to either 50 hours of computerized auditory training or a control condition using computer games. Those receiving auditory training engaged in daily computerized exercises that placed implicit, increasing demands on auditory perception through progressively more difficult auditory-verbal working memory and verbal learning tasks. Results Relative to the control group, subjects who received active training showed significant gains in global cognition, verbal working memory, and verbal learning and memory. They also showed reliable and significant improvement in auditory psychophysical performance; this improvement was significantly correlated with gains in verbal working memory and global cognition. Conclusions Intensive training in early auditory processes and auditory-verbal learning results in substantial gains in verbal cognitive processes relevant to psychosocial functioning in schizophrenia. These gains may be due to a training method that addresses the early perceptual impairments in the illness, that exploits intact mechanisms of repetitive practice in schizophrenia, and that uses an intensive, adaptive training approach. PMID:19448187

Significance levels for studies with correlated test statistics.

PubMed

Shi, Jianxin; Levinson, Douglas F; Whittemore, Alice S

2008-07-01

When testing large numbers of null hypotheses, one needs to assess the evidence against the global null hypothesis that none of the hypotheses is false. Such evidence typically is based on the test statistic of the largest magnitude, whose statistical significance is evaluated by permuting the sample units to simulate its null distribution. Efron (2007) has noted that correlation among the test statistics can induce substantial interstudy variation in the shapes of their histograms, which may cause misleading tail counts. Here, we show that permutation-based estimates of the overall significance level also can be misleading when the test statistics are correlated. We propose that such estimates be conditioned on a simple measure of the spread of the observed histogram, and we provide a method for obtaining conditional significance levels. We justify this conditioning using the conditionality principle described by Cox and Hinkley (1974). Application of the method to gene expression data illustrates the circumstances when conditional significance levels are needed.

Students awareness of learning styles and their perceptions to a mixed method approach for learning

PubMed Central

Bhagat, Anumeha; Vyas, Rashmi; Singh, Tejinder

2015-01-01

Background: Individualization of instructional method does not contribute significantly to learning outcomes although it is known that students have differing learning styles (LSs). Hence, in order to maximally enhance learning, one must try to use a mixed method approach. Hypothesis: Our hypothesis was that awareness of preferred LS and motivation to incorporate multiple learning strategies might enhance learning outcomes. Aim: Our aim was to determine the impact of awareness of LS among medical undergraduates and motivating students to use mixed methods of learning. Materials and Methods: Before awareness lecture, LS preferences were determined using Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic (VARK) questionnaire. Awareness of LS was assessed using a validated questionnaire. Through a lecture, students were oriented to various LSs, impact of LS on their performance, and benefit of using mixed method approach for learning. Subsequently, group discussions were organized. After 3 months, VARK preferences and awareness of LSs were reassessed. Student narratives were collected. Qualitative analysis of the data was done. Results: There was a significant increase in the number of students who were aware of LS. The number of participants showing a change in VARK scores for various modalities of learning was also significant (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Thus, awareness of LSs motivated students to adapt other learning strategies and use mixed methods for learning. PMID:26380214

Utility-preserving anonymization for health data publishing.

PubMed

Lee, Hyukki; Kim, Soohyung; Kim, Jong Wook; Chung, Yon Dohn

2017-07-11

Publishing raw electronic health records (EHRs) may be considered as a breach of the privacy of individuals because they usually contain sensitive information. A common practice for the privacy-preserving data publishing is to anonymize the data before publishing, and thus satisfy privacy models such as k-anonymity. Among various anonymization techniques, generalization is the most commonly used in medical/health data processing. Generalization inevitably causes information loss, and thus, various methods have been proposed to reduce information loss. However, existing generalization-based data anonymization methods cannot avoid excessive information loss and preserve data utility. We propose a utility-preserving anonymization for privacy preserving data publishing (PPDP). To preserve data utility, the proposed method comprises three parts: (1) utility-preserving model, (2) counterfeit record insertion, (3) catalog of the counterfeit records. We also propose an anonymization algorithm using the proposed method. Our anonymization algorithm applies full-domain generalization algorithm. We evaluate our method in comparison with existence method on two aspects, information loss measured through various quality metrics and error rate of analysis result. With all different types of quality metrics, our proposed method show the lower information loss than the existing method. In the real-world EHRs analysis, analysis results show small portion of error between the anonymized data through the proposed method and original data. We propose a new utility-preserving anonymization method and an anonymization algorithm using the proposed method. Through experiments on various datasets, we show that the utility of EHRs anonymized by the proposed method is significantly better than those anonymized by previous approaches.

[Recurrence plot analysis of HRV for brain ischemia and asphyxia].

PubMed

Chen, Xiaoming; Qiu, Yihong; Zhu, Yisheng

2008-02-01

Heart rate variability (HRV) is the tiny variability existing in the cycles of the heart beats, which reflects the corresponding balance between sympathetic and vagus nerves. Since the nonlinear characteristic of HRV is confirmed, the Recurrence Plot method, a nonlinear dynamic analysis method based on the complexity, could be used to analyze HRV. The results showed the recurrence plot structures and some quantitative indices (L-Mean, L-Entr) during asphyxia insult vary significantly as compared to those in normal conditions, which offer a new method to monitor brain asphyxia injury.

A method to determine the mammographic regions that show early changes due to the development of breast cancer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karemore, Gopal; Nielsen, Mads; Karssemeijer, Nico; Brandt, Sami S.

2014-11-01

It is well understood nowadays that changes in the mammographic parenchymal pattern are an indicator of a risk of breast cancer and we have developed a statistical method that estimates the mammogram regions where the parenchymal changes, due to breast cancer, occur. This region of interest is computed from a score map by utilising the anatomical breast coordinate system developed in our previous work. The method also makes an automatic scale selection to avoid overfitting while the region estimates are computed by a nested cross-validation scheme. In this way, it is possible to recover those mammogram regions that show a significant difference in classification scores between the cancer and the control group. Our experiments suggested that the most significant mammogram region is the region behind the nipple and that can be justified by previous findings from other research groups. This result was conducted on the basis of the cross-validation experiments on independent training, validation and testing sets from the case-control study of 490 women, of which 245 women were diagnosed with breast cancer within a period of 2-4 years after the baseline mammograms. We additionally generalised the estimated region to another, mini-MIAS study and showed that the transferred region estimate gives at least a similar classification result when compared to the case where the whole breast region is used. In all, by following our method, one most likely improves both preclinical and follow-up breast cancer screening, but a larger study population will be required to test this hypothesis.

Dental and Chronological Ages as Determinants of Peak Growth Period and Its Relationship with Dental Calcification Stages

PubMed Central

Litsas, George; Lucchese, Alessandra

2016-01-01

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between dental, chronological, and cervical vertebral maturation growth in the peak growth period, as well as to study the association between the dental calcification phases and the skeletal maturity stages during the same growth period. Methods: Subjects were selected from orthodontic pre-treatment cohorts consisting of 420 subjects where 255 were identified and enrolled into the study, comprising 145 girls and 110 boys. The lateral cephalometric and panoramic radiographs were examined from the archives of the Department of Orthodontics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Dental age was assessed according to the method of Demirjian, and skeletal maturation according to the Cervical Vertebral Maturation Method. Statistical elaboration included Spearman Brown formula, descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and regression analysis, paired samples t-test, and Spearman’s rho correlation coefficient. Results: Chronological and dental age showed a high correlation for both gender(r =0.741 for boys, r = 0.770 for girls, p<0.001). The strongest correlation was for the CVM Stage IV for both males (r=0.554) and females (r=0.68). The lowest correlation was for the CVM Stage III in males (r=0.433, p<0.001) and for the CVM Stage II in females (r=0.393, p>0.001). The t-test revealed statistically significant differences between these variables (p<0.001) during the peak period. A statistically significant correlation (p<0.001) between tooth calcification and CVM stages was determined. The second molars showed the highest correlation with CVM stages (CVMS) (r= 0.65 for boys, r = 0.72 for girls). Conclusion: Dental age was more advanced than chronological for both boys and girls for all CVMS. During the peak period these differences were more pronounced. Moreover, all correlations between skeletal and dental stages were statistically significant. The second molars showed the highest correlation whereas the canines showed the lowest correlation for both gender. PMID:27335610

Effects of three different preservation methods on the mechanical properties of human and bovine cortical bone.

PubMed

Unger, Stefan; Stefan, Unger; Blauth, Michael; Michael, Blauth; Schmoelz, Werner; Werner, Schmoelz

2010-12-01

In the development of new strategies for fracture fixation, new methods have to be tested biomechanically under in vitro conditions before clinical trials can be performed. The gold standard for laboratory evaluations is fresh-frozen specimen. As the availability of fresh-frozen specimens is limited and since their use bears infectious risks, specimens treated with various chemical embalming fluids are also used. These preservation methods may alter the mechanical properties of the specimens used. Therefore, the aims of the present study were to determine the effects of three different preservation methods (formalin fixation (FO), Thiel-fixation (TH), and alcohol-glycerine fixation (AG)) on the elastic and postyield mechanical properties of cortical bone and to compare these properties to those of fresh-frozen (FF) specimens. Cylindrical cortical specimens (diameter 3mm, length 60 mm) were obtained from human femurs (n=48) and bovine tibiae (n=40). Before specimen immersion in different fixation fluids, bone mineral density (BMD) as well as the initial Young's modulus was determined. The Young's modulus was determined in a nondestructive bending test, and measurements were repeated after 6 months of immersion in fixative solution. Subsequent to the nondestructive test, a destructive 3-point bending test was conducted to assess the postyield and fracture properties. The BMD as well as the initial Young's modulus showed no significant differences between the four test groups. After 6 months in fixative solution, the Young's modulus was significantly lowered in human Thiel specimens and only showed minor changes in formalin- and alcohol-glycerine-treated specimens. The plastic energy absorption of human and bovine specimens was altered significantly. Formalin as well as alcohol-glycerine fixation yielded a significant decrease in plastic energy absorption, whereas Thiel fixation significantly increased the plastic energy absorption. Because of the significantly altered plastic mechanical properties of cortical bone, the use fresh-frozen bone specimens is recommended in biomechanical studies investigating failure loads of orthopaedic implants. The use of embalmed specimens should be restricted to pilot tests. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Comparison of the effects of storytelling and creative drama methods on children's awareness about personal hygiene

PubMed Central

Soleymani, Mohammad Reza; Hemmati, Soheila; Ashrafi-Rizi, Hassan; Shahrzadi, Leila

2017-01-01

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Maintaining and improving the health situation of children requires them to become more aware about personal hygiene through proper education. Based on several studies, teachings provided through informal methods are fully understandable for children. Therefore, the goal of this study is to compare the effects of creative drama and storytelling education methods on increasing the awareness of children regarding personal hygiene. METHODS: This is an applied study conducted using semiempirical method in two groups. The study population consisted of 85 children participating in 4th center for Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in Isfahan, 40 of which were randomly selected and placed in storytelling and creative drama groups with 20 members each. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire created by the researchers whose content validity was confirmed by health education experts. The gathered information were analyzed using both descriptive (average and standard deviation) and analytical (independent t-test and paired t-test) statistical methods. RESULTS: The findings showed that there was a meaningful difference between the awareness score of both groups before and after intervention. The average awareness score of storytelling group was increased from 50.69 to 86.83 while the average score of creative drama group was increased from 57.37 to 85.09. Furthermore, according to paired t-test results, there was no significant difference between average scores of storytelling and creative drama groups. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the current study showed that although both storytelling and creative drama methods are effective in increasing the awareness of children regarding personal hygiene, there is no significant difference between the two methods. PMID:29114550

Enhanced Detection of Surface-Associated Bacteria in Indoor Environments by Quantitative PCR

PubMed Central

Buttner, Mark P.; Cruz-Perez, Patricia; Stetzenbach, Linda D.

2001-01-01

Methods for detecting microorganisms on surfaces are needed to locate biocontamination sources and to relate surface and airborne concentrations. Research was conducted in an experimental room to evaluate surface sampling methods and quantitative PCR (QPCR) for enhanced detection of a target biocontaminant present on flooring materials. QPCR and culture analyses were used to quantitate Bacillus subtilis (Bacillus globigii) endospores on vinyl tile, commercial carpet, and new and soiled residential carpet with samples obtained by four surface sampling methods: a swab kit, a sponge swipe, a cotton swab, and a bulk method. The initial data showed that greater overall sensitivity was obtained with the QPCR than with culture analysis; however, the QPCR results for bulk samples from residential carpet were negative. The swab kit and the sponge swipe methods were then tested with two levels of background biological contamination consisting of Penicillium chrysogenum spores. The B. subtilis values obtained by the QPCR method were greater than those obtained by culture analysis. The differences between the QPCR and culture data were significant for the samples obtained with the swab kit for all flooring materials except soiled residential carpet and with the sponge swipe for commercial carpet. The QPCR data showed that there were no significant differences between the swab kit and sponge swipe sampling methods for any of the flooring materials. Inhibition of QPCR due solely to biological contamination of flooring materials was not evident. However, some degree of inhibition was observed with the soiled residential carpet, which may have been caused by the presence of abiotic contaminants, alone or in combination with biological contaminants. The results of this research demonstrate the ability of QPCR to enhance detection and enumeration of biocontaminants on surface materials and provide information concerning the comparability of currently available surface sampling methods. PMID:11375164

Different partial volume correction methods lead to different conclusions: An (18)F-FDG-PET study of aging.

PubMed

Greve, Douglas N; Salat, David H; Bowen, Spencer L; Izquierdo-Garcia, David; Schultz, Aaron P; Catana, Ciprian; Becker, J Alex; Svarer, Claus; Knudsen, Gitte M; Sperling, Reisa A; Johnson, Keith A

2016-05-15

A cross-sectional group study of the effects of aging on brain metabolism as measured with (18)F-FDG-PET was performed using several different partial volume correction (PVC) methods: no correction (NoPVC), Meltzer (MZ), Müller-Gärtner (MG), and the symmetric geometric transfer matrix (SGTM) using 99 subjects aged 65-87years from the Harvard Aging Brain study. Sensitivity to parameter selection was tested for MZ and MG. The various methods and parameter settings resulted in an extremely wide range of conclusions as to the effects of age on metabolism, from almost no changes to virtually all of cortical regions showing a decrease with age. Simulations showed that NoPVC had significant bias that made the age effect on metabolism appear to be much larger and more significant than it is. MZ was found to be the same as NoPVC for liberal brain masks; for conservative brain masks, MZ showed few areas correlated with age. MG and SGTM were found to be similar; however, MG was sensitive to a thresholding parameter that can result in data loss. CSF uptake was surprisingly high at about 15% of that in gray matter. The exclusion of CSF from SGTM and MG models, which is almost universally done, caused a substantial loss in the power to detect age-related changes. This diversity of results reflects the literature on the metabolism of aging and suggests that extreme care should be taken when applying PVC or interpreting results that have been corrected for partial volume effects. Using the SGTM, significant age-related changes of about 7% per decade were found in frontal and cingulate cortices as well as primary visual and insular cortices. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Different Partial Volume Correction Methods Lead to Different Conclusions: an 18F-FDG PET Study of Aging

PubMed Central

Greve, Douglas N.; Salat, David H.; Bowen, Spencer L.; Izquierdo-Garcia, David; Schultz, Aaron P.; Catana, Ciprian; Becker, J. Alex; Svarer, Claus; Knudsen, Gitte; Sperling, Reisa A.; Johnson, Keith A.

2016-01-01

A cross-sectional group study of the effects of aging on brain metabolism as measured with 18F-FDG PET was performed using several different partial volume correction (PVC) methods: no correction (NoPVC), Meltzer (MZ), Müller-Gärtner (MG), and the symmetric geometric transfer matrix (SGTM) using 99 subjects aged 65-87 from the Harvard Aging Brain study. Sensitivity to parameter selection was tested for MZ and MG. The various methods and parameter settings resulted in an extremely wide range of conclusions as to the effects of age on metabolism, from almost no changes to virtually all of cortical regions showing a decrease with age. Simulations showed that NoPVC had significant bias that made the age effect on metabolism appear to be much larger and more significant than it is. MZ was found to be the same as NoPVC for liberal brain masks; for conservative brain masks, MZ showed few areas correlated with age. MG and SGTM were found to be similar; however, MG was sensitive to a thresholding parameter that can result in data loss. CSF uptake was surprisingly high at about 15% of that in gray matter. Exclusion of CSF from SGTM and MG models, which is almost universally done, caused a substantial loss in the power to detect age-related changes. This diversity of results reflects the literature on the metabolism of aging and suggests that extreme care should be taken when applying PVC or interpreting results that have been corrected for partial volume effects. Using the SGTM, significant age-related changes of about 7% per decade were found in frontal and cingulate cortices as well as primary visual and insular cortices. PMID:26915497

Effect of blanching treatments on antioxidant activity of frozen green capsicum (Capsicum annuum L. var bell pepper) using radical scavenging activity (DPPH) assay

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Azizzuddin, Norafida; Abdullah, Aminah

2016-11-01

Blanching treatments are needed to deactivate enzymes in frozen vegetables. Antioxidant activity using DPPH radical scavenging activity assay were evaluated in steaming, boiling water, and microwave blanching at different temperature, time and microwave power level on frozen green capsicum. Green capsicum was chosen for frozen treatment compared to other capsicum with different maturity index because of the firm texture. The objective of this study was to compare the antioxidant activity of frozen green capsicum between conventional and Oxi Count Kit® assay for DPPH radical scavenging activity. Results showed frozen green capsicum blanched using microwave at high level/90 seconds (sample J) contained higher level of DPPH in both conventional method and Oxi Count Kit® compared to other treatments. However, there were no significant differences between sample J and fresh sample (sample A). Overall, the sequences from highest to lowest in blanching treatments for both DPPH conventional method, and DPPH Oxi Count Kit® were J (microwave high level/90 seconds) > A (Fresh) > H (Microwave Medium Level/120 seconds) > D (Boiling Water 80°C/150 seconds) > K (Microwave High Level/120 seconds) > I (Microwave Medium Level/150 seconds) > F (Microwave Low Level/150 seconds)> B (Steam 100°C/150 seconds) > E (Boiling Water 100°C /120 seconds) > G (Microwave Low Level /180 seconds)> C (Steam 100°C/180 seconds). Almost all frozen green capsicum samples showed no significant differences for comparison between test using DPPH conventional method and Oxi Count Kit®. Frozen storage for 0, and 3rd months showed no significant differences which indicate no changes on antioxidant activity during frozen storage at -18°C.

Substantial increase in concurrent droughts and heatwaves in the United States

PubMed Central

Mazdiyasni, Omid; AghaKouchak, Amir

2015-01-01

A combination of climate events (e.g., low precipitation and high temperatures) may cause a significant impact on the ecosystem and society, although individual events involved may not be severe extremes themselves. Analyzing historical changes in concurrent climate extremes is critical to preparing for and mitigating the negative effects of climatic change and variability. This study focuses on the changes in concurrences of heatwaves and meteorological droughts from 1960 to 2010. Despite an apparent hiatus in rising temperature and no significant trend in droughts, we show a substantial increase in concurrent droughts and heatwaves across most parts of the United States, and a statistically significant shift in the distribution of concurrent extremes. Although commonly used trend analysis methods do not show any trend in concurrent droughts and heatwaves, a unique statistical approach discussed in this study exhibits a statistically significant change in the distribution of the data. PMID:26324927

Substantial increase in concurrent droughts and heatwaves in the United States.

PubMed

Mazdiyasni, Omid; AghaKouchak, Amir

2015-09-15

A combination of climate events (e.g., low precipitation and high temperatures) may cause a significant impact on the ecosystem and society, although individual events involved may not be severe extremes themselves. Analyzing historical changes in concurrent climate extremes is critical to preparing for and mitigating the negative effects of climatic change and variability. This study focuses on the changes in concurrences of heatwaves and meteorological droughts from 1960 to 2010. Despite an apparent hiatus in rising temperature and no significant trend in droughts, we show a substantial increase in concurrent droughts and heatwaves across most parts of the United States, and a statistically significant shift in the distribution of concurrent extremes. Although commonly used trend analysis methods do not show any trend in concurrent droughts and heatwaves, a unique statistical approach discussed in this study exhibits a statistically significant change in the distribution of the data.

A spatiotemporal analysis of U.S. station temperature trends over the last century

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Capparelli, V.; Franzke, C.; Vecchio, A.; Freeman, M. P.; Watkins, N. W.; Carbone, V.

2013-07-01

This study presents a nonlinear spatiotemporal analysis of 1167 station temperature records from the United States Historical Climatology Network covering the period from 1898 through 2008. We use the empirical mode decomposition method to extract the generally nonlinear trends of each station. The statistical significance of each trend is assessed against three null models of the background climate variability, represented by stochastic processes of increasing temporal correlation length. We find strong evidence that more than 50% of all stations experienced a significant trend over the last century with respect to all three null models. A spatiotemporal analysis reveals a significant cooling trend in the South-East and significant warming trends in the rest of the contiguous U.S. It also shows that the warming trend appears to have migrated equatorward. This shows the complex spatiotemporal evolution of climate change at local scales.

Fully nonlocal inelastic scattering computations for spectroscopical transmission electron microscopy methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rusz, Ján; Lubk, Axel; Spiegelberg, Jakob; Tyutyunnikov, Dmitry

2017-12-01

The complex interplay of elastic and inelastic scattering amenable to different levels of approximation constitutes the major challenge for the computation and hence interpretation of TEM-based spectroscopical methods. The two major approaches to calculate inelastic scattering cross sections of fast electrons on crystals—Yoshioka-equations-based forward propagation and the reciprocal wave method—are founded in two conceptually differing schemes—a numerical forward integration of each inelastically scattered wave function, yielding the exit density matrix, and a computation of inelastic scattering matrix elements using elastically scattered initial and final states (double channeling). Here, we compare both approaches and show that the latter is computationally competitive to the former by exploiting analytical integration schemes over multiple excited states. Moreover, we show how to include full nonlocality of the inelastic scattering event, neglected in the forward propagation approaches, at no additional computing costs in the reciprocal wave method. Detailed simulations show in some cases significant errors due to the z -locality approximation and hence pitfalls in the interpretation of spectroscopical TEM results.

A modified method of 3D-SSP analysis for amyloid PET imaging using [¹¹C]BF-227.

PubMed

Kaneta, Tomohiro; Okamura, Nobuyuki; Minoshima, Satoshi; Furukawa, Katsutoshi; Tashiro, Manabu; Furumoto, Shozo; Iwata, Ren; Fukuda, Hiroshi; Takahashi, Shoki; Yanai, Kazuhiko; Kudo, Yukitsuka; Arai, Hiroyuki

2011-12-01

Three-dimensional stereotactic surface projection (3D-SSP) analyses have been widely used in dementia imaging studies. However, 3D-SSP sometimes shows paradoxical results on amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) analyses. This is thought to be caused by errors in anatomical standardization (AS) based on an (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) template. We developed a new method of 3D-SSP analysis for amyloid PET imaging, and used it to analyze (11)C-labeled 2-(2-[2-dimethylaminothiazol-5-yl]ethenyl)-6-(2-[fluoro]ethoxy)benzoxazole (BF-227) PET images of subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The subjects were 20 with MCI, 19 patients with AD, and 17 healthy controls. Twelve subjects with MCI were followed up for 3 years or more, and conversion to AD was seen in 6 cases. All subjects underwent PET with both FDG and BF-227. For AS and 3D-SSP analyses of PET data, Neurostat (University of Washington, WA, USA) was used. Method 1 involves AS for BF-227 images using an FDG template. In this study, we developed a new method (Method 2) for AS: First, an FDG image was subjected to AS using an FDG template. Then, the BF-227 image of the same patient was registered to the FDG image, and AS was performed using the transformation parameters calculated for AS of the corresponding FDG images. Regional values were normalized by the average value obtained at the cerebellum and values were calculated for the frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes. For statistical comparison of the 3 groups, we applied one-way analysis of variance followed by the Bonferroni post hoc test. For statistical comparison between converters and non-converters, the t test was applied. Statistical significance was defined as p < 0.05. Among the 56 cases we studied, Method 1 demonstrated slight distortions after AS of the image in 16 cases and heavy distortions in 4 cases in which the distortions were not observed with Method 2. Both methods demonstrated that the values in AD and MCI patients were significantly higher than those in the controls, in the parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes. However, only Method 2 showed significant differences in the frontal lobes. In addition, Method 2 could demonstrate a significantly higher value in MCI-to-AD converters in the parietal and frontal lobes. Method 2 corrects AS errors that often occur when using Method 1, and has made appropriate 3D-SSP analysis of amyloid PET imaging possible. This new method of 3D-SSP analysis for BF-227 PET could prove useful for detecting differences between normal groups and AD and MCI groups, and between converters and non-converters.

Evaluation of Small Arms Range Soils for Metal Contamination and Lead Bioavailability

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-11-03

measured by an in vivo or in vitro method. Risk assessment and/or remediation of small arms ranges should therefore assume a high relative bioavailability of...lead for the eight soils was about 100% (108 ( 18% and 95 ( 6%, respectively) showing good agreement between both methods. Risk assessment and/ or...significant efforts in stewardship, environmental risk assessment , and reme- diation, so that training of personnel and future land use can be

Phased Array Ultrasound: Initial Development of PAUT Inspection of Self-Reacting Friction Stir Welds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rairigh, Ryan

2008-01-01

This slide presentation reviews the development of Phased Array Ultrasound (PAUT) as a non-destructive examination method for Self Reacting Friction Stir Welds (SR-FSW). PAUT is the only NDE method which has been shown to detect detrimental levels of Residual Oxide Defect (ROD), which can result in significant decrease in weld strength. The presentation reviews the PAUT process, and shows the results in comparison with x-ray radiography.

Processable high temperature resistant polymer matrix materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Serafini, T. T.

1975-01-01

A review is presented of studies conducted with addition-cured polyimides, giving particular attention to an improved method involving in situ polymerization of monomer reactants (PMR) on the surface of the reinforcing fibers. The studies show that the PMR approach provides a powerful method for fabricating high performance polymer matrix composites. Significant advantages of the PMR approach are related to the superior high temperature properties of the obtained material, lower cost, greater safety, and processing versatility.

Comparing machine learning and logistic regression methods for predicting hypertension using a combination of gene expression and next-generation sequencing data.

PubMed

Held, Elizabeth; Cape, Joshua; Tintle, Nathan

2016-01-01

Machine learning methods continue to show promise in the analysis of data from genetic association studies because of the high number of variables relative to the number of observations. However, few best practices exist for the application of these methods. We extend a recently proposed supervised machine learning approach for predicting disease risk by genotypes to be able to incorporate gene expression data and rare variants. We then apply 2 different versions of the approach (radial and linear support vector machines) to simulated data from Genetic Analysis Workshop 19 and compare performance to logistic regression. Method performance was not radically different across the 3 methods, although the linear support vector machine tended to show small gains in predictive ability relative to a radial support vector machine and logistic regression. Importantly, as the number of genes in the models was increased, even when those genes contained causal rare variants, model predictive ability showed a statistically significant decrease in performance for both the radial support vector machine and logistic regression. The linear support vector machine showed more robust performance to the inclusion of additional genes. Further work is needed to evaluate machine learning approaches on larger samples and to evaluate the relative improvement in model prediction from the incorporation of gene expression data.

[Preparation of chicken red blood cells for calibration of flow cytometry].

PubMed

Yin, Jian; Zhao, Shutao; Wu, Xiaodong; Wang, Ce; Wu, Yunliang

2013-01-01

To prepare stable chicken red blood cells for the calibration of flow cytometry. The traditional isolation method of chicken red blood cells was modified by incorporating gelatin technique, Ca2+-free HBSS treatment and low-speed centrifugation. The effect of fluorescence staining of the cells was improved by the addition of TritonX-100 to enhance the membrane permeability and Rnase enzymes to disintegrate RNA tiles. The modified method was compared with the traditional method for viability of the freshly isolated cells and the DNA content coefficient of variation (CV) of the fixed cells. Chicken red blood cells obtained by the modified method showed a significantly higher viability than those obtained by the traditional method [(98.5∓3.5)% vs (93.5∓2.7)%, P<0.05]. After glutaraldehyde fixation, the isolated cells with the modified method were stable during the 90-day preservation with a significantly lower CV than the cells obtained by the traditional method [(6.0∓0.3)% to 6.2∓0.4% vs (8.6∓0.5)% to (13.1∓1.4)%, P<0.01]. The chicken red blood cells isolated using the modified method can be applicable for calibration of flow cytometry.

An effective protein extraction method for two-dimensional electrophoresis in the anticancer herb Andrographis paniculata Nees.

PubMed

Talei, Daryush; Valdiani, Alireza; Puad, Mohd Abdullah

2013-01-01

Proteomic analysis of plants relies on high yields of pure protein. In plants, protein extraction and purification present a great challenge due to accumulation of a large amount of interfering substances, including polysaccharides, polyphenols, and secondary metabolites. Therefore, it is necessary to modify the extraction protocols. A study was conducted to compare four protein extraction and precipitation methods for proteomic analysis. The results showed significant differences in protein content among the four methods. The chloroform-trichloroacetic acid-acetone method using 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid (HEPES) buffer provided the best results in terms of protein content, pellets, spot resolution, and intensity of unique spots detected. An overall of 83 qualitative or quantitative significant differential spots were found among the four methods. Based on the 2-DE gel map, the method is expected to benefit the development of high-level proteomic and biochemical studies of Andrographis paniculata, which may also be applied to other recalcitrant medicinal plant tissues. © 2013 International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Optimal affinity ranking for automated virtual screening validated in prospective D3R grand challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wingert, Bentley M.; Oerlemans, Rick; Camacho, Carlos J.

2018-01-01

The goal of virtual screening is to generate a substantially reduced and enriched subset of compounds from a large virtual chemistry space. Critical in these efforts are methods to properly rank the binding affinity of compounds. Prospective evaluations of ranking strategies in the D3R grand challenges show that for targets with deep pockets the best correlations (Spearman ρ 0.5) were obtained by our submissions that docked compounds to the holo-receptors with the most chemically similar ligand. On the other hand, for targets with open pockets using multiple receptor structures is not a good strategy. Instead, docking to a single optimal receptor led to the best correlations (Spearman ρ 0.5), and overall performs better than any other method. Yet, choosing a suboptimal receptor for crossdocking can significantly undermine the affinity rankings. Our submissions that evaluated the free energy of congeneric compounds were also among the best in the community experiment. Error bars of around 1 kcal/mol are still too large to significantly improve the overall rankings. Collectively, our top of the line predictions show that automated virtual screening with rigid receptors perform better than flexible docking and other more complex methods.

Evaluation of micro-organism-detaching efficacy from meat samples by spindle or stomacher treatment and quality analysis of suspensions.

PubMed

Kim, S-J; Kim, D-K; Kang, D-H

2016-04-01

We investigated and compared the efficacy of a new apparatus for detaching micro-organisms from meat samples. The efficacy of Spindle and stomacher in detaching micro-organisms from meat samples was evaluated. Also, evaluation of appropriateness of suspensions generated by both methods for carrying out molecular biological analysis was implemented. A nearly identical correlation and high R(2) were obtained between Spindle and stomacher in Aerobic Plate Count (APC), and no significant differences were observed in detachment of three major foodborne pathogens. The suspension generated by the Spindle showed lower turbidity and total protein concentration. Also, significantly different threshold cycles were observed in Real-time PCR analysis using suspensions generated by both methods. The Spindle shows nearly identical efficacy with stomacher treatment in detaching micro-organisms from meat samples. Furthermore, the high quality of suspensions generated by the Spindle, in terms of turbidity and total protein assay, allows for a lower threshold cycle than stomached suspension in Real-time PCR. The Spindle could be an alternative method for detaching micro-organisms, yielding a higher quality of suspensions which may be better suited for further molecular microbiological analysis. © 2016 The Society for Applied Microbiology.

A study of an aroma extraction method and evaluation of the aroma extract contribution to the palatability and reinforcement effect of dried bonito using mice.

PubMed

Amitsuka, Takahiko; Okamura, Maya; Shiibashi, Hiroko; Yamamoto, Naoto; Saito, Tsukasa; Nammoku, Takashi; Tsuzuki, Satoshi; Inoue, Kazuo; Fushiki, Tohru

2014-01-01

Japanese cuisine has provided satisfying meals by fully utilizing the characteristic aroma and taste of katsuodashi (dried bonito broth), though it is not rich in sugars or fats. Katsuodashi is a very basic and indispensable element in Japanese cuisine, and is a hot water extract of katsuobushi (dried bonito). It has been reported that a dextrin solution containing natural dried bonito broth has a significant reinforcement effect, and has been suggested that the olfactory stimulation is important for the reinforcement effect. We examined various source materials for broth and identified an optimal method of aroma extraction by two-bottle choice and conditioned place preference tests in mice. By two-bottle choice tests, a solution containing arabushi (a type of katsuobushi) aroma extract obtained by a supercritical CO2 extraction method showed a significantly high preference. The conditioned place preference test showed the dashi-taste solution with arabushi supercritical CO2 extract had a reinforcement effect. Our results suggest that the arabushi extract obtained by supercritical CO2 extraction contains components responsible for preference and reinforcement effects in mice; it could become conducive to making Japanese cuisine more satisfying and palatable.

Interleukin-6 in cerebrospinal fluid as a biomarker of acute meningitis.

PubMed

García-Hernández, Pablo; Prieto, Belén; Martínez-Morillo, Eduardo; Rodríguez, Verónica; Álvarez, Francisco V

2016-01-01

Microbiological culture of cerebrospinal fluid is the gold standard to differentiate between aseptic and bacterial meningitis, but this method has low sensitivity. A fast and reliable new marker would be of interest in clinical practice. Interleukin-6, secreted by T cells in response to meningeal pathogens and quickly delivered into cerebrospinal fluid, was evaluated as a marker of acute meningitis. A total of 150 cerebrospinal fluid samples were analysed by an electrochemiluminescence method, selected according to patient diagnosis: (a) bacterial meningitis confirmed by positive culture (n = 26); (b) bacterial meningitis with negative culture or not performed (n = 15); (c) viral meningitis confirmed by polymerase chain reaction or immunoglobulin G determination (n = 23); (d) viral meningitis with polymerase chain reaction negative or not performed (n = 42); and (e) controls (n = 44). Cerebrospinal fluid interleukin-6 concentration showed significant differences between all pathologic groups and the control group (P < 0.001). As a diagnostic tool for bacterial meningitis, interleukin-6 showed an area under the curve of 0.937 (95% confidence intervals: 0.895-0.978), significantly higher than those of classical biomarkers. An interleukin-6 cutoff of 1418 pg/mL showed 95.5% sensitivity and 77.5% specificity, whereas a value of 15,060 pg/mL showed 63.6% sensitivity and 96.7% specificity, for diagnosis of bacterial meningitis. Interleukin-6 measured by electrochemiluminescence method is a promising marker for early differentiation between aseptic and bacterial meningitis. More studies are needed to validate clinical implications for future practice in an emergency laboratory. © The Author(s) 2015.

The effect of physical activity homework on physical activity among college students.

PubMed

Claxton, David; Wells, Gayle M

2009-03-01

This study examined the effect of using physical activity homework on physical activity levels of college students. Students in randomly assigned sections of a university health course were assigned 30 minutes of physical activity homework 3 days a week or no homework for 12 weeks. Participants completed self-reports of physical activity before the homework intervention and again at the conclusion of the 12 weeks of physical activity homework. Participants in all course sections reported significant increases in the number of days per week of moderate and vigorous physical activity. Participants in homework sections additionally showed significant increases in the days they engaged in muscular strength/endurance training and activities to manage weight. Participants in sections without homework showed a significant increase in the number of days engaged in flexibility training. Comparison of gain scores showed statistically significant increases by the homework group in the days they participated in activities designed to manage weight. Physical activity homework was deemed to be an effective method of increasing college students' levels of physical activity.

Significant population genetic structure detected in the rock bream Oplegnathus fasciatus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844) inferred from fluorescent-AFLP analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiao, Yongshuang; Ma, Daoyuan; Xu, Shihong; Liu, Qinghua; Wang, Yanfeng; Xiao, Zhizhong; Li, Jun

2016-05-01

Oplegnathus fasciatus (rock bream) is a commercial rocky reef fish species in East Asia that has been considered for aquaculture. We estimated the population genetic diversity and population structure of the species along the coastal waters of China using fluorescent-amplified fragment length polymorphisms technology. Using 53 individuals from three populations and four pairs of selective primers, we amplified 1 264 bands, 98.73% of which were polymorphic. The Zhoushan population showed the highest Nei's genetic diversity and Shannon genetic diversity. The results of analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that 59.55% of genetic variation existed among populations and 40.45% occurred within populations, which indicated that a significant population genetic structure existed in the species. The pairwise fixation index F st ranged from 0.20 to 0.63 and were significant after sequential Bonferroni correction. The topology of an unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean tree showed two significant genealogical branches corresponding to the sampling locations of North and South China. The AMOVA and STRUCTURE analyses suggested that the O. fasciatus populations examined should comprise two stocks.

DNA methylation Landscape of body size variation in sheep.

PubMed

Cao, Jiaxue; Wei, Caihong; Liu, Dongming; Wang, Huihua; Wu, Mingming; Xie, Zhiyuan; Capellini, Terence D; Zhang, Li; Zhao, Fuping; Li, Li; Zhong, Tao; Wang, Linjie; Lu, Jian; Liu, Ruizao; Zhang, Shifang; Du, Yongfei; Zhang, Hongping; Du, Lixin

2015-10-16

Sub-populations of Chinese Mongolian sheep exhibit significant variance in body mass. In the present study, we sequenced the whole genome DNA methylation in these breeds to detect whether DNA methylation plays a role in determining the body mass of sheep by Methylated DNA immunoprecipitation - sequencing method. A high quality methylation map of Chinese Mongolian sheep was obtained in this study. We identified 399 different methylated regions located in 93 human orthologs, which were previously reported as body size related genes in human genome-wide association studies. We tested three regions in LTBP1, and DNA methylation of two CpG sites showed significant correlation with its RNA expression. Additionally, a particular set of differentially methylated windows enriched in the "development process" (GO: 0032502) was identified as potential candidates for association with body mass variation. Next, we validated small part of these windows in 5 genes; DNA methylation of SMAD1, TSC1 and AKT1 showed significant difference across breeds, and six CpG were significantly correlated with RNA expression. Interestingly, two CpG sites showed significant correlation with TSC1 protein expression. This study provides a thorough understanding of body size variation in sheep from an epigenetic perspective.

Comparative analysis of the effects combined physical procedures and alpha-lipoic acid on the electroneurographic parameters of patients with distal sensorimotor diabetic polyneuropathy

PubMed Central

Grbovic, Vesna; Jurisic-Skevin, Aleksandra; Djukic, Svetlana; Stefanović, Srdjan; Nurkovic, Jasmin

2016-01-01

[Purpose] Painful diabetic polyneuropathy occurs as a complication in 16% of all patients with diabetes mellitus. [Subjects and Methods] A clinical, prospective open-label randomized intervention study was conducted of 60 adult patients, with distal sensorimotor diabetic neuropathy two groups of 30 patients, with diabetes mellitus type 2 with distal sensorimotor diabetic neuropathy. Patients in group A were treated with combined physical procedures, and patients in group B were treated with alpha lipoic acid. [Results] There where a statistically significant improvements in terminal latency and the amplitude of the action potential in group A patients, while group B patients showed a statistically significant improvements in conduction velocity and terminal latency of n. peroneus. Group A patients showed a statistically significant improvements in conduction velocity and terminal latency, while group B patients also showed a statistically significant improvements in conduction velocity and terminal latency. This was reflected in a significant improvements in electrophysiological parameters (conduction velocity, amplitude and latency) of the motor and sensory nerves (n. peroneus, n. suralis). [Conclusion] These results present further evidence justifying of the use of physical agents in the treatment of diabetic sensorimotor polyneuropathy. PMID:27065527

Characterization and stability studies of a novel liposomal cyclosporin A prepared using the supercritical fluid method: comparison with the modified conventional Bangham method

PubMed Central

Karn, Pankaj Ranjan; Cho, Wonkyung; Park, Hee-Jun; Park, Jeong-Sook; Hwang, Sung-Joo

2013-01-01

A novel method to prepare cyclosporin A encapsulated liposomes was introduced using supercritical fluid of carbon dioxide (SCF-CO2) as an antisolvent. To investigate the strength of the newly developed SCF-CO2 method compared with the modified conventional Bangham method, particle size, zeta potential, and polydispersity index (PDI) of both liposomal formulations were characterized and compared. In addition, entrapment efficiency (EE) and drug loading (DL) characteristics were analyzed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Significantly larger particle size and PDI were revealed from the conventional method, while EE (%) and DL (%) did not exhibit any significant differences. The SCF-CO2 liposomes were found to be relatively smaller, multilamellar, and spherical with a smoother surface as determined by transmission electron microscopy. SCF-CO2 liposomes showed no significant differences in their particle size and PDI after more than 3 months, whereas conventional liposomes exhibited significant changes in their particle size. The initial yield (%), EE (%), and DL (%) of SCF-CO2 liposomes and conventional liposomes were 90.98 ± 2.94, 92.20 ± 1.36, 20.99 ± 0.84 and 90.72 ± 2.83, 90.24 ± 1.37, 20.47 ± 0.94, respectively, which changed after 14 weeks to 86.65 ± 0.30, 87.63 ± 0.72, 18.98 ± 0.22 and 75.04 ± 8.80, 84.59 ± 5.13, 15.94 ± 2.80, respectively. Therefore, the newly developed SCF-CO2 method could be a better alternative compared with the conventional method and may provide a promising approach for large-scale production of liposomes. PMID:23378759

Modified Peritoneal Dialysis Catheter Insertion: Comparison with a Conventional Method.

PubMed

Lee, Yong Kyu; Yang, Pil-Sung; Park, Kyoung Sook; Choi, Kyu Hun; Kim, Beom Seok

2015-07-01

The conventional trocar and cannula method in peritoneal dialysis (PD) catheter insertion has its limitation in clinical setting. The aim of this study was to compare a modified method for percutaneous PD catheter insertion with the conventional method, and demonstrate advantages of the modified method. Patients at a single center who had percutaneous PD catheters inserted by nephrologists from January 2006 until September 2012, using either a modified method (group M) or the conventional trocar and cannula method (group C), were retrospectively analyzed, in terms of baseline characteristics, complications experienced up to 3 months after the procedure, and the suitability of the procedure for patients. Group M included 82 subjects, while group C included 66 cases. The overall early complication rate in group M (1.2%) was significantly lower than that in group C (19.7%) (p<0.001). The catheter revision rate during timeframe for early complications was significantly lower in group M (0%) than in group C (6.1%) (p=0.024). When comparing Procedure time (1 h 3 min±16 min vs. 1 h 36 min±19 min, p<0.01), immediate post-procedural pain (2.43±1.80 vs. 3.14±2.07, p<0.05), and post-procedure days until ambulation (3.95±1.13 days vs. 6.17±1.34 days, p<0.01), group M was significantly lower than group C. There was no significant difference in total hospitalization period (14.71±7.05 days vs. 13.86±3.7 days). Our modified PD catheter insertion method shows its advantages in early complication rate, early complications revision rate, and the patients' conveniences.

Prognostic value of sequencing-based minimal residual disease detection in patients with multiple myeloma who underwent autologous stem-cell transplantation.

PubMed

Takamatsu, H; Takezako, N; Zheng, J; Moorhead, M; Carlton, V E H; Kong, K A; Murata, R; Ito, S; Miyamoto, T; Yokoyama, K; Matsue, K; Sato, T; Kurokawa, T; Yagi, H; Terasaki, Y; Ohata, K; Matsumoto, M; Yoshida, T; Faham, M; Nakao, S

2017-10-01

Most patients with multiple myeloma (MM) are considered to be incurable, and relapse owing to minimal residual disease (MRD) is the main cause of death among these patients. Therefore, new technologies to assess deeper response are required. We retrospectively analyzed 125 patients with MM who underwent high-dose melphalan plus autologous stem-cell transplantation (ASCT) to detect MRD in autograft/bone marrow (BM) cells using a next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based method and allele-specific oligonucleotide-polymerase chain reaction (ASO-PCR). NGS-based method was applicable to 90% and this method had at least one to two logs greater sensitivity compared to ASO-PCR. MRD negative by NGS [MRDNGS(-)] (defined as <10-6) in post-ASCT BM cases (n = 26) showed a significantly better progression-free survival (PFS) (96% at 4 years, P < 0.001) and overall survival (OS) (100% at 4 years, P =0.04) than MRDNGS(+) in post-ASCT BM cases (n = 25). When restricting the analysis to the 39 complete response cases, patients who were MRDNGS(-) (n = 24) showed a significantly better PFS than those that were MRDNGS(+) (n = 15) (P =0.02). Moreover, MRDNGS(-) in post-ASCT BM cases (n = 12) showed significantly a better PFS than MRDNGS(+) cases (n = 7) where MRD was not detected by ASO-PCR (P = 0.001). Patients whose autografts were negative by NGS-based MRD assessment (<10-7) (n = 19) had 92% PFS and 100% OS at 4 years post-ASCT. Conversely, the NGS-based MRD positive patients who received post-ASCT treatment using novel agents (n = 49) had a significantly better PFS (P = 0.001) and tended to have a better OS (P= 0.214) than those that were untreated (n = 33). Low level MRD detected by NGS-based platform but not ASO-PCR has significant prognostic value when assessing either the autograft product or BM cells post-ASCT. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology.

Validation of Modifications to the ANSR(®) Listeria Method for Improved Ease of Use and Performance.

PubMed

Caballero, Oscar; Alles, Susan; Le, Quynh-Nhi; Gray, R Lucas; Hosking, Edan; Pinkava, Lisa; Norton, Paul; Tolan, Jerry; Mozola, Mark; Rice, Jennifer; Chen, Yi; Odumeru, Joseph; Ryser, Elliot

2016-01-01

A study was conducted to validate minor reagent formulation, enrichment, and procedural changes to the ANSR(®) Listeria method, Performance-Tested Method(SM) 101202. In order to improve ease of use and diminish risk of amplicon contamination, the lyophilized reagent components were reformulated for increased solubility, thus eliminating the need to mix by pipetting. In the alternative procedure, an aliquot of the lysate is added to lyophilized ANSR reagents, immediately capped, and briefly mixed by vortexing. When three foods (hot dogs, Mexican-style cheese, and cantaloupe) and sponge samples taken from a stainless steel surface were tested, significant differences in performance between the ANSR and U.S. Food and Drug Administration Bacteriological Analytical Manual or U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service Microbiology Laboratory Guidebook reference culture procedures were seen with hot dogs and Mexican-style cheese after 16 h enrichment, with the reference methods producing more positive results. After 24 h enrichment, however, there were no significant differences in method performance for any of the four matrixes tested. Robustness testing was also conducted, with variations to lysis buffer volume, lysis time, and sample volume having no demonstrable effect on assay results. Accelerated stability testing was carried out over a 10-week period and showed no diminishment in assay performance. A second phase of the study examined performance of the ANSR assay following enrichment in a new medium, LESS Plus broth, designed for use with all food and environmental sample types. With the alternative LESS Plus broth, there were no significant differences in performance between the ANSR method and the reference culture procedures for any of the matrixes tested after either 16 or 24 h enrichment, although 24 h enrichment is recommended for hot dogs due to higher sensitivity. Results of inclusivity and exclusivity testing using LESS Plus broth showed that the ANSR assay is highly specific, with 100% expected results for target and nontarget bacteria.

Teaching Project Management

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Portz, Stephen M.

2014-01-01

Many studies support the fact that students participating in projectbased learning experiences show significantly higher learning gains than traditional instructional methods (Frank and Barzilai, 2006). Stephen Portz believes many educators recognize this, but because TPBL is fraught with so many challenges, many teachers avoid it or use it only…

Yield performance of cacao propagated by somatic embryogenesis and grafting

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Twelve cacao (Theobroma cacao) clones propagated by grafting and somatic embryogenesis and grown on an Ultisol soil were evaluated for five years under intensive management at Corozal, Puerto Rico. Preliminary data showed no significant differences between propagation methods for yield of dry beans ...

Cue-Controlled Relaxation and Systematic Desensitization versus Nonspecific Factors in Treating Test Anxiety.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Russell, Richard K.; Lent, Robert W.

1982-01-01

Compared the efficacy of two behavioral anxiety reduction techniques against "subconscious reconditioning," an empirically derived placebo method. Examination of within-group changes showed systematic desensitization produced significant reductions in test and trait anxiety, and remaining treatments and the placebo demonstrated…

Multi-parametric centrality method for graph network models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ivanov, Sergei Evgenievich; Gorlushkina, Natalia Nikolaevna; Ivanova, Lubov Nikolaevna

2018-04-01

The graph model networks are investigated to determine centrality, weights and the significance of vertices. For centrality analysis appliesa typical method that includesany one of the properties of graph vertices. In graph theory, methods of analyzing centrality are used: in terms by degree, closeness, betweenness, radiality, eccentricity, page-rank, status, Katz and eigenvector. We have proposed a new method of multi-parametric centrality, which includes a number of basic properties of the network member. The mathematical model of multi-parametric centrality method is developed. Comparison of results for the presented method with the centrality methods is carried out. For evaluate the results for the multi-parametric centrality methodthe graph model with hundreds of vertices is analyzed. The comparative analysis showed the accuracy of presented method, includes simultaneously a number of basic properties of vertices.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Inglese, Alessandro, E-mail: alessandro.inglese@aalto.fi; Savin, Hele; Lindroos, Jeanette

Copper is a harmful metal impurity that significantly impacts the performance of silicon-based devices if present in active regions. In this contribution, we propose a fast method consisting of simultaneous illumination and annealing for the detection of copper contamination in p-type silicon. Our results show that, within minutes, such method is capable of producing a significant reduction of the minority carrier lifetime. A spatial distribution map of copper contamination can then be obtained through the lifetime values measured before and after degradation. In order to separate the effect of the light-activated copper defects from the other metastable complexes in lowmore » resistivity Cz-silicon, we carried out a dark anneal at 200 °C, which is known to fully recover the boron-oxygen defect. Similar to the boron-oxygen behavior, we show that the dark anneal also recovers the copper defects. However, the recovery is only partial and it can be used to identify the possible presence of copper contamination.« less

Evolution of vortex-surface fields in transitional boundary layers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Yue; Zhao, Yaomin; Xiong, Shiying

2016-11-01

We apply the vortex-surface field (VSF), a Lagrangian-based structure-identification method, to the DNS database of transitional boundary layers. The VSFs are constructed from the vorticity fields within a sliding window at different times and locations using a recently developed boundary-constraint method. The isosurfaces of VSF, representing vortex surfaces consisting of vortex lines with different wall distances in the laminar stage, show different evolutionary geometries in transition. We observe that the vortex surfaces with significant deformation evolve from wall-parallel planar sheets through hairpin-like structures and packets into a turbulent spot with regeneration of small-scale hairpins. From quantitative analysis, we show that a small number of representative or influential vortex surfaces can contribute significantly to the increase of the drag coefficient in transition, which implies a reduced-order model based on VSF. This work has been supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11472015, 11522215 and 11521091), and the Thousand Young Talents Program of China.

Using 3D computer simulations to enhance ophthalmic training.

PubMed

Glittenberg, C; Binder, S

2006-01-01

To develop more effective methods of demonstrating and teaching complex topics in ophthalmology with the use of computer aided three-dimensional (3D) animation and interactive multimedia technologies. We created 3D animations and interactive computer programmes demonstrating the neuroophthalmological nature of the oculomotor system, including the anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology of the extra-ocular eye muscles and the oculomotor cranial nerves, as well as pupillary symptoms of neurological diseases. At the University of Vienna we compared their teaching effectiveness to conventional teaching methods in a comparative study involving 100 medical students, a multiple choice exam and a survey. The comparative study showed that our students achieved significantly better test results (80%) than the control group (63%) (diff. = 17 +/- 5%, p = 0.004). The survey showed a positive reaction to the software and a strong preference to have more subjects and techniques demonstrated in this fashion. Three-dimensional computer animation technology can significantly increase the quality and efficiency of the education and demonstration of complex topics in ophthalmology.

Microstructural changes in NiFe2O4 ceramics prepared with powders derived from different fuels in sol-gel auto-combustion technique

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chauhan, Lalita; Bokolia, Renuka; Sreenivas, K.

2016-05-01

Structural properties of Nickel ferrite (NiFe2O4) ceramics prepared from powders derived from sol gel auto-combustion method using different fuels (citric acid, glycine and Dl-alanine) are compared. Changes in the structural properties at different sintering temperatures are investigated. X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirms the formation of single phase material with cubic structure. Ceramics prepared using the different powders obtained from different fuels show that that there are no significant changes in lattice parameters. However increasing sintering temperatures show significant improvement in density and grain size. The DL-alanine fuel is found to be the most effective fuel for producing NIFe2O4 powders by the sol-gel auto combustion method and yields highly crystalline powders in the as-burnt stage itself at a low temperature (80 °C). Subsequent use of the powders in ceramic manufacturing produces dense NiFe2O4 ceramics with a uniform microstructure and a large grain size.

Coupling the snow thermodynamic model SNOWPACK with the microwave emission model of layered snowpacks for subarctic and arctic snow water equivalent retrievals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langlois, A.; Royer, A.; Derksen, C.; Montpetit, B.; Dupont, F.; GoïTa, K.

2012-12-01

Satellite-passive microwave remote sensing has been extensively used to estimate snow water equivalent (SWE) in northern regions. Although passive microwave sensors operate independent of solar illumination and the lower frequencies are independent of atmospheric conditions, the coarse spatial resolution introduces uncertainties to SWE retrievals due to the surface heterogeneity within individual pixels. In this article, we investigate the coupling of a thermodynamic multilayered snow model with a passive microwave emission model. Results show that the snow model itself provides poor SWE simulations when compared to field measurements from two major field campaigns. Coupling the snow and microwave emission models with successive iterations to correct the influence of snow grain size and density significantly improves SWE simulations. This method was further validated using an additional independent data set, which also showed significant improvement using the two-step iteration method compared to standalone simulations with the snow model.

The performance analysis of hybrid seeds between catfish (Clarias gariepinus Burchell) semarang and sangkuriang strains

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Basuki, F.; Susilowati, T.; Harwanto, D.

2018-03-01

This study aimed to analyze the performance of hybrid seeds between catfish (Clarias gariepinus Burchell) semarang and sangkuriang strains by parameters of fecundity, length and weight gain and seeds survival rate. The material used in this study was the parent of catfish semarang and sangkuriang strains. The research method used was experimental method using Completely Randomized Design (RAL), consists of four treatments and three replications. Those were Treatment A (semarang/HH ♀ × semarang/HH ♂), Treatment B (semarang/HH ♀ × sangkuriang/SS ♂), Treatment C (sangkuriang/SS ♀ × sangkuriang/SS ♂) and Treatment D (sangkuriang/SS ♀ × sangkuriang/SS ♂). The results showed that fecundity of most catfish eggs were obtained from treatment A, B, C and D. The hatching rate of catfish eggs from various treatments was not significantly different. Performance of seeds with length and weight parameters showed that newly hatched larvae until the age of one-week-feeding catfish are not significantly, the difference in seed performance began to appear on the 14th day of feeding. The order of the best treatment result were C, B, D and A. The difference was more significant at 28 days of feeding.

Early clinical effects of the Dynesys system plus transfacet decompression through the Wiltse approach for the treatment of lumbar degenerative diseases

PubMed Central

Liu, Chao; Wang, Lei; Tian, Ji-wei

2014-01-01

Background This study investigated early clinical effects of Dynesys system plus transfacet decompression through the Wiltse approach in treating lumbar degenerative diseases. Material/Methods 37 patients with lumbar degenerative disease were treated with the Dynesys system plus transfacet decompression through the Wiltse approach. Results Results showed that all patients healed from surgery without severe complications. The average follow-up time was 20 months (9–36 months). Visual Analogue Scale and Oswestry Disability Index scores decreased significantly after surgery and at the final follow-up. There was a significant difference in the height of the intervertebral space and intervertebral range of motion (ROM) at the stabilized segment, but no significant changes were seen at the adjacent segments. X-ray scans showed no instability, internal fixation loosening, breakage, or distortion in the follow-up. Conclusions The Dynesys system plus transfacet decompression through the Wiltse approach is a therapeutic option for mild lumbar degenerative disease. This method can retain the structure of the lumbar posterior complex and the motion of the fixed segment, reduce the incidence of low back pain, and decompress the nerve root. PMID:24859831

Audio steganography by amplitude or phase modification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gopalan, Kaliappan; Wenndt, Stanley J.; Adams, Scott F.; Haddad, Darren M.

2003-06-01

This paper presents the results of embedding short covert message utterances on a host, or cover, utterance by modifying the phase or amplitude of perceptually masked or significant regions of the host. In the first method, the absolute phase at selected, perceptually masked frequency indices was changed to fixed, covert data-dependent values. Embedded bits were retrieved at the receiver from the phase at the selected frequency indices. Tests on embedding a GSM-coded covert utterance on clean and noisy host utterances showed no noticeable difference in the stego compared to the hosts in speech quality or spectrogram. A bit error rate of 2 out of 2800 was observed for a clean host utterance while no error occurred for a noisy host. In the second method, the absolute phase of 10 or fewer perceptually significant points in the host was set in accordance with covert data. This resulted in a stego with successful data retrieval and a slightly noticeable degradation in speech quality. Modifying the amplitude of perceptually significant points caused perceptible differences in the stego even with small changes of amplitude made at five points per frame. Finally, the stego obtained by altering the amplitude at perceptually masked points showed barely noticeable differences and excellent data recovery.

The Role of Attention in Somatosensory Processing: A Multi-trait, Multi-method Analysis

PubMed Central

Puts, Nicolaas A. J.; Mahone, E. Mark; Edden, Richard A. E.; Tommerdahl, Mark; Mostofsky, Stewart H.

2016-01-01

Sensory processing abnormalities in autism have largely been described by parent report. This study used a multi-method (parent-report and measurement), multi-trait (tactile sensitivity and attention) design to evaluate somatosensory processing in ASD. Results showed multiple significant within-method (e.g., parent report of different traits)/cross-trait (e.g., attention and tactile sensitivity) correlations, suggesting that parent-reported tactile sensory dysfunction and performance-based tactile sensitivity describe different behavioral phenomena. Additionally, both parent-reported tactile functioning and performance-based tactile sensitivity measures were significantly associated with measures of attention. Findings suggest that sensory (tactile) processing abnormalities in ASD are multifaceted, and may partially reflect a more global deficit in behavioral regulation (including attention). Challenges of relying solely on parent-report to describe sensory difficulties faced by children/families with ASD are also highlighted. PMID:27448580

Engagement Assessment Using EEG Signals

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Li, Feng; Li, Jiang; McKenzie, Frederic; Zhang, Guangfan; Wang, Wei; Pepe, Aaron; Xu, Roger; Schnell, Thomas; Anderson, Nick; Heitkamp, Dean

2012-01-01

In this paper, we present methods to analyze and improve an EEG-based engagement assessment approach, consisting of data preprocessing, feature extraction and engagement state classification. During data preprocessing, spikes, baseline drift and saturation caused by recording devices in EEG signals are identified and eliminated, and a wavelet based method is utilized to remove ocular and muscular artifacts in the EEG recordings. In feature extraction, power spectrum densities with 1 Hz bin are calculated as features, and these features are analyzed using the Fisher score and the one way ANOVA method. In the classification step, a committee classifier is trained based on the extracted features to assess engagement status. Finally, experiment results showed that there exist significant differences in the extracted features among different subjects, and we have implemented a feature normalization procedure to mitigate the differences and significantly improved the engagement assessment performance.

Nursing students' mathematic calculation skills.

PubMed

Rainboth, Lynde; DeMasi, Chris

2006-12-01

This mixed method study used a pre-test/post-test design to evaluate the efficacy of a teaching strategy in improving beginning nursing student learning outcomes. During a 4-week student teaching period, a convenience sample of 54 sophomore level nursing students were required to complete calculation assignments, taught one calculation method, and mandated to attend medication calculation classes. These students completed pre- and post-math tests and a major medication mathematic exam. Scores from the intervention student group were compared to those achieved by the previous sophomore class. Results demonstrated a statistically significant improvement from pre- to post-test and the students who received the intervention had statistically significantly higher scores on the major medication calculation exam than did the students in the control group. The evaluation completed by the intervention group showed that the students were satisfied with the method and outcome.

Lateral clavicle fracture with coracoclavicular ligament injury: a biomechanical study of 4 different repair techniques.

PubMed

Alaee, Farhang; Apostolakos, John; Singh, Hardeep; Holwein, Christian; Diermeier, Theresa; Cote, Mark P; Beitzel, Knut; Imhoff, Andreas B; Mazzocca, Augustus D; Voss, Andreas

2017-07-01

To investigate the biomechanical performance of four different methods used for coracoclavicular (CC) ligament reconstruction in a lateral clavicle fracture repair. Native displacement, translation, and rotation at the acromioclavicular joint of 24 fresh-frozen cadaveric shoulders were tested. A reproducible fracture in the lateral third of the clavicle was created by dissecting both CC ligaments. Each specimen was then repaired with plate fixation of the fracture and the following CC repair technique: (1) Cortical button. (2) Suture anchor and plate button. (3) Suture anchor no plate button, and (4) Suture around coracoid. All reconstructed specimens were then re-tested for displacement, translation, and load to failure, and compared to their native results. Groups 1 and 3 were investigated for rotational load. There was no difference in load to failure between the repaired groups (p: ns). Group 1 showed less superior and anterior translations (p < 0.05). Group 2 showed significantly less superior translation (p = 0.003), but no significance with anterior and posterior translations to the native joint. Group 3 showed less superior and posterior translations (p = 0.005 and p = 0.039). Anterior and posterior translations were increased in group 4 (p < 0.05). The biomechanical analyses did not show any significance in load to failure or displacement after cyclic loading among the study groups. All repairs were effective in preventing superior translation. Groups 1 and 2 demonstrated increased horizontal stability compared to the native state. All 4 methods are clinically viable options for CC ligament repair.

The Effect of Communication Skills Training on Quality of Care, Self-Efficacy, Job Satisfaction and Communication Skills Rate of Nurses in Hospitals of Tabriz, Iran

PubMed Central

Khodadadi, Esmail; Ebrahimi, Hossein; Moghaddasian, Sima; Babapour, Jalil

2013-01-01

Introduction: Having an effective relationship with the patient in the process of treatment is essential. Nurses must have communication skills in order to establish effective relationships with the patients. This study evaluated the impact of communication skills training on quality of care, self-efficacy, job satisfaction and communication skills of nurses. Methods: This is an experimental study with a control group that has been done in 2012. The study sample consisted of 73 nurses who work in hospitals of Tabriz; they were selected by proportional randomizing method. The intervention was only conducted on the experimental group. In order to measure the quality of care 160 patients, who had received care by nurses, participated in this study. The Data were analyzed by SPSS (ver.13). Results: Comparing the mean scores of communication skills showed a statistically significant difference between control and experimental groups after intervention. The paired t-test showed a statistically significant difference in the experimental group before and after the intervention. Independent t-test showed a statistically significant difference between the rate of quality of care in patients of control and experimental groups after the intervention. Conclusion: The results showed that the training of communication skills can increase the nurse's rate of communication skills and cause elevation in quality of nursing care. Therefore, in order to improve the quality of nursing care it is recommended that communication skills be established and taught as a separate course in nursing education. PMID:25276707

A comparative study of first-derivative spectrophotometry and column high-performance liquid chromatography applied to the determination of repaglinide in tablets and for dissolution testing.

PubMed

AlKhalidi, Bashar A; Shtaiwi, Majed; AlKhatib, Hatim S; Mohammad, Mohammad; Bustanji, Yasser

2008-01-01

A fast and reliable method for the determination of repaglinide is highly desirable to support formulation screening and quality control. A first-derivative UV spectroscopic method was developed for the determination of repaglinide in tablet dosage form and for dissolution testing. First-derivative UV absorbance was measured at 253 nm. The developed method was validated for linearity, accuracy, precision, limit of detection (LOD), and limit of quantitation (LOQ) in comparison to the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) column high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method. The first-derivative UV spectrophotometric method showed excellent linearity [correlation coefficient (r) = 0.9999] in the concentration range of 1-35 microg/mL and precision (relative standard deviation < 1.5%). The LOD and LOQ were 0.23 and 0.72 microg/mL, respectively, and good recoveries were achieved (98-101.8%). Statistical comparison of results of the first-derivative UV spectrophotometric and the USP HPLC methods using the t-test showed that there was no significant difference between the 2 methods. Additionally, the method was successfully used for the dissolution test of repaglinide and was found to be reliable, simple, fast, and inexpensive.

EEG Characteristic Extraction Method of Listening Music and Objective Estimation Method Based on Latency Structure Model in Individual Characteristics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ito, Shin-Ichi; Mitsukura, Yasue; Nakamura Miyamura, Hiroko; Saito, Takafumi; Fukumi, Minoru

EEG is characterized by the unique and individual characteristics. Little research has been done to take into account the individual characteristics when analyzing EEG signals. Often the EEG has frequency components which can describe most of the significant characteristics. Then there is the difference of importance between the analyzed frequency components of the EEG. We think that the importance difference shows the individual characteristics. In this paper, we propose a new EEG extraction method of characteristic vector by a latency structure model in individual characteristics (LSMIC). The LSMIC is the latency structure model, which has personal error as the individual characteristics, based on normal distribution. The real-coded genetic algorithms (RGA) are used for specifying the personal error that is unknown parameter. Moreover we propose an objective estimation method that plots the EEG characteristic vector on a visualization space. Finally, the performance of the proposed method is evaluated using a realistic simulation and applied to a real EEG data. The result of our experiment shows the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Allelic Prevalence of ABO Blood Group Genes in Iranian Azari Population

PubMed Central

Nojavan, Mohammad; Shamsasenjan, Karrim; Movassaghpour, Ali Akbar; Akbarzadehlaleh, Parvin; Torabi, Seyd Esmail; Ghojazadeh, Morteza

2012-01-01

Introduction ABO blood group system is the most important blood group in transfusion and has been widely used in population studies. Several molecular techniques for ABO allele’s detection are widely used for distinguishing various alleles of glycosyl transferase locus on chromosome 9. Methods 744 randomly selected samples from Azari donors of East Azerbaijan province (Iran) were examined using well-adjusted multiplex allele- specific PCR ABO genotyping technique. Results The results were consistent for all individuals. The ABO blood group genotype of 744 healthy Azari blood donors was: 25.8% AA/AO (2), 7.6% AO (1), 1.6% BB, 11.3% B0 (1), 10% AB, 9.3% 0(1)0(1) and 15.3%0(1)0(2). The highest genotype frequency belonged to O01/O02 genotype (15.3%) and the lowest frequency belonged to A101/A102 genotype (0.4%). Conclusions: The frequencies of ABO alleles didn’t show significant differences between East Azerbaijan province population and that of other areas of the country. Meanwhile, statistical analysis of frequencies of A and B alleles between East Azerbaijan province population and neighbor countries showed significant differences whereas the frequency of allele O between them did not show significant difference (P>0.05). Conclusions The frequencies of ABO alleles didn’t show significant differences between East Azerbaijan province population and that of other areas of the country. Meanwhile, statistical analysis of frequencies of A and B alleles between East Azerbaijan province population and neighbor countries showed significant differences whereas the frequency of allele O between them did not show significant difference (P>0.05). PMID:23678461