Dual-view plane illumination microscopy for rapid and spatially isotropic imaging

PubMed Central

Kumar, Abhishek; Wu, Yicong; Christensen, Ryan; Chandris, Panagiotis; Gandler, William; McCreedy, Evan; Bokinsky, Alexandra; Colón-Ramos, Daniel A; Bao, Zhirong; McAuliffe, Matthew; Rondeau, Gary; Shroff, Hari

2015-01-01

We describe the construction and use of a compact dual-view inverted selective plane illumination microscope (diSPIM) for time-lapse volumetric (4D) imaging of living samples at subcellular resolution. Our protocol enables a biologist with some prior microscopy experience to assemble a diSPIM from commercially available parts, to align optics and test system performance, to prepare samples, and to control hardware and data processing with our software. Unlike existing light sheet microscopy protocols, our method does not require the sample to be embedded in agarose; instead, samples are prepared conventionally on glass coverslips. Tissue culture cells and Caenorhabditis elegans embryos are used as examples in this protocol; successful implementation of the protocol results in isotropic resolution and acquisition speeds up to several volumes per s on these samples. Assembling and verifying diSPIM performance takes ~6 d, sample preparation and data acquisition take up to 5 d and postprocessing takes 3–8 h, depending on the size of the data. PMID:25299154

Internet Protocol Enhanced over Satellite Networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ivancic, William D.

1999-01-01

Extensive research conducted by the Satellite Networks and Architectures Branch of the NASA Lewis Research Center led to an experimental change to the Internet's Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) that will increase performance over satellite channels. The change raises the size of the initial burst of data TCP can send from 1 packet to 4 packets or roughly 4 kilobytes (kB), whichever is less. TCP is used daily by everyone on the Internet for e-mail and World Wide Web access, as well as other services. TCP is one of the feature protocols used in computer communications for reliable data delivery and file transfer. Increasing TCP's initial data burst from the previously specified single segment to approximately 4 kB may improve data transfer rates by up to 27 percent for very small files. This is significant because most file transfers in wide-area networks today are small files, 4 kilobytes or less. In addition, because data transfers over geostationary satellites can take 5 to 20 times longer than over typical terrestrial connections, increasing the initial burst of data that can be sent is extremely important. This research along with research from other institutions has led to the release of two new Request for Comments from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF, the international body that sets Internet standards). In addition, two studies of the implications of this mechanism were also funded by NASA Lewis.

Intelligent QoS routing algorithm based on improved AODV protocol for Ad Hoc networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huibin, Liu; Jun, Zhang

2016-04-01

Mobile Ad Hoc Networks were playing an increasingly important part in disaster reliefs, military battlefields and scientific explorations. However, networks routing difficulties are more and more outstanding due to inherent structures. This paper proposed an improved cuckoo searching-based Ad hoc On-Demand Distance Vector Routing protocol (CSAODV). It elaborately designs the calculation methods of optimal routing algorithm used by protocol and transmission mechanism of communication-package. In calculation of optimal routing algorithm by CS Algorithm, by increasing QoS constraint, the found optimal routing algorithm can conform to the requirements of specified bandwidth and time delay, and a certain balance can be obtained among computation spending, bandwidth and time delay. Take advantage of NS2 simulation software to take performance test on protocol in three circumstances and validate the feasibility and validity of CSAODV protocol. In results, CSAODV routing protocol is more adapt to the change of network topological structure than AODV protocol, which improves package delivery fraction of protocol effectively, reduce the transmission time delay of network, reduce the extra burden to network brought by controlling information, and improve the routing efficiency of network.

Approximating the Qualitative Vickrey Auction by a Negotiation Protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hindriks, Koen V.; Tykhonov, Dmytro; de Weerdt, Mathijs

A result of Bulow and Klemperer has suggested that auctions may be a better tool to obtain an efficient outcome than negotiation. For example, some auction mechanisms can be shown to be efficient and strategy-proof. However, they generally also require that the preferences of at least one side of the auction are publicly known. However, sometimes it is very costly, impossible, or undesirable to publicly announce such preferences. It thus is interesting to find methods that do not impose this constraint but still approximate the outcome of the auction. In this paper we show that a multi-round multi-party negotiation protocol may be used to this end if the negotiating agents are capable of learning opponent preferences. The latter condition can be met by current state of the art negotiation technology. We show that this protocol approximates the theoretical outcome predicted by a so-called Qualitative Vickrey auction mechanism (even) on a complex multi-issue domain.

Taking error into account when fitting models using Approximate Bayesian Computation.

PubMed

van der Vaart, Elske; Prangle, Dennis; Sibly, Richard M

2018-03-01

Stochastic computer simulations are often the only practical way of answering questions relating to ecological management. However, due to their complexity, such models are difficult to calibrate and evaluate. Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) offers an increasingly popular approach to this problem, widely applied across a variety of fields. However, ensuring the accuracy of ABC's estimates has been difficult. Here, we obtain more accurate estimates by incorporating estimation of error into the ABC protocol. We show how this can be done where the data consist of repeated measures of the same quantity and errors may be assumed to be normally distributed and independent. We then derive the correct acceptance probabilities for a probabilistic ABC algorithm, and update the coverage test with which accuracy is assessed. We apply this method, which we call error-calibrated ABC, to a toy example and a realistic 14-parameter simulation model of earthworms that is used in environmental risk assessment. A comparison with exact methods and the diagnostic coverage test show that our approach improves estimation of parameter values and their credible intervals for both models. © 2017 by the Ecological Society of America.

Synthesis of photodegradable hydrogels as dynamically tunable cell culture platforms

PubMed Central

Kloxin, April M.; Tibbitt, Mark W.; Anseth, Kristi S.

2013-01-01

We describe a detailed procedure to create photolabile, poly(ethylene glycol)-based (PEG) hydrogels and manipulate material properties in situ. The cytocompatible chemistry and degradation process enable dynamic, tunable changes for applications in 2D or 3D cell culture. The materials are created by synthesizing an o-nitrobenzylether-based photodegradable monomer that can be coupled to primary amines. Here, we provide coupling procedures to PEG-bis-amine to form a photodegradable crosslinker or to the fibronectin-derived peptide RGDS to form a photoreleasable tether. Hydrogels are synthesized with the photodegradable crosslinker in the presence or absence of cells, allowing direct encapsulation or seeding on surfaces. Cell-material interactions can be probed in 2D or 3D by spatiotemporally controlling the gel microenvironment, which allows unique experiments to be performed to monitor cell response to changes in their niche. Degradation is readily achieved with cytocompatible wavelengths of low intensity flood irradiation (365 to 420 nm) in minutes or with highintensity laser irradiation (405 nm) in seconds. In this protocol, synthesis and purification of the photodegradable monomers take approximately 2 weeks, but can be substantially shortened by purchasing the o-nitrobenzylether precursor. Preparation of the sterile solutions for hydrogel fabrication takes hours, while the reaction to form the final hydrogel is complete in minutes. Hydrogel degradation occurs on-demand, in seconds to minutes, with user-directed light exposure. This comprehensive protocol is useful for controlling peptide presentation and substrate modulus during cell culture on or within an elastic matrix. These PEG-based materials are useful for probing the dynamic influence of cell-cell and cell-material interactions on cell function in 2D or 3D. While other protocols are available for controlling peptide presentation or modulus, few allow manipulation of material properties in situ and in the presence of cells down to the micrometer scale. PMID:21127482

A Novel Quantum Solution to Privacy-Preserving Nearest Neighbor Query in Location-Based Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Zhen-yu; Shi, Run-hua; Xu, Min; Zhang, Shun

2018-04-01

We present a cheating-sensitive quantum protocol for Privacy-Preserving Nearest Neighbor Query based on Oblivious Quantum Key Distribution and Quantum Encryption. Compared with the classical related protocols, our proposed protocol has higher security, because the security of our protocol is based on basic physical principles of quantum mechanics, instead of difficulty assumptions. Especially, our protocol takes single photons as quantum resources and only needs to perform single-photon projective measurement. Therefore, it is feasible to implement this protocol with the present technologies.

A time-correlation function approach to nuclear dynamical effects in X-ray spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karsten, Sven; Bokarev, Sergey I.; Aziz, Saadullah G.; Ivanov, Sergei D.; Kühn, Oliver

2017-06-01

Modern X-ray spectroscopy has proven itself as a robust tool for probing the electronic structure of atoms in complex environments. Despite working on energy scales that are much larger than those corresponding to nuclear motions, taking nuclear dynamics and the associated nuclear correlations into account may be of importance for X-ray spectroscopy. Recently, we have developed an efficient protocol to account for nuclear dynamics in X-ray absorption and resonant inelastic X-ray scattering spectra [Karsten et al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 8, 992 (2017)], based on ground state molecular dynamics accompanied with state-of-the-art calculations of electronic excitation energies and transition dipoles. Here, we present an alternative derivation of the formalism and elaborate on the developed simulation protocol using gas phase and bulk water as examples. The specific spectroscopic features stemming from the nuclear motions are analyzed and traced down to the dynamics of electronic energy gaps and transition dipole correlation functions. The observed tendencies are explained on the basis of a simple harmonic model, and the involved approximations are discussed. The method represents a step forward over the conventional approaches that treat the system in full complexity and provides a reasonable starting point for further improvements.

A time-correlation function approach to nuclear dynamical effects in X-ray spectroscopy.

PubMed

Karsten, Sven; Bokarev, Sergey I; Aziz, Saadullah G; Ivanov, Sergei D; Kühn, Oliver

2017-06-14

Modern X-ray spectroscopy has proven itself as a robust tool for probing the electronic structure of atoms in complex environments. Despite working on energy scales that are much larger than those corresponding to nuclear motions, taking nuclear dynamics and the associated nuclear correlations into account may be of importance for X-ray spectroscopy. Recently, we have developed an efficient protocol to account for nuclear dynamics in X-ray absorption and resonant inelastic X-ray scattering spectra [Karsten et al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 8, 992 (2017)], based on ground state molecular dynamics accompanied with state-of-the-art calculations of electronic excitation energies and transition dipoles. Here, we present an alternative derivation of the formalism and elaborate on the developed simulation protocol using gas phase and bulk water as examples. The specific spectroscopic features stemming from the nuclear motions are analyzed and traced down to the dynamics of electronic energy gaps and transition dipole correlation functions. The observed tendencies are explained on the basis of a simple harmonic model, and the involved approximations are discussed. The method represents a step forward over the conventional approaches that treat the system in full complexity and provides a reasonable starting point for further improvements.

Two Quantum Protocols for Oblivious Set-member Decision Problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Run-Hua; Mu, Yi; Zhong, Hong; Cui, Jie; Zhang, Shun

2015-10-01

In this paper, we defined a new secure multi-party computation problem, called Oblivious Set-member Decision problem, which allows one party to decide whether a secret of another party belongs to his private set in an oblivious manner. There are lots of important applications of Oblivious Set-member Decision problem in fields of the multi-party collaborative computation of protecting the privacy of the users, such as private set intersection and union, anonymous authentication, electronic voting and electronic auction. Furthermore, we presented two quantum protocols to solve the Oblivious Set-member Decision problem. Protocol I takes advantage of powerful quantum oracle operations so that it needs lower costs in both communication and computation complexity; while Protocol II takes photons as quantum resources and only performs simple single-particle projective measurements, thus it is more feasible with the present technology.

Two Quantum Protocols for Oblivious Set-member Decision Problem

PubMed Central

Shi, Run-hua; Mu, Yi; Zhong, Hong; Cui, Jie; Zhang, Shun

2015-01-01

In this paper, we defined a new secure multi-party computation problem, called Oblivious Set-member Decision problem, which allows one party to decide whether a secret of another party belongs to his private set in an oblivious manner. There are lots of important applications of Oblivious Set-member Decision problem in fields of the multi-party collaborative computation of protecting the privacy of the users, such as private set intersection and union, anonymous authentication, electronic voting and electronic auction. Furthermore, we presented two quantum protocols to solve the Oblivious Set-member Decision problem. Protocol I takes advantage of powerful quantum oracle operations so that it needs lower costs in both communication and computation complexity; while Protocol II takes photons as quantum resources and only performs simple single-particle projective measurements, thus it is more feasible with the present technology. PMID:26514668

Two Quantum Protocols for Oblivious Set-member Decision Problem.

PubMed

Shi, Run-Hua; Mu, Yi; Zhong, Hong; Cui, Jie; Zhang, Shun

2015-10-30

In this paper, we defined a new secure multi-party computation problem, called Oblivious Set-member Decision problem, which allows one party to decide whether a secret of another party belongs to his private set in an oblivious manner. There are lots of important applications of Oblivious Set-member Decision problem in fields of the multi-party collaborative computation of protecting the privacy of the users, such as private set intersection and union, anonymous authentication, electronic voting and electronic auction. Furthermore, we presented two quantum protocols to solve the Oblivious Set-member Decision problem. Protocol I takes advantage of powerful quantum oracle operations so that it needs lower costs in both communication and computation complexity; while Protocol II takes photons as quantum resources and only performs simple single-particle projective measurements, thus it is more feasible with the present technology.

Secure authentication protocol for Internet applications over CATV network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chin, Le-Pond

1998-02-01

An authentication protocol is proposed in this paper to implement secure functions which include two way authentication and key management between end users and head-end. The protocol can protect transmission from frauds, attacks such as reply and wiretap. Location privacy is also achieved. A rest protocol is designed to restore the system once when systems fail. The security is verified by taking several security and privacy requirements into consideration.

Electronic-To-Optical-To-Electronic Packet-Data Conversion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Monacos, Steve

1996-01-01

Space-time multiplexer (STM) cell-based communication system designed to take advantage of both high throughput attainable in optical transmission links and flexibility and functionality of electronic processing, storage, and switching. Long packets segmented and transmitted optically by wavelength-division multiplexing. Performs optoelectronic and protocol conversion between electronic "store-and-forward" protocols and optical "hot-potato" protocols.

Adaptive tracking of a time-varying field with a quantum sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonato, Cristian; Berry, Dominic W.

2017-05-01

Sensors based on single spins can enable magnetic-field detection with very high sensitivity and spatial resolution. Previous work has concentrated on sensing of a constant magnetic field or a periodic signal. Here, we instead investigate the problem of estimating a field with nonperiodic variation described by a Wiener process. We propose and study, by numerical simulations, an adaptive tracking protocol based on Bayesian estimation. The tracking protocol updates the probability distribution for the magnetic field based on measurement outcomes and adapts the choice of sensing time and phase in real time. By taking the statistical properties of the signal into account, our protocol strongly reduces the required measurement time. This leads to a reduction of the error in the estimation of a time-varying signal by up to a factor of four compare with protocols that do not take this information into account.

Time-optimal control with finite bandwidth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hirose, M.; Cappellaro, P.

2018-04-01

Time-optimal control theory provides recipes to achieve quantum operations with high fidelity and speed, as required in quantum technologies such as quantum sensing and computation. While technical advances have achieved the ultrastrong driving regime in many physical systems, these capabilities have yet to be fully exploited for the precise control of quantum systems, as other limitations, such as the generation of higher harmonics or the finite response time of the control apparatus, prevent the implementation of theoretical time-optimal control. Here we present a method to achieve time-optimal control of qubit systems that can take advantage of fast driving beyond the rotating wave approximation. We exploit results from time-optimal control theory to design driving protocols that can be implemented with realistic, finite-bandwidth control fields, and we find a relationship between bandwidth limitations and achievable control fidelity.

Generation of concatenated Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger-type entangled coherent state based on linear optics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Rui; Zhou, Lan; Gu, Shi-Pu; Wang, Xing-Fu; Sheng, Yu-Bo

2017-03-01

The concatenated Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (C-GHZ) state is a new type of multipartite entangled state, which has potential application in future quantum information. In this paper, we propose a protocol of constructing arbitrary C-GHZ entangled state approximatively. Different from previous protocols, each logic qubit is encoded in the coherent state. This protocol is based on the linear optics, which is feasible in experimental technology. This protocol may be useful in quantum information based on the C-GHZ state.

Accuracy of the adiabatic-impulse approximation for closed and open quantum systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tomka, Michael; Campos Venuti, Lorenzo; Zanardi, Paolo

2018-03-01

We study the adiabatic-impulse approximation (AIA) as a tool to approximate the time evolution of quantum states when driven through a region of small gap. Such small-gap regions are a common situation in adiabatic quantum computing and having reliable approximations is important in this context. The AIA originates from the Kibble-Zurek theory applied to continuous quantum phase transitions. The Kibble-Zurek mechanism was developed to predict the power-law scaling of the defect density across a continuous quantum phase transition. Instead, here we quantify the accuracy of the AIA via the trace norm distance with respect to the exact evolved state. As expected, we find that for short times or fast protocols, the AIA outperforms the simple adiabatic approximation. However, for large times or slow protocols, the situation is actually reversed and the AIA provides a worse approximation. Nevertheless, we found a variation of the AIA that can perform better than the adiabatic one. This counterintuitive modification consists in crossing the region of small gap twice. Our findings are illustrated by several examples of driven closed and open quantum systems.

The impact of preventable disruption on the operative time for minimally invasive surgery.

PubMed

Al-Hakim, Latif

2011-10-01

Current ergonomic studies show that disruption exposes surgical teams to stress and musculoskeletal disorders. This study considers minimally invasive surgery as a sociotechnical process subjected to a variety of disruption events other than those recognized by ergonomic science. The research takes into consideration the impact of preventable disruption on operating time rather than on the physical and emotional status of the surgical team. Events inside operating rooms that disturbed operative time were recorded for 17 minimally invasive surgeries. The disruption events were classified into four main areas: prerequisite requirements, work design, communication during surgery, and other. Each area was further classified according to sources of disruption. Altogether, 11 sources of disruption were identified: patient record, protocol and policy, surgical requirements and surgeon preferences, operating table and patient positioning, arrangement of instruments, lighting, monitor, clothing, surgical teamwork, coordination, and other. Disruption prolonged operative time by more than 32%. Teamwork forms the main source of disruption followed by operating table and patient positioning and arrangement of instruments. These three sources represented approximately 20% of operative time. Failure to follow principles of work design had a significant negative impact, lengthening operative time by approximately 15%. Although lighting and monitors had a relatively small impact on operative time, these factors could create inconvenience and stress within the surgical teams. In addition, the effect of failure to follow surgical protocols and policies or having incomplete patient records may have a limited effect on operative time but could have serious consequences. This report demonstrates that preventable disruption caused an increase in operative time and forced surgeons and patients to endure unnecessary delay of more than 32%. Such additional time could be used to deal with the pressure of emergency cases and to reduce waiting lists for elective surgery.

Sources of Variation in a Two-Step Monitoring Protocol for Species Clustered in Conspicuous Points: Dolichotis patagonum as a Case Study.

PubMed

Alonso Roldán, Virginia; Bossio, Luisina; Galván, David E

2015-01-01

In species showing distributions attached to particular features of the landscape or conspicuous signs, counts are commonly made by making focal observations where animals concentrate. However, to obtain density estimates for a given area, independent searching for signs and occupancy rates of suitable sites is needed. In both cases, it is important to estimate detection probability and other possible sources of variation to avoid confounding effects on measurements of abundance variation. Our objective was to assess possible bias and sources of variation in a two-step protocol in which random designs were applied to search for signs while continuously recording video cameras were used to perform abundance counts where animals are concentrated, using mara (Dolichotis patagonum) as a case study. The protocol was successfully applied to maras within the Península Valdés protected area, given that the protocol was logistically suitable, allowed warrens to be found, the associated adults to be counted, and the detection probability to be estimated. Variability was documented in both components of the two-step protocol. These sources of variation should be taken into account when applying this protocol. Warren detectability was approximately 80% with little variation. Factors related to false positive detection were more important than imperfect detection. The detectability for individuals was approximately 90% using the entire day of observations. The shortest sampling period with a similar detection capacity than a day was approximately 10 hours, and during this period, the visiting dynamic did not show trends. For individual mara, the detection capacity of the camera was not significantly different from the observer during fieldwork. The presence of the camera did not affect the visiting behavior of adults to the warren. Application of this protocol will allow monitoring of the near-threatened mara providing a minimum local population size and a baseline for measuring long-term trends.

A fast and mild decellularization protocol for obtaining extracellular matrix.

PubMed

Mirzarafie, Ariana; Grainger, Rhian K; Thomas, Ben; Bains, William; Ustok, Fatma I; Lowe, Chris R

2014-04-01

Degradation of extracellular matrix (ECM) function with age is a major cause of loss of tissue function with age that we would wish to reverse. Tissue engineering to provide replacement tissue requires an ECM-mimicking scaffold for cell organization. The standard protocols for achieving this take 10 days and include steps that may change the protein structure of the ECM. Here we describe a much shorter protocol for decellularizing chicken muscle, skin, and tendon samples that achieves the same efficiency as the original protocol without protein cross-link interference. Our protocol can be completed in 72 hr.

10 CFR 709.13 - Implications of refusal to take a polygraph examination.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 10 Energy 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Implications of refusal to take a polygraph examination. 709.13 Section 709.13 Energy DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY COUNTERINTELLIGENCE EVALUATION PROGRAM CI Evaluation Protocols and Protection of National Security § 709.13 Implications of refusal to take a polygraph...

On Equivalence between Critical Probabilities of Dynamic Gossip Protocol and Static Site Percolation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishikawa, Tetsuya; Hayakawa, Tomohisa

The relationship between the critical probability of gossip protocol on the square lattice and the critical probability of site percolation on the square lattice is discussed. Specifically, these two critical probabilities are analytically shown to be equal to each other. Furthermore, we present a way of evaluating the critical probability of site percolation by approximating the saturation of gossip protocol. Finally, we provide numerical results which support the theoretical analysis.

Thermostabilisation of membrane proteins for structural studies

PubMed Central

Magnani, Francesca; Serrano-Vega, Maria J.; Shibata, Yoko; Abdul-Hussein, Saba; Lebon, Guillaume; Miller-Gallacher, Jennifer; Singhal, Ankita; Strege, Annette; Thomas, Jennifer A.; Tate, Christopher G.

2017-01-01

The thermostability of an integral membrane protein in detergent solution is a key parameter that dictates the likelihood of obtaining well-diffracting crystals suitable for structure determination. However, many mammalian membrane proteins are too unstable for crystallisation. We developed a thermostabilisation strategy based on systematic mutagenesis coupled to a radioligand-binding thermostability assay that can be applied to receptors, ion channels and transporters. It takes approximately 6-12 months to thermostabilise a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) containing 300 amino acid residues. The resulting thermostabilised membrane proteins are more easily crystallised and result in high-quality structures. This methodology has facilitated structure-based drug design applied to GPCRs, because it is possible to determine multiple structures of the thermostabilised receptors bound to low affinity ligands. Protocols and advice are given on how to develop thermostability assays for membrane proteins and how to combine mutations to make an optimally stable mutant suitable for structural studies. PMID:27466713

Status of chemistry lab safety in Nepal.

PubMed

Kandel, Krishna Prasad; Neupane, Bhanu Bhakta; Giri, Basant

2017-01-01

Chemistry labs can become a dangerous environment for students as the lab exercises involve hazardous chemicals, glassware, and equipment. Approximately one hundred thousand students take chemistry laboratory classes annually in Nepal. We conducted a survey on chemical lab safety issues across Nepal. In this paper, we assess the safety policy and equipment, protocols and procedures followed, and waste disposal in chemistry teaching labs. Significant population of the respondents believed that there is no monitoring of the lab safety in their lab (p<0.001). Even though many labs do not allow food and beverages inside lab and have first aid kits, they lack some basic safety equipment. There is no institutional mechanism to dispose lab waste and chemical waste is disposed haphazardly. Majority of the respondents believed that the safety training should be a part of educational training (p = 0.001) and they would benefit from short course and/or workshop on lab safety (p<0.001).

Status of chemistry lab safety in Nepal

PubMed Central

Kandel, Krishna Prasad; Neupane, Bhanu Bhakta

2017-01-01

Chemistry labs can become a dangerous environment for students as the lab exercises involve hazardous chemicals, glassware, and equipment. Approximately one hundred thousand students take chemistry laboratory classes annually in Nepal. We conducted a survey on chemical lab safety issues across Nepal. In this paper, we assess the safety policy and equipment, protocols and procedures followed, and waste disposal in chemistry teaching labs. Significant population of the respondents believed that there is no monitoring of the lab safety in their lab (p<0.001). Even though many labs do not allow food and beverages inside lab and have first aid kits, they lack some basic safety equipment. There is no institutional mechanism to dispose lab waste and chemical waste is disposed haphazardly. Majority of the respondents believed that the safety training should be a part of educational training (p = 0.001) and they would benefit from short course and/or workshop on lab safety (p<0.001). PMID:28644869

Internet Protocol Implementation Guide.

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-08-01

RD-R153 624 INTERNET PROTOCOL IMPLEMENTATION GIDE(U) SRI 1/2 INTERNATIONAL MENLO PARK CA NETWORK INFORMATION CENTER AUG 82 DCA2e-83-C-8e25 N... INTERNET PROTOCOL S IMPLEMENTATION GUIDE August 1982 DTICFL. !.ECTE .-" MAY 1 31985 ;z B Q.. Network Information Center SRI International Menlo Park...this is more information than the receiving Internet * module needs. The specified procedure is to take the return route recorded in the first

Net Results: Online Protocols Boost Group Learning Potential

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dichter, Alan; Zydney, Janet Mannheimer

2015-01-01

Educators have begun to use protocols to facilitate professional development in online spaces--partly because people need to connect from different places, but also to take advantage of new environments for learning. For example, asynchronous tools, such as discussion forums, blogs, or Google+, where participants post messages to one another at…

Recombinant DNA for Teachers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duvall, James G., III

1992-01-01

A science teacher describes his experience at a workshop to learn to teach the Cold Spring Harbor DNA Science Laboratory Protocols. These protocols lead students through processes for taking E. coli cells and transforming them into a new antibiotic resistant strain. The workshop featured discussions of the role of DNA recombinant technology in…

Utilization of the graded universal testing system to increase the efficiency for assessing aerobic and anaerobic capacity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rodgers, Sandra L.

1992-01-01

The in-flight exercise test performed by cosmonauts as part of the Russian Exercise Countermeasure Program is limited to 5 minutes due to communication restrictions. During a recent graded exercise test on a U.S. Shuttle flight, the test was terminated early due to an upcoming loss of signal (LOS) with the ground. This exercise test was a traditional test where the subject's exercise capacity dictates the length of the test. For example, one crew member may take 15 minutes to complete the test, while another may take 18 minutes. The traditional exercise test limits the flight schedulers to large blocks of space flight time in order to provide medical and research personnel information on the fitness capacity (maximal oxygen uptake: VO2max) of crew members during flight. A graded exercise test that would take a finite amount of time and a set preparation and recovery time would ease this problem by allowing flight schedulers to plan exercise tests in advance of LOS. The Graded Universal Testing System (GUTS) was designed to meet this goal. Fitness testing of astronauts before and after flight provides pertinent data on many variables. The Detailed Supplemental Objective (DSO608) protocol (6) is one of the graded exercise tests (GXT) currently used in astronaut testing before and after flight. Test times for this protocol have lasted from 11 to 18 minutes. Anaerobic capacity is an important variable that is currently not being evaluated before and after flight. Recent reports (1,2,5) from the literature have suggested that the oxygen deficit at supramaximal exercise is a measure of anaerobic capacity. We postulated that the oxygen deficit at maximal exercise would be an indication of anaerobic capacity. If this postulate can be accepted, then the efficiency of acquiring data from a graded exercise test would increase at least twofold. To examine this hypothesis anaerobic capacity was measured using a modified treadmill test (3,4) designed to exhaust the anaerobic systems in approximately 45 to 75 seconds. Lactate concentration in the blood was analyzed after all tests, since lactate is the end-product of anaerobic energy production. Therefore, the peak lactate response is an additional indication of anaerobic capacity. A preliminary comparison of the GUTS and the DSO608 suggests that the GUTS protocol would increase the efficiency of VO2max testing of astronauts before and after flight. Results for anaerobic capacity have not been tabulated.

Biobanking of patient and patient-derived xenograft ovarian tumour tissue: efficient preservation with low and high fetal calf serum based methods.

PubMed

Alkema, Nicolette G; Tomar, Tushar; Duiker, Evelien W; Jan Meersma, Gert; Klip, Harry; van der Zee, Ate G J; Wisman, G Bea A; de Jong, Steven

2015-10-06

Using patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) for preclinical cancer research demands proper storage of tumour material to facilitate logistics and to reduce the number of animals needed. We successfully established 45 subcutaneous ovarian cancer PDXs, reflecting all histological subtypes, with an overall take rate of 68%. Corresponding cells from mouse replaced human tumour stromal and endothelial cells in second generation PDXs as demonstrated with mouse-specific vimentin and CD31 immunohistochemical staining. For biobanking purposes two cryopreservation methods, a fetal calf serum (FCS)-based (95%v/v) "FCS/DMSO" protocol and a low serum-based (10%v/v) "vitrification" protocol were tested. After primary cryopreservation, tumour take rates were 38% and 67% using either the vitrification or FCS/DMSO-based cryopreservation protocol, respectively. Cryopreserved tumour tissue of established PDXs achieved take rates of 67% and 94%, respectively compared to 91% using fresh PDX tumour tissue. Genotyping analysis showed that no changes in copy number alterations were introduced by any of the biobanking methods. Our results indicate that both protocols can be used for biobanking of ovarian tumour and PDX tissues. However, FCS/DMSO-based cryopreservation is more successful. Moreover, primary engraftment of fresh patient-derived tumours in mice followed by freezing tissue of successfully established PDXs is the preferred way of efficient ovarian cancer PDX biobanking.

A case against justified non-voluntary active euthanasia (the Groningen Protocol).

PubMed

Jotkowitz, Alan; Glick, S; Gesundheit, B

2008-11-01

The Groningen Protocol allows active euthanasia of severely ill newborns with unbearable suffering. Defenders of the protocol insist that the protocol refers to terminally ill infants and that quality of life should not be a factor in the decision to euthanize an infant. They also argue that there should be no ethical difference between active and passive euthanasia of these infants. However, nowhere in the protocol does it refer to terminally ill infants; on the contrary, the developers of the protocol take into account the future quality of life of the infant. We also note how the Nazi Euthanasie Programm started with the premise that there is some life not worthy of living. Therefore, in our opinion, the protocol violates the traditional ethical codes of physicians and the moral values of the overwhelming majority of the citizens of the world.

Taking the Politics Out of Satellite and Space-Based Communications Protocols

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ivancic, William D.

2006-01-01

After many years of studies, experimentation, and deployment, large amounts of misinformation and misconceptions remain regarding applicability of various communications protocols for use in satellite and space-based networks. This paper attempts to remove much of the politics, misconceptions, and misinformation that have plagued spacebased communications protocol development and deployment. This paper provides a common vocabulary for communications; a general discussion of the requirements for various communication environments; an evaluation of tradeoffs between circuit and packet-switching technologies, and the pros and cons of various link, network, transport, application, and security protocols. Included is the applicability of protocol enhancing proxies to NASA, Department of Defense (DOD), and commercial space communication systems.

A native Bayesian classifier based routing protocol for VANETS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bao, Zhenshan; Zhou, Keqin; Zhang, Wenbo; Gong, Xiaolei

2016-12-01

Geographic routing protocols are one of the most hot research areas in VANET (Vehicular Ad-hoc Network). However, there are few routing protocols can take both the transmission efficient and the usage of ratio into account. As we have noticed, different messages in VANET may ask different quality of service. So we raised a Native Bayesian Classifier based routing protocol (Naive Bayesian Classifier-Greedy, NBC-Greedy), which can classify and transmit different messages by its emergency degree. As a result, we can balance the transmission efficient and the usage of ratio with this protocol. Based on Matlab simulation, we can draw a conclusion that NBC-Greedy is more efficient and stable than LR-Greedy and GPSR.

75 FR 11540 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-03-11

... the evaluation: (1) Pre/post-test interview protocol--Consisting of both open- and closed-ended... respondents in interviews that will take one hour each. The pre/post-test interview protocol will be... the year. At the end of the year, post-test interviews will be performed as one-hour group interviews...

Evaluation of American Board of Orthodontics certification protocols in postgraduate orthodontic programs in the United States and Canada.

PubMed

Park, Jae Hyun; Putrus, Raphael R; Pruzansky, Dawn P; Grubb, John

2017-03-01

The objective of this study was to identify the board certification protocols that hospital and university-based postgraduate orthodontic programs have in place to prepare residents for the American Board of Orthodontics (ABO) certification examination. An electronic survey was sent to the program directors of each of the 72 postgraduate orthodontic programs in the United States and Canada. The survey consisted of 49 questions about demographics, resident case assignment protocols, and ABO examination preparation methods. The response rate was 81%. Most programs were 30 to 36 months in length (72.7%). Many residents had a case load of 51 to 75 during their first year (50.9%), with an average maximum case load of 70 to 109. There was a positive correlation with both the number of cases that first-year residents start and the length of the program (Spearman correlation coefficient = 0.379; P <0.01) when compared with maximum case load. Approximately 72% of the programs do not offer a written mock board examination; however, 72% reported offering a clinical mock board examination. ABO cases are identified within the first 6 months of most programs. About 88% of respondents believe that residents take advantage of the banking system, and that over the past 5 years ABO Initial Certification Examination applications have increased. Most program directors (89.1%) believe that their program length is sufficient for board preparation. Subjects tested in the written examination are integrated into the didactic curriculum and strengthened with ongoing literature reviews, with a passing rate over 90%. Clinical examination preparation varies, with most programs requiring a mock board examination for graduation. Total participation in both the Initial Certification Examination and banking has increased since 2010; better follow-up protocols are needed to track residents after graduation. Copyright © 2017 American Association of Orthodontists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Rover Takes a Sunday Drive

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

This animation, made with images from the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit hazard-identification camera, shows the rover's perspective of its first post-egress drive on Mars Sunday. Engineers drove Spirit approximately 3 meters (10 feet) toward its first rock target, a football-sized, mountain-shaped rock called Adirondack. The drive took approximately 30 minutes to complete, including time stopped to take images. Spirit first made a series of arcing turns totaling approximately 1 meter (3 feet). It then turned in place and made a series of short, straightforward movements totaling approximately 2 meters (6.5 feet).

Quantum cryptography with finite resources: unconditional security bound for discrete-variable protocols with one-way postprocessing.

PubMed

Scarani, Valerio; Renner, Renato

2008-05-23

We derive a bound for the security of quantum key distribution with finite resources under one-way postprocessing, based on a definition of security that is composable and has an operational meaning. While our proof relies on the assumption of collective attacks, unconditional security follows immediately for standard protocols such as Bennett-Brassard 1984 and six-states protocol. For single-qubit implementations of such protocols, we find that the secret key rate becomes positive when at least N approximately 10(5) signals are exchanged and processed. For any other discrete-variable protocol, unconditional security can be obtained using the exponential de Finetti theorem, but the additional overhead leads to very pessimistic estimates.

IPV6 Mobile Network Protocol Weaknesses and a Cryptosystem Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Balitanas, Maricel; Kim, Tai-Hoon

This paper reviews some of the improvements associated with the new Internet protocol version 6, an emphasis on its security-related functionality particularly in its authentication and concludes with a hybrid cryptosystem for its authentication issue. Since new generation of Internet protocol is on its way to solve the growth of IP address depletion. It is in a process that may take several years to complete. Thus, as a step to effective solution and efficient implementation this review has been made.

An ultra low-power and traffic-adaptive medium access control protocol for wireless body area network.

PubMed

Ullah, Sana; Kwak, Kyung Sup

2012-06-01

Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) consists of low-power, miniaturized, and autonomous wireless sensor nodes that enable physicians to remotely monitor vital signs of patients and provide real-time feedback with medical diagnosis and consultations. It is the most reliable and cheaper way to take care of patients suffering from chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Some of the most important attributes of WBAN is low-power consumption and delay. This can be achieved by introducing flexible duty cycling techniques on the energy constraint sensor nodes. Stated otherwise, low duty cycle nodes should not receive frequent synchronization and control packets if they have no data to send/receive. In this paper, we introduce a Traffic-adaptive MAC protocol (TaMAC) by taking into account the traffic information of the sensor nodes. The protocol dynamically adjusts the duty cycle of the sensor nodes according to their traffic-patterns, thus solving the idle listening and overhearing problems. The traffic-patterns of all sensor nodes are organized and maintained by the coordinator. The TaMAC protocol is supported by a wakeup radio that is used to accommodate emergency and on-demand events in a reliable manner. The wakeup radio uses a separate control channel along with the data channel and therefore it has considerably low power consumption requirements. Analytical expressions are derived to analyze and compare the performance of the TaMAC protocol with the well-known beacon-enabled IEEE 802.15.4 MAC, WiseMAC, and SMAC protocols. The analytical derivations are further validated by simulation results. It is shown that the TaMAC protocol outperforms all other protocols in terms of power consumption and delay.

Continuous sweep versus discrete step protocols for studying effects of wearable robot assistance magnitude.

PubMed

Malcolm, Philippe; Rossi, Denise Martineli; Siviy, Christopher; Lee, Sangjun; Quinlivan, Brendan Thomas; Grimmer, Martin; Walsh, Conor J

2017-07-12

Different groups developed wearable robots for walking assistance, but there is still a need for methods to quickly tune actuation parameters for each robot and population or sometimes even for individual users. Protocols where parameters are held constant for multiple minutes have traditionally been used for evaluating responses to parameter changes such as metabolic rate or walking symmetry. However, these discrete protocols are time-consuming. Recently, protocols have been proposed where a parameter is changed in a continuous way. The aim of the present study was to compare effects of continuously varying assistance magnitude with a soft exosuit against discrete step conditions. Seven participants walked on a treadmill wearing a soft exosuit that assists plantarflexion and hip flexion. In Continuous-up, peak exosuit ankle moment linearly increased from approximately 0 to 38% of biological moment over 10 min. Continuous-down was the opposite. In Discrete, participants underwent five periods of 5 min with steady peak moment levels distributed over the same range as Continuous-up and Continuous-down. We calculated metabolic rate for the entire Continuous-up and Continuous-down conditions and the last 2 min of each Discrete force level. We compared kinematics, kinetics and metabolic rate between conditions by curve fitting versus peak moment. Reduction in metabolic rate compared to Powered-off was smaller in Continuous-up than in Continuous-down at most peak moment levels, due to physiological dynamics causing metabolic measurements in Continuous-up and Continuous-down to lag behind the values expected during steady-state testing. When evaluating the average slope of metabolic reduction over the entire peak moment range there was no significant difference between Continuous-down and Discrete. Attempting to correct the lag in metabolics by taking the average of Continuous-up and Continuous-down removed all significant differences versus Discrete. For kinematic and kinetic parameters, there were no differences between all conditions. The finding that there were no differences in biomechanical parameters between all conditions suggests that biomechanical parameters can be recorded with the shortest protocol condition (i.e. single Continuous directions). The shorter time and higher resolution data of continuous sweep protocols hold promise for the future study of human interaction with wearable robots.

Simple Protocol for Secondary School Hands-On Activity: Electrophoresis of Pre-Stained Nucleic Acids on Agar-Agar Borate Gels

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Britos, Leticia; Goyenola, Guillermo; Orono, Silvia Umpierrez

2004-01-01

An extremely simple, inexpensive, and safe method is presented, which emulates nucleic acids isolation and electrophoretic analysis as performed in a research environment, in the context of a secondary school hands-on activity. The protocol is amenable to an interdisciplinary approach, taking into consideration the electrical and chemical…

Long-term forecasting of internet backbone traffic.

PubMed

Papagiannaki, Konstantina; Taft, Nina; Zhang, Zhi-Li; Diot, Christophe

2005-09-01

We introduce a methodology to predict when and where link additions/upgrades have to take place in an Internet protocol (IP) backbone network. Using simple network management protocol (SNMP) statistics, collected continuously since 1999, we compute aggregate demand between any two adjacent points of presence (PoPs) and look at its evolution at time scales larger than 1 h. We show that IP backbone traffic exhibits visible long term trends, strong periodicities, and variability at multiple time scales. Our methodology relies on the wavelet multiresolution analysis (MRA) and linear time series models. Using wavelet MRA, we smooth the collected measurements until we identify the overall long-term trend. The fluctuations around the obtained trend are further analyzed at multiple time scales. We show that the largest amount of variability in the original signal is due to its fluctuations at the 12-h time scale. We model inter-PoP aggregate demand as a multiple linear regression model, consisting of the two identified components. We show that this model accounts for 98% of the total energy in the original signal, while explaining 90% of its variance. Weekly approximations of those components can be accurately modeled with low-order autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models. We show that forecasting the long term trend and the fluctuations of the traffic at the 12-h time scale yields accurate estimates for at least 6 months in the future.

Development of a quantitative tool to assess the content of physical therapy for infants.

PubMed

Blauw-Hospers, Cornill H; Dirks, Tineke; Hulshof, Lily J; Hadders-Algra, Mijna

2010-01-01

The study aim was to describe and quantify physical therapy interventions for infants at high risk for developmental disorders. An observation protocol was developed based on knowledge about infant physical therapy and analysis of directly observable physiotherapeutic (PT) actions. The protocol's psychometric quality was assessed. Videos of 42 infant physical therapy sessions at 4 or 6 months of corrected age were analyzed. The observation protocol classified PT actions into 8 mutually exclusive categories. Virtually all PT actions during treatment could be classified. Inter- and intrarater agreements were satisfactory (intraclass correlations, 0.68-1.00). Approximately 40% of treatment time was spent challenging the infant to produce motor behavior by themselves, whereas approximately 30% of time facilitation techniques were applied. Tradition-based sessions could be differentiated from function-oriented ones. It is possible to document PT actions during physical therapy treatment of infants at high risk for cerebral palsy in a systematic, standardized, and reliable way.

Broken symmetry in a two-qubit quantum control landscape

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bukov, Marin; Day, Alexandre G. R.; Weinberg, Phillip; Polkovnikov, Anatoli; Mehta, Pankaj; Sels, Dries

2018-05-01

We analyze the physics of optimal protocols to prepare a target state with high fidelity in a symmetrically coupled two-qubit system. By varying the protocol duration, we find a discontinuous phase transition, which is characterized by a spontaneous breaking of a Z2 symmetry in the functional form of the optimal protocol, and occurs below the quantum speed limit. We study in detail this phase and demonstrate that even though high-fidelity protocols come degenerate with respect to their fidelity, they lead to final states of different entanglement entropy shared between the qubits. Consequently, while globally both optimal protocols are equally far away from the target state, one is locally closer than the other. An approximate variational mean-field theory which captures the physics of the different phases is developed.

A Laboratory Exercise to Illustrate Protein-Membrane Interactions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weers, Paul M. M.; Prenner, Elmar J.; Curic, Spomenka; Lohmeier-Vogel, Elke M.

2016-01-01

The laboratory protocol presented here takes about 3 hours to perform and investigates protein and lipid interactions. Students first purify His6-tagged human apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) with Ni-NTA affinity resin in a simple batch protocol and prepare multilamellar vesicles (MLV) from pre-dried phospholipid films. When apoA-I is added to the MLV,…

Telehealth Protocol to Prevent Readmission Among High-Risk Patients With Congestive Heart Failure.

PubMed

Rosen, Daniel; McCall, Janice D; Primack, Brian A

2017-11-01

Congestive heart failure is the leading cause of hospital readmissions. We aimed to assess adherence to and effectiveness of a telehealth protocol designed to prevent hospital admissions for congestive heart failure. We recruited a random sample of 50 patients with congestive heart failure (mean age 61 years) from a managed care organization. We developed a telehealth platform allowing for daily, real-time reporting of health status and video conferencing. We defined adherence as the percentage of days on which the patient completed the daily check-in protocol. To assess efficacy, we compared admission and readmission rates between the 6-month intervention period and the prior 6 months. Primary outcomes were admissions and readmissions due to congestive heart failure, and secondary outcomes were admissions and readmissions due to any cause. Forty-eight patients (96%) completed the protocol. Approximately half (46%) were at high risk for readmission according to standardized measures. Median 120-day adherence was 96% (interquartile range, 92%-98%), and adherence did not significantly differ across sex, race, age, living situation, depression, cognitive ability, or risk for readmission. Approximately equal proportions of patients were admitted for all causes during the 6-month intervention period versus the comparison period (37% vs 43%; P = .32). Half as many patients were admitted for congestive heart failure during the 6-month intervention period compared with the comparison period (12% vs 25%; P = .11). Adherence to this telehealth protocol was excellent and consistent, even among high-risk patients. Future research should test the protocol using a more rigorous randomized design. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

High throughput, detailed, cell-specific neuroanatomy of dendritic spines using microinjection and confocal microscopy

PubMed Central

Dumitriu, Dani; Rodriguez, Alfredo; Morrison, John H.

2012-01-01

Morphological features such as size, shape and density of dendritic spines have been shown to reflect important synaptic functional attributes and potential for plasticity. Here we describe in detail a protocol for obtaining detailed morphometric analysis of spines using microinjection of fluorescent dyes, high resolution confocal microscopy, deconvolution and image analysis using NeuronStudio. Recent technical advancements include better preservation of tissue resulting in prolonged ability to microinject, and algorithmic improvements that compensate for the residual Z-smear inherent in all optical imaging. Confocal imaging parameters were probed systematically for the identification of both optimal resolution as well as highest efficiency. When combined, our methods yield size and density measurements comparable to serial section transmission electron microscopy in a fraction of the time. An experiment containing 3 experimental groups with 8 subjects in each can take as little as one month if optimized for speed, or approximately 4 to 5 months if the highest resolution and morphometric detail is sought. PMID:21886104

Zernike Phase Contrast Electron Cryo-Tomography Applied to Marine Cyanobacteria Infected with Cyanophages

PubMed Central

Dai, Wei; Fu, Caroline; Khant, Htet A.; Ludtke, Steven J.; Schmid, Michael F.; Chiu, Wah

2015-01-01

Advances in electron cryo-tomography have provided a new opportunity to visualize the internal 3D structures of a bacterium. An electron microscope equipped with Zernike phase contrast optics produces images with dramatically increased contrast compared to images obtained by conventional electron microscopy. Here we describe a protocol to apply Zernike phase plate technology for acquiring electron tomographic tilt series of cyanophage-infected cyanobacterial cells embedded in ice, without staining or chemical fixation. We detail the procedures for aligning and assessing phase plates for data collection, and methods to obtain 3D structures of cyanophage assembly intermediates in the host, by subtomogram alignment, classification and averaging. Acquiring three to four tomographic tilt series takes approximately 12 h on a JEM2200FS electron microscope. We expect this time requirement to decrease substantially as the technique matures. Time required for annotation and subtomogram averaging varies widely depending on the project goals and data volume. PMID:25321408

Allocation of Family Responsibility for Illness Management in Pediatric HIV

PubMed Central

Montepiedra, Grace; Nichols, Sharon; Farley, John; Garvie, Patricia A.; Kammerer, Betsy; Malee, Kathleen; Sirois, Patricia A.; Storm, Deborah

2009-01-01

Objective The purpose of the study is to describe allocation of responsibility for illness management in families of children and adolescents perinatally infected with HIV. Methods A total of 123 youth (ages 8–18) and caregivers completed family responsibility and medication adherence questionnaires as part of a substudy of Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group protocol 219c. Results Approximately one-fourth of the youth reported being fully responsible for taking medications. A smaller percentage of caregivers reported full youth responsibility. Older youth and caregivers of older youth reported higher degree of youth responsibility for medication-related tasks, though age was unrelated to adherence. Caregiver report of greater responsibility for medications was associated with better adherence. Conclusions Caregivers are likely to transition responsibility for HIV care to older youth but this transition was not always successful as evidenced by poor medication adherence. Interventions supporting successful transition may improve adherence and subsequently health outcomes in pediatric HIV. PMID:18586756

The Traffic Adaptive Data Dissemination (TrAD) Protocol for both Urban and Highway Scenarios.

PubMed

Tian, Bin; Hou, Kun Mean; Zhou, Haiying

2016-06-21

The worldwide economic cost of road crashes and injuries is estimated to be US$518 billion per year and the annual congestion cost in France is estimated to be €5.9 billion. Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) are one solution to improve transport features such as traffic safety, traffic jam and infotainment on wheels, where a great number of event-driven messages need to be disseminated in a timely way in a region of interest. In comparison with traditional wireless networks, VANETs have to consider the highly dynamic network topology and lossy links due to node mobility. Inter-Vehicle Communication (IVC) protocols are the keystone of VANETs. According to our survey, most of the proposed IVC protocols focus on either highway or urban scenarios, but not on both. Furthermore, too few protocols, considering both scenarios, can achieve high performance. In this paper, an infrastructure-less Traffic Adaptive data Dissemination (TrAD) protocol which takes into account road traffic and network traffic status for both highway and urban scenarios will be presented. TrAD has double broadcast suppression techniques and is designed to adapt efficiently to the irregular road topology. The performance of the TrAD protocol was evaluated quantitatively by means of realistic simulations taking into account different real road maps, traffic routes and vehicular densities. The obtained simulation results show that TrAD is more efficient in terms of packet delivery ratio, number of transmissions and delay in comparison with the performance of three well-known reference protocols. Moreover, TrAD can also tolerate a reasonable degree of GPS drift and still achieve efficient data dissemination.

The Traffic Adaptive Data Dissemination (TrAD) Protocol for both Urban and Highway Scenarios

PubMed Central

Tian, Bin; Hou, Kun Mean; Zhou, Haiying

2016-01-01

The worldwide economic cost of road crashes and injuries is estimated to be US$518 billion per year and the annual congestion cost in France is estimated to be €5.9 billion. Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs) are one solution to improve transport features such as traffic safety, traffic jam and infotainment on wheels, where a great number of event-driven messages need to be disseminated in a timely way in a region of interest. In comparison with traditional wireless networks, VANETs have to consider the highly dynamic network topology and lossy links due to node mobility. Inter-Vehicle Communication (IVC) protocols are the keystone of VANETs. According to our survey, most of the proposed IVC protocols focus on either highway or urban scenarios, but not on both. Furthermore, too few protocols, considering both scenarios, can achieve high performance. In this paper, an infrastructure-less Traffic Adaptive data Dissemination (TrAD) protocol which takes into account road traffic and network traffic status for both highway and urban scenarios will be presented. TrAD has double broadcast suppression techniques and is designed to adapt efficiently to the irregular road topology. The performance of the TrAD protocol was evaluated quantitatively by means of realistic simulations taking into account different real road maps, traffic routes and vehicular densities. The obtained simulation results show that TrAD is more efficient in terms of packet delivery ratio, number of transmissions and delay in comparison with the performance of three well-known reference protocols. Moreover, TrAD can also tolerate a reasonable degree of GPS drift and still achieve efficient data dissemination. PMID:27338393

Cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay in primary human liver fibroblasts exposed to griseofulvin and mitomycin C.

PubMed

Nesti, C; Trippi, F; Scarpato, R; Migliore, L; Turchi, G

2000-03-01

Primary liver fibroblasts were applied in a cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay in combination with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using two protocols. In protocol A (Prot. A), cytochalasin B (Cyt B) was added at the end of the treatment time directly to the medium containing the standard compounds, whereas in protocol B (Prot. B) the chemical-containing medium was removed and fresh medium with Cyt B was added. The study was performed using the aneugen griseofulvin (GF) and the clastogen mitomycin C (MMC) as standard compounds. With both protocols GF induced a significant increase in MN frequency over controls in a dose-related manner at the lower concentrations tested (7.5 and 15 microg/ml). At the highest dose (30 microg/ml) the aneugen effect was substantially reduced. MN induction obtained with Prot. A was significantly higher ( approximately 3-fold) than with Prot. B at the most effective concentration. The aneugen effect induced by GF did not change when different cell densities were used, but again with Prot. A we obtained the highest effect. MN induced by MMC showed a dose- and time-dependent increase in both protocols. In contrast to GF, the greater clastogenic response induced by MMC in human liver fibroblasts was obtained with Prot. B, approximately 3-fold higher than Prot. A at the most effective concentration and approximately 2-fold with 24 h treatment at 0.17 microg/ml MMC. With GF, the FISH data in human liver fibroblasts (80% C+MN) were fairly consistent with those obtained in the rodent cell lines. In human whole blood cultures, the same dose used in our experiment produced a relatively higher percentage of C+MN. FISH analysis showed that MMC induced mainly MN containing acentric fragments rather than whole chromosomes. In conclusion we have demostrated that chemically induced genetic effects are strongly dependent on the cell culture employed, treatment schedule and intra- and post-treatment experimental conditions.

Scalability enhancement of AODV using local link repairing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jain, Jyoti; Gupta, Roopam; Bandhopadhyay, T. K.

2014-09-01

Dynamic change in the topology of an ad hoc network makes it difficult to design an efficient routing protocol. Scalability of an ad hoc network is also one of the important criteria of research in this field. Most of the research works in ad hoc network focus on routing and medium access protocols and produce simulation results for limited-size networks. Ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV) is one of the best reactive routing protocols. In this article, modified routing protocols based on local link repairing of AODV are proposed. Method of finding alternate routes for next-to-next node is proposed in case of link failure. These protocols are beacon-less, means periodic hello message is removed from the basic AODV to improve scalability. Few control packet formats have been changed to accommodate suggested modification. Proposed protocols are simulated to investigate scalability performance and compared with basic AODV protocol. This also proves that local link repairing of proposed protocol improves scalability of the network. From simulation results, it is clear that scalability performance of routing protocol is improved because of link repairing method. We have tested protocols for different terrain area with approximate constant node densities and different traffic load.

77 FR 34967 - Notice of Issuance of Final Determination Concerning Digital Projectors

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-06-12

... six function tests in the ``post test'', the EDID firmware is programmed into the digital projectors... tests and consists of at least 97 steps taking approximately 137.8 minutes. After the whole projector is... includes 11 kinds of function tests and consists of at least 97 steps which will take approximately 11...

Implications of Eighth Grade Algebra I on High School Mathematics Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bayard, Robert

2012-01-01

As of 2008, approximately 40% of eighth grade students in the United States enroll in Algebra I (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2008). Although research has shown that students have more opportunities to take advanced mathematics courses by taking eighth grade Algebra I, in the United States, approximately only one-third to one-half…

Additional considerations are required when preparing a protocol for a systematic review with multiple interventions.

PubMed

Chaimani, Anna; Caldwell, Deborah M; Li, Tianjing; Higgins, Julian P T; Salanti, Georgia

2017-03-01

The number of systematic reviews that aim to compare multiple interventions using network meta-analysis is increasing. In this study, we highlight aspects of a standard systematic review protocol that may need modification when multiple interventions are to be compared. We take the protocol format suggested by Cochrane for a standard systematic review as our reference and compare the considerations for a pairwise review with those required for a valid comparison of multiple interventions. We suggest new sections for protocols of systematic reviews including network meta-analyses with a focus on how to evaluate their assumptions. We provide example text from published protocols to exemplify the considerations. Standard systematic review protocols for pairwise meta-analyses need extensions to accommodate the increased complexity of network meta-analysis. Our suggested modifications are widely applicable to both Cochrane and non-Cochrane systematic reviews involving network meta-analyses. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Proposal for founding mistrustful quantum cryptography on coin tossing

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

Kent, Adrian; Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Filton Road, Stoke Gifford, Bristol BS34 8QZ,

2003-07-01

A significant branch of classical cryptography deals with the problems which arise when mistrustful parties need to generate, process, or exchange information. As Kilian showed a while ago, mistrustful classical cryptography can be founded on a single protocol, oblivious transfer, from which general secure multiparty computations can be built. The scope of mistrustful quantum cryptography is limited by no-go theorems, which rule out, inter alia, unconditionally secure quantum protocols for oblivious transfer or general secure two-party computations. These theorems apply even to protocols which take relativistic signaling constraints into account. The best that can be hoped for, in general, aremore » quantum protocols which are computationally secure against quantum attack. Here a method is described for building a classically certified bit commitment, and hence every other mistrustful cryptographic task, from a secure coin-tossing protocol. No security proof is attempted, but reasons are sketched why these protocols might resist quantum computational attack.« less

Using Colored Stochastic Petri Net (CS-PN) software for protocol specification, validation, and evaluation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zenie, Alexandre; Luguern, Jean-Pierre

1987-01-01

The specification, verification, validation, and evaluation, which make up the different steps of the CS-PN software are outlined. The colored stochastic Petri net software is applied to a Wound/Wait protocol decomposable into two principal modules: request or couple (transaction, granule) treatment module and wound treatment module. Each module is specified, verified, validated, and then evaluated separately, to deduce a verification, validation and evaluation of the complete protocol. The colored stochastic Petri nets tool is shown to be a natural extension of the stochastic tool, adapted to distributed systems and protocols, because the color conveniently takes into account the numerous sites, transactions, granules and messages.

Minimizing irreversible losses in quantum systems by local counterdiabatic driving

PubMed Central

Sels, Dries; Polkovnikov, Anatoli

2017-01-01

Counterdiabatic driving protocols have been proposed [Demirplak M, Rice SA (2003) J Chem Phys A 107:9937–9945; Berry M (2009) J Phys A Math Theor 42:365303] as a means to make fast changes in the Hamiltonian without exciting transitions. Such driving in principle allows one to realize arbitrarily fast annealing protocols or implement fast dissipationless driving, circumventing standard adiabatic limitations requiring infinitesimally slow rates. These ideas were tested and used both experimentally and theoretically in small systems, but in larger chaotic systems, it is known that exact counterdiabatic protocols do not exist. In this work, we develop a simple variational approach allowing one to find the best possible counterdiabatic protocols given physical constraints, like locality. These protocols are easy to derive and implement both experimentally and numerically. We show that, using these approximate protocols, one can drastically suppress heating and increase fidelity of quantum annealing protocols in complex many-particle systems. In the fast limit, these protocols provide an effective dual description of adiabatic dynamics, where the coupling constant plays the role of time and the counterdiabatic term plays the role of the Hamiltonian. PMID:28461472

Clinical Investigation Program Annual Progress Report

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-09-30

272 93/200A 0 Comparison of Healing Rates of Bones Plated Following Fracture, Among Yucatan Swine Having Open and Closed Physes...Study Objective: Compare two enteral formulas in respect to nutritional aspects. (16) Technical Approach: Protocol will take place in SICU. (17...Protocol #: 93/200A (3) Status: Ongoing (4) Title: Comparison of Healing Rates of Bones Plated Following Fractures, Among Yucatan Swine Having Open and

First Time Authentication for Airborne Networks (FAAN)

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-01-01

21] “An Improved Protocol for Demonstrating Possession of Discrete Logarithms and Some Generalizations”, D Chaum , J-H Evertse, J van de Graaf...System Sciences, p. 1-9, 1998. [5] D . Micciancio, The Shortest Vector in a Lattice is Hard to Approximate to within Some Constant, Proc. 39th...1999. [7] D . Micciancio and E. Petrank, Efficient and Concurrent Zero-Knowledge from any public coin HVZK protocol, Proceedings of Advances in

Pharmaceutical care for patients with COPD in Belgium and views on protocol implementation.

PubMed

Tommelein, Eline; Tollenaere, Kathleen; Mehuys, Els; Boussery, Koen

2014-08-01

A protocol-based pharmaceutical care program (the PHARMACOP-protocol) focusing on patient counselling during prescription filling has shown to be effective in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, implementation of this protocol in daily practice has not yet been studied. To describe current implementation level of the items included in the PHARMACOP-protocol in Belgian community pharmacies and to evaluate pharmacists' perspectives on the implementation of this protocol in daily practice. A cross-sectional study was conducted from April to June 2012, in randomly selected community pharmacies in Flanders. Pharmacists were questionned using structured interviews. 125 pharmacies were contacted and 80 managing pharmacists (64 %) participated. In >70 % of pharmacies, 4/7 protocol items for first prescriptions and 3/5 protocol items for follow-up prescriptions were already routinely implemented. For first and follow-up prescriptions, respectively 39 (49 %) and 34 pharmacists (43 %) stated they would need to spend at least 5 min extra to offer optimal patient counselling. Most mentioned barriers preventing protocol implementation included lack of time (80 %), no integration in pharmacy software (61 %) and too much administrative burden (58 %). Approximately 50 % of the PHARMACOP-protocol items are currently routinely provided in Belgian community pharmacies. Nearly all interviewed pharmacists are willing to implement the protocol fully or partially in daily practice.

The Effects of Note-Taking Skills Instruction on Elementary Students' Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Wan-Chen; Ku, Yu-Min

2015-01-01

The authors investigated the effects of a 5-week note-taking skills instructional program on note-taking and reading comprehension performance of elementary students. The participants included 349 fourth-grade students from 2 elementary schools in Taiwan. The Note-Taking Instruction group received approximately 40 min of note-taking skills…

Can Appreciative Inquiry Increase Positive Interactions, Student Self-Advocacy and Turn-Taking during IEP Meetings?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kozik, Peter L.

2018-01-01

This comparative research study in the context of action research documents the effects of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) on positive participant interactions, student turn-taking and self-advocacy interactions during IEP meetings that focused on student transition to post-secondary outcomes. AI was implemented as a written protocol for conducting IEP…

Graphical user interface for wireless sensor networks simulator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paczesny, Tomasz; Paczesny, Daniel; Weremczuk, Jerzy

2008-01-01

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are currently very popular area of development. It can be suited in many applications form military through environment monitoring, healthcare, home automation and others. Those networks, when working in dynamic, ad-hoc model, need effective protocols which must differ from common computer networks algorithms. Research on those protocols would be difficult without simulation tool, because real applications often use many nodes and tests on such a big networks take much effort and costs. The paper presents Graphical User Interface (GUI) for simulator which is dedicated for WSN studies, especially in routing and data link protocols evaluation.

Accelerated convergence for synchronous approximate agreement

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kearns, J. P.; Park, S. K.; Sjogren, J. A.

1988-01-01

The protocol for synchronous approximate agreement presented by Dolev et. al. exhibits the undesirable property that a faulty processor, by the dissemination of a value arbitrarily far removed from the values held by good processors, may delay the termination of the protocol by an arbitrary amount of time. Such behavior is clearly undesirable in a fault tolerant dynamic system subject to hard real-time constraints. A mechanism is presented by which editing data suspected of being from Byzantine-failed processors can lead to quicker, predictable, convergence to an agreement value. Under specific assumptions about the nature of values transmitted by failed processors relative to those transmitted by good processors, a Monte Carlo simulation is presented whose qualitative results illustrate the trade-off between accelerated convergence and the accuracy of the value agreed upon.

Adaptive transmission based on multi-relay selection and rate-compatible LDPC codes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Su, Hualing; He, Yucheng; Zhou, Lin

2017-08-01

In order to adapt to the dynamical changeable channel condition and improve the transmissive reliability of the system, a cooperation system of rate-compatible low density parity check (RC-LDPC) codes combining with multi-relay selection protocol is proposed. In traditional relay selection protocol, only the channel state information (CSI) of source-relay and the CSI of relay-destination has been considered. The multi-relay selection protocol proposed by this paper takes the CSI between relays into extra account in order to obtain more chances of collabration. Additionally, the idea of hybrid automatic request retransmission (HARQ) and rate-compatible are introduced. Simulation results show that the transmissive reliability of the system can be significantly improved by the proposed protocol.

Scada Malware, a Proof of Concept

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carcano, Andrea; Fovino, Igor Nai; Masera, Marcelo; Trombetta, Alberto

Critical Infrastructures are nowadays exposed to new kind of threats. The cause of such threats is related to the large number of new vulnerabilities and architectural weaknesses introduced by the extensive use of ICT and Network technologies into such complex critical systems. Of particular interest are the set of vulnerabilities related to the class of communication protocols normally known as “SCADA” protocols, under which fall all the communication protocols used to remotely control the RTU devices of an industrial system. In this paper we present a proof of concept of the potential effects of a set of computer malware specifically designed and created in order to impact, by taking advantage of some vulnerabilities of the ModBUS protocol, on a typical Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system.

Analytical platform for metabolome analysis of microbial cells using methyl chloroformate derivatization followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Smart, Kathleen F; Aggio, Raphael B M; Van Houtte, Jeremy R; Villas-Bôas, Silas G

2010-09-01

This protocol describes an analytical platform for the analysis of intra- and extracellular metabolites of microbial cells (yeast, filamentous fungi and bacteria) using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The protocol is subdivided into sampling, sample preparation, chemical derivatization of metabolites, GC-MS analysis and data processing and analysis. This protocol uses two robust quenching methods for microbial cultures, the first of which, cold glycerol-saline quenching, causes reduced leakage of intracellular metabolites, thus allowing a more reliable separation of intra- and extracellular metabolites with simultaneous stopping of cell metabolism. The second, fast filtration, is specifically designed for quenching filamentous micro-organisms. These sampling techniques are combined with an easy sample-preparation procedure and a fast chemical derivatization reaction using methyl chloroformate. This reaction takes place at room temperature, in aqueous medium, and is less prone to matrix effect compared with other derivatizations. This protocol takes an average of 10 d to complete and enables the simultaneous analysis of hundreds of metabolites from the central carbon metabolism (amino and nonamino organic acids, phosphorylated organic acids and fatty acid intermediates) using an in-house MS library and a data analysis pipeline consisting of two free software programs (Automated Mass Deconvolution and Identification System (AMDIS) and R).

A secure RFID-based WBAN for healthcare applications.

PubMed

Ullah, Sana; Alamri, Atif

2013-10-01

A Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) allows the seamless integration of small and intelligent invasive or non-invasive sensor nodes in, on or around a human body for continuous health monitoring. These nodes are expected to use different power-efficient protocols in order to extend the WBAN lifetime. This paper highlights the power consumption and security issues of WBAN for healthcare applications. Numerous power saving mechanisms are discussed and a secure RFID-based protocol for WBAN is proposed. The performance of the proposed protocol is analyzed and compared with that of IEEE 802.15.6-based CSMA/CA and preamble-based TDMA protocols using extensive simulations. It is shown that the proposed protocol is power-efficient and protects patients' data from adversaries. It is less vulnerable to different attacks compared to that of IEEE 802.15.6-based CSMA/CA and preamble-based TDMA protocols. For a low traffic load and a single alkaline battery of capacity 2.6 Ah, the proposed protocol could extend the WBAN lifetime, when deployed on patients in hospitals or at homes, to approximately five years.

Portable Language-Independent Adaptive Translation from OCR. Phase 1

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-04-01

including brute-force k-Nearest Neighbors ( kNN ), fast approximate kNN using hashed k-d trees, classification and regression trees, and locality...achieved by refinements in ground-truthing protocols. Recent algorithmic improvements to our approximate kNN classifier using hashed k-D trees allows...recent years discriminative training has been shown to outperform phonetic HMMs estimated using ML for speech recognition. Standard ML estimation

Affinity purification–mass spectrometry and network analysis to understand protein-protein interactions

PubMed Central

Morris, John H; Knudsen, Giselle M; Verschueren, Erik; Johnson, Jeffrey R; Cimermancic, Peter; Greninger, Alexander L; Pico, Alexander R

2015-01-01

By determining protein-protein interactions in normal, diseased and infected cells, we can improve our understanding of cellular systems and their reaction to various perturbations. In this protocol, we discuss how to use data obtained in affinity purification–mass spectrometry (AP-MS) experiments to generate meaningful interaction networks and effective figures. We begin with an overview of common epitope tagging, expression and AP practices, followed by liquid chromatography–MS (LC-MS) data collection. We then provide a detailed procedure covering a pipeline approach to (i) pre-processing the data by filtering against contaminant lists such as the Contaminant Repository for Affinity Purification (CRAPome) and normalization using the spectral index (SIN) or normalized spectral abundance factor (NSAF); (ii) scoring via methods such as MiST, SAInt and CompPASS; and (iii) testing the resulting scores. Data formats familiar to MS practitioners are then transformed to those most useful for network-based analyses. The protocol also explores methods available in Cytoscape to visualize and analyze these types of interaction data. The scoring pipeline can take anywhere from 1 d to 1 week, depending on one’s familiarity with the tools and data peculiarities. Similarly, the network analysis and visualization protocol in Cytoscape takes 2–4 h to complete with the provided sample data, but we recommend taking days or even weeks to explore one’s data and find the right questions. PMID:25275790

A gradient-free method for the purification of infective dengue virus for protein-level investigations.

PubMed

Jensen, Stephanie M; Nguyen, Celina T; Jewett, John C

2016-09-01

Dengue virus (DENV) is a mosquito-transmitted flavivirus that infects approximately 100 million people annually. Multi-day protocols for purification of DENV reduce the infective titer due to viral sensitivity to both temperature and pH. Herein we describe a 5-h protocol for the purification of all DENV serotypes, utilizing traditional gradient-free ultracentrifugation followed by selective virion precipitation. This protocol allows for the separation of DENV from contaminating proteins - including intact C6/36 densovirus, for the production of infective virus at high concentration for protein-level analysis. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Teaching Perspective-Taking Skills to Typically Developing Children through Derived Relational Responding

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heagle, Amie I.; Rehfeldt, Ruth Anne

2006-01-01

Perspective-taking is an ability that requires a child to emit a selection response of informational states in himself or herself and in others. This study used an extended version of the Barnes-Holmes protocol developed in a series of studies by McHugh, Barnes-Holmes, and Barnes-Holmes (2004) to teach typically developing children between the…

Optimization of a sample processing protocol for recovery of Bacillus anthracis spores from soil

USGS Publications Warehouse

Silvestri, Erin E.; Feldhake, David; Griffin, Dale; Lisle, John T.; Nichols, Tonya L.; Shah, Sanjiv; Pemberton, A; Schaefer III, Frank W

2016-01-01

Following a release of Bacillus anthracis spores into the environment, there is a potential for lasting environmental contamination in soils. There is a need for detection protocols for B. anthracis in environmental matrices. However, identification of B. anthracis within a soil is a difficult task. Processing soil samples helps to remove debris, chemical components, and biological impurities that can interfere with microbiological detection. This study aimed to optimize a previously used indirect processing protocol, which included a series of washing and centrifugation steps. Optimization of the protocol included: identifying an ideal extraction diluent, variation in the number of wash steps, variation in the initial centrifugation speed, sonication and shaking mechanisms. The optimized protocol was demonstrated at two laboratories in order to evaluate the recovery of spores from loamy and sandy soils. The new protocol demonstrated an improved limit of detection for loamy and sandy soils over the non-optimized protocol with an approximate matrix limit of detection at 14 spores/g of soil. There were no significant differences overall between the two laboratories for either soil type, suggesting that the processing protocol will be robust enough to use at multiple laboratories while achieving comparable recoveries.

Incidence of DCS and oxygen toxicity in chamber attendants: a 28-year experience.

PubMed

Witucki, Pete; Duchnick, Jay; Neuman, Tom; Grover, Ian

2013-01-01

Decompression sickness (DCS) and central nervous system oxygen toxicity are inherent risks for "inside" attendants (IAs) of hyperbaric chambers. At the Hyperbaric Medicine Center at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), protocols have been developed for decompressing IAs. Protocol 1: For a total bottom time (TBT) of less than 80 minutes at 2.4 atmospheres absolute (atm abs) or shallower, the U.S. Navy (1955) no-decompression tables were utilized. Protocol 2: For a TBT between 80 and 119 minutes IAs breathed oxygen for 15 minutes prior to initiation of ascent. Protocol 3: For a TBT between 120-139 minutes IAs breathed oxygen for 30 minutes prior to ascent. These protocols have been utilized for approximately 28 years and have produced zero cases of DCS and central nervous system oxygen toxicity. These results, based upon more than 24,000 exposures, have an upper limit of risk of DCS and oxygen toxicity of 0.02806 (95% CI) using UCSD IA decompression Protocol 1, 0.00021 for Protocol 2, and 0.00549 for Protocol 3. We conclude that the utilization of this methodology may be useful at other sea-level multiplace chambers.

Protocols for treating patients with end-stage renal disease: a survey of undergraduate dental programs.

PubMed

Sturgill, Jeremiah; Howell, Scott; Perry, Maureen Munnelly; Kothari, Hemali

2016-11-01

Approximately 14% of Americans are living with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The prevalence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD), the result of progressing CKD continues to rise by 21,000 per year. There are no updated, evidence-based antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines for patients with renal disease undergoing dental treatment. The most recent was a scientific statement from the American Heart Association (AHA) in 2003. Presented in three parts, the goal of the first part of this study is to determine the current protocol being used to treat renal patients at U.S. dental schools. A 21 multiple-choice question survey was e-mailed to 58 clinic deans of accredited dental schools in the United States regarding renal treatment protocol details including antibiotic prophylaxis. Fifty-two percent of programs report having no established renal patient treatment protocol. For programs with a protocol, when using prophylactic antibiotics, 54% followed AHA protocol, whereas 62% used a modified protocol. There is a lack of consistent, established protocols among undergraduate dental programs. It is suggested that evidence-based guidelines for the safe treatment of patients be developed. © 2016 Special Care Dentistry Association and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Adequate Security Protocols Adopt in a Conceptual Model in Identity Management for the Civil Registry of Ecuador

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Toapanta, Moisés; Mafla, Enrique; Orizaga, Antonio

2017-08-01

We analyzed the problems of security of the information of the civil registries and identification at world level that are considered strategic. The objective is to adopt the appropriate security protocols in a conceptual model in the identity management for the Civil Registry of Ecuador. In this phase, the appropriate security protocols were determined in a Conceptual Model in Identity Management with Authentication, Authorization and Auditing (AAA). We used the deductive method and exploratory research to define the appropriate security protocols to be adopted in the identity model: IPSec, DNSsec, Radius, SSL, TLS, IEEE 802.1X EAP, Set. It was a prototype of the location of the security protocols adopted in the logical design of the technological infrastructure considering the conceptual model for Identity, Authentication, Authorization, and Audit management. It was concluded that the adopted protocols are appropriate for a distributed database and should have a direct relationship with the algorithms, which allows vulnerability and risk mitigation taking into account confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA).

FISH-Flow, a protocol for the concurrent detection of mRNA and protein in single cells using fluorescence in situ hybridization and flow cytometry

PubMed Central

Arrigucci, Riccardo; Bushkin, Yuri; Radford, Felix; Lakehal, Karim; Vir, Pooja; Pine, Richard; Martin, December; Sugarman, Jeffrey; Zhao, Yanlin; Yap, George S; Lardizabal, Alfred A; Tyagi, Sanjay; Gennaro, Maria Laura

2017-01-01

We describe a flow-cytometry-based protocol for intracellular mRNA measurements in nonadherent mammalian cells using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) probes. The method, which we call FISH-Flow, allows for high-throughput multiparametric measurements of gene expression, a task that was not feasible with earlier, microscopy-based approaches. The FISH-Flow protocol involves cell fixation, permeabilization and hybridization with a set of fluorescently labeled oligonucleotide probes. In this protocol, surface and intracellular protein markers can also be stained with fluorescently labeled antibodies for simultaneous protein and mRNA measurement. Moreover, a semiautomated, single-tube version of the protocol can be performed with a commercially available cell-wash device that reduces cell loss, operator time and interoperator variability. It takes ~30 h to perform this protocol. An example of FISH-Flow measurements of cytokine mRNA induction by ex vivo stimulation of primed T cells with specific antigens is described. PMID:28518171

Speedy routing recovery protocol for large failure tolerance in wireless sensor networks.

PubMed

Lee, Joa-Hyoung; Jung, In-Bum

2010-01-01

Wireless sensor networks are expected to play an increasingly important role in data collection in hazardous areas. However, the physical fragility of a sensor node makes reliable routing in hazardous areas a challenging problem. Because several sensor nodes in a hazardous area could be damaged simultaneously, the network should be able to recover routing after node failures over large areas. Many routing protocols take single-node failure recovery into account, but it is difficult for these protocols to recover the routing after large-scale failures. In this paper, we propose a routing protocol, referred to as ARF (Adaptive routing protocol for fast Recovery from large-scale Failure), to recover a network quickly after failures over large areas. ARF detects failures by counting the packet losses from parent nodes, and upon failure detection, it decreases the routing interval to notify the neighbor nodes of the failure. Our experimental results indicate that ARF could provide recovery from large-area failures quickly with less packets and energy consumption than previous protocols.

Enhanced just-in-time plus protocol for optical burst switching networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodrigues, Joel J. P. C.; Gregório, José M. B.; Vasilakos, Athanasios V.

2010-07-01

We propose a new one-way resource reservation protocol for optical burst switching (OBS) networks, called Enhanced Just-in-Time Plus (E-JIT+). The protocol is described in detail, and its formal specification is presented, following an extended finite state machine approach. The performance evaluation of E-JIT+ is analyzed in comparison with other proposed OBS protocols (JIT+ and E-JIT) for the following network topologies: rings; degree-two, degree-three, and degree-four chordal rings; mesh-torus; NSFNET; ARPANET; FCCN-NET; and the European Optical Network. We evaluate and compare the performance of the different protocols in terms of burst loss probability, taking into account the most important OBS network parameters. It was shown that E-JIT+ performs better than available one-way resource reservation protocols for all the evaluated network topologies. Moreover, the scalability of E-JIT+ was observed, and when the network traffic increases, the burst loss probability also increases, leading to a worse network performance.

Test of Gross Motor Development-3 (TGMD-3) with the Use of Visual Supports for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Validity and Reliability.

PubMed

Allen, K A; Bredero, B; Van Damme, T; Ulrich, D A; Simons, J

2017-03-01

The validity and reliability of the Test of Gross Motor Development-3 (TGMD-3) were measured, taking into consideration the preference for visual learning of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The TGMD-3 was administered to 14 children with ASD (4-10 years) and 21 age-matched typically developing children under two conditions: TGMD-3 traditional protocol, and TGMD-3 visual support protocol. Excellent levels of internal consistency, test-retest, interrater and intrarater reliability were achieved for the TGMD-3 visual support protocol. TGMD-3 raw scores of children with ASD were significantly lower than typically developing peers, however, significantly improved using the TGMD-3 visual support protocol. This demonstrates that the TGMD-3 visual support protocol is a valid and reliable assessment of gross motor performance for children with ASD.

Direction based Hazard Routing Protocol (DHRP) for disseminating road hazard information using road side infrastructures in VANETs.

PubMed

Berlin, M A; Anand, Sheila

2014-01-01

This paper presents Direction based Hazard Routing Protocol (DHRP) for disseminating information about fixed road hazards such as road blocks, tree fall, boulders on road, snow pile up, landslide, road maintenance work and other obstacles to the vehicles approaching the hazardous location. The proposed work focuses on dissemination of hazard messages on highways with sparse traffic. The vehicle coming across the hazard would report the presence of the hazard. It is proposed to use Road Side fixed infrastructure Units for reliable and timely delivery of hazard messages to vehicles. The vehicles can then take appropriate safety action to avoid the hazardous location. The proposed protocol has been implemented and tested using SUMO simulator to generate road traffic and NS 2.33 network simulator to analyze the performance of DHRP. The performance of the proposed protocol was also compared with simple flooding protocol and the results are presented.

[Protocol of the animal assisted activity program at a university hospital].

PubMed

Silveira, Isa Rodrigues; Santos, Nanci Cristiano; Linhares, Daniela Ribeiro

2011-03-01

Animal-Assisted Activity (AAA) consists in visitation and recreation through contact with animals, aiming at entertainment and improving the interpersonal relationship between patients and staff. Permission for the animals to visit an Institution requires a protocol with rules and safety routines to avoid accidents and zoonoses. The objective of this study is to describe the important points of the protocol to implement the AAA program. The protocol includes: introduction, objectives, inclusion and exclusion criteria for animals, drivers and patients; recommendations to the handlers and the health team, responsibilities of the Nosocomial Infection Control Committee, zoonoses posters, vaccination schedule for dogs and cats, free-informed consent to take part in the program and records with behavioral analysis of the animals. We believe that disclosing the protocol, based on scientific studies, favors the implementation of new programs in institutions considering the lack of national publications.

Network support for turn-taking in multimedia collaboration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dommel, Hans-Peter; Garcia-Luna-Aceves, Jose J.

1997-01-01

The effectiveness of collaborative multimedia systems depends on the regulation of access to their shared resources, such as continuous media or instruments used concurrently by multiple parties. Existing applications use only simple protocols to mediate such resource contention. Their cooperative rules follow a strict agenda and are largely application-specific. The inherent problem of floor control lacks a systematic methodology. This paper presents a general model on floor control for correct, scalable, fine-grained and fair resource sharing that integrates user interaction with network conditions, and adaptation to various media types. The motion of turn-taking known from psycholinguistics in studies on discourse structure is adapted for this framework. Viewed as a computational analogy to speech communication, online collaboration revolves around dynamically allocated access permissions called floors. The control semantics of floors derives from concurrently control methodology. An explicit specification and verification of a novel distributed Floor Control Protocol are presented. Hosts assume sharing roles that allow for efficient dissemination of control information, agreeing on a floor holder which is granted mutually exclusive access to a resource. Performance analytic aspects of floor control protocols are also briefly discussed.

Performance Analysis of TCP Enhancements in Satellite Data Networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Broyles, Ren H.

1999-01-01

This research examines two proposed enhancements to the well-known Transport Control Protocol (TCP) in the presence of noisy communication links. The Multiple Pipes protocol is an application-level adaptation of the standard TCP protocol, where several TCP links cooperate to transfer data. The Space Communication Protocol Standard - Transport Protocol (SCPS-TP) modifies TCP to optimize performance in a satellite environment. While SCPS-TP has inherent advantages that allow it to deliver data more rapidly than Multiple Pipes, the protocol, when optimized for operation in a high-error environment, is not compatible with legacy TCP systems, and requires changes to the TCP specification. This investigation determines the level of improvement offered by SCPS-TP's Corruption Mode, which will help determine if migration to the protocol is appropriate in different environments. As the percentage of corrupted packets approaches 5 %, Multiple Pipes can take over five times longer than SCPS-TP to deliver data. At high error rates, SCPS-TP's advantage is primarily caused by Multiple Pipes' use of congestion control algorithms. The lack of congestion control, however, limits the systems in which SCPS-TP can be effectively used.

Translational Neuromodulation: Approximating Human Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Protocols In Rats

PubMed Central

Vahabzadeh-Hagh, Andrew M.; Muller, Paul A.; Gersner, Roman; Zangen, Abraham; Rotenberg, Alexander

2015-01-01

Objective Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a well-established clinical protocol with numerous potential therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Yet, much work remains in the elucidation of TMS mechanisms, optimization of protocols, and in development of novel therapeutic applications. As with many technologies, the key to these issues lies in the proper experimentation and translation of TMS methods to animal models, among which rat models have proven popular. A significant increase in the number of rat TMS publications has necessitated analysis of their relevance to human work. We therefore review the essential principles necessary for the approximation of human TMS protocols in rats as well as specific methods that addressed these issues in published studies. Materials and Methods We performed an English language literature search combined with our own experience and data. We address issues that we see as important in the translation of human TMS methods to rat models and provide a summary of key accomplishments in these areas. Results An extensive literature review illustrated the growth of rodent TMS studies in recent years. Current advances in the translation of single, paired-pulse, and repetitive stimulation paradigms to rodent models are presented. The importance of TMS in the generation of data for preclinical trials is also highlighted. Conclusions Rat TMS has several limitations when considering parallels between animal and human stimulation. However, it has proven to be a useful tool in the field of translational brain stimulation and will likely continue to aid in the design and implementation of stimulation protocols for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. PMID:22780329

Domain Name Server Security (DNSSEC) Protocol Deployment

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-10-01

all the time. For mobile devices, end-system validation is much more difficult due to the state of their networks, many of which do not allow...way to distribute keying information than the current public-key infrastructure (PKI) allows. In addition, it will take work to convince CDNs and...Control Protocol (TCP) or even DNS over Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). One of the important outcomes of our work is the realization that that a " mobile

A real-time polymerase chain reaction-based protocol for low/medium-throughput Y-chromosome microdeletions analysis.

PubMed

Segat, Ludovica; Padovan, Lara; Doc, Darja; Petix, Vincenzo; Morgutti, Marcello; Crovella, Sergio; Ricci, Giuseppe

2012-12-01

We describe a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocol based on the fluorescent molecule SYBR Green chemistry, for a low- to medium-throughput analysis of Y-chromosome microdeletions, optimized according to the European guidelines and aimed at making the protocol faster, avoiding post-PCR processing, and simplifying the results interpretation. We screened 156 men from the Assisted Reproduction Unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Institute for Maternal and Child Health IRCCS Burlo Garofolo (Trieste, Italy), 150 not presenting Y-chromosome microdeletion, and 6 with microdeletions in different azoospermic factor (AZF) regions. For each sample, the Zinc finger Y-chromosomal protein (ZFY), sex-determining region Y (SRY), sY84, sY86, sY127, sY134, sY254, and sY255 loci were analyzed by performing one reaction for each locus. AZF microdeletions were successfully detected in six individuals, confirming the results obtained with commercial kits. Our real-time PCR protocol proved to be a rapid, safe, and relatively cheap method that was suitable for a low- to medium-throughput diagnosis of Y-chromosome microdeletion, which allows an analysis of approximately 10 samples (with the addition of positive and negative controls) in a 96-well plate format, or approximately 46 samples in a 384-well plate for all markers simultaneously, in less than 2 h without the need of post-PCR manipulation.

Safety and cost-effectiveness of a clinical protocol implemented to standardize the use of Crotalidae polyvalent immune Fab antivenom at an academic medical center.

PubMed

Weant, Kyle A; Bowers, Rebecca C; Reed, Janelle; Braun, Kristopher A; Dodd, David M; Baker, Stephanie N

2012-05-01

To evaluate the safety and cost-effectiveness of a clinical protocol adopted in June 2006 that included a comprehensive, objective assessment of snake bite envenomations and standardized the use of Crotalidae polyvalent immune Fab antivenom (FabAV). Retrospective medical record review. Academic medical center that serves as the regional level I trauma center. Seventy-five adults treated with FabAV for snake envenomations in the emergency department between June 1, 2003, and June 1, 2009; 30 patients received treatment according to the protocol (treatment group), and 45 patients received treatment that did not adhere to the protocol (control group). Demographic and envenomation characteristics, as well as treatment details, were collected for all patients. In addition, information on quantity of FabAV vials required, length of hospital stay, and length of intensive care unit stay were compared between the treatment and control groups. In the treatment group, significantly fewer vials of FabAV were used (2.5 vs 4.727 vials, p=0.007). This decreased in usage correlated to a cost savings of approximately $2000/patient. Despite no significant difference in the severity of the envenomations between the two groups (p=0.379), the treatment group experienced a significantly shorter hospital length of stay (1.933 vs 2.791 days, p=0.030). No significant difference in the progression to fasciotomy or the development of allergic reactions was noted between the two groups. Use of a clinical protocol related to snake envenomations resulted in approximately two fewer vials of FabAV required for each patient. In addition, the treatment group experienced a shorter hospital length of stay without a corresponding increase in adverse events or envenomation progression. Data show that use of the protocol was cost-effective. The development of institution-specific multidisciplinary protocols regarding snake bite envenomations is recommended. Clinical pharmacists can play a vital role in the protocol development to ensure that optimal care is provided for this distinct patient population. © 2012 Pharmacotherapy Publications, Inc.

Practical quantum coin flipping

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

Pappa, Anna; Diamanti, Eleni; Chailloux, Andre

2011-11-15

We show that in the unconditional security model, a single quantum strong coin flip with security guarantees that are strictly better than in any classical protocol is possible to implement with current technology. Our protocol takes into account all aspects of an experimental implementation, including losses, multiphoton pulses emitted by practical photon sources, channel noise, detector dark counts, and finite quantum efficiency. We calculate the abort probability when both players are honest, as well as the probability of one player forcing his desired outcome. For a channel length up to 21 km and commonly used parameter values, we can achievemore » honest abort and cheating probabilities that are better than in any classical protocol. Our protocol is, in principle, implementable using attenuated laser pulses, with no need for entangled photons or any other specific resources.« less

A Routing Protocol for Multisink Wireless Sensor Networks in Underground Coalmine Tunnels

PubMed Central

Xia, Xu; Chen, Zhigang; Liu, Hui; Wang, Huihui; Zeng, Feng

2016-01-01

Traditional underground coalmine monitoring systems are mainly based on the use of wired transmission. However, when cables are damaged during an accident, it is difficult to obtain relevant data on environmental parameters and the emergency situation underground. To address this problem, the use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has been proposed. However, the shape of coalmine tunnels is not conducive to the deployment of WSNs as they are long and narrow. Therefore, issues with the network arise, such as extremely large energy consumption, very weak connectivity, long time delays, and a short lifetime. To solve these problems, in this study, a new routing protocol algorithm for multisink WSNs based on transmission power control is proposed. First, a transmission power control algorithm is used to negotiate the optimal communication radius and transmission power of each sink. Second, the non-uniform clustering idea is adopted to optimize the cluster head selection. Simulation results are subsequently compared to the Centroid of the Nodes in a Partition (CNP) strategy and show that the new algorithm delivers a good performance: power efficiency is increased by approximately 70%, connectivity is increased by approximately 15%, the cluster interference is diminished by approximately 50%, the network lifetime is increased by approximately 6%, and the delay is reduced with an increase in the number of sinks. PMID:27916917

A Routing Protocol for Multisink Wireless Sensor Networks in Underground Coalmine Tunnels.

PubMed

Xia, Xu; Chen, Zhigang; Liu, Hui; Wang, Huihui; Zeng, Feng

2016-11-30

Traditional underground coalmine monitoring systems are mainly based on the use of wired transmission. However, when cables are damaged during an accident, it is difficult to obtain relevant data on environmental parameters and the emergency situation underground. To address this problem, the use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has been proposed. However, the shape of coalmine tunnels is not conducive to the deployment of WSNs as they are long and narrow. Therefore, issues with the network arise, such as extremely large energy consumption, very weak connectivity, long time delays, and a short lifetime. To solve these problems, in this study, a new routing protocol algorithm for multisink WSNs based on transmission power control is proposed. First, a transmission power control algorithm is used to negotiate the optimal communication radius and transmission power of each sink. Second, the non-uniform clustering idea is adopted to optimize the cluster head selection. Simulation results are subsequently compared to the Centroid of the Nodes in a Partition (CNP) strategy and show that the new algorithm delivers a good performance: power efficiency is increased by approximately 70%, connectivity is increased by approximately 15%, the cluster interference is diminished by approximately 50%, the network lifetime is increased by approximately 6%, and the delay is reduced with an increase in the number of sinks.

Using connectome-based predictive modeling to predict individual behavior from brain connectivity

PubMed Central

Shen, Xilin; Finn, Emily S.; Scheinost, Dustin; Rosenberg, Monica D.; Chun, Marvin M.; Papademetris, Xenophon; Constable, R Todd

2017-01-01

Neuroimaging is a fast developing research area where anatomical and functional images of human brains are collected using techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and electroencephalography (EEG). Technical advances and large-scale datasets have allowed for the development of models capable of predicting individual differences in traits and behavior using brain connectivity measures derived from neuroimaging data. Here, we present connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM), a data-driven protocol for developing predictive models of brain-behavior relationships from connectivity data using cross-validation. This protocol includes the following steps: 1) feature selection, 2) feature summarization, 3) model building, and 4) assessment of prediction significance. We also include suggestions for visualizing the most predictive features (i.e., brain connections). The final result should be a generalizable model that takes brain connectivity data as input and generates predictions of behavioral measures in novel subjects, accounting for a significant amount of the variance in these measures. It has been demonstrated that the CPM protocol performs equivalently or better than most of the existing approaches in brain-behavior prediction. However, because CPM focuses on linear modeling and a purely data-driven driven approach, neuroscientists with limited or no experience in machine learning or optimization would find it easy to implement the protocols. Depending on the volume of data to be processed, the protocol can take 10–100 minutes for model building, 1–48 hours for permutation testing, and 10–20 minutes for visualization of results. PMID:28182017

Environmental Compliance Assessment Protocol-Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (ECAP-CDC)

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-10-01

propellers, or appliances. 2. Military weapons or equipment designed for combat use. 3. Rockets or equipment designed for research, or experimental or...should be reproduced and used during the assessment to take notes. It is designed to be inserted between each page of the protocols, allowing the...procedures are designed as an aid and should not be considered exhaus- tive. Use of the guide requires the evaluator’s judgement to play a role in

Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction protocols for cloning small circular RNAs.

PubMed

Navarro, B; Daròs, J A; Flores, R

1998-07-01

A protocol is described for general application for cloning small circular RNAs which requires only minimal amounts of template (approximately 50 ng) of unknown sequence. Both cDNA strands are synthesized with a 26-mer primer whose six 3'-terminal positions are totally degenerate in two consecutive reactions catalyzed by reverse transcriptase and DNA polymerase, respectively. The cDNAs are then PCR-amplified, using a 20-mer primer with the non-degenerate sequence of the previous primer, cloned and sequenced. This information permits the synthesis of one or more pairs of specific and adjacent primers for obtaining full-length cDNA clones by a protocol which is also described.

Equipment and Protocols for Quasi-Static and Dynamic Tests of Very-High-Strength Concrete (VHSC) and High-Strength High-Ductility Concrete (HSHDC)

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-08-01

quasi -static mechanical properties, deformation behavior, and damage mechanisms in HSHDC and compare the behavior with VHSC. 2. Develop experimental ...using the experimental setup described in Chapter 6. The quasi -static strain rate was approximately 10-4/s. All panels tested have nominal dimensions...ER D C TR -1 6- 13 Force Protection Basing; TeCD 1a Equipment and Protocols for Quasi -Static and Dynamic Tests of Very-High-Strength

Hospital Casemix Protocol - Medibank Private Perspective.

PubMed

Szakiel, John

2010-06-01

Hospital Casemix Protocol data provide a brief summary outlining morbidity data and costs associated with an episode of care. Federal government legislation requires that hospitals report this information to private health insurers who, in turn, merge these data with benefit outlays and report their findings to the Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA). This article gives a brief outline of the collection, cleansing and processing of these data and subsequent reporting to DoHA by Medibank Private, which accounts for approximately 30% of collected data.

Patella fractures associated with accelerated ACL rehabilitation in patients with autogenous patella tendon reconstructions.

PubMed

Brownstein, B; Bronner, S

1997-09-01

Patella fracture is a recognized complication of ACL reconstruction with an autogenous patella tendon graft. Typically, fracture occurs as a result of a fall. The incidence of fracture is approximately 0.5%. Accelerated rehabilitation protocols can place stress on the patella, especially in the initial stages of recovery. Therapists are reminded to observe constraints placed on patients by biological tissues, recovering neuromuscular status, and previous level of conditioning. Rehabilitation protocols should be revised according to these factors.

A More Efficient Contextuality Distillation Protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meng, Hui-xian; Cao, Huai-xin; Wang, Wen-hua; Fan, Ya-jing; Chen, Liang

2018-03-01

Based on the fact that both nonlocality and contextuality are resource theories, it is natural to ask how to amplify them more efficiently. In this paper, we present a contextuality distillation protocol which produces an n-cycle box B ∗ B ' from two given n-cycle boxes B and B '. It works efficiently for a class of contextual n-cycle ( n ≥ 4) boxes which we termed as "the generalized correlated contextual n-cycle boxes". For any two generalized correlated contextual n-cycle boxes B and B ', B ∗ B ' is more contextual than both B and B '. Moreover, they can be distilled toward to the maximally contextual box C H n as the times of iteration goes to infinity. Among the known protocols, our protocol has the strongest approximate ability and is optimal in terms of its distillation rate. What is worth noting is that our protocol can witness a larger set of nonlocal boxes that make communication complexity trivial than the protocol in Brunner and Skrzypczyk (Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 160403 2009), this might be helpful for exploring the problem that why quantum nonlocality is limited.

A More Efficient Contextuality Distillation Protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meng, Hui-xian; Cao, Huai-xin; Wang, Wen-hua; Fan, Ya-jing; Chen, Liang

2017-12-01

Based on the fact that both nonlocality and contextuality are resource theories, it is natural to ask how to amplify them more efficiently. In this paper, we present a contextuality distillation protocol which produces an n-cycle box B ∗ B ' from two given n-cycle boxes B and B '. It works efficiently for a class of contextual n-cycle (n ≥ 4) boxes which we termed as "the generalized correlated contextual n-cycle boxes". For any two generalized correlated contextual n-cycle boxes B and B ', B ∗ B ' is more contextual than both B and B '. Moreover, they can be distilled toward to the maximally contextual box C H n as the times of iteration goes to infinity. Among the known protocols, our protocol has the strongest approximate ability and is optimal in terms of its distillation rate. What is worth noting is that our protocol can witness a larger set of nonlocal boxes that make communication complexity trivial than the protocol in Brunner and Skrzypczyk (Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 160403 2009), this might be helpful for exploring the problem that why quantum nonlocality is limited.

Telecommunications end-to-end systems monitoring on TOPEX/Poseidon: Tools and techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Calanche, Bruno J.

1994-01-01

The TOPEX/Poseidon Project Satellite Performance Analysis Team's (SPAT) roles and responsibilities have grown to include functions that are typically performed by other teams on JPL Flight Projects. In particular, SPAT Telecommunication's role has expanded beyond the nominal function of monitoring, assessing, characterizing, and trending the spacecraft (S/C) RF/Telecom subsystem to one of End-to-End Information Systems (EEIS) monitoring. This has been accomplished by taking advantage of the spacecraft and ground data system structures and protocols. By processing both the received spacecraft telemetry minor frame ground generated CRC flags and NASCOM block poly error flags, bit error rates (BER) for each link segment can be determined. This provides the capability to characterize the separate link segments, determine science data recovery, and perform fault/anomaly detection and isolation. By monitoring and managing the links, TOPEX has successfully recovered approximately 99.9 percent of the science data with an integrity (BER) of better than 1 x 10(exp 8). This paper presents the algorithms used to process the above flags and the techniques used for EEIS monitoring.

Orientation-selective aVLSI spiking neurons.

PubMed

Liu, S C; Kramer, J; Indiveri, G; Delbrück, T; Burg, T; Douglas, R

2001-01-01

We describe a programmable multi-chip VLSI neuronal system that can be used for exploring spike-based information processing models. The system consists of a silicon retina, a PIC microcontroller, and a transceiver chip whose integrate-and-fire neurons are connected in a soft winner-take-all architecture. The circuit on this multi-neuron chip approximates a cortical microcircuit. The neurons can be configured for different computational properties by the virtual connections of a selected set of pixels on the silicon retina. The virtual wiring between the different chips is effected by an event-driven communication protocol that uses asynchronous digital pulses, similar to spikes in a neuronal system. We used the multi-chip spike-based system to synthesize orientation-tuned neurons using both a feedforward model and a feedback model. The performance of our analog hardware spiking model matched the experimental observations and digital simulations of continuous-valued neurons. The multi-chip VLSI system has advantages over computer neuronal models in that it is real-time, and the computational time does not scale with the size of the neuronal network.

Interaction of light with hematite hierarchical structures: Experiments and simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Distaso, Monica; Zhuromskyy, Oleksander; Seemann, Benjamin; Pflug, Lukas; Mačković, Mirza; Encina, Ezequiel; Taylor, Robin Klupp; Müller, Rolf; Leugering, Günter; Spiecker, Erdmann; Peschel, Ulf; Peukert, Wolfgang

2017-03-01

Mesocrystalline particles have been recognized as a class of multifunctional materials with potential applications in different fields. However, the internal organization of nanocomposite mesocrystals and its influence on the final properties have not yet been investigated. In this paper, a novel strategy based on electrodynamic simulations is developed to shed light on how the internal structure of mesocrystals influences their optical properties. In a first instance, a unified design protocol is reported for the fabrication of hematite/PVP particles with different morphologies such as pseudo-cubes, rods-like and apple-like structures and controlled particle size distributions. The optical properties of hematite/PVP mesocrystals are effectively simulated by taking their aggregate and nanocomposite structure into consideration. The superposition T-Matrix approach accounts for the aggregate nature of mesocrystalline particles and validate the effective medium approximation used in the framework of the Mie theory and electromagnetic simulation such as Finite Element Method. The approach described in our paper provides the framework to understand and predict the optical properties of mesocrystals and more general, of hierarchical nanostructured particles.

Efficiency in nonequilibrium molecular dynamics Monte Carlo simulations

DOE PAGES

Radak, Brian K.; Roux, Benoît

2016-10-07

Hybrid algorithms combining nonequilibrium molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo (neMD/MC) offer a powerful avenue for improving the sampling efficiency of computer simulations of complex systems. These neMD/MC algorithms are also increasingly finding use in applications where conventional approaches are impractical, such as constant-pH simulations with explicit solvent. However, selecting an optimal nonequilibrium protocol for maximum efficiency often represents a non-trivial challenge. This work evaluates the efficiency of a broad class of neMD/MC algorithms and protocols within the theoretical framework of linear response theory. The approximations are validated against constant pH-MD simulations and shown to provide accurate predictions of neMD/MC performance.more » An assessment of a large set of protocols confirms (both theoretically and empirically) that a linear work protocol gives the best neMD/MC performance. Lastly, a well-defined criterion for optimizing the time parameters of the protocol is proposed and demonstrated with an adaptive algorithm that improves the performance on-the-fly with minimal cost.« less

Congenital thiopurine methyltransferase deficiency and 6-mercaptopurine toxicity during treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

PubMed Central

Lennard, L; Gibson, B E; Nicole, T; Lilleyman, J S

1993-01-01

Two children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) taking daily 6-mercaptopurine as part of a national UK therapeutic trial repeatedly developed profound myelosuppression on 25% of the standard protocol dose. Both were found to have undetectable intracellular activity of thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT), an enzyme controlling one of the major alternative catabolic pathways of 6-mercaptopurine, and both produced higher concentrations of cytotoxic drug metabolites at 10-25% of the protocol dose than other patients taking 100%. It is supposed that these patients represent the 0.33% of the normal population constitutionally lacking TPMT. It is important to recognise such individuals both to avoid fatal bone marrow failure through inadvertent overdosage, and to be reassured that an adequate drug effect can be achieved at around 10% of the standard dose. PMID:8257179

76 FR 39386 - Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to the Port of Anchorage...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-06

... graduate and undergraduate marine biology students conducted approximately 600 hours of scientific... Importing Marine Mammals; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to the Port of Anchorage Marine Terminal Redevelopment Project AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...

Exact consideration of data redundancies for spiral cone-beam CT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lauritsch, Guenter; Katsevich, Alexander; Hirsch, Michael

2004-05-01

In multi-slice spiral computed tomography (CT) there is an obvious trend in adding more and more detector rows. The goals are numerous: volume coverage, isotropic spatial resolution, and speed. Consequently, there will be a variety of scan protocols optimizing clinical applications. Flexibility in table feed requires consideration of data redundancies to ensure efficient detector usage. Until recently this was achieved by approximate reconstruction algorithms only. However, due to the increasing cone angles there is a need of exact treatment of the cone beam geometry. A new, exact and efficient 3-PI algorithm for considering three-fold data redundancies was derived from a general, theoretical framework based on 3D Radon inversion using Grangeat's formula. The 3-PI algorithm possesses a simple and efficient structure as the 1-PI method for non-redundant data previously proposed. Filtering is one-dimensional, performed along lines with variable tilt on the detector. This talk deals with a thorough evaluation of the performance of the 3-PI algorithm in comparison to the 1-PI method. Image quality of the 3-PI algorithm is superior. The prominent spiral artifacts and other discretization artifacts are significantly reduced due to averaging effects when taking into account redundant data. Certainly signal-to-noise ratio is increased. The computational expense is comparable even to that of approximate algorithms. The 3-PI algorithm proves its practicability for applications in medical imaging. Other exact n-PI methods for n-fold data redundancies (n odd) can be deduced from the general, theoretical framework.

Application of EARL (ResEARch 4 Life®) protocols for [18F]FDG-PET/CT clinical and research studies. A roadmap towards exact recovery coefficient

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Balcerzyk, Marcin; Fernández-López, Rosa; Parrado-Gallego, Ángel; Pachón-Garrudo, Víctor Manuel; Chavero-Royan, José; Hevilla, Juan; Jiménez-Ortega, Elisa; Leal, Antonio

2017-11-01

Tumour uptake value is a critical result in [18F]FDG-PET/CT ([18F]fluorodeoxyglucose) quantitative scans such as the dose prescription for radiotherapy and oncology. The quantification is highly dependent on the protocol of acquisition and reconstruction of the image, especially in low activity tumours. During adjusting acquisition and reconstruction protocols available in our Siemens Biograph mCT scanner for EARL (ResEARch 4 Life®) [18F]FDG-PET/CT accreditation requirements, we developed reconstruction protocols which will be used in PET based radiotherapy planning able to reduce inter-/intra-institute variability in Standard Uptake Value (SUV) results, and to bring Recovery Coefficient to 1 as close as possible for Image Quality NEMA 2007 phantom. Primary and secondary tumours from two patients were assessed by four independent evaluators. The influence of reconstruction protocols on tumour clinical assessment was presented. We proposed the improvement route for EARL accredited protocols so that they may be developed in classes to take advantage of scanner possibilities. The application of optimized reconstruction protocol eliminates the need of partial volume corrections.

Energy Consumption Research of Mobile Data Collection Protocol for Underwater Nodes Using an USV.

PubMed

Lv, Zhichao; Zhang, Jie; Jin, Jiucai; Li, Qi; Gao, Baoru

2018-04-16

The Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV) integrated with an acoustic modem is a novel mobile vehicle for data collection, which has an advantage in terms of mobility, efficiency, and collection cost. In the scenario of data collection, the USV is controlled autonomously along the planning trajectory and the data of underwater nodes are dynamically collected. In order to improve the efficiency of data collection and extend the life of the underwater nodes, a mobile data collection protocol for underwater nodes using the USV was proposed. In the protocol, the stop-and-wait ARQ transmission mechanism is adopted, where the duty cycle is designed considering the ratio between the sleep mode and the detection mode, and the transmission ratio is defined by the duty cycle, wake-up signal cycles, and USV’s speed. According to protocol, the evaluation index for energy consumption is constructed based on the duty cycle and the transmission ratio. The energy consumption of the protocol is simulated and analyzed using the mobile communication experiment data of USV, taking into consideration USV’s speed, data sequence length, and duty cycle. Optimized protocol parameters are identified, which in turn denotes the proposed protocol’s feasibility and effectiveness.

Modelling the protocol stack in NCS with deterministic and stochastic petri net

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hui, Chen; Chunjie, Zhou; Weifeng, Zhu

2011-06-01

Protocol stack is the basis of the networked control systems (NCS). Full or partial reconfiguration of protocol stack offers both optimised communication service and system performance. Nowadays, field testing is unrealistic to determine the performance of reconfigurable protocol stack; and the Petri net formal description technique offers the best combination of intuitive representation, tool support and analytical capabilities. Traditionally, separation between the different layers of the OSI model has been a common practice. Nevertheless, such a layered modelling analysis framework of protocol stack leads to the lack of global optimisation for protocol reconfiguration. In this article, we proposed a general modelling analysis framework for NCS based on the cross-layer concept, which is to establish an efficiency system scheduling model through abstracting the time constraint, the task interrelation, the processor and the bus sub-models from upper and lower layers (application, data link and physical layer). Cross-layer design can help to overcome the inadequacy of global optimisation based on information sharing between protocol layers. To illustrate the framework, we take controller area network (CAN) as a case study. The simulation results of deterministic and stochastic Petri-net (DSPN) model can help us adjust the message scheduling scheme and obtain better system performance.

Effects of Guided Written Disclosure Protocol on mood states and psychological symptoms among parents of off-therapy acute lymphoblastic leukemia children.

PubMed

Martino, Maria Luisa; Freda, Maria Francesca; Camera, Flavia

2013-06-01

This study assesses the effects of Guided Written Disclosure Protocol on psychological distress in mothers and fathers of off-therapy acute lymphoblastic leukemia children. An experimental group participated in the writing intervention with a control group subject only to test-taking standards. The Symptom Questionnaire and Profile of Mood States were administered at baseline, post-intervention, and follow-up. Guided Written Disclosure Protocol had significant effects on the progressive reduction of anxiety, depression, somatic symptoms, hostility, tension-anxiety, and fatigue-inertia within the experimental group. However, the control group distress levels tended to worsen over time. The mediating role of emotional processing was highlighted.

Hysterectomy for placenta accreta; methods for gross and microscopic pathology examination.

PubMed

Dannheim, Katelyn; Shainker, Scott A; Hecht, Jonathan L

2016-05-01

Placenta accreta is an abnormal adherence of the placenta to the uterine wall. As the incidence of placenta accreta continues to rise, it has been useful to develop standard protocols for the diagnosis and management of affected patients. Pathologists have the opportunity to take an active role in evaluating these resource intensive protocols. We describe methods of gross dissection, microscopic examination and reporting of hysterectomy specimens containing placenta accreta. This protocol facilitates retrospective correlation with surgical and radiographic findings as well as standardized tissue sampling for potential research. Through regular review of such quality measures pathologists can give feedback on the quality of surgical planning and use of imaging.

Wireless Communications in Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

In 1992, NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense jointly commissioned the research and development of a technology solution to address the challenges and requirements of communicating with their spacecraft. The project yielded an international consortium composed of representatives from the space science community, industry, and academia. This group of experts developed a broad suite of protocols specifically designed for space-based communications, known today as Space Communications Protocol Standards (SCPS). Having been internationally standardized by the Consultative Committee on Space Data Systems and the International Standards Organization, SCPS is distributed as open source technology by NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The protocols are used for every national space mission that takes place today.

A Generic Communication Protocol for Remote Laboratories: an Implementation on e-lab

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

Henriques, Rafael B.; Fernandes, H.; Duarte, Andre S.

2015-07-01

The remote laboratories at IST (Instituto Superior Tecnico), e-lab, serve as a valuable tool for education and training based on remote control technologies. Due to the high number and increase of remotely operated experiments a generic protocol was developed to perform the communication between the software driver and the respective experimental setup in an easier and more unified way. The training in these fields of students and personnel can take advantage of such infrastructure with the purpose of deploying new experiments in a faster way. More than 10 experiments using the generic protocol are available on-line in a 24 xmore » 7 way. (authors)« less

A Blueprint for Demonstrating Quantum Supremacy with Superconducting Qubits

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kechedzhi, Kostyantyn

2018-01-01

Long coherence times and high fidelity control recently achieved in scalable superconducting circuits paved the way for the growing number of experimental studies of many-qubit quantum coherent phenomena in these devices. Albeit full implementation of quantum error correction and fault tolerant quantum computation remains a challenge the near term pre-error correction devices could allow new fundamental experiments despite inevitable accumulation of errors. One such open question foundational for quantum computing is achieving the so called quantum supremacy, an experimental demonstration of a computational task that takes polynomial time on the quantum computer whereas the best classical algorithm would require exponential time and/or resources. It is possible to formulate such a task for a quantum computer consisting of less than a 100 qubits. The computational task we consider is to provide approximate samples from a non-trivial quantum distribution. This is a generalization for the case of superconducting circuits of ideas behind boson sampling protocol for quantum optics introduced by Arkhipov and Aaronson. In this presentation we discuss a proof-of-principle demonstration of such a sampling task on a 9-qubit chain of superconducting gmon qubits developed by Google. We discuss theoretical analysis of the driven evolution of the device resulting in output approximating samples from a uniform distribution in the Hilbert space, a quantum chaotic state. We analyze quantum chaotic characteristics of the output of the circuit and the time required to generate a sufficiently complex quantum distribution. We demonstrate that the classical simulation of the sampling output requires exponential resources by connecting the task of calculating the output amplitudes to the sign problem of the Quantum Monte Carlo method. We also discuss the detailed theoretical modeling required to achieve high fidelity control and calibration of the multi-qubit unitary evolution in the device. We use a novel cross-entropy statistical metric as a figure of merit to verify the output and calibrate the device controls. Finally, we demonstrate the statistics of the wave function amplitudes generated on the 9-gmon chain and verify the quantum chaotic nature of the generated quantum distribution. This verifies the implementation of the quantum supremacy protocol.

Enhancing dendritic cell immunotherapy for melanoma using a simple mathematical model.

PubMed

Castillo-Montiel, E; Chimal-Eguía, J C; Tello, J Ignacio; Piñon-Zaráte, G; Herrera-Enríquez, M; Castell-Rodríguez, A E

2015-06-09

The immunotherapy using dendritic cells (DCs) against different varieties of cancer is an approach that has been previously explored which induces a specific immune response. This work presents a mathematical model of DCs immunotherapy for melanoma in mice based on work by Experimental Immunotherapy Laboratory of the Medicine Faculty in the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM). The model is a five delay differential equation (DDEs) which represents a simplified view of the immunotherapy mechanisms. The mathematical model takes into account the interactions between tumor cells, dendritic cells, naive cytotoxic T lymphocytes cells (inactivated cytotoxic cells), effector cells (cytotoxic T activated cytotoxic cells) and transforming growth factor β cytokine (T G F-β). The model is validated comparing the computer simulation results with biological trial results of the immunotherapy developed by the research group of UNAM. The results of the growth of tumor cells obtained by the control immunotherapy simulation show a similar amount of tumor cell population than the biological data of the control immunotherapy. Moreover, comparing the increase of tumor cells obtained from the immunotherapy simulation and the biological data of the immunotherapy applied by the UNAM researchers obtained errors of approximately 10 %. This allowed us to use the model as a framework to test hypothetical treatments. The numerical simulations suggest that by using more doses of DCs and changing the infusion time, the tumor growth decays compared with the current immunotherapy. In addition, a local sensitivity analysis is performed; the results show that the delay in time " τ", the maximal growth rate of tumor "r" and the maximal efficiency of tumor cytotoxic cells rate "aT" are the most sensitive model parameters. By using this mathematical model it is possible to simulate the growth of the tumor cells with or without immunotherapy using the infusion protocol of the UNAM researchers, to obtain a good approximation of the biological trials data. It is worth mentioning that by manipulating the different parameters of the model the effectiveness of the immunotherapy may increase. This last suggests that different protocols could be implemented by the Immunotherapy Laboratory of UNAM in order to improve their results.

76 FR 37142 - Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Incidental Take Permit Application; Proposed Low...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-24

...] Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Incidental Take Permit Application; Proposed Low-Effect... (Aphelocoma coerulescens) (scrub-jay) breeding, feeding, and sheltering habitat incidental to lot preparation... taking approximately 0.23 acre (0.1 hectares (ha)) of Florida scrub-jay breeding, feeding, and sheltering...

Proposal of a method for the evaluation of inaccuracy of home sphygmomanometers.

PubMed

Akpolat, Tekin

2009-10-01

There is no formal protocol for evaluating the individual accuracy of home sphygmomanometers. The aims of this study were to propose a method for achieving accuracy in automated home sphygmomanometers and to test the applicability of the defined method. The purposes of this method were to avoid major inaccuracies and to estimate the optimal circumstance for individual accuracy. The method has three stages and sequential measurement of blood pressure is used. The tested devices were categorized into four groups: accurate, acceptable, inaccurate and very inaccurate (major inaccuracy). The defined method takes approximately 10 min (excluding relaxation time) and was tested on three different occasions. The application of the method has shown that inaccuracy is a common problem among non-tested devices, that validated devices are superior to those that are non-validated or whose validation status is unknown, that major inaccuracy is common, especially in non-tested devices and that validation does not guarantee individual accuracy. A protocol addressing the accuracy of a particular sphygmomanometer in an individual patient is required, and a practical method has been suggested to achieve this. This method can be modified, but the main idea and approach should be preserved unless a better method is proposed. The purchase of validated devices and evaluation of accuracy for the purchased device in an individual patient will improve the monitoring of self-measurement of blood pressure at home. This study addresses device inaccuracy, but errors related to the patient, observer or blood pressure measurement technique should not be underestimated, and strict adherence to the manufacturer's instructions is essential.

Receiver-Based Ad Hoc On Demand Multipath Routing Protocol for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

PubMed Central

Al-Nahari, Abdulaziz; Mohamad, Mohd Murtadha

2016-01-01

Decreasing the route rediscovery time process in reactive routing protocols is challenging in mobile ad hoc networks. Links between nodes are continuously established and broken because of the characteristics of the network. Finding multiple routes to increase the reliability is also important but requires a fast update, especially in high traffic load and high mobility where paths can be broken as well. The sender node keeps re-establishing path discovery to find new paths, which makes for long time delay. In this paper we propose an improved multipath routing protocol, called Receiver-based ad hoc on demand multipath routing protocol (RB-AOMDV), which takes advantage of the reliability of the state of the art ad hoc on demand multipath distance vector (AOMDV) protocol with less re-established discovery time. The receiver node assumes the role of discovering paths when finding data packets that have not been received after a period of time. Simulation results show the delay and delivery ratio performances are improved compared with AOMDV. PMID:27258013

Analysis of Nuclear RNA Interference (RNAi) in Human Cells by Subcellular Fractionation and Argonaute Loading

PubMed Central

Gagnon, Keith T.; Li, Liande; Janowski, Bethany A.; Corey, David R.

2014-01-01

RNA interference (RNAi) is well known for its ability to regulate gene expression in the cytoplasm of mammalian cells. In mammalian cell nuclei, however, the impact of RNAi has remained more controversial. A key technical hurdle has been a lack of optimized protocols for the isolation and analysis of cell nuclei. Here we describe a simplified protocol for nuclei isolation from cultured cells that incorporates a method for obtaining nucleoplasmic and chromatin fractions and removing cytoplasmic contamination. Cell fractions can then be used to detect the presence and activity of RNAi factors in the nucleus. We present a protocol for investigating an early step in RNAi, Argonaute protein loading with small RNAs, which is enabled by our improved extract preparations. These protocols facilitate characterization of nuclear RNAi and can be applied to the analysis of other nuclear proteins and pathways. From cellular fractionation to analysis of Argonaute loading results, this protocol takes 4–6 d to complete. PMID:25079428

Receiver-Based Ad Hoc On Demand Multipath Routing Protocol for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks.

PubMed

Al-Nahari, Abdulaziz; Mohamad, Mohd Murtadha

2016-01-01

Decreasing the route rediscovery time process in reactive routing protocols is challenging in mobile ad hoc networks. Links between nodes are continuously established and broken because of the characteristics of the network. Finding multiple routes to increase the reliability is also important but requires a fast update, especially in high traffic load and high mobility where paths can be broken as well. The sender node keeps re-establishing path discovery to find new paths, which makes for long time delay. In this paper we propose an improved multipath routing protocol, called Receiver-based ad hoc on demand multipath routing protocol (RB-AOMDV), which takes advantage of the reliability of the state of the art ad hoc on demand multipath distance vector (AOMDV) protocol with less re-established discovery time. The receiver node assumes the role of discovering paths when finding data packets that have not been received after a period of time. Simulation results show the delay and delivery ratio performances are improved compared with AOMDV.

Social-aware data dissemination in opportunistic mobile social networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Yibo; Zhao, Honglin; Ma, Jinlong; Han, Xiaowei

Opportunistic Mobile Social Networks (OMSNs), formed by mobile users with social relationships and characteristics, enhance spontaneous communication among users that opportunistically encounter each other. Such networks can be exploited to improve the performance of data forwarding. Discovering optimal relay nodes is one of the important issues for efficient data propagation in OMSNs. Although traditional centrality definitions to identify the nodes features in network, they cannot identify effectively the influential nodes for data dissemination in OMSNs. Existing protocols take advantage of spatial contact frequency and social characteristics to enhance transmission performance. However, existing protocols have not fully exploited the benefits of the relations and the effects between geographical information, social features and user interests. In this paper, we first evaluate these three characteristics of users and design a routing protocol called Geo-Social-Interest (GSI) protocol to select optimal relay nodes. We compare the performance of GSI using real INFOCOM06 data sets. The experiment results demonstrate that GSI overperforms the other protocols with highest data delivery ratio and low communication overhead.

Further developments in generating type-safe messaging

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

Neswold, R.; King, C.; /Fermilab

2011-11-01

At ICALEPCS 09, we introduced a source code generator that allows processes to communicate safely using data types native to each host language. In this paper, we discuss further development that has occurred since the conference in Kobe, Japan, including the addition of three more client languages, an optimization in network packet size and the addition of a new protocol data type. The protocol compiler is continuing to prove itself as an easy and robust way to get applications written in different languages hosted on different computer architectures to communicate. We have two active Erlang projects that are using themore » protocol compiler to access ACNET data at high data rates. We also used the protocol compiler output to deliver ACNET data to an iPhone/iPad application. Since it takes an average of two weeks to support a new language, we're willing to expand the protocol compiler to support new languages that our community uses.« less

A Family of ACO Routing Protocols for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks.

PubMed

Rupérez Cañas, Delfín; Sandoval Orozco, Ana Lucila; García Villalba, Luis Javier; Kim, Tai-Hoon

2017-05-22

In this work, an ACO routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks based on AntHocNet is specified. As its predecessor, this new protocol, called AntOR, is hybrid in the sense that it contains elements from both reactive and proactive routing. Specifically, it combines a reactive route setup process with a proactive route maintenance and improvement process. Key aspects of the AntOR protocol are the disjoint-link and disjoint-node routes, separation between the regular pheromone and the virtual pheromone in the diffusion process and the exploration of routes, taking into consideration the number of hops in the best routes. In this work, a family of ACO routing protocols based on AntOR is also specified. These protocols are based on protocol successive refinements. In this work, we also present a parallelized version of AntOR that we call PAntOR. Using programming multiprocessor architectures based on the shared memory protocol, PAntOR allows running tasks in parallel using threads. This parallelization is applicable in the route setup phase, route local repair process and link failure notification. In addition, a variant of PAntOR that consists of having more than one interface, which we call PAntOR-MI (PAntOR-Multiple Interface), is specified. This approach parallelizes the sending of broadcast messages by interface through threads.

[Multidisciplinary protocol for computed tomography imaging and angiographic embolization of splenic injury due to trauma: assessment of pre-protocol and post-protocol outcomes].

PubMed

Koo, M; Sabaté, A; Magalló, P; García, M A; Domínguez, J; de Lama, M E; López, S

2011-11-01

To assess conservative treatment of splenic injury due to trauma, following a protocol for computed tomography (CT) and angiographic embolization. To quantify the predictive value of CT for detecting bleeding and need for embolization. The care protocol developed by the multidisciplinary team consisted of angiography with embolization of lesions revealed by contrast extravasation under CT as well as embolization of grade III-V injuries observed, or grade I-II injuries causing hemodynamic instability and/or need for blood transfusion. We collected data on demographic variables, injury severity score (ISS), angiographic findings, and injuries revealed by CT. Pre-protocol and post-protocol outcomes were compared. The sensitivity and specificity of CT findings were calculated for all patients who required angiographic embolization. Forty-four and 30 angiographies were performed in the pre- and post-protocol periods, respectively. The mean (SD) ISSs in the two periods were 25 (11) and 26 (12), respectively. A total of 24 (54%) embolizations were performed in the pre-protocol period and 28 (98%) after implementation of the protocol. Two and 7 embolizations involved the spleen in the 2 periods, respectively; abdominal laparotomies numbered 32 and 25, respectively, and 10 (31%) vs 4 (16%) splenectomies were performed. The specificity and sensitivity values for contrast extravasation found on CT and followed by embolization were 77.7% and 79.5%. The implementation of this multidisciplinary protocol using CT imaging and angiographic embolization led to a decrease in the number of splenectomies. The protocol allows us to take a more conservative treatment approach.

DISE Summary Report (1992)

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-03-01

Specification and Network Time Protocol(NTP) over the Implementation. RFC-o 119, Network OSI Remote Operations Service. RFC- Working Group, September...approximately ISIS implements a powerful model of 94% of the total computation time. distributed computation known as modelo Timing results are

Approximating Exponential and Logarithmic Functions Using Polynomial Interpolation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gordon, Sheldon P.; Yang, Yajun

2017-01-01

This article takes a closer look at the problem of approximating the exponential and logarithmic functions using polynomials. Either as an alternative to or a precursor to Taylor polynomial approximations at the precalculus level, interpolating polynomials are considered. A measure of error is given and the behaviour of the error function is…

Intake Procedures in Colorado Animal Shelters

PubMed Central

Fagre, Anna; Olea-Popelka, Francisco; Ruch-Gallie, Rebecca

2017-01-01

Simple Summary Many animal shelters receive animals from different regions of the United States; particularly following natural disasters or other mass displacements. After Hurricane Katrina; Colorado experienced a surge of animal intakes from regions of the country possessing higher parasitic burden. Little is known about the extent to which shelters tailor their infectious disease screening procedures and other intake protocols based on animal origin. Using a questionnaire; shelter personnel from across the state of Colorado provided information on shelter characteristics including where they receive animals from; general intake procedures; and perceptions on infectious disease risk. We found that more shelters that take dogs in from out of state screen for heartworm and other parasitic diseases than do shelters that only take animals from within the state. No difference was seen for feline screening procedures. We also found that few shelters use widespread screening protocols and instead screen based on suspicion. Lastly; many vaccination protocols in shelters do not comply with The Association of Shelter Veterinarians Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters. This study highlights the importance of tailoring animal intake procedures based on where the animal was transferred from. Abstract The purpose of this study was to describe intake procedures in Colorado animal shelters, compare infectious disease screening protocols in shelters taking in animals from out-of-state to shelters only accepting animals from Colorado, and analyze perceived risk of diseases in Colorado by responding shelter personnel. A questionnaire was designed and administered to shelter personnel across the state of Colorado via the survey tool SurveyMonkey© (http://www.surveymonkey.com) or a mailed hard copy. Information collected concerned general shelter characteristics and intake procedures performed in various circumstances as reported by responding shelter personnel. Only 12.5% (5/40) of respondents reported providing core vaccines to all animals upon intake at their shelter, with young age (65.0%; 26/40), pregnancy (55.0%; 22/40), and mild existing illness (40.0%; 16/40) being cited as the top reasons for not administering core vaccines. A significantly larger proportion of shelters taking animals in from around the U.S. screened for Dirofilaria immitis than shelters taking in animals only from within the state of Colorado (p = 0.001), though a majority of respondents considered cats and dogs to be at risk of heartworm and endoparasitic infection in the state of Colorado. Based on the results of this questionnaire, relatively few shelters test dogs and cats for infectious diseases and some of those utilize tests for diagnostic purposes rather than routine screening. Additionally, vaccination protocols in several shelters are not consistent with The Association of Shelter Veterinarians Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters. This study provides important information on intake procedures in Colorado animal shelters and highlights the importance of educating shelter staff on varying risk of infection based on the history and origin of the animal being taken in. PMID:28475139

Free-space quantum key distribution at night

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buttler, William T.; Hughes, Richard J.; Kwiat, Paul G.; Lamoreaux, Steve K.; Luther, Gabriel G.; Morgan, George L.; Nordholt, Jane E.; Peterson, C. Glen; Simmons, Charles M.

1998-07-01

An experimental free-space quantum key distribution (QKD) system has been tested over an outdoor optical path of approximately 1 km under nighttime conditions at Los Alamos National Laboratory. This system employs the Bennett 92 protocol; here we give a brief overview of this protocol, and describe our experimental implementation of it. An analysis of the system efficiency is presented as well as a description of our error detection protocol, which employs a 2D parity check scheme. Finally, the susceptibility of this system to eavesdropping by various techniques is determined, and the effectiveness of privacy amplification procedures is discussed. Our conclusions are that free-space QKD is both effective and secure; possible applications include the rekeying of satellites in low earth orbit.

Finite key analysis for symmetric attacks in quantum key distribution

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

Meyer, Tim; Kampermann, Hermann; Kleinmann, Matthias

2006-10-15

We introduce a constructive method to calculate the achievable secret key rate for a generic class of quantum key distribution protocols, when only a finite number n of signals is given. Our approach is applicable to all scenarios in which the quantum state shared by Alice and Bob is known. In particular, we consider the six state protocol with symmetric eavesdropping attacks, and show that for a small number of signals, i.e., below n{approx}10{sup 4}, the finite key rate differs significantly from the asymptotic value for n{yields}{infinity}. However, for larger n, a good approximation of the asymptotic value is found.more » We also study secret key rates for protocols using higher-dimensional quantum systems.« less

SU-F-I-16: Short Breast MRI with High-Resolution T2-Weighted and Dynamic Contrast Enhanced T1-Weighted Images

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

Ma, J; Son, J; Arun, B

Purpose: To develop and demonstrate a short breast (sb) MRI protocol that acquires both T2-weighted and dynamic contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images in approximately ten minutes. Methods: The sb-MRI protocol consists of two novel pulse sequences. The first is a flexible fast spin-echo triple-echo Dixon (FTED) sequence for high-resolution fat-suppressed T2-weighted imaging, and the second is a 3D fast dual-echo spoiled gradient sequence (FLEX) for volumetric fat-suppressed T1-weighted imaging before and post contrast agent injection. The flexible FTED sequence replaces each single readout during every echo-spacing period of FSE with three fast-switching bipolar readouts to produce three raw images in a singlemore » acquisition. These three raw images are then post-processed using a Dixon algorithm to generate separate water-only and fat-only images. The FLEX sequence acquires two echoes using dual-echo readout after each RF excitation and the corresponding images are post-processed using a similar Dixon algorithm to yield water-only and fat-only images. The sb-MRI protocol was implemented on a 3T MRI scanner and used for patients who had undergone concurrent clinical MRI for breast cancer screening. Results: With the same scan parameters (eg, spatial coverage, field of view, spatial and temporal resolution) as the clinical protocol, the total scan-time of the sb-MRI protocol (including the localizer, bilateral T2-weighted, and dynamic contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images) was 11 minutes. In comparison, the clinical breast MRI protocol took 43 minutes. Uniform fat suppression and high image quality were consistently achieved by sb-MRI. Conclusion: We demonstrated a sb-MRI protocol comprising both T2-weighted and dynamic contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images can be performed in approximately ten minutes. The spatial and temporal resolution of the images easily satisfies the current breast MRI accreditation guidelines by the American College of Radiology. The protocol has the potential of making breast MRI more widely accessible to and more tolerable by the patients. JMA is the inventor of United States patents that are owned by the University of Texas Board of Regents and currently licensed to GE Healthcare and Siemens Gmbh.« less

Self-control, self-regulation, and doping in sport: a test of the strength-energy model.

PubMed

Chan, Derwin K; Lentillon-Kaestner, Vanessa; Dimmock, James A; Donovan, Robert J; Keatley, David A; Hardcastle, Sarah J; Hagger, Martin S

2015-04-01

We applied the strength-energy model of self-control to understand the relationship between self-control and young athletes' behavioral responses to taking illegal performance-enhancing substances, or "doping." Measures of trait self-control, attitude and intention toward doping, intention toward, and adherence to, doping-avoidant behaviors, and the prevention of unintended doping behaviors were administered to 410 young Australian athletes. Participants also completed a "lollipop" decision-making protocol that simulated avoidance of unintended doping. Hierarchical linear multiple regression analyses revealed that self-control was negatively associated with doping attitude and intention, and positively associated with the intention and adherence to doping-avoidant behaviors, and refusal to take or eat the unfamiliar candy offered in the "lollipop" protocol. Consistent with the strength-energy model, athletes with low self-control were more likely to have heightened attitude and intention toward doping, and reduced intention, behavioral adherence, and awareness of doping avoidance.

Preparation and biomedical applications of programmable and multifunctional DNA nanoflowers

PubMed Central

Lv, Yifan; Hu, Rong; Zhu, Guizhi; Zhang, Xiaobing; Mei, Lei; Liu, Qiaoling; Qiu, Liping; Wu, Cuichen; Tan, Weihong

2016-01-01

We describe a comprehensive protocol for the preparation of multifunctional DNA nanostructures termed nanoflowers (NFs), which are self-assembled from long DNA building blocks generated via rolling-circle replication (RCR) of a designed template. NF assembly is driven by liquid crystallization and dense packaging of building blocks, which eliminates the need for conventional Watson-Crick base pairing. As a result of dense DNA packaging, NFs are resistant to nuclease degradation, denaturation or dissociation at extremely low concentrations. By manually changing the template sequence, many different functional moieties including aptamers, bioimaging agents and drug-loading sites could be easily integrated into NF particles, making NFs ideal candidates for a variety of applications in biomedicine. In this protocol, the preparation of multifunctional DNA NFs with highly tunable sizes is described for applications in cell targeting, intracellular imaging and drug delivery. Preparation and characterization of functional DNA NFs takes ~5 d; the following biomedical applications take ~10 d. PMID:26357007

Investigation of Interference Models for RFID Systems.

PubMed

Zhang, Linchao; Ferrero, Renato; Gandino, Filippo; Rebaudengo, Maurizio

2016-02-04

The reader-to-reader collision in an RFID system is a challenging problem for communications technology. In order to model the interference between RFID readers, different interference models have been proposed, mainly based on two approaches: single and additive interference. The former only considers the interference from one reader within a certain range, whereas the latter takes into account the sum of all of the simultaneous interferences in order to emulate a more realistic behavior. Although the difference between the two approaches has been theoretically analyzed in previous research, their effects on the estimated performance of the reader-to-reader anti-collision protocols have not yet been investigated. In this paper, the influence of the interference model on the anti-collision protocols is studied by simulating a representative state-of-the-art protocol. The results presented in this paper highlight that the use of additive models, although more computationally intensive, is mandatory to improve the performance of anti-collision protocols.

Multi-party Semi-quantum Key Agreement with Delegating Quantum Computation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Wen-Jie; Chen, Zhen-Yu; Ji, Sai; Wang, Hai-Bin; Zhang, Jun

2017-10-01

A multi-party semi-quantum key agreement (SQKA) protocol based on delegating quantum computation (DQC) model is proposed by taking Bell states as quantum resources. In the proposed protocol, the participants only need the ability of accessing quantum channel and preparing single photons {|0〉, |1〉, |+〉, |-〉}, while the complicated quantum operations, such as the unitary operations and Bell measurement, will be delegated to the remote quantum center. Compared with previous quantum key agreement protocols, this client-server model is more feasible in the early days of the emergence of quantum computers. In order to prevent the attacks from outside eavesdroppers, inner participants and quantum center, two single photon sequences are randomly inserted into Bell states: the first sequence is used to perform the quantum channel detection, while the second is applied to disorder the positions of message qubits, which guarantees the security of the protocol.

Development of a cryopreservation protocol for testicular interstitial cells with the account of temperature intervals for controlled cooling below -60°С.

PubMed

Gurina, T M; Pakhomov, A V; Kyryliuk, A L; Bozhok, G A

2011-04-01

A long course of anticancer therapy may lead to testicular steroidogenesis destruction. Cryopreservation of testicular interstitial cells (TIC) would be a strategy to protect hormonal and fertile potential of pre-pubertal boys treated with chemo - or radiotherapy. The aim of this research was to optimize protocols for freezing of TIC. Essential physical processes associated with the presence of dimethyl sulphoxide (Me(2)SO) in the cryoprotectant solution take place at the temperatures below -60°С. These processes are the eutectic crystallization at the stage of freezing and the recrystallization before the melting of the eutectic mixture at the stage of heating. Both of the processes affect the viability of the cells subjected to cryopreservation. Temperature intervals when these processes take place were determined by the method of thermoplastic deformation for 10% Me(2)SO selected for cryopreservation of TIC. Rat TIC were cryopreserved using five different protocols which varied in cooling rates within the chosen temperature intervals. Post-thaw cell viability and metabolic activity were evaluated by Trypan Blue and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) staining assays. Leydig cell recovery after cryopreservation was measured by 3-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase reaction. Based on the obtained results, the authors developed a cryopreservation protocol for TIC which makes it possible to achieve great cell viability due to using controlled cooling rates within the temperature intervals below -60°С. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Protocols for treating patients with end-stage renal disease: a survey of nephrology fellowships.

PubMed

Perry, Maureen Munnelly; Howell, Scott; Patel, Nipa

2017-03-01

Approximately 14% of Americans are living with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The prevalence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD), the result of progressing CKD continues to rise by 21,000 per year. Currently, the only antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines for patients with ESRD undergoing dental treatment were published by the AHA in 2003. Presented in three parts, the first and second parts of this study found no consistent protocols amongst U.S. dental schools and U.S. GPRs and AEGDs, respectively. The goal of the third part of the project was to determine the current protocol being used to treat ESRD patients at U.S. nephrology fellowship programs. An 18 multiple-choice question survey was e-mailed to 130 directors of nephrology fellowships within the U.S. regarding renal treatment protocol details and antibiotic prophylaxis for patients with renal disease. Note that, 34.6% of respondents reported having an established renal treatment protocol. For programs with a protocol, 69% of programs reported following AHA guidelines. There is a lack of consistent, established protocols amongst U.S. nephrology fellowships. It is suggested that updated and evidence based guidelines for the safe treatment of patients be developed. © 2016 Special Care Dentistry Association and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Variable pulmonary responses from exposure to concentrated ambient air particles in a rat model of bronchitis.

PubMed

Kodavanti, U P; Mebane, R; Ledbetter, A; Krantz, T; McGee, J; Jackson, M C; Walsh, L; Hilliard, H; Chen, B Y; Richards, J; Costa, D L

2000-04-01

Chronic bronchitis may be considered a risk factor in particulate matter (PM)-induced morbidity. We hypothesized that a rat model of human bronchitis would be more susceptible to the pulmonary effects of concentrated ambient particles (CAPs) from Research Triangle Park, NC. Bronchitis was induced in male Sprague-Dawley rats (90-100 days of age) by exposure to 200 ppm sulfur dioxide (SO2), 6 h/day x 5 days/week x 6 weeks. One day following the last SO2 exposure, both healthy (air-exposed) and bronchitic (SO2-exposed) rats were exposed to filtered air (three healthy; four bronchitic) or CAPs (five healthy; four bronchitic) by whole-body inhalation, 6 h/day x 2 or 3 days. Pulmonary injury was determined either immediately (0h) or 18 h following final CAPs exposure. The study protocol involving 0 h time point was repeated four times (study #A, November, 1997; #B, February, 1998; #C and #D, May, 1998), whereas the study protocol involving 18 h time point was done only once (#F). In an additional study (#E), rats were exposed to residual oil fly ash (ROFA), approximately 1 mg/ m(3)x6 h/day x 3 days to mimic the CAPs protocol (February, 1998). The rats allowed 18 h recovery following CAPs exposure (#F) did not depict any CAPs-related differences in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) injury markers. Of the four CAPs studies conducted (0 h time point), the first (#A) study (approximately 650 microg/m3 CAPs) revealed significant changes in the lungs of CAPs-exposed bronchitic rats compared to the clean air controls. These rats had increased BALF protein, albumin, N-acetyl glutaminidase (NAG) activity and neutrophils. The second (#B) study (approximately 475 microg/m3 CAPs) did not reveal any significant effects of CAPs on BALF parameters. Study protocols #C (approximately 869 microg/m3 CAPs) and #D (approximately 907 microg/m3 CAPs) revealed only moderate increases in the above mentioned BALF parameters in bronchitic rats exposed to CAPs. Pulmonary histologic evaluation of studies #A, #C, #D, and #F revealed marginally higher congestion and perivascular cellularity in CAPs-exposed bronchitic rats. Healthy and bronchitic rats exposed to ROFA (approximately 1 mg/m3) did not show significant pulmonary injury (#E). Analysis of leachable elemental components of CAPs revealed the presence of sulfur, zinc, manganese, and iron. There was an apparent lack of association between pulmonary injury and CAPs concentration, or its leachable sulfate or elemental content. In summary, real-time atmospheric PM may result in pulmonary injury, particularly in susceptible models. However, the variability observed in pulmonary responses to CAPs emphasizes the need to conduct repeated studies, perhaps in relation to the season, as composition of CAPs may vary. Additionally, potential variability in pathology of induced bronchitis or other lung disease may decrease the ability to distinguish toxic injury due to PM.

Efficacy of a basal bolus insulin protocol to treat prednisolone-induced hyperglycaemia in hospitalised patients.

PubMed

Burt, M G; Drake, S M; Aguilar-Loza, N R; Esterman, A; Stranks, S N; Roberts, G W

2015-03-01

Few studies have specifically investigated treatment of prednisolone-induced hyperglycaemia. To determine if a basal bolus insulin (BBI) protocol for inpatient hyperglycaemia is effective in patients prescribed acute prednisolone for an inflammatory disease. In a cross-sectional study, 66 patients with type 2 diabetes admitted to a general medical ward and treated with BBI for up to 5 days were studied. Twenty-four patients were taking prednisolone ≥10 mg/day to treat an acute inflammatory disease. The remaining 42 patients were a control group. The primary outcome was mean daily blood glucose level. There were no significant differences in glycosylated haemoglobin (8.1 ± 1.0 vs 8.1 ± 1.6%, P = 0.88), age (77 ± 11 vs 75 ± 14 years, P = 0.57), male sex (63 vs 60%, P = 0.81) or body mass index (30.0 ± 5.3 vs 30.2 ± 11.5 kg/m(2) , P = 0.90) between patients taking prednisolone and controls. Mean daily glucose concentration was higher in patients taking prednisolone than in controls (12.2 ± 0.3 vs 10.0 ± 0.1 mmol/L, P < 0.001). Blood glucose level was higher in patients on prednisolone at 1700 h (14.6 ± 0.6 vs 10.3 ± 0.3 mmol/L, P < 0.001) and 2100 h (14.5 ± 0.6 vs 10.5 ± 0.3 mmol/L, P < 0.001), with no significant differences at 0700 h and 1200 h. These findings occurred despite patients taking prednisolone receiving a higher daily insulin dose than controls (0.67-0.70 vs 0.61-0.65 U/kg, P = 0.001) because of higher doses of ultra-rapid-acting insulin at 1200 h and 1700 h. Hospitalised patients taking prednisolone had substantial afternoon and evening hyperglycaemia despite receiving BBI via a protocol for inpatient hyperglycaemia. Specific insulin regimens for prednisolone-induced hyperglycaemia are needed that recommend more insulin during this time period. © 2015 Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

Polynomial approximation of non-Gaussian unitaries by counting one photon at a time

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arzani, Francesco; Treps, Nicolas; Ferrini, Giulia

2017-05-01

In quantum computation with continuous-variable systems, quantum advantage can only be achieved if some non-Gaussian resource is available. Yet, non-Gaussian unitary evolutions and measurements suited for computation are challenging to realize in the laboratory. We propose and analyze two methods to apply a polynomial approximation of any unitary operator diagonal in the amplitude quadrature representation, including non-Gaussian operators, to an unknown input state. Our protocols use as a primary non-Gaussian resource a single-photon counter. We use the fidelity of the transformation with the target one on Fock and coherent states to assess the quality of the approximate gate.

Computing Functions by Approximating the Input

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldberg, Mayer

2012-01-01

In computing real-valued functions, it is ordinarily assumed that the input to the function is known, and it is the output that we need to approximate. In this work, we take the opposite approach: we show how to compute the values of some transcendental functions by approximating the input to these functions, and obtaining exact answers for their…

Auditory evoked potentials in the auditory system of a beluga whale Delphinapterus leucas to prolonged sound stimuli.

PubMed

Popov, Vladimir V; Sysueva, Evgenia V; Nechaev, Dmitry I; Rozhnov, Vyatcheslav V; Supin, Alexander Ya

2016-03-01

The effects of prolonged (up to 1500 s) sound stimuli (tone pip trains) on evoked potentials (the rate following response, RFR) were investigated in a beluga whale. The stimuli (rhythmic tone pips) were of frequencies of 45, 64, and 90 kHz at levels from 20 to 60 dB above threshold. Two experimental protocols were used: short- and long-duration. For the short-duration protocol, the stimuli were 500-ms-long pip trains that repeated at a rate of 0.4 trains/s. For the long-duration protocol, the stimuli were continuous pip successions lasting up to 1500 s. The RFR amplitude gradually decreased by three to seven times from 10 ms to 1500 s of stimulation. Decrease of response amplitude during stimulation was approximately proportional to initial (at the start of stimulation) response amplitude. Therefore, even for low stimulus level (down to 20 dB above the baseline threshold) the response was never suppressed completely. The RFR amplitude decay that occurred during stimulation could be satisfactorily approximated by a combination of two exponents with time constants of 30-80 ms and 3.1-17.6 s. The role of adaptation in the described effects and the impact of noise on the acoustic orientation of odontocetes are discussed.

A fundamental conflict of care: Nurses' accounts of balancing patients' sleep with taking vital sign observations at night.

PubMed

Hope, Joanna; Recio-Saucedo, Alejandra; Fogg, Carole; Griffiths, Peter; Smith, Gary B; Westwood, Greta; Schmidt, Paul E

2017-12-21

To explore why adherence to vital sign observations scheduled by an early warning score protocol reduces at night. Regular vital sign observations can reduce avoidable deterioration in hospital. early warning score protocols set the frequency of these observations by the severity of a patient's condition. Vital sign observations are taken less frequently at night, even with an early warning score in place, but no literature has explored why. A qualitative interpretative design informed this study. Seventeen semi-structured interviews with nursing staff working on wards with varying levels of adherence to scheduled vital sign observations. A thematic analysis approach was used. At night, nursing teams found it difficult to balance the competing care goals of supporting sleep with taking vital sign observations. The night-time frequency of these observations was determined by clinical judgement, ward-level expectations of observation timing and the risk of disturbing other patients. Patients with COPD or dementia could be under-monitored, while patients nearing the end of life could be over-monitored. In this study, we found an early warning score algorithm focused on deterioration prevention did not account for long-term management or palliative care trajectories. Nurses were therefore less inclined to wake such patients to take vital sign observations at night. However, the perception of widespread exceptions and lack of evidence regarding optimum frequency risks delegitimising the early warning score approach. This may pose a risk to patient safety, particularly patients with dementia or chronic conditions. Nurses should document exceptions and discuss these with the wider team. Hospitals should monitor why vital sign observations are missed at night, identify which groups are under-monitored and provide guidance on prioritising competing expectations. early warning score protocols should take account of different care trajectories. © 2017 The Authors. Journal of Clinical Nursing Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Evaluation of a new chest tube removal protocol using digital air leak monitoring after lobectomy: a prospective randomised trial.

PubMed

Brunelli, Alessandro; Salati, Michele; Refai, Majed; Di Nunzio, Luca; Xiumé, Francesco; Sabbatini, Armando

2010-01-01

The objective of this randomised trial was to assess the effectiveness of a new fast-track chest tube removal protocol taking advantage of digital monitoring of air leak compared to a traditional protocol using visual and subjective assessment of air leak (bubbles). One hundred and sixty-six patients submitted to pulmonary lobectomy for lung cancer were randomised in two groups with different chest tube removal protocols: (1) in the new protocol, chest tube was removed based on digitally recorded measurements of air leak flow; (2) in the traditional protocol, the chest tube removal was based on an instantaneous assessment of air leak during daily rounds. The two groups were compared in terms of chest tube duration, hospital stay and costs. The two groups were well matched for several preoperative and operative variables. Compared to the traditional protocol, the new digital recording protocol showed mean reductions in chest tube duration (p=0.0007), hospital stay (p=0.007) of 0.9 day, and a mean cost saving of euro 476 per patient (p=0.008). In the new chest tube removal protocol, 51% of patients had their chest tube removed by the second postoperative day versus only 12% of those in the traditional protocol. The application of a chest tube removal protocol using a digital drainage unit featuring a continuous recording of air leak was safe and cost effective. Although future studies are warranted to confirm these results in other settings, the use of this new protocol is now routinely applied in our practice. Copyright 2009 European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Family of ACO Routing Protocols for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

PubMed Central

Rupérez Cañas, Delfín; Sandoval Orozco, Ana Lucila; García Villalba, Luis Javier; Kim, Tai-hoon

2017-01-01

In this work, an ACO routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks based on AntHocNet is specified. As its predecessor, this new protocol, called AntOR, is hybrid in the sense that it contains elements from both reactive and proactive routing. Specifically, it combines a reactive route setup process with a proactive route maintenance and improvement process. Key aspects of the AntOR protocol are the disjoint-link and disjoint-node routes, separation between the regular pheromone and the virtual pheromone in the diffusion process and the exploration of routes, taking into consideration the number of hops in the best routes. In this work, a family of ACO routing protocols based on AntOR is also specified. These protocols are based on protocol successive refinements. In this work, we also present a parallelized version of AntOR that we call PAntOR. Using programming multiprocessor architectures based on the shared memory protocol, PAntOR allows running tasks in parallel using threads. This parallelization is applicable in the route setup phase, route local repair process and link failure notification. In addition, a variant of PAntOR that consists of having more than one interface, which we call PAntOR-MI (PAntOR-Multiple Interface), is specified. This approach parallelizes the sending of broadcast messages by interface through threads. PMID:28531159

WDM Network and Multicasting Protocol Strategies

PubMed Central

Zaim, Abdul Halim

2014-01-01

Optical technology gains extensive attention and ever increasing improvement because of the huge amount of network traffic caused by the growing number of internet users and their rising demands. However, with wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), it is easier to take the advantage of optical networks and optical burst switching (OBS) and to construct WDM networks with low delay rates and better data transparency these technologies are the best choices. Furthermore, multicasting in WDM is an urgent solution for bandwidth-intensive applications. In the paper, a new multicasting protocol with OBS is proposed. The protocol depends on a leaf initiated structure. The network is composed of source, ingress switches, intermediate switches, edge switches, and client nodes. The performance of the protocol is examined with Just Enough Time (JET) and Just In Time (JIT) reservation protocols. Also, the paper involves most of the recent advances about WDM multicasting in optical networks. WDM multicasting in optical networks is given as three common subtitles: Broadcast and-select networks, wavelength-routed networks, and OBS networks. Also, in the paper, multicast routing protocols are briefly summarized and optical burst switched WDM networks are investigated with the proposed multicast schemes. PMID:24744683

Lightweight and confidential data discovery and dissemination for wireless body area networks.

PubMed

He, Daojing; Chan, Sammy; Zhang, Yan; Yang, Haomiao

2014-03-01

As a special sensor network, a wireless body area network (WBAN) provides an economical solution to real-time monitoring and reporting of patients' physiological data. After a WBAN is deployed, it is sometimes necessary to disseminate data into the network through wireless links to adjust configuration parameters of body sensors or distribute management commands and queries to sensors. A number of such protocols have been proposed recently, but they all focus on how to ensure reliability and overlook security vulnerabilities. Taking into account the unique features and application requirements of a WBAN, this paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of a secure, lightweight, confidential, and denial-of-service-resistant data discovery and dissemination protocol for WBANs to ensure the data items disseminated are not altered or tampered. Based on multiple one-way key hash chains, our protocol provides instantaneous authentication and can tolerate node compromise. Besides the theoretical analysis that demonstrates the security and performance of the proposed protocol, this paper also reports the experimental evaluation of our protocol in a network of resource-limited sensor nodes, which shows its efficiency in practice. In particular, extensive security analysis shows that our protocol is provably secure.

Global warming at the summit

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Showstack, Randy

During the recent summit meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Bill Clinton, the two leaders reaffirmed their concerns about global warming and the need to continue to take actions to try to reduce the threat.In a June 4 joint statement, they stressed the need to develop flexibility mechanisms, including international emissions trading, under the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. They also noted that initiatives to reduce the risk of greenhouse warming, including specific mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol, could potentially promote economic growth.

Development of a systematic observation protocol of physical exposure of the back: a preliminary study.

PubMed

Tousignant, M; Tougas, G; Rossignol, M; Goulet, L

2002-04-01

At present there is no systematic observation protocol for the assessment of the multi-factorial aspects of physical exposure related to the back used within the constraints of occupational epidemiological research. In this context, a new preliminary systematic observation protocol is proposed to assess exposure to physical loading of the back using nine categories of physical risk factors: the SOPE back protocol. The objective of this study was to investigate whether the new protocol can correctly identify the level of exposure related to measured physical loading of the back. The subjects of this closed cohort study were 451 manual workers at a natural gas distribution company. The assessment of exposure was made with the protocol using groups with different job titles. The workers were followed for a 2 yr period to establish the risk of a new occurrence of complete disability related to the back (NOCD back injury) in each job grouping. Based on the median of the total scores derived from the protocol, two levels of exposure were identified (high and low). Taking into account the limitations of this study, the protocol in development may be a good tool to establish two levels of exposure to physical loading of the back in large epidemiological studies of occupational low back pain. Further research is needed to replicate these results with larger samples and to test the reliability and predictive validity of the protocol.

Description and Evaluation of the Research Ethics Review Process in Japan: Proposed Measures for Improvement.

PubMed

Suzuki, Mika; Sato, Keiko

2016-07-01

Research Ethics Committees (RECs) are designed to protect human subjects in research. It is essential to recognize whether the RECs are achieving this goal. Several studies have reported on RECs; however, detailed data regarding the quality of research protocols and the review process of RECs have not been reported in Japan. We examine research protocols reviewed by RECs and the review processes at three institutions using a novel checklist we developed. The data show that approximately half of all examined protocols lacked a clearly written "Background" section that defines the study rationale and design. These results reiterate suggestions made in previous research regarding educational programs and support departments that could enhance responsible conduct in clinical research to protect human subjects in Japan. © The Author(s) 2016.

Distributed Synchronization Control of Multiagent Systems With Unknown Nonlinearities.

PubMed

Su, Shize; Lin, Zongli; Garcia, Alfredo

2016-01-01

This paper revisits the distributed adaptive control problem for synchronization of multiagent systems where the dynamics of the agents are nonlinear, nonidentical, unknown, and subject to external disturbances. Two communication topologies, represented, respectively, by a fixed strongly-connected directed graph and by a switching connected undirected graph, are considered. Under both of these communication topologies, we use distributed neural networks to approximate the uncertain dynamics. Decentralized adaptive control protocols are then constructed to solve the cooperative tracker problem, the problem of synchronization of all follower agents to a leader agent. In particular, we show that, under the proposed decentralized control protocols, the synchronization errors are ultimately bounded, and their ultimate bounds can be reduced arbitrarily by choosing the control parameter appropriately. Simulation study verifies the effectiveness of our proposed protocols.

Wafer-scale fabrication of polymer-based microdevices via injection molding and photolithographic micropatterning protocols.

PubMed

Lee, Dae-Sik; Yang, Haesik; Chung, Kwang-Hyo; Pyo, Hyeon-Bong

2005-08-15

Because of their broad applications in biomedical analysis, integrated, polymer-based microdevices incorporating micropatterned metallic and insulating layers are significant in contemporary research. In this study, micropatterns for temperature sensing and microelectrode sets for electroanalysis have been implemented on an injection-molded thin polymer membrane by employing conventional semiconductor processing techniques (i.e., standard photolithographic methods). Cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) is chosen as the polymer substrate because of its high chemical and thermal stability. A COC 5-in. wafer (1-mm thickness) is manufactured using an injection molding method, in which polymer membranes (approximately 130 microm thick and 3 mm x 6 mm in area) are implemented simultaneously in order to reduce local thermal mass around micropatterned heaters and temperature sensors. The highly polished surface (approximately 4 nm within 40 microm x 40 microm area) of the fabricated COC wafer as well as its good resistance to typical process chemicals makes it possible to use the standard photolithographic and etching protocols on the COC wafer. Gold micropatterns with a minimum 5-microm line width are fabricated for making microheaters, temperature sensors, and microelectrodes. An insulating layer of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) is prepared at a COC-endurable low temperature (approximately 120 degrees C) by using atomic layer deposition and micropatterning for the electrode contacts. The fabricated microdevice for heating and temperature sensing shows improved performance of thermal isolation, and microelectrodes display good electrochemical performances for electrochemical sensors. Thus, this novel 5-in. wafer-level microfabrication method is a simple and cost-effective protocol to prepare polymer substrate and demonstrates good potential for application to highly integrated and miniaturized biomedical devices.

A Novel Cross-Layer Routing Protocol Based on Network Coding for Underwater Sensor Networks.

PubMed

Wang, Hao; Wang, Shilian; Bu, Renfei; Zhang, Eryang

2017-08-08

Underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) have attracted increasing attention in recent years because of their numerous applications in ocean monitoring, resource discovery and tactical surveillance. However, the design of reliable and efficient transmission and routing protocols is a challenge due to the low acoustic propagation speed and complex channel environment in UWSNs. In this paper, we propose a novel cross-layer routing protocol based on network coding (NCRP) for UWSNs, which utilizes network coding and cross-layer design to greedily forward data packets to sink nodes efficiently. The proposed NCRP takes full advantages of multicast transmission and decode packets jointly with encoded packets received from multiple potential nodes in the entire network. The transmission power is optimized in our design to extend the life cycle of the network. Moreover, we design a real-time routing maintenance protocol to update the route when detecting inefficient relay nodes. Substantial simulations in underwater environment by Network Simulator 3 (NS-3) show that NCRP significantly improves the network performance in terms of energy consumption, end-to-end delay and packet delivery ratio compared with other routing protocols for UWSNs.

Conformational free energies of methyl-α-L-iduronic and methyl-β-D-glucuronic acids in water

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Babin, Volodymyr; Sagui, Celeste

2010-03-01

We present a simulation protocol that allows for efficient sampling of the degrees of freedom of a solute in explicit solvent. The protocol involves using a nonequilibrium umbrella sampling method, in this case, the recently developed adaptively biased molecular dynamics method, to compute an approximate free energy for the slow modes of the solute in explicit solvent. This approximate free energy is then used to set up a Hamiltonian replica exchange scheme that samples both from biased and unbiased distributions. The final accurate free energy is recovered via the weighted histogram analysis technique applied to all the replicas, and equilibrium properties of the solute are computed from the unbiased trajectory. We illustrate the approach by applying it to the study of the puckering landscapes of the methyl glycosides of α-L-iduronic acid and its C5 epimer β-D-glucuronic acid in water. Big savings in computational resources are gained in comparison to the standard parallel tempering method.

Conformational free energies of methyl-alpha-L-iduronic and methyl-beta-D-glucuronic acids in water.

PubMed

Babin, Volodymyr; Sagui, Celeste

2010-03-14

We present a simulation protocol that allows for efficient sampling of the degrees of freedom of a solute in explicit solvent. The protocol involves using a nonequilibrium umbrella sampling method, in this case, the recently developed adaptively biased molecular dynamics method, to compute an approximate free energy for the slow modes of the solute in explicit solvent. This approximate free energy is then used to set up a Hamiltonian replica exchange scheme that samples both from biased and unbiased distributions. The final accurate free energy is recovered via the weighted histogram analysis technique applied to all the replicas, and equilibrium properties of the solute are computed from the unbiased trajectory. We illustrate the approach by applying it to the study of the puckering landscapes of the methyl glycosides of alpha-L-iduronic acid and its C5 epimer beta-D-glucuronic acid in water. Big savings in computational resources are gained in comparison to the standard parallel tempering method.

Approximate Model Checking of PCTL Involving Unbounded Path Properties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Basu, Samik; Ghosh, Arka P.; He, Ru

We study the problem of applying statistical methods for approximate model checking of probabilistic systems against properties encoded as PCTL formulas. Such approximate methods have been proposed primarily to deal with state-space explosion that makes the exact model checking by numerical methods practically infeasible for large systems. However, the existing statistical methods either consider a restricted subset of PCTL, specifically, the subset that can only express bounded until properties; or rely on user-specified finite bound on the sample path length. We propose a new method that does not have such restrictions and can be effectively used to reason about unbounded until properties. We approximate probabilistic characteristics of an unbounded until property by that of a bounded until property for a suitably chosen value of the bound. In essence, our method is a two-phase process: (a) the first phase is concerned with identifying the bound k 0; (b) the second phase computes the probability of satisfying the k 0-bounded until property as an estimate for the probability of satisfying the corresponding unbounded until property. In both phases, it is sufficient to verify bounded until properties which can be effectively done using existing statistical techniques. We prove the correctness of our technique and present its prototype implementations. We empirically show the practical applicability of our method by considering different case studies including a simple infinite-state model, and large finite-state models such as IPv4 zeroconf protocol and dining philosopher protocol modeled as Discrete Time Markov chains.

Complete Insecurity of Quantum Protocols for Classical Two-Party Computation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buhrman, Harry; Christandl, Matthias; Schaffner, Christian

2012-10-01

A fundamental task in modern cryptography is the joint computation of a function which has two inputs, one from Alice and one from Bob, such that neither of the two can learn more about the other’s input than what is implied by the value of the function. In this Letter, we show that any quantum protocol for the computation of a classical deterministic function that outputs the result to both parties (two-sided computation) and that is secure against a cheating Bob can be completely broken by a cheating Alice. Whereas it is known that quantum protocols for this task cannot be completely secure, our result implies that security for one party implies complete insecurity for the other. Our findings stand in stark contrast to recent protocols for weak coin tossing and highlight the limits of cryptography within quantum mechanics. We remark that our conclusions remain valid, even if security is only required to be approximate and if the function that is computed for Bob is different from that of Alice.

Complete insecurity of quantum protocols for classical two-party computation.

PubMed

Buhrman, Harry; Christandl, Matthias; Schaffner, Christian

2012-10-19

A fundamental task in modern cryptography is the joint computation of a function which has two inputs, one from Alice and one from Bob, such that neither of the two can learn more about the other's input than what is implied by the value of the function. In this Letter, we show that any quantum protocol for the computation of a classical deterministic function that outputs the result to both parties (two-sided computation) and that is secure against a cheating Bob can be completely broken by a cheating Alice. Whereas it is known that quantum protocols for this task cannot be completely secure, our result implies that security for one party implies complete insecurity for the other. Our findings stand in stark contrast to recent protocols for weak coin tossing and highlight the limits of cryptography within quantum mechanics. We remark that our conclusions remain valid, even if security is only required to be approximate and if the function that is computed for Bob is different from that of Alice.

Comparison of protocols for measuring and calculating postmortem submersion intervals for human analogs in fresh water.

PubMed

Humphreys, Michael K; Panacek, Edward; Green, William; Albers, Elizabeth

2013-03-01

Protocols for determining postmortem submersion interval (PMSI) have long been problematic for forensic investigators due to the wide variety of factors affecting the rate of decomposition of submerged carrion. Likewise, it has been equally problematic for researchers to develop standardized experimental protocols to monitor underwater decomposition without artificially affecting the decomposition rate. This study compares two experimental protocols: (i) underwater in situ evaluation with photographic documentation utilizing the Heaton et al. total aquatic decomposition (TAD) score and (ii) weighing the carrion before and after submersion. Complete forensic necropsies were performed as a control. Perinatal piglets were used as human analogs. The results of this study indicate that in order to objectively measure decomposition over time, the human analog should be examined at depth using the TAD scoring system rather than utilizing a carrion weight evaluation. The acquired TAD score can be used to calculate an approximate PMSI. © 2012 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Development of characterization protocol for mixed liquid radioactive waste classification

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

Zakaria, Norasalwa, E-mail: norasalwa@nuclearmalaysia.gov.my; Wafa, Syed Asraf; Wo, Yii Mei

2015-04-29

Mixed liquid organic waste generated from health-care and research activities containing tritium, carbon-14, and other radionuclides posed specific challenges in its management. Often, these wastes become legacy waste in many nuclear facilities and being considered as ‘problematic’ waste. One of the most important recommendations made by IAEA is to perform multistage processes aiming at declassification of the waste. At this moment, approximately 3000 bottles of mixed liquid waste, with estimated volume of 6000 litres are currently stored at the National Radioactive Waste Management Centre, Malaysia and some have been stored for more than 25 years. The aim of this studymore » is to develop a characterization protocol towards reclassification of these wastes. The characterization protocol entails waste identification, waste screening and segregation, and analytical radionuclides profiling using various analytical procedures including gross alpha/ gross beta, gamma spectrometry, and LSC method. The results obtained from the characterization protocol are used to establish criteria for speedy classification of the waste.« less

Biased decoy-state measurement-device-independent quantum cryptographic conferencing with finite resources.

PubMed

Chen, RuiKe; Bao, WanSu; Zhou, Chun; Li, Hongwei; Wang, Yang; Bao, HaiZe

2016-03-21

In recent years, a large quantity of work have been done to narrow the gap between theory and practice in quantum key distribution (QKD). However, most of them are focus on two-party protocols. Very recently, Yao Fu et al proposed a measurement-device-independent quantum cryptographic conferencing (MDI-QCC) protocol and proved its security in the limit of infinitely long keys. As a step towards practical application for MDI-QCC, we design a biased decoy-state measurement-device-independent quantum cryptographic conferencing protocol and analyze the performance of the protocol in both the finite-key and infinite-key regime. From numerical simulations, we show that our decoy-state analysis is tighter than Yao Fu et al. That is, we can achieve the nonzero asymptotic secret key rate in long distance with approximate to 200km and we also demonstrate that with a finite size of data (say 10¹¹ to 10¹³ signals) it is possible to perform secure MDI-QCC over reasonable distances.

Reexamination of quantum bit commitment: The possible and the impossible

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

D'Ariano, Giacomo Mauro; Kretschmann, Dennis; Institut fuer Mathematische Physik, Technische Universitaet Braunschweig, Mendelssohnstrasse 3, 38106 Braunschweig

2007-09-15

Bit commitment protocols whose security is based on the laws of quantum mechanics alone are generally held to be impossible. We give a strengthened and explicit proof of this result. We extend its scope to a much larger variety of protocols, which may have an arbitrary number of rounds, in which both classical and quantum information is exchanged, and which may include aborts and resets. Moreover, we do not consider the receiver to be bound to a fixed 'honest' strategy, so that 'anonymous state protocols', which were recently suggested as a possible way to beat the known no-go results, aremore » also covered. We show that any concealing protocol allows the sender to find a cheating strategy, which is universal in the sense that it works against any strategy of the receiver. Moreover, if the concealing property holds only approximately, the cheat goes undetected with a high probability, which we explicitly estimate. The proof uses an explicit formalization of general two-party protocols, which is applicable to more general situations, and an estimate about the continuity of the Stinespring dilation of a general quantum channel. The result also provides a natural characterization of protocols that fall outside the standard setting of unlimited available technology and thus may allow secure bit commitment. We present such a protocol whose security, perhaps surprisingly, relies on decoherence in the receiver's laboratory.« less

Profilometric characterization of DOEs with continuous microrelief

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Korolkov, V. P.; Ostapenko, S. V.; Shimansky, R. V.

2008-09-01

Methodology of local characterization of continuous-relief diffractive optical elements has been discussed. The local profile depth can be evaluated using "approximated depth" defined without taking a profile near diffractive zone boundaries into account. Several methods to estimate the approximated depth have been offered.

Labeling proteins on live mammalian cells using click chemistry.

PubMed

Nikić, Ivana; Kang, Jun Hee; Girona, Gemma Estrada; Aramburu, Iker Valle; Lemke, Edward A

2015-05-01

We describe a protocol for the rapid labeling of cell-surface proteins in living mammalian cells using click chemistry. The labeling method is based on strain-promoted alkyne-azide cycloaddition (SPAAC) and strain-promoted inverse-electron-demand Diels-Alder cycloaddition (SPIEDAC) reactions, in which noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) bearing ring-strained alkynes or alkenes react, respectively, with dyes containing azide or tetrazine groups. To introduce ncAAs site specifically into a protein of interest (POI), we use genetic code expansion technology. The protocol can be described as comprising two steps. In the first step, an Amber stop codon is introduced--by site-directed mutagenesis--at the desired site on the gene encoding the POI. This plasmid is then transfected into mammalian cells, along with another plasmid that encodes an aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA (RS/tRNA) pair that is orthogonal to the host's translational machinery. In the presence of the ncAA, the orthogonal RS/tRNA pair specifically suppresses the Amber codon by incorporating the ncAA into the polypeptide chain of the POI. In the second step, the expressed POI is labeled with a suitably reactive dye derivative that is directly supplied to the growth medium. We provide a detailed protocol for using commercially available ncAAs and dyes for labeling the insulin receptor, and we discuss the optimal surface-labeling conditions and the limitations of labeling living mammalian cells. The protocol involves an initial cloning step that can take 4-7 d, followed by the described transfections and labeling reaction steps, which can take 3-4 d.

[Problematizing the multidisciplinary residency in oncology: a practical teaching protocol from the perspective of nurse residents].

PubMed

Melo, Myllena Cândida de; Queluci, Gisella de Carvalho; Gouvêa, Mônica Villela

2014-08-01

To investigate practical teaching of nurse residents in a multidisciplinary residency in oncology. A qualitative descriptive study grounded in the problematization methodology and its steps, represented by the Maguerez Arch. Data were analyzed using content analysis. Potentiating and limiting elements of the residency guided the design of a practical teaching protocol from the perspective of residents, structured in three stages: Welcoming and ambience; Nursing care for problem situations; and, Evaluation process. Systematization of practical teaching promoted the autonomy of individuals and the approximation of teaching to reality, making residency less strenuous, stressful and distressing.

An agenda-based routing protocol in delay tolerant mobile sensor networks.

PubMed

Wang, Xiao-Min; Zhu, Jin-Qi; Liu, Ming; Gong, Hai-Gang

2010-01-01

Routing in delay tolerant mobile sensor networks (DTMSNs) is challenging due to the networks' intermittent connectivity. Most existing routing protocols for DTMSNs use simplistic random mobility models for algorithm design and performance evaluation. In the real world, however, due to the unique characteristics of human mobility, currently existing random mobility models may not work well in environments where mobile sensor units are carried (such as DTMSNs). Taking a person's social activities into consideration, in this paper, we seek to improve DTMSN routing in terms of social structure and propose an agenda based routing protocol (ARP). In ARP, humans are classified based on their agendas and data transmission is made according to sensor nodes' transmission rankings. The effectiveness of ARP is demonstrated through comprehensive simulation studies.

Efficient Measurement of Quantum Gate Error by Interleaved Randomized Benchmarking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Magesan, Easwar; Gambetta, Jay M.; Johnson, B. R.; Ryan, Colm A.; Chow, Jerry M.; Merkel, Seth T.; da Silva, Marcus P.; Keefe, George A.; Rothwell, Mary B.; Ohki, Thomas A.; Ketchen, Mark B.; Steffen, M.

2012-08-01

We describe a scalable experimental protocol for estimating the average error of individual quantum computational gates. This protocol consists of interleaving random Clifford gates between the gate of interest and provides an estimate as well as theoretical bounds for the average error of the gate under test, so long as the average noise variation over all Clifford gates is small. This technique takes into account both state preparation and measurement errors and is scalable in the number of qubits. We apply this protocol to a superconducting qubit system and find a bounded average error of 0.003 [0,0.016] for the single-qubit gates Xπ/2 and Yπ/2. These bounded values provide better estimates of the average error than those extracted via quantum process tomography.

Western Australian Public Opinions of a Minimum Pricing Policy for Alcohol: Study Protocol

PubMed Central

Keatley, David A; Daube, Mike; Hardcastle, Sarah J

2015-01-01

Background Excessive alcohol consumption has significant adverse economic, social, and health outcomes. Recent estimates suggest that the annual economic costs of alcohol in Australia are up to AUD $36 billion. Policies influencing price have been demonstrated to be very effective in reducing alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harms. Interest in minimum pricing has gained traction in recent years. However, there has been little research investigating the level of support for the public interest case of minimum pricing in Australia. Objective This article describes protocol for a study exploring Western Australian (WA) public knowledge, understanding, and reaction to a proposed minimum price policy per standard drink. Methods The study will employ a qualitative methodological design. Participants will be recruited from a wide variety of backgrounds, including ethnic minorities, blue and white collar workers, unemployed, students, and elderly/retired populations to participate in focus groups. Focus group participants will be asked about their knowledge of, and initial reactions to, the proposed policy and encouraged to discuss how such a proposal may affect their own alcohol use and alcohol consumption at the population level. Participants will also be asked to discuss potential avenues for increasing acceptability of the policy. The focus groups will adopt a semi-structured, open-ended approach guided by a question schedule. The schedule will be based on feedback from pilot samples, previous research, and a steering group comprising experts in alcohol policy and pricing. Results The study is expected to take approximately 14 months to complete. Conclusions The findings will be of considerable interest and relevance to government officials, policy makers, researchers, advocacy groups, alcohol retail and licensed establishments and organizations, city and town planners, police, and other stakeholder organizations. PMID:26582408

Burden of severe maternal morbidity and association with adverse birth outcomes in sub–Saharan Africa and south Asia: protocol for a prospective cohort study

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Objectives The AMANHI morbidity study aims to quantify and describe severe maternal morbidities and assess their associations with adverse maternal, fetal and newborn outcomes in predominantly rural areas of nine sites in eight South Asian and sub–Saharan African countries. Methods AMANHI takes advantage of on–going population–based cohort studies covering approximately 2 million women of reproductive age with 1– to 3–monthly pregnancy surveillance to enrol pregnant women. Morbidity information is collected at five follow–up home visits – three during the antenatal period at 24–28 weeks, 32–36 weeks and 37+ weeks of pregnancy and two during the postpartum period at 1–6 days and after 42–60 days after birth. Structured–questionnaires are used to collect self–reported maternal morbidities including hemorrhage, hypertensive disorders, infections, difficulty in labor and obstetric fistula, as well as care–seeking for these morbidities and outcomes for mothers and babies. Additionally, structured questionnaires are used to interview birth attendants who attended women’s deliveries. All protocols were harmonised across the sites including training, implementation and operationalising definitions for maternal morbidities. Importance of the AMANHI morbidity study Availability of reliable data to synthesize evidence for policy direction, interventions and programmes, remains a crucial step for prioritization and ensuring equitable delivery of maternal health interventions especially in high burden areas. AMANHI is one of the first large harmonized population–based cohort studies being conducted in several rural centres in South Asia and sub–Saharan Africa, and is expected to make substantial contributions to global knowledge on maternal morbidity burden and its implications. PMID:27648256

The C. elegans Excretory Canal as a Model for Intracellular Lumen Morphogenesis and In Vivo Polarized Membrane Biogenesis in a Single Cell: labeling by GFP-fusions, RNAi Interaction Screen and Imaging.

PubMed

Zhang, Nan; Membreno, Edward; Raj, Susan; Zhang, Hongjie; Khan, Liakot A; Gobel, Verena

2017-10-03

The four C. elegans excretory canals are narrow tubes extended through the length of the animal from a single cell, with almost equally far extended intracellular endotubes that build and stabilize the lumen with a membrane and submembraneous cytoskeleton of apical character. The excretory cell expands its length approximately 2,000 times to generate these canals, making this model unique for the in vivo assessment of de novo polarized membrane biogenesis, intracellular lumen morphogenesis and unicellular tubulogenesis. The protocol presented here shows how to combine standard labeling, gain- and loss-of-function genetic or RNA interference (RNAi)-, and microscopic approaches to use this model to visually dissect and functionally analyze these processes on a molecular level. As an example of a labeling approach, the protocol outlines the generation of transgenic animals with fluorescent fusion proteins for live analysis of tubulogenesis. As an example of a genetic approach, it highlights key points of a visual RNAi-based interaction screen designed to modify a gain-of-function cystic canal phenotype. The specific methods described are how to: label and visualize the canals by expressing fluorescent proteins; construct a targeted RNAi library and strategize RNAi screening for the molecular analysis of canal morphogenesis; visually assess modifications of canal phenotypes; score them by dissecting fluorescence microscopy; characterize subcellular canal components at higher resolution by confocal microscopy; and quantify visual parameters. The approach is useful for the investigator who is interested in taking advantage of the C. elegans excretory canal for identifying and characterizing genes involved in the phylogenetically conserved processes of intracellular lumen and unicellular tube morphogenesis.

Western Australian Public Opinions of a Minimum Pricing Policy for Alcohol: Study Protocol.

PubMed

Keatley, David A; Carragher, Natacha; Chikritzhs, Tanya; Daube, Mike; Hardcastle, Sarah J; Hagger, Martin S

2015-11-18

Excessive alcohol consumption has significant adverse economic, social, and health outcomes. Recent estimates suggest that the annual economic costs of alcohol in Australia are up to AUD $36 billion. Policies influencing price have been demonstrated to be very effective in reducing alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harms. Interest in minimum pricing has gained traction in recent years. However, there has been little research investigating the level of support for the public interest case of minimum pricing in Australia. This article describes protocol for a study exploring Western Australian (WA) public knowledge, understanding, and reaction to a proposed minimum price policy per standard drink. The study will employ a qualitative methodological design. Participants will be recruited from a wide variety of backgrounds, including ethnic minorities, blue and white collar workers, unemployed, students, and elderly/retired populations to participate in focus groups. Focus group participants will be asked about their knowledge of, and initial reactions to, the proposed policy and encouraged to discuss how such a proposal may affect their own alcohol use and alcohol consumption at the population level. Participants will also be asked to discuss potential avenues for increasing acceptability of the policy. The focus groups will adopt a semi-structured, open-ended approach guided by a question schedule. The schedule will be based on feedback from pilot samples, previous research, and a steering group comprising experts in alcohol policy and pricing. The study is expected to take approximately 14 months to complete. The findings will be of considerable interest and relevance to government officials, policy makers, researchers, advocacy groups, alcohol retail and licensed establishments and organizations, city and town planners, police, and other stakeholder organizations.

'PACLIMS': a component LIM system for high-throughput functional genomic analysis.

PubMed

Donofrio, Nicole; Rajagopalon, Ravi; Brown, Douglas; Diener, Stephen; Windham, Donald; Nolin, Shelly; Floyd, Anna; Mitchell, Thomas; Galadima, Natalia; Tucker, Sara; Orbach, Marc J; Patel, Gayatri; Farman, Mark; Pampanwar, Vishal; Soderlund, Cari; Lee, Yong-Hwan; Dean, Ralph A

2005-04-12

Recent advances in sequencing techniques leading to cost reduction have resulted in the generation of a growing number of sequenced eukaryotic genomes. Computational tools greatly assist in defining open reading frames and assigning tentative annotations. However, gene functions cannot be asserted without biological support through, among other things, mutational analysis. In taking a genome-wide approach to functionally annotate an entire organism, in this application the approximately 11,000 predicted genes in the rice blast fungus (Magnaporthe grisea), an effective platform for tracking and storing both the biological materials created and the data produced across several participating institutions was required. The platform designed, named PACLIMS, was built to support our high throughput pipeline for generating 50,000 random insertion mutants of Magnaporthe grisea. To be a useful tool for materials and data tracking and storage, PACLIMS was designed to be simple to use, modifiable to accommodate refinement of research protocols, and cost-efficient. Data entry into PACLIMS was simplified through the use of barcodes and scanners, thus reducing the potential human error, time constraints, and labor. This platform was designed in concert with our experimental protocol so that it leads the researchers through each step of the process from mutant generation through phenotypic assays, thus ensuring that every mutant produced is handled in an identical manner and all necessary data is captured. Many sequenced eukaryotes have reached the point where computational analyses are no longer sufficient and require biological support for their predicted genes. Consequently, there is an increasing need for platforms that support high throughput genome-wide mutational analyses. While PACLIMS was designed specifically for this project, the source and ideas present in its implementation can be used as a model for other high throughput mutational endeavors.

The Effect of Aging on Physical Performance Among Elderly Manual Workers: Protocol of a Cross-Sectional Study.

PubMed

Norheim, Kristoffer Larsen; Hjort Bønløkke, Jakob; Samani, Afshin; Omland, Øyvind; Madeleine, Pascal

2017-11-22

In 2012, the Danish Parliament decided to increase retirement age. Unfortunately, elderly people working in a physically demanding environment may be rendered unable to retain the ability to adequately perform the physical requirements of their jobs, due to age-related decreases in physical performance. Therefore, increasing the retirement age may not necessarily lead to the goal of keeping everybody in the labor market for a longer time. To date, our knowledge about the variations in physical performance of the elderly workforce is limited. In this cross-sectional study we seek to investigate the effects of aging on physical performance among elderly manual workers. Approximately 100 Danish manual workers between 50 and 70 years of age will be recruited. The main measurement outcomes include: (1) inflammatory status from blood samples; (2) body composition; (3) lung function; (4) static and dynamic balance; (5) reaction time, precision, and movement variability during a hammering task; (6) handgrip strength, rate of force development, and force tracking; (7) estimated maximal rate of oxygen consumption; and (8) back mobility. Additionally, information regarding working conditions, physical activity levels, and health status will be assessed with a questionnaire. Data collection is expected to take place between autumn 2017 and spring 2018. This study will increase the knowledge regarding variations in physical performance in the elderly workforce and may identify potential workplace hazards. Moreover, this study might shed light on the potentially problematic decision to increase retirement age for all Danish citizens. ©Kristoffer Larsen Norheim, Jakob Hjort Bønløkke, Afshin Samani, Øyvind Omland, Pascal Madeleine. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (http://www.researchprotocols.org), 22.11.2017.

Case Report: Linezolid Optic Neuropathy and Proposed Evidenced-based Screening Recommendation.

PubMed

Dempsey, Sean P; Sickman, Amy; Slagle, William Scott

2018-05-01

This case illustrates a novel screening protocol for linezolid-induced toxic optic neuropathy. To present a case report and analysis of linezolid-induced optic neuropathies in adult patients to develop screening recommendations. A case report of optic neuropathy from extended use of linezolid illustrates its potential effects on vision. We conduct a retrospective analysis of 39 reported cases to derive a recommended screening protocol for linezolid-induced toxic optic neuropathy in adult patients. Of 39 reported adult cases, 32 presented with optic neuropathy within 90 to 365 days of treatment. Within this subset, the duration of linezolid dosage to first symptoms is 235 ± 71 days. Seven outliers either experienced optic neuropathy within the first 28 days or between 600 and 1125 days. Of the 33 cases that quantified visual recovery, 30 reported final binocular visual acuity equivalent to 20/40 or better when the medication was discontinued from 0 to 268 days after symptom onset. Recovery potential was reported over a period of 2 weeks to approximately 6 months after cessation. To evaluate the effect of cumulative dose, the data were separated into patients taking 600 mg twice daily and those at 600 mg once daily. At the higher dosage, a mean of 180 ± 96 days with a mean cumulative dosage of 216 ± 115 g was noted at first symptom, whereas at lower dosage, a mean of 201 ± 102 days was noted with a mean cumulative dose of 138 ± 69 g. We recommend screening adult patients within 1 month after initiating linezolid, followed by a subsequent evaluation every 30 to 60 days beginning 3 months from initiation. Substantial visual recovery is reported when linezolid is discontinued. Toxicity appears to be correlated to duration of treatment, rather than cumulative dose.

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

Ishihara, T

Currently, the problem at hand is in distributing identical copies of OEP and filter software to a large number of farm nodes. One of the common methods used to transfer these softwares is through unicast. Unicast protocol faces the problem of repetitiously sending the same data over the network. Since the sending rate is limited, this process poses to be a bottleneck. Therefore, one possible solution to this problem lies in creating a reliable multicast protocol. A specific type of multicast protocol is the Bulk Multicast Protocol [4]. This system consists of one sender distributing data to many receivers. Themore » sender delivers data at a given rate of data packets. In response to that, the receiver replies to the sender with a status packet which contains information about the packet loss in terms of Negative Acknowledgment. The probability of the status packet sent back to the sender is+, where N is the number of receivers. The protocol is designed to have approximately 1 status packet for each data packet sent. In this project, we were able to show that the time taken for the complete transfer of a file to multiple receivers was about 12 times faster with multicast than by the use of unicast. The implementation of this experimental protocol shows remarkable improvement in mass data transfer to a large number of farm machines.« less

Murine chronic lymph node window for longitudinal intravital lymph node imaging.

PubMed

Meijer, Eelco F J; Jeong, Han-Sin; Pereira, Ethel R; Ruggieri, Thomas A; Blatter, Cedric; Vakoc, Benjamin J; Padera, Timothy P

2017-08-01

Chronic imaging windows in mice have been developed to allow intravital microscopy of many different organs and have proven to be of paramount importance in advancing our knowledge of normal and disease processes. A model system that allows long-term intravital imaging of lymph nodes would facilitate the study of cell behavior in lymph nodes during the generation of immune responses in a variety of disease settings and during the formation of metastatic lesions in cancer-bearing mice. We describe a chronic lymph node window (CLNW) surgical preparation that allows intravital imaging of the inguinal lymph node in mice. The CLNW is custom-made from titanium and incorporates a standard coverslip. It allows stable longitudinal imaging without the need for serial surgeries while preserving lymph node blood and lymph flow. We also describe how to build and use an imaging stage specifically designed for the CLNW to prevent (large) rotational changes as well as respiratory movement during imaging. The entire procedure takes approximately half an hour per mouse, and subsequently allows for longitudinal intravital imaging of the murine lymph node and surrounding structures for up to 14 d. Small-animal surgery experience is required to successfully carry out the protocol.

Development of Motivate4Change Using the Intervention Mapping Protocol: An Interactive Technology Physical Activity and Medication Adherence Promotion Program for Hospitalized Heart Failure Patients.

PubMed

Oosterom-Calo, Rony; Te Velde, Saskia J; Stut, Wim; Brug, Johannes

2015-07-20

It is important that heart failure (HF) patients adhere to their medication regimen and engage in physical activity. Evidence shows that adherence to these HF self-management behaviors can be improved with appropriate interventions. To further promote medication adherence and physical activity among HF patients, we developed an intervention for hospitalized HF patients. The intervention mapping protocol was applied in the development of the intervention. This entailed performing a needs assessment, defining change objectives, selecting determinants and strategies, and developing the materials. The resulting intervention, Motivate4Change, makes use of interactive technology and provides HF patients with personalized feedback and advice. Specific change objectives were defined. The relevant behavioral determinants for the physical activity program were practical knowledge on physical activity performance and self-efficacy for, and perceived benefits of, physical activity. For medication-taking, the selected determinants were practical knowledge on medication-taking, perceived barriers to medication-taking, beliefs about the necessity and harm regarding the medication prescribed, and beliefs about overprescribing and harm of medication in general. The change objectives and behavior change determinants were translated in feedback and advice strategies in an interactive technology program that included tailored feedback and advice, and role models in videos in which the behaviors and overcoming barriers were demonstrated. Relevant stakeholders were involved in the interventions development process. The intervention was pretested among HF patients and adjustments were made accordingly. The interactive technology physical activity and medication adherence promotion program for hospitalized HF patients was systematically developed using the intervention mapping protocol and was based on the available theory and evidence regarding HF self-management behavior change. The intervention's efficacy is yet to be determined in evaluation research.

The influence of caffeine ingestion on strength and power performance in female team-sport players.

PubMed

Ali, Ajmol; O'Donnell, Jemma; Foskett, Andrew; Rutherfurd-Markwick, Kay

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of caffeine supplementation on knee flexor and knee extensor strength before, during and after intermittent running exercise in female team-sport players taking oral contraceptive steroids (OCS). Ten healthy females (24 ± 4 years; 59.7 ± 3.5 kg; undertaking 2-6 training sessions per week) taking low-dose monophasic oral contraceptives of the same hormonal composition took part in a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover-design trial. Sixty minutes following the ingestion of a capsule containing 6 mg∙kg -1 body mass anhydrous caffeine or artificial sweetener (placebo), participants completed a 90-min intermittent treadmill-running protocol. Isometric strength performance and eccentric and concentric strength and power of the knee flexors and knee extensors (using isokinetic dynamometer), as well as countermovement jump (CMJ), was measured before, during and after the exercise protocol, as well as ~12 h post-exercise. Blood samples were taken before, during and post-exercise to measure glucose, insulin and free fatty acids (FFA). Caffeine supplementation significantly increased eccentric strength of the knee flexors ( P  < 0.05) and eccentric power of both the knee flexors ( P  < 0.05) and extensors ( P  < 0.05). However, there was no effect on isometric or concentric parameters, or CMJ performance. FFA was elevated with caffeine supplementation over time ( P  < 0.05) while levels of glucose and insulin were not affected by caffeine intake. Caffeine supplementation increased eccentric strength and power in female team-sport players taking OCS both during an intermittent running protocol and the following morning.

Incentive-compatible demand-side management for smart grids based on review strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Jie; van der Schaar, Mihaela

2015-12-01

Demand-side load management is able to significantly improve the energy efficiency of smart grids. Since the electricity production cost depends on the aggregate energy usage of multiple consumers, an important incentive problem emerges: self-interested consumers want to increase their own utilities by consuming more than the socially optimal amount of energy during peak hours since the increased cost is shared among the entire set of consumers. To incentivize self-interested consumers to take the socially optimal scheduling actions, we design a new class of protocols based on review strategies. These strategies work as follows: first, a review stage takes place in which a statistical test is performed based on the daily prices of the previous billing cycle to determine whether or not the other consumers schedule their electricity loads in a socially optimal way. If the test fails, the consumers trigger a punishment phase in which, for a certain time, they adjust their energy scheduling in such a way that everybody in the consumer set is punished due to an increased price. Using a carefully designed protocol based on such review strategies, consumers then have incentives to take the socially optimal load scheduling to avoid entering this punishment phase. We rigorously characterize the impact of deploying protocols based on review strategies on the system's as well as the users' performance and determine the optimal design (optimal billing cycle, punishment length, etc.) for various smart grid deployment scenarios. Even though this paper considers a simplified smart grid model, our analysis provides important and useful insights for designing incentive-compatible demand-side management schemes based on aggregate energy usage information in a variety of practical scenarios.

Approximating exponential and logarithmic functions using polynomial interpolation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gordon, Sheldon P.; Yang, Yajun

2017-04-01

This article takes a closer look at the problem of approximating the exponential and logarithmic functions using polynomials. Either as an alternative to or a precursor to Taylor polynomial approximations at the precalculus level, interpolating polynomials are considered. A measure of error is given and the behaviour of the error function is analysed. The results of interpolating polynomials are compared with those of Taylor polynomials.

EON: a component-based approach to automation of protocol-directed therapy.

PubMed Central

Musen, M A; Tu, S W; Das, A K; Shahar, Y

1996-01-01

Provision of automated support for planning protocol-directed therapy requires a computer program to take as input clinical data stored in an electronic patient-record system and to generate as output recommendations for therapeutic interventions and laboratory testing that are defined by applicable protocols. This paper presents a synthesis of research carried out at Stanford University to model the therapy-planning task and to demonstrate a component-based architecture for building protocol-based decision-support systems. We have constructed general-purpose software components that (1) interpret abstract protocol specifications to construct appropriate patient-specific treatment plans; (2) infer from time-stamped patient data higher-level, interval-based, abstract concepts; (3) perform time-oriented queries on a time-oriented patient database; and (4) allow acquisition and maintenance of protocol knowledge in a manner that facilitates efficient processing both by humans and by computers. We have implemented these components in a computer system known as EON. Each of the components has been developed, evaluated, and reported independently. We have evaluated the integration of the components as a composite architecture by implementing T-HELPER, a computer-based patient-record system that uses EON to offer advice regarding the management of patients who are following clinical trial protocols for AIDS or HIV infection. A test of the reuse of the software components in a different clinical domain demonstrated rapid development of a prototype application to support protocol-based care of patients who have breast cancer. PMID:8930854

A framework for solving ill-structured community problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keller, William Cotesworth

A multifaceted protocol for solving ill-structured community problems has been developed. It embodies the lessons learned from the past by refining and extending features of previous models from the systems thinkers, and the fields of behavioral decision making and creative problem solving. The protocol also embraces additional features needed to address the unique aspects of community decision situations. The essential elements of the protocol are participants from the community, a problem-solving process, a systems picture, a facilitator, a modified Delphi method of communications, and technical expertise. This interdisciplinary framework has been tested by a quasi experiment with a real world community problem (the high cost of electrical power on Long Island, NY). Results indicate the protocol can enable members of the community to understand a complicated, ill-structured problem and guide them to action to solve the issue. However, the framework takes time (over one year in the test case) and will be inappropriate for crises where quick action is needed.

Avoidance of harvesting and sampling artefacts in hydraulic analyses: a protocol tested on Malus domestica

PubMed Central

Beikircher, Barbara; Mayr, Stefan

2016-01-01

A prerequisite for reliable hydraulic measurements is an accurate collection of the plant material. Thereby, the native hydraulic state of the sample has to be preserved during harvesting (i.e., cutting the plant or plant parts) and preparation (i.e., excising the target section). This is particularly difficult when harvesting has to be done under transpiring conditions. In this article, we present a harvesting and sampling protocol designed for hydraulic measurements on Malus domestica Borkh. and checked for possible sampling artefacts. To test for artefacts, we analysed the percentage loss of hydraulic conductivity, maximum specific conductivity and water contents of bark and wood of branches, taking into account conduit length, time of day of harvesting, different shoot ages and seasonal effects. Our results prove that use of appropriate protocols can avoid artefactual embolization or refilling even when the xylem is under tension at harvest. The presented protocol was developed for Malus but may also be applied for other angiosperms with similar anatomy and refilling characteristics. PMID:26705311

A report on FY06 IPv6 deployment activities and issues at Sandia National Laboratories.

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

Tolendino, Lawrence F.; Eldridge, John M.; Hu, Tan Chang

2006-06-01

Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) has been a mainstay of the both the Internet and corporate networks for delivering network packets to the desired destination. However, rapid proliferation of network appliances, evolution of corporate networks, and the expanding Internet has begun to stress the limitations of the protocol. Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the replacement protocol that overcomes the constraints of IPv4. IPv6 deployment in government network backbones has been mandated to occur by 2008. This paper explores the readiness of the Sandia National Laboratories' network backbone to support IPv6, the issues that must be addressed before a deploymentmore » begins, and recommends the next steps to take to comply with government mandates. The paper describes a joint, work effort of the Sandia National Laboratories ASC WAN project team and members of the System Analysis & Trouble Resolution and Network System Design & Implementation Departments.« less

The effect of legal and hospital policies on physician response to prenatal substance exposure.

PubMed

Mendez, David; Jacobson, Peter D; Hassmiller, Kristen M; Zellman, Gail L

2003-09-01

To determine the influence of a state's legal environment and a hospital's Prenatal Substance Exposure (PSE) protocol on physicians' propensity to respond when prenatal substance exposure is suspected. Using a sample of 1367 physicians from every state and the District of Columbia, we formulate a set of linear models to determine the impact of the legal environment and hospital protocol on physicians' response to PSE, the agreement between physicians' perceptions and actual state legal environments, and physicians' motivation to act when PSE is suspected. Both protocol and legal environment showed to be significantly correlated with physicians' propensity to take action when PSE is suspected (p < 0.05). Our analysis shows that physicians prefer a public health (patient-centered) approach to more punitive measures. Our results suggest a policy strategy focused first on enacting laws that would encourage a patient-centered approach, by developing and using hospital protocols to implement state policy, and then on educating physicians about the actual legal environment.

Coherent-pulse implementations of quantum cryptography protocols resistant to photon-number-splitting attacks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Acín, Antonio; Gisin, Nicolas; Scarani, Valerio

2004-01-01

We propose a class of quantum cryptography protocols that are robust against photon-number-splitting attacks (PNS) in a weak coherent-pulse implementation. We give a quite exhaustive analysis of several eavesdropping attacks on these schemes. The honest parties (Alice and Bob) use present-day technology, in particular an attenuated laser as an approximation of a single-photon source. The idea of the protocols is to exploit the nonorthogonality of quantum states to decrease the information accessible to Eve due to the multiphoton pulses produced by the imperfect source. The distance at which the key distribution becomes insecure due to the PNS attack is significantly increased compared to the existing schemes. We also show that strong-pulse implementations, where a strong pulse is included as a reference, allow for key distribution robust against photon-number-splitting attacks.

The Effects of State Policy Design Features on Take-Up and Crowd-Out Rates for the Sate Children's Health Insurance Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bansak, Cynthia; Raphael, Steven

2007-01-01

We evaluate the effects of state policy design features on SCHIP take-up rates and on the degree to which SCHIP benefits crowd out private benefits. The results indicate overall program take-up rates of approximately 10 percent. However, there is considerable heterogeneity across states, suggesting a potential role of inter-state variation in…

Site-specific protein labeling with PRIME and chelation-assisted Click chemistry

PubMed Central

Uttamapinant, Chayasith; Sanchez, Mateo I.; Liu, Daniel S.; Yao, Jennifer Z.; White, Katharine A.; Grecian, Scott; Clarke, Scott; Gee, Kyle R.; Ting, Alice Y.

2016-01-01

This protocol describes an efficient method to site-specifically label cell-surface or purified proteins with chemical probes in two steps: PRobe Incorporation Mediated by Enzymes (PRIME) followed by chelation-assisted copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC). In the PRIME step, Escherichia coli lipoic acid ligase site-specifically attaches a picolyl azide derivative to a 13-amino acid recognition sequence that has been genetically fused onto the protein of interest. Proteins bearing picolyl azide are chemoselectively derivatized with an alkyne-probe conjugate by chelation-assisted CuAAC in the second step. We describe herein the optimized protocols to synthesize picolyl azide, perform PRIME labeling, and achieve CuAAC derivatization of picolyl azide on live cells, fixed cells, and purified proteins. Reagent preparations, including synthesis of picolyl azide probes and expression of lipoic acid ligase, take 12 d, while the procedure to perform site-specific picolyl azide ligation and CuAAC on cells or on purified proteins takes 40 min-3 h. PMID:23887180

77 FR 64320 - Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-19

... where they give birth to a single pup approximately 4- 5 days after arrival and will nurse pups for... intentional flushing if pups are present at the sampling site; and (8) rescheduling sampling if Steller sea...

77 FR 50990 - Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-08-23

... to a single pup approximately 4- 5 days after arrival and will nurse pups for about a week before... pinnipeds before close approach to avoid being seen by animals; and (7) rescheduling work at sites where...

Combining first-principles and data modeling for the accurate prediction of the refractive index of organic polymers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Afzal, Mohammad Atif Faiz; Cheng, Chong; Hachmann, Johannes

2018-06-01

Organic materials with a high index of refraction (RI) are attracting considerable interest due to their potential application in optic and optoelectronic devices. However, most of these applications require an RI value of 1.7 or larger, while typical carbon-based polymers only exhibit values in the range of 1.3-1.5. This paper introduces an efficient computational protocol for the accurate prediction of RI values in polymers to facilitate in silico studies that can guide the discovery and design of next-generation high-RI materials. Our protocol is based on the Lorentz-Lorenz equation and is parametrized by the polarizability and number density values of a given candidate compound. In the proposed scheme, we compute the former using first-principles electronic structure theory and the latter using an approximation based on van der Waals volumes. The critical parameter in the number density approximation is the packing fraction of the bulk polymer, for which we have devised a machine learning model. We demonstrate the performance of the proposed RI protocol by testing its predictions against the experimentally known RI values of 112 optical polymers. Our approach to combine first-principles and data modeling emerges as both a successful and a highly economical path to determining the RI values for a wide range of organic polymers.

SPAR: a security- and power-aware routing protocol for wireless ad hoc and sensor networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oberoi, Vikram; Chigan, Chunxiao

2005-05-01

Wireless Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks (WAHSNs) are vulnerable to extensive attacks as well as severe resource constraints. To fulfill the security needs, many security enhancements have been proposed. Like wise, from resource constraint perspective, many power aware schemes have been proposed to save the battery power. However, we observe that for the severely resource limited and extremely vulnerable WAHSNs, taking security or power (or any other resource) alone into consideration for protocol design is rather inadequate toward the truly "secure-and-useful" WAHSNs. For example, from resource constraint perspective, we identify one of the potential problems, the Security-Capable-Congestion (SCC) behavior, for the WAHSNs routing protocols where only the security are concerned. On the other hand, the design approach where only scarce resource is concerned, such as many power-aware WAHSNs protocols, leaves security unconsidered and is undesirable to many WAHSNs application scenarios. Motivated by these observations, we propose a co-design approach, where both the high security and effective resource consumption are targeted for WAHSNs protocol design. Specifically, we propose a novel routing protocol, Security- and Power- Aware Routing (SPAR) protocol based on this co-design approach. In SPAR, the routing decisions are made based on both security and power as routing criteria. The idea of the SPAR mechanism is routing protocol independent and therefore can be broadly integrated into any of the existing WAHSNs routing protocols. The simulation results show that SPAR outperforms the WAHSNs routing protocols where security or power alone is considered, significantly. This research finding demonstrates the proposed security- and resource- aware co-design approach is promising towards the truly "secure-and-useful" WAHSNs.

The effect of relational training on intelligence quotient: a case study.

PubMed

Vizcaíno-Torres, Rosa M; Ruiz, Francisco J; Luciano, Carmen; López-López, Juan C; Barbero-Rubio, Adrián; Gil, Enriquel

2015-01-01

Relational training protocols based on Relational Frame Theory (RFT) are showing promising results in increasing intelligence quotient. This case study aimed at analyzing the effect of a training protocol in fluency and flexibility in relational responding on intelligence quotient with a 4-year-old child. The child’s cognitive and psychomotor development was evaluated before and after the implementation of the training protocol using the McCarthy’s Aptitudes and Psychomotricity Scale (MSCA). The training protocol consisted of a multiple-exemplar-training (MET) in relational framing in accordance with COORDINATION (Phases 1 and 2), OPPOSITION (Phase 3 and 4), and COMPARISON (Phases 5 and 6). The MET protocol was implemented in approximately 12 hours throughout five and one half months. The training was effective in establishing relational responding in OPPOSITION and COMPARISON frames as well as in promoting fluency and flexibility in all the three types of trained relations. After this training, the child showed an increase above 1.5 SD in the General Cognitive Index of the MSCA (from 106 to 131). This case study adds further empirical evidence of the potential of RFT training to improve cognitive abilities and intelligence.

Protocol for audit of current Filipino practice in rehabilitation of stroke inpatients.

PubMed

Gonzalez-Suarez, Consuelo B; Dizon, Janine Margarita R; Grimmer, Karen; Estrada, Myrna S; Liao, Lauren Anne S; Malleta, Anne-Rochelle D; Tan, Ma Elena R; Marfil, Vero; Versales, Cristina S; Suarez, Jimah L; So, Kleon C; Uyehara, Edgardo D

2015-01-01

Stroke is one of the leading medical conditions in the Philippines. Over 500,000 Filipinos suffer from stroke annually. Provision of evidence-based medical and rehabilitation management for stroke patients has been a challenge due to existing environmental, social, and local health system issues. Thus, existing western guidelines on stroke rehabilitation were contextualized to draft recommendations relevant to the local Philippine setting. Prior to fully implementing the guidelines, an audit of current practice needs to be undertaken, thus the purpose of this audit protocol. A clinical audit of current practices in stroke rehabilitation in the Philippines will be undertaken. A consensus list of data items to be captured was identified by the audit team during a 2-day meeting in 2012. These items, including patient demographics, type of stroke, time to referral for rehabilitation management, length of hospital stay, and other relevant descriptors of stroke management were included as part of the audit. Hospitals in the Philippines will be recruited to take part in the audit activity. Recruitment will be via the registry of the Philippine Academy of Rehabilitation Medicine, where 90% of physiatrists (medical doctors specialized in rehabilitation medicine) are active members and are affiliated with various hospitals in the Philippines. Data collectors will be identified and trained in the audit process. A pilot audit will be conducted to test the feasibility of the audit protocol, and refinements to the protocol will be undertaken as necessary. The comprehensive audit process will take place for a period of 3 months. Data will be encoded using MS Excel(®). Data will be reported as means and percentages as appropriate. Subgroup analysis will be undertaken to look into differences and variability of stroke patient descriptors and rehabilitation activities. This audit study is an ambitious project, but given the "need" to conduct the audit to identify "gaps" in current practice, and the value it can bring to serve as a platform for implementation of evidence-based stroke management in the Philippines to achieve best patient and health outcomes, the audit team is more than ready to take up the challenge.

A privacy preserving protocol for tracking participants in phase I clinical trials.

PubMed

El Emam, Khaled; Farah, Hanna; Samet, Saeed; Essex, Aleksander; Jonker, Elizabeth; Kantarcioglu, Murat; Earle, Craig C

2015-10-01

Some phase 1 clinical trials offer strong financial incentives for healthy individuals to participate in their studies. There is evidence that some individuals enroll in multiple trials concurrently. This creates safety risks and introduces data quality problems into the trials. Our objective was to construct a privacy preserving protocol to track phase 1 participants to detect concurrent enrollment. A protocol using secure probabilistic querying against a database of trial participants that allows for screening during telephone interviews and on-site enrollment was developed. The match variables consisted of demographic information. The accuracy (sensitivity, precision, and negative predictive value) of the matching and its computational performance in seconds were measured under simulated environments. Accuracy was also compared to non-secure matching methods. The protocol performance scales linearly with the database size. At the largest database size of 20,000 participants, a query takes under 20s on a 64 cores machine. Sensitivity, precision, and negative predictive value of the queries were consistently at or above 0.9, and were very similar to non-secure versions of the protocol. The protocol provides a reasonable solution to the concurrent enrollment problems in phase 1 clinical trials, and is able to ensure that personal information about participants is kept secure. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Measurement properties of maximal cardiopulmonary exercise tests protocols in persons after stroke: A systematic review.

PubMed

Wittink, Harriet; Verschuren, Olaf; Terwee, Caroline; de Groot, Janke; Kwakkel, Gert; van de Port, Ingrid

2017-11-21

To systematically review and critically appraise the literature on measurement properties of cardiopulmonary exercise test protocols for measuring aerobic capacity, VO2max, in persons after stroke. PubMed, Embase and Cinahl were searched from inception up to 15 June 2016. A total of 9 studies were identified reporting on 9 different cardiopulmonary exercise test protocols. VO2max measured with cardiopulmonary exercise test and open spirometry was the construct of interest. The target population was adult persons after stroke. We included all studies that evaluated reliability, measurement error, criterion validity, content validity, hypothesis testing and/or responsiveness of cardiopulmonary exercise test protocols. Two researchers independently screened the literature, assessed methodological quality using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments checklist and extracted data on measurement properties of cardiopulmonary exercise test protocols. Most studies reported on only one measurement property. Best-evidence synthesis was derived taking into account the methodological quality of the studies, the results and the consistency of the results. No judgement could be made on which protocol is "best" for measuring VO2max in persons after stroke due to lack of high-quality studies on the measurement properties of the cardiopulmonary exercise test.

Self-referenced continuous-variable quantum key distribution protocol

DOE PAGES

Soh, Daniel Beom Soo; Sarovar, Mohan; Brif, Constantin; ...

2015-10-21

We introduce a new continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) protocol, self-referenced CV-QKD, that eliminates the need for transmission of a high-power local oscillator between the communicating parties. In this protocol, each signal pulse is accompanied by a reference pulse (or a pair of twin reference pulses), used to align Alice’s and Bob’s measurement bases. The method of phase estimation and compensation based on the reference pulse measurement can be viewed as a quantum analog of intradyne detection used in classical coherent communication, which extracts the phase information from the modulated signal. We present a proof-of-principle, fiber-based experimental demonstration of themore » protocol and quantify the expected secret key rates by expressing them in terms of experimental parameters. Our analysis of the secret key rate fully takes into account the inherent uncertainty associated with the quantum nature of the reference pulse(s) and quantifies the limit at which the theoretical key rate approaches that of the respective conventional protocol that requires local oscillator transmission. The self-referenced protocol greatly simplifies the hardware required for CV-QKD, especially for potential integrated photonics implementations of transmitters and receivers, with minimum sacrifice of performance. Furthermore, it provides a pathway towards scalable integrated CV-QKD transceivers, a vital step towards large-scale QKD networks.« less

Self-referenced continuous-variable quantum key distribution protocol

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

Soh, Daniel Beom Soo; Sarovar, Mohan; Brif, Constantin

We introduce a new continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) protocol, self-referenced CV-QKD, that eliminates the need for transmission of a high-power local oscillator between the communicating parties. In this protocol, each signal pulse is accompanied by a reference pulse (or a pair of twin reference pulses), used to align Alice’s and Bob’s measurement bases. The method of phase estimation and compensation based on the reference pulse measurement can be viewed as a quantum analog of intradyne detection used in classical coherent communication, which extracts the phase information from the modulated signal. We present a proof-of-principle, fiber-based experimental demonstration of themore » protocol and quantify the expected secret key rates by expressing them in terms of experimental parameters. Our analysis of the secret key rate fully takes into account the inherent uncertainty associated with the quantum nature of the reference pulse(s) and quantifies the limit at which the theoretical key rate approaches that of the respective conventional protocol that requires local oscillator transmission. The self-referenced protocol greatly simplifies the hardware required for CV-QKD, especially for potential integrated photonics implementations of transmitters and receivers, with minimum sacrifice of performance. Furthermore, it provides a pathway towards scalable integrated CV-QKD transceivers, a vital step towards large-scale QKD networks.« less

Self-Referenced Continuous-Variable Quantum Key Distribution Protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soh, Daniel B. S.; Brif, Constantin; Coles, Patrick J.; Lütkenhaus, Norbert; Camacho, Ryan M.; Urayama, Junji; Sarovar, Mohan

2015-10-01

We introduce a new continuous-variable quantum key distribution (CV-QKD) protocol, self-referenced CV-QKD, that eliminates the need for transmission of a high-power local oscillator between the communicating parties. In this protocol, each signal pulse is accompanied by a reference pulse (or a pair of twin reference pulses), used to align Alice's and Bob's measurement bases. The method of phase estimation and compensation based on the reference pulse measurement can be viewed as a quantum analog of intradyne detection used in classical coherent communication, which extracts the phase information from the modulated signal. We present a proof-of-principle, fiber-based experimental demonstration of the protocol and quantify the expected secret key rates by expressing them in terms of experimental parameters. Our analysis of the secret key rate fully takes into account the inherent uncertainty associated with the quantum nature of the reference pulse(s) and quantifies the limit at which the theoretical key rate approaches that of the respective conventional protocol that requires local oscillator transmission. The self-referenced protocol greatly simplifies the hardware required for CV-QKD, especially for potential integrated photonics implementations of transmitters and receivers, with minimum sacrifice of performance. As such, it provides a pathway towards scalable integrated CV-QKD transceivers, a vital step towards large-scale QKD networks.

BPTAP: A New Approach to IP over DTN

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tsao, Philip; Nguyen, Sam

2012-01-01

Traditional Internet protocols have been widely deployed for a variety of applications. However such protocols generally perform poorly in situations in which, round trip delays are very large (interplanetary distances) or . persistent connectivity is not always available (widely dispersed MANET). Delay/Disruption Tolerant Network (DTN) technology was invented to address these issues: (1) . Relay nodes "take custody" of blocks of network traffic on a hop-by -hop basis and retransmit them in cases of expected or unexpected link outage (2) Bundle lifetime may be configured for long round trip light times. BPTAP is novel by encapsulating Ethernet frames in BP

A protocol for preparing, characterizing and using three RNA-specific, live cell imaging probes: E36, E144 and F22.

PubMed

Li, Qian; Chang, Young-Tae

2006-01-01

This protocol outlines a methodology for the preparation and characterization of three RNA-specific fluorescent probes (E36, E144 and F22) and their use in live cell imaging. It describes a detailed procedure for their chemical synthesis and purification; serial product characterization and quality control tests, including measurements of their fluorescence properties in solution, measurement of RNA specificity and analysis of cellular toxicity; and live cell staining and counterstaining with Hoechst or DAPI. Preparation and application of these RNA imaging probes takes 1 week.

Transcranial direct current stimulation improves neurorehabilitation of task-specific dystonia: a pilot study.

PubMed

Rosset-Llobet, Jaume; Fàbregas-Molas, Sílvia; Pascual-Leone, Alvaro

2014-03-01

Sensory-motor returning (SMR) can help the symptoms of task-specific focal hand dystonia. However, effects vary across patients and take many sessions. Here, we present proof of principle evidence that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can enhance these effects. We compared the effects of a combined tDCS-SMR protocol (n=4 patients) with the efficacy of SMR alone (n=30 patients). All 4 patients treated with the combined protocol showed greater improvement than those undergoing SMR alone. Results encourage a larger, parallel-group clinical trial with sham tDCS control.

Geochemical and mineralogical data for soils of the conterminous United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Smith, David B.; Cannon, William F.; Woodruff, Laurel G.; Solano, Federico; Kilburn, James E.; Fey, David L.

2013-01-01

In 2007, the U.S. Geological Survey initiated a low-density (1 site per 1,600 square kilometers, 4,857 sites) geochemical and mineralogical survey of soils of the conterminous United States as part of the North American Soil Geochemical Landscapes Project. Sampling and analytical protocols were developed at a workshop in 2003, and pilot studies were conducted from 2004 to 2007 to test and refine these recommended protocols. The final sampling protocol for the national-scale survey included, at each site, a sample from a depth of 0 to 5 centimeters, a composite of the soil A horizon, and a deeper sample from the soil C horizon or, if the top of the C horizon was at a depth greater than 1 meter, from a depth of approximately 80–100 centimeters. The <2-millimeter fraction of each sample was analyzed for a suite of 45 major and trace elements by methods that yield the total or near-total elemental content. The major mineralogical components in the samples from the soil A and C horizons were determined by a quantitative X-ray diffraction method using Rietveld refinement. Sampling in the conterminous United States was completed in 2010, with chemical and mineralogical analyses completed in May 2013. The resulting dataset provides an estimate of the abundance and spatial distribution of chemical elements and minerals in soils of the conterminous United States and represents a baseline for soil geochemistry and mineralogy against which future changes may be recognized and quantified. This report (1) describes the sampling, sample preparation, and analytical methods used; (2) gives details of the quality control protocols used to monitor the quality of chemical and mineralogical analyses over approximately six years; and (3) makes available the soil geochemical and mineralogical data in downloadable tables.

Association of 1-y changes in diet pattern with cardiovascular disease risk factors and adipokines: results from the 1-y randomized Oslo Diet and Exercise Study.

PubMed

Jacobs, David R; Sluik, Diewertje; Rokling-Andersen, Merethe H; Anderssen, Sigmund A; Drevon, Christian A

2009-02-01

We hypothesized that favorable changes in dietary patterns would lead to a reduction in body size and an improvement in metabolic status. The objective was to study changes in diet patterns relative to changes in body size, blood pressure, and circulating concentrations of lipids, glucose, insulin, adiponectin, and other cytokines in the context of a 1-y randomized intervention study. For 1 y, 187 men aged 45 +/- 2 y, approximately 50% of whom met the criteria of the metabolic syndrome, were randomly assigned to a diet protocol (n = 45), an exercise protocol (n = 48), a protocol of diet plus exercise (n = 58), or a control protocol (n = 36). A previously defined a priori diet score was created by summing tertile rankings of 35 food group variables; a higher score generally reflected recommended dietary changes in the trial (mean +/- SD at baseline: 31 +/- 6.5; range: 15-47). Over the study year, the diet score increased by approximately 2 +/- 5.5 in both diet groups, with a decrease of an equivalent amount in the exercise and control groups. The weight change was -3.5 +/- 0.6 kg/10-point change in diet score (P < 0.0001), similarly within each intervention group, independently of the change in energy intake or baseline age and smoking status. Weight change was attenuated but remained significant after adjustment for intervention group and percentage body fat. Subjects with an increased diet score had more favorable changes in other body size variables, systolic blood pressure, and blood lipid, glucose, insulin, and adiponectin concentrations. Change in diet score was unrelated to resistin and several cytokines. The change toward a more favorable diet pattern was associated with improved body size and metabolic profile.

Approximate Synchrony: An Abstraction for Distributed Almost Synchronous Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-05-29

finding bugs. Verification of the TSCH Protocol. Time Synchronized Channel Hopping (TSCH) is a Medium Access Control scheme that enables low power...allotted by the schedule and remain in sleep mode otherwise. In the ab- sence of precise time-synchronization, the time-slots across nodes would not be

Introducing a new methodology for the calculation of local philicity and multiphilic descriptor: an alternative to the finite difference approximation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sánchez-Márquez, Jesús; Zorrilla, David; García, Víctor; Fernández, Manuel

2018-07-01

This work presents a new development based on the condensation scheme proposed by Chamorro and Pérez, in which new terms to correct the frozen molecular orbital approximation have been introduced (improved frontier molecular orbital approximation). The changes performed on the original development allow taking into account the orbital relaxation effects, providing equivalent results to those achieved by the finite difference approximation and leading also to a methodology with great advantages. Local reactivity indices based on this new development have been obtained for a sample set of molecules and they have been compared with those indices based on the frontier molecular orbital and finite difference approximations. A new definition based on the improved frontier molecular orbital methodology for the dual descriptor index is also shown. In addition, taking advantage of the characteristics of the definitions obtained with the new condensation scheme, the descriptor local philicity is analysed by separating the components corresponding to the frontier molecular orbital approximation and orbital relaxation effects, analysing also the local parameter multiphilic descriptor in the same way. Finally, the effect of using the basis set is studied and calculations using DFT, CI and Möller-Plesset methodologies are performed to analyse the consequence of different electronic-correlation levels.

Solid-phase proximity ligation assays for individual or parallel protein analyses with readout via real-time PCR or sequencing.

PubMed

Nong, Rachel Yuan; Wu, Di; Yan, Junhong; Hammond, Maria; Gu, Gucci Jijuan; Kamali-Moghaddam, Masood; Landegren, Ulf; Darmanis, Spyros

2013-06-01

Solid-phase proximity ligation assays share properties with the classical sandwich immunoassays for protein detection. The proteins captured via antibodies on solid supports are, however, detected not by single antibodies with detectable functions, but by pairs of antibodies with attached DNA strands. Upon recognition by these sets of three antibodies, pairs of DNA strands brought in proximity are joined by ligation. The ligated reporter DNA strands are then detected via methods such as real-time PCR or next-generation sequencing (NGS). We describe how to construct assays that can offer improved detection specificity by virtue of recognition by three antibodies, as well as enhanced sensitivity owing to reduced background and amplified detection. Finally, we also illustrate how the assays can be applied for parallel detection of proteins, taking advantage of the oligonucleotide ligation step to avoid background problems that might arise with multiplexing. The protocol for the singleplex solid-phase proximity ligation assay takes ~5 h. The multiplex version of the assay takes 7-8 h depending on whether quantitative PCR (qPCR) or sequencing is used as the readout. The time for the sequencing-based protocol includes the library preparation but not the actual sequencing, as times may vary based on the choice of sequencing platform.

Real-Time Multimedia on the Internet: What Will It Take?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sodergren, Mike

1998-01-01

Considers the requirements for real-time, interactive multimedia over the Internet. Topics include demand for interactivity; new pricing models for Internet service; knowledgeable suppliers; consumer education on standards; enhanced infrastructure, including bandwidth; and new technology, including RSVP, and end-to-end Internet-working protocol.…

Clinical Investigation Program: Annual Progress Report

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-09-30

Academy of Surgical Research, Chicago, Illinois; Yucatan Miniature Swine as a Model System for the Studyt of Vocal Fold Vibratory Function; 6th Annual...34(14)e". (15) Study Objective: Compare two enteral formulas in respect to nutritional aspects. (16) Technical Approach: Protocol will take place in

Microwave Processing of Crowns from Winter Cereals for Light Microscopy.

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Microwave processing of tissue considerably shortens the time it takes to prepare samples for light and electron microscopy. However, plant tissues from different species and different regions of the plant respond differently making it impossible to use a single protocol for all plant tissue. The ...

Technical Committee on Aricultural Chemical Safety (ACSA) Life Stages Task Force

EPA Science Inventory

This document takes a life stages approach to the assessment of risk attributable to crop protection products, and well-known experts in the field are contributing authors. The paper presents an in-depth justification for proposed changes in current protocols for toxicity testing...

An Interpersonal Approach to Writing Negative Messages.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salerno, Douglas

1988-01-01

Asserts that textbook advice regarding buffers and negative messages is simplistic and frequently wrong, and analyses 22 job-refusal letters and their effectiveness. Claims that recent research on cognitive complexity and social perspective-taking suggests the need for more sophisticated audience analysis protocols for dealing with the negative…

Design of a short nonuniform acquisition protocol for quantitative analysis in dynamic cardiac SPECT imaging - a retrospective 123 I-MIBG animal study.

PubMed

Zan, Yunlong; Long, Yong; Chen, Kewei; Li, Biao; Huang, Qiu; Gullberg, Grant T

2017-07-01

Our previous works have found that quantitative analysis of 123 I-MIBG kinetics in the rat heart with dynamic single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) offers the potential to quantify the innervation integrity at an early stage of left ventricular hypertrophy. However, conventional protocols involving a long acquisition time for dynamic imaging reduce the animal survival rate and thus make longitudinal analysis difficult. The goal of this work was to develop a procedure to reduce the total acquisition time by selecting nonuniform acquisition times for projection views while maintaining the accuracy and precision of estimated physiologic parameters. Taking dynamic cardiac imaging with 123 I-MIBG in rats as an example, we generated time activity curves (TACs) of regions of interest (ROIs) as ground truths based on a direct four-dimensional reconstruction of experimental data acquired from a rotating SPECT camera, where TACs represented as the coefficients of B-spline basis functions were used to estimate compartmental model parameters. By iteratively adjusting the knots (i.e., control points) of B-spline basis functions, new TACs were created according to two rules: accuracy and precision. The accuracy criterion allocates the knots to achieve low relative entropy between the estimated left ventricular blood pool TAC and its ground truth so that the estimated input function approximates its real value and thus the procedure yields an accurate estimate of model parameters. The precision criterion, via the D-optimal method, forces the estimated parameters to be as precise as possible, with minimum variances. Based on the final knots obtained, a new protocol of 30 min was built with a shorter acquisition time that maintained a 5% error in estimating rate constants of the compartment model. This was evaluated through digital simulations. The simulation results showed that our method was able to reduce the acquisition time from 100 to 30 min for the cardiac study of rats with 123 I-MIBG. Compared to a uniform interval dynamic SPECT protocol (1 s acquisition interval, 30 min acquisition time), the newly proposed protocol with nonuniform interval achieved comparable (K1 and k2, P = 0.5745 for K1 and P = 0.0604 for k2) or better (Distribution Volume, DV, P = 0.0004) performance for parameter estimates with less storage and shorter computational time. In this study, a procedure was devised to shorten the acquisition time while maintaining the accuracy and precision of estimated physiologic parameters in dynamic SPECT imaging. The procedure was designed for 123 I-MIBG cardiac imaging in rat studies; however, it has the potential to be extended to other applications, including patient studies involving the acquisition of dynamic SPECT data. © 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Objective and automated protocols for the evaluation of biomedical search engines using No Title Evaluation protocols.

PubMed

Campagne, Fabien

2008-02-29

The evaluation of information retrieval techniques has traditionally relied on human judges to determine which documents are relevant to a query and which are not. This protocol is used in the Text Retrieval Evaluation Conference (TREC), organized annually for the past 15 years, to support the unbiased evaluation of novel information retrieval approaches. The TREC Genomics Track has recently been introduced to measure the performance of information retrieval for biomedical applications. We describe two protocols for evaluating biomedical information retrieval techniques without human relevance judgments. We call these protocols No Title Evaluation (NT Evaluation). The first protocol measures performance for focused searches, where only one relevant document exists for each query. The second protocol measures performance for queries expected to have potentially many relevant documents per query (high-recall searches). Both protocols take advantage of the clear separation of titles and abstracts found in Medline. We compare the performance obtained with these evaluation protocols to results obtained by reusing the relevance judgments produced in the 2004 and 2005 TREC Genomics Track and observe significant correlations between performance rankings generated by our approach and TREC. Spearman's correlation coefficients in the range of 0.79-0.92 are observed comparing bpref measured with NT Evaluation or with TREC evaluations. For comparison, coefficients in the range 0.86-0.94 can be observed when evaluating the same set of methods with data from two independent TREC Genomics Track evaluations. We discuss the advantages of NT Evaluation over the TRels and the data fusion evaluation protocols introduced recently. Our results suggest that the NT Evaluation protocols described here could be used to optimize some search engine parameters before human evaluation. Further research is needed to determine if NT Evaluation or variants of these protocols can fully substitute for human evaluations.

QoS and energy aware cooperative routing protocol for wildfire monitoring wireless sensor networks.

PubMed

Maalej, Mohamed; Cherif, Sofiane; Besbes, Hichem

2013-01-01

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are presented as proper solution for wildfire monitoring. However, this application requires a design of WSN taking into account the network lifetime and the shadowing effect generated by the trees in the forest environment. Cooperative communication is a promising solution for WSN which uses, at each hop, the resources of multiple nodes to transmit its data. Thus, by sharing resources between nodes, the transmission quality is enhanced. In this paper, we use the technique of reinforcement learning by opponent modeling, optimizing a cooperative communication protocol based on RSSI and node energy consumption in a competitive context (RSSI/energy-CC), that is, an energy and quality-of-service aware-based cooperative communication routing protocol. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm performs well in terms of network lifetime, packet delay, and energy consumption.

Tolerance - One Transplant for Life

PubMed Central

Kawai, Tatsuo; Leventhal, Joseph; Madsen, Joren C.; Strober, Samuel; Turka, Laurence A.; Wood, Kathryn J.

2014-01-01

A recent TTS workshop was convened to address the question: “What do we need to have in place to make tolerance induction protocols a “standard of care” for organ transplant recipients over the next decade?” In a productive two day meeting there was wide-ranging discussion on a broad series of topics resulting in five consensus recommendations: (1) Establish a registry of results for patients enrolled in tolerance trials; (2) Establish standardized protocols for sample collection and storage; (3) Establish standardized biomarkers and assays; (4) Include children aged 12 and older in protocols that have been validated in adults; (5) a task force to engage third party payers in discussions of how to fund tolerance trials. Future planned workshops will focus on progress in implementing these recommendations and identifying other steps that the community needs to take. PMID:24926829

[Theory of Mind in a child with autism: how to train her?].

PubMed

Martín García, María J; Gómez Becerra, Inmaculada; Garro Espín, María J

2012-11-01

Theory of Mind is a metacognitive skill that, in many cases, is deficient in autism. In this paper, we present a clinical study conducted with a child diagnosed with autism, which verifies the effectiveness of a training protocol testing false beliefs, which has been considered to measure the Theory of Mind. Basically, the protocol incorporates a number of verbal prompts (such as emphasizing the elements of the narratives that indicate situational or temporary changes), trains many examples, extending the tests incorporating some games with more familiar objects from the child's daily life, applies differential contingencies to discriminate right from wrong in each child's responses and provides descriptive feedback. The results show that the training protocol achieved the highest level of correct trials and the child generalizes the ability to take the perspective of her natural context.

Resource Utilization After Snakebite Severity Score Implementation into Treatment Algorithm of Crotaline Bite.

PubMed

Fowler, Amanda L; Hughes, Darrel W; Muir, Mark T; VanWert, Elizabeth M; Gamboa, Conrado D; Myers, John G

2017-12-01

Crotaline envenomation clinical manifestations vary considerably among patients. Current recommendations for treatment with Crotalidae polyvalent immune Fab require assessment of envenomation control. Determining control of envenomation, particularly when patients are evaluated by different providers in separate clinical settings, can be difficult. To determine if a difference in total vials of Crotalidae antivenin therapy exists between pre-protocol and post-Snakebite Severity Score (SSS) protocol. Retrospective medical record review at an academic medical and regional Level I trauma center. Resource utilization in patients with a diagnosis of "snakebite" was compared between patients treated pre- and post-SSS protocol implementation. One hundred forty-six patients were included in the evaluation. One hundred twenty-seven (87.0%) patients received antivenin, n = 80 (90.9%) in the pre-protocol group and n = 47 (81.0%) in the post-protocol group. Median total number of antivenin vials per patient was lower in the post-protocol group than the pre-protocol group, 16 (10-24 interquartile range) vs. 12 (10-16 interquartile range), p = 0.006. This decreased utilization correlates to an approximate $13,200 savings per patient. Hospital and intensive care unit length of stay, opioid use, incidence of blood product transfusion, need for surgical intervention, or need for intubation were not different between groups. A snakebite protocol with SSS utilization to guide antivenin administration results in significantly decreased antivenin therapy in snakebite patients without increase in other health care utilization. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Histologic findings in protocol biopsies performed in stable renal allografts under different immunosuppressive schedules.

PubMed

Moreso, F; Alperovich, G; Fulladosa, X; Gil-Vernet, S; Ibernon, M; Carrera, M; Castelao, A M; Hueso, M; Grinyo, J M; Serón, D

2003-08-01

Protocol biopsies performed in stable renal allografts show different degrees of acute and chronic lesions. Histologic findings in protocol biopsies have been related to graft outcome. We evaluated histologic lesions observed in protocol biopsies performed in patients under different immunosuppression therapies. From June 1988 a protocol biopsy was performed at approximately 4 months in patients who fulfilled the following criteria: serum creatinine <300 micromol/L; stable renal function; and proteinuria <1 g/d. Histologic lesions were graded according to 1997 Banff criteria. For the present study we considered the following groups according to immunosuppressive schedule: (i) induction therapy with polyclonal or monoclonal antilymphocytic antibodies associated with cyclosporine and prednisone (n=201); (ii) cyclosporine, mycophenolate mofetil, and prednisone (n=127); and (iii) tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil, and prednisone (n=51). On protocol biopsy patients treated with tacrolimus displayed a lower acute score (0.61+/-1.01 vs 1.24+/-1.23 in group I, 1.28+/-1.41 in group II; P<.0001) and a higher proportion of normal biopsies (57.1% vs 41.9% in group I, 45.1% in group II; P=.016). A similar proportion of chronic lesions (chronic score of group I: 1.30+/-1.56; group II: 1.34+/-1.80; group III: 1.51+/-0.95; P=NS) was observed in the three groups. Protocol biopsies displayed fewer acute lesions in patients treated with tacrolimus. This result suggests that the efficacy of new immunosuppression schedules can be evaluated using the protocol biopsy as a surrogate marker of graft outcome.

A new amperometric glucose microsensor: in vitro and short-term in vivo evaluation.

PubMed

Ward, W Kenneth; Jansen, Lawrence B; Anderson, Ellen; Reach, Gerard; Klein, Jean-Claude; Wilson, George S

2002-03-01

For biosensor fabrication, it is important to optimize materials and methods in order to create predictable function in vitro and in vivo. For this reason, we designed a new glucose sensor ('revised protocol') that utilized an outer permselective membrane made of amphiphobic polyurethane which allows glucose passage through hydrophilic segments. An inner polyethersulfone membrane, stabilized with a trimethoxysilane, provided specificity. Before application of the inner membrane, it was necessary to etch the platinum electrode with a radio frequency oxygen plasma. The revised protocol sensors (n=185) were compared with sensors fabricated with an earlier ('original') protocol (n=204) which used an outer polyurethane without hydrophilic segments and a complex inner membrane of cellulose acetate and Nafion. The function of revised protocol sensors was more predictable in vitro as evidenced by a much lower variation of glucose sensitivity than the original protocol sensors. Revised and original protocol sensors were nearly linear up to a glucose concentration of 20 mM. In vitro interference from 0.1 mM acetaminophen was minimal in both groups of sensors and would be expected to represent about 2% of the total sensor response at normal glucose levels for revised protocol sensors. Prolonged testing of the revised protocol sensors for 11 days during immersion in buffer revealed stable sensitivities (day 1: 6.12+/-1.34 nA/mM; day 3: 6.33+/-1.40; day 8: 7.13+/-1.39; and day 11: 7.56+/-1.47; sensitivity for day 1 vs. each other day: not significant) and no critical loss of glucose oxidase activity. The response of the revised protocol sensors (n=7) to intraperitoneal glucose was tested in rats approximately one day after subcutaneous implantation and the sensors tracked glucose closely with a slight lag of 3-6 min.

A Novel Cross-Layer Routing Protocol Based on Network Coding for Underwater Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Wang, Hao; Wang, Shilian; Bu, Renfei; Zhang, Eryang

2017-01-01

Underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) have attracted increasing attention in recent years because of their numerous applications in ocean monitoring, resource discovery and tactical surveillance. However, the design of reliable and efficient transmission and routing protocols is a challenge due to the low acoustic propagation speed and complex channel environment in UWSNs. In this paper, we propose a novel cross-layer routing protocol based on network coding (NCRP) for UWSNs, which utilizes network coding and cross-layer design to greedily forward data packets to sink nodes efficiently. The proposed NCRP takes full advantages of multicast transmission and decode packets jointly with encoded packets received from multiple potential nodes in the entire network. The transmission power is optimized in our design to extend the life cycle of the network. Moreover, we design a real-time routing maintenance protocol to update the route when detecting inefficient relay nodes. Substantial simulations in underwater environment by Network Simulator 3 (NS-3) show that NCRP significantly improves the network performance in terms of energy consumption, end-to-end delay and packet delivery ratio compared with other routing protocols for UWSNs. PMID:28786915

PROTOCOL TO EVALUATE THE MOISTURE DURABILITY OF ENERGY-EFFICIENT WALLS

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

Boudreaux, Philip R; Pallin, Simon B; Hun, Diana E

Walls account for about 8% of the energy used in residential buildings. This energy penalty can be reduced with higher insulation levels and increased airtightness. However, these measures can compromise the moisture durability and long-term performance of wall assemblies because they can lead to lower moisture tolerance due to reduced drying potential. To avert these problems, a moisture durability protocol was developed to evaluate the probability that an energy-efficient wall design will experience mold growth. This protocol examines the effects of moisture sources in walls through a combination of simulations and lab experiments, uses the mold growth index as themore » moisture durability indicator, and is based on a probabilistic approach that utilizes stochastically varying input parameters. The simulation tools used include a new validated method for taking into account the effects of air leakage in wall assemblies This paper provides an overview of the developed protocol, discussion of the probabilistic simulation approach and describes results from the evaluation of two wall assemblies in Climate Zones 2, 4, and 6. The protocol will be used to supply builders with wall designs that are energy efficient, moisture durable and cost-effective.« less

Reynolds number effects on mixing due to topological chaos.

PubMed

Smith, Spencer A; Warrier, Sangeeta

2016-03-01

Topological chaos has emerged as a powerful tool to investigate fluid mixing. While this theory can guarantee a lower bound on the stretching rate of certain material lines, it does not indicate what fraction of the fluid actually participates in this minimally mandated mixing. Indeed, the area in which effective mixing takes place depends on physical parameters such as the Reynolds number. To help clarify this dependency, we numerically simulate the effects of a batch stirring device on a 2D incompressible Newtonian fluid in the laminar regime. In particular, we calculate the finite time Lyapunov exponent (FTLE) field for three different stirring protocols, one topologically complex (pseudo-Anosov) and two simple (finite-order), over a range of viscosities. After extracting appropriate measures indicative of both the amount of mixing and the area of effective mixing from the FTLE field, we see a clearly defined Reynolds number range in which the relative efficacy of the pseudo-Anosov protocol over the finite-order protocols justifies the application of topological chaos. More unexpectedly, we see that while the measures of effective mixing area increase with increasing Reynolds number for the finite-order protocols, they actually exhibit non-monotonic behavior for the pseudo-Anosov protocol.

A report on IPv6 deployment activities and issues at Sandia National Laboratories:FY2007.

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

Tolendino, Lawrence F.; Eldridge, John M.; Hu, Tan Chang

2007-06-01

Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) has been a mainstay of the both the Internet and corporate networks for delivering network packets to the desired destination. However, rapid proliferation of network appliances, evolution of corporate networks, and the expanding Internet has begun to stress the limitations of the protocol. Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the replacement protocol that overcomes the constraints of IPv4. As the emerging Internet network protocol, SNL needs to prepare for its eventual deployment in international, national, customer, and local networks. Additionally, the United States Office of Management and Budget has mandated that IPv6 deployment in governmentmore » network backbones occurs by 2008. This paper explores the readiness of the Sandia National Laboratories network backbone to support IPv6, the issues that must be addressed before a deployment begins, and recommends the next steps to take to comply with government mandates. The paper describes a joint work effort of the Sandia National Laboratories ASC WAN project team and members of the System Analysis & Trouble Resolution, the Communication & Network Systems, and Network System Design & Implementation Departments.« less

Brain Games as a Potential Nonpharmaceutical Alternative for the Treatment of ADHD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wegrzyn, Stacy C.; Hearrington, Doug; Martin, Tim; Randolph, Adriane B.

2013-01-01

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most commonly diagnosed childhood neurobehavioral disorder, affecting approximately 5.5 million children, of which approximately 66% take ADHD medication daily. This study investigated a potential nonpharmaceutical alternative to address the academic engagement of 5th through 11th grade…

A first-approximation urban-air-quality indicator

Treesearch

David M. Paproski; Julian R. Walker

1977-01-01

Development of the first-approximation-urban-air-quality indicator was reported by the Economic Council of Canada. The indicator takes account of ambient concentrations of five pollutants: sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and total oxidants. Epidemiological evidence indicating the potential impact of these pollutants on human...

76 FR 52696 - Paperwork Reduction Act; Proposed Collection; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-23

... approximately five hours, and each CCT report will take approximately one hour to complete. Face to face...: The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) intends to submit the following information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget for review and approval under the Paperwork...

76 FR 15007 - Proposed Collection; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-18

... filling out the form is approximately one hour per response and would likely be completed by an accountant... that it should take approximately one hour for an accountant or other professional to complete the form... past conversations with representatives of SBICs and accountants that have filed the form. \\3...

76 FR 12751 - Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Receipt of Applications for Incidental Take...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-08

...] Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Receipt of Applications for Incidental Take Permits... coerulescens) (scrub- jay) breeding, feeding, and sheltering habitat incidental to land preparation for the... approximately 1.75 acres (0.71 hectares (ha)) of scrub-jay breeding, feeding, and sheltering habitat incidental...

Mars Micro-Meteorology Station Electronic Design, Assembly and Test Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Twiggs, Robert J.; Merrihew, Seven; Engberg, Brian; Hicks, Michael; Tillier, Clemens

1996-01-01

The Micro-Met mission is a micro-meteorological experiment for Mars designed to take globally distributed pressure measurements for at least one martian year. A series of 16 landers equally spaced over the planet's surface will take pressure and temperature data and relay it to investigators on Earth. Measurements will be logged once every hour and transmitted to an orbiter once every thirty days using Mars Balloon Relay protocol. Micro-Met data will aid tremendously in the development and refinement of a global model of Martian weather.

Analyzing multiple data sets by interconnecting RSAT programs via SOAP Web services: an example with ChIP-chip data.

PubMed

Sand, Olivier; Thomas-Chollier, Morgane; Vervisch, Eric; van Helden, Jacques

2008-01-01

This protocol shows how to access the Regulatory Sequence Analysis Tools (RSAT) via a programmatic interface in order to automate the analysis of multiple data sets. We describe the steps for writing a Perl client that connects to the RSAT Web services and implements a workflow to discover putative cis-acting elements in promoters of gene clusters. In the presented example, we apply this workflow to lists of transcription factor target genes resulting from ChIP-chip experiments. For each factor, the protocol predicts the binding motifs by detecting significantly overrepresented hexanucleotides in the target promoters and generates a feature map that displays the positions of putative binding sites along the promoter sequences. This protocol is addressed to bioinformaticians and biologists with programming skills (notions of Perl). Running time is approximately 6 min on the example data set.

Detection of single-copy functional genes in prokaryotic cells by two-pass TSA-FISH with polynucleotide probes.

PubMed

Kawakami, Shuji; Hasegawa, Takuya; Imachi, Hiroyuki; Yamaguchi, Takashi; Harada, Hideki; Ohashi, Akiyoshi; Kubota, Kengo

2012-02-01

In situ detection of functional genes with single-cell resolution is currently of interest to microbiologists. Here, we developed a two-pass tyramide signal amplification (TSA)-fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) protocol with PCR-derived polynucleotide probes for the detection of single-copy genes in prokaryotic cells. The mcrA gene and the apsA gene in methanogens and sulfate-reducing bacteria, respectively, were targeted. The protocol showed bright fluorescence with a good signal-to-noise ratio and achieved a high efficiency of detection (>98%). The discrimination threshold was approximately 82-89% sequence identity. Microorganisms possessing the mcrA or apsA gene in anaerobic sludge samples were successfully detected by two-pass TSA-FISH with polynucleotide probes. The developed protocol is useful for identifying single microbial cells based on functional gene sequences. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Laboratory procedures to generate viral metagenomes.

PubMed

Thurber, Rebecca V; Haynes, Matthew; Breitbart, Mya; Wegley, Linda; Rohwer, Forest

2009-01-01

This collection of laboratory protocols describes the steps to collect viruses from various samples with the specific aim of generating viral metagenome sequence libraries (viromes). Viral metagenomics, the study of uncultured viral nucleic acid sequences from different biomes, relies on several concentration, purification, extraction, sequencing and heuristic bioinformatic methods. No single technique can provide an all-inclusive approach, and therefore the protocols presented here will be discussed in terms of hypothetical projects. However, care must be taken to individualize each step depending on the source and type of viral-particles. This protocol is a description of the processes we have successfully used to: (i) concentrate viral particles from various types of samples, (ii) eliminate contaminating cells and free nucleic acids and (iii) extract, amplify and purify viral nucleic acids. Overall, a sample can be processed to isolate viral nucleic acids suitable for high-throughput sequencing in approximately 1 week.

Coherent-pulse implementations of quantum cryptography protocols resistant to photon-number-splitting attacks

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

Acin, Antonio; Gisin, Nicolas; Scarani, Valerio

2004-01-01

We propose a class of quantum cryptography protocols that are robust against photon-number-splitting attacks (PNS) in a weak coherent-pulse implementation. We give a quite exhaustive analysis of several eavesdropping attacks on these schemes. The honest parties (Alice and Bob) use present-day technology, in particular an attenuated laser as an approximation of a single-photon source. The idea of the protocols is to exploit the nonorthogonality of quantum states to decrease the information accessible to Eve due to the multiphoton pulses produced by the imperfect source. The distance at which the key distribution becomes insecure due to the PNS attack is significantlymore » increased compared to the existing schemes. We also show that strong-pulse implementations, where a strong pulse is included as a reference, allow for key distribution robust against photon-number-splitting attacks.« less

76 FR 39434 - Notice of Utah's Resource Advisory Council (RAC)

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-07-06

... wildlife, livestock water quality, and recreational opportunities of ``time control'' grazing. A... protocol. The conference call with Director Abbey will take place from 1-1:45 p.m. (Mountain Time). A half.... All meetings are open to the public; however, transportation, lodging, and meals are the...

Oxidative C-H activation of amines using protuberant lychee-like goethite

EPA Science Inventory

Goethite with protuberant lychee morphology has been synthesized that accomplishes C-H activation of N-methylanilines to generate α-aminonitriles; the catalyst takes oxygen from air and uses it as a cooxidant in the process. Inspired by nature, we aspired to design a protocol for...

Facilitating Administrators' Instructional Leadership through the Use of a Technology Integration Discussion Protocol

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLeod, Scott

2015-01-01

Digital learning tools are increasingly prevalent in classrooms, yet too often technology integration efforts by educators replicate rather than transform traditional instructional practices. Opportunities to take advantage of the new affordances that technologies bring to the learning environment thus become forfeit. Administrators' use of a…

Production of a maternal-zygotic medaka mutant using hybrid sterility.

PubMed

Shimada, Atsuko; Takeda, Hiroyuki

2008-08-01

Taking advantage of the characteristics that make hybrids between Japanese and Chinese medaka grow well, albeit sterile, we have developed a method of germ-line replacement in which these hybrids are used as hosts for the production of a maternal-zygotic mutant. The protocol is described herein.

The Montreal Protocol treaty and its illuminating history of science-policy decision-making

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grady, C.

2017-12-01

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, hailed as one of the most effective environmental treaties of all time, has a thirty year history of science-policy decision-making. The partnership between Parties to the Montreal Protocol and its technical assessment panels serve as a basis for understanding successes and evaluating stumbles of global environmental decision-making. Real-world environmental treaty negotiations can be highly time-sensitive, politically motivated, and resource constrained thus scientists and policymakers alike are often unable to confront the uncertainties associated with the multitude of choices. The science-policy relationship built within the framework of the Montreal Protocol has helped constrain uncertainty and inform policy decisions but has also highlighted the limitations of the use of scientific understanding in political decision-making. This talk will describe the evolution of the scientist-policymaker relationship over the history of the Montreal Protocol. Examples will illustrate how the Montreal Protocol's technical panels inform decisions of the country governments and will characterize different approaches pursued by different countries with a particular focus on the recently adopted Kigali Amendment. In addition, this talk will take a deeper dive with an analysis of the historic technical panel assessments on estimating financial resources necessary to enable compliance to the Montreal Protocol compared to the political financial decisions made through the Protocol's Multilateral Fund replenishment negotiation process. Finally, this talk will describe the useful lessons and challenges from these interactions and how they may be applicable in other environmental management frameworks across multiple scales under changing climatic conditions.

Human DNA extraction from whole saliva that was fresh or stored for 3, 6 or 12 months using five different protocols

PubMed Central

GARBIERI, Thais Francini; BROZOSKI, Daniel Thomas; DIONÍSIO, Thiago José; SANTOS, Carlos Ferreira; NEVES, Lucimara Teixeira das

2017-01-01

Abstract Saliva when compared to blood collection has the following advantages: it requires no specialized personnel for collection, allows for remote collection by the patient, is painless, well accepted by participants, has decreased risks of disease transmission, does not clot, can be frozen before DNA extraction and possibly has a longer storage time. Objective and Material and Methods This study aimed to compare the quantity and quality of human DNA extracted from saliva that was fresh or frozen for three, six and twelve months using five different DNA extraction protocols: protocol 1 – Oragene™ commercial kit, protocol 2 – QIAamp DNA mini kit, protocol 3 – DNA extraction using ammonium acetate, protocol 4 – Instagene™ Matrix and protocol 5 – Instagene™ Matrix diluted 1:1 using proteinase K and 1% SDS. Briefly, DNA was analyzed using spectrophotometry, electrophoresis and PCR. Results Results indicated that time spent in storage typically decreased the DNA quantity with the exception of protocol 1. The purity of DNA was generally not affected by storage times for the commercial based protocols, while the purity of the DNA samples extracted by the noncommercial protocols typically decreased when the saliva was stored longer. Only protocol 1 consistently extracted unfragmented DNA samples. In general, DNA samples extracted through protocols 1, 2, 3 and 4, regardless of storage time, were amplified by human specific primers whereas protocol 5 produced almost no samples that were able to be amplified by human specific primers. Depending on the protocol used, it was possible to extract DNA in high quantities and of good quality using whole saliva, and furthermore, for the purposes of DNA extraction, saliva can be reliably stored for relatively long time periods. Conclusions In summary, a complicated picture emerges when taking into account the extracted DNA’s quantity, purity and quality; depending on a given researchers needs, one protocol’s particular strengths and costs might be the deciding factor for its employment. PMID:28403355

Risk taking and refusal assertiveness in a longitudinal model of alcohol use among inner-city adolescents.

PubMed

Epstein, J A; Griffin, K W; Botvin, G J

2001-09-01

Risk taking and refusal assertiveness have been shown to be important determinants of adolescent alcohol use. However, it remains unclear whether youth predisposed to risk taking would be less likely to assertively refuse. This study examined the relationships among risk taking, refusal assertiveness, and alcohol use in a sample of inner-city minority students (N = 1,459), using a cross-lagged longitudinal structural equation model. Data collectors administered the questionnaire to students following a standardized protocol during a 40-min class period. Based on the tested model, risk taking was more stable over time than refusal assertiveness. Furthermore, high risk takers reported less frequent subsequent refusal assertiveness, and less frequent refusal assertiveness predicted greater drinking. A predisposition toward risk taking appears to be an enduring characteristic that is associated with low refusal assertiveness and increased alcohol use. These findings suggest that alcohol prevention programs that emphasize refusal skills training may be less effective for high risk takers. But programs that focus on enhancing competence or reducing normative expectations for peer alcohol use might be more effective for high risk-taking youth.

The preparation of Drosophila embryos for live-imaging using the hanging drop protocol.

PubMed

Reed, Bruce H; McMillan, Stephanie C; Chaudhary, Roopali

2009-03-13

Green fluorescent protein (GFP)-based timelapse live-imaging is a powerful technique for studying the genetic regulation of dynamic processes such as tissue morphogenesis, cell-cell adhesion, or cell death. Drosophila embryos expressing GFP are readily imaged using either stereoscopic or confocal microscopy. A goal of any live-imaging protocol is to minimize detrimental effects such as dehydration and hypoxia. Previous protocols for preparing Drosophila embryos for live-imaging analysis have involved placing dechorionated embryos in halocarbon oil and sandwiching them between a halocarbon gas-permeable membrane and a coverslip. The introduction of compression through mounting embryos in this manner represents an undesirable complication for any biomechanical-based analysis of morphogenesis. Our method, which we call the hanging drop protocol, results in excellent viability of embryos during live imaging and does not require that embryos be compressed. Briefly, the hanging drop protocol involves the placement of embryos in a drop of halocarbon oil that is suspended from a coverslip, which is, in turn, fixed in position over a humid chamber. In addition to providing gas exchange and preventing dehydration, this arrangement takes advantage of the buoyancy of embryos in halocarbon oil to prevent them from drifting out of position during timelapse acquisition. This video describes in detail how to collect and prepare Drosophila embryos for live imaging using the hanging drop protocol. This protocol is suitable for imaging dechorionated embryos using stereomicroscopy or any upright compound fluorescence microscope.

Against All Odds: Problem-Solving Strategies and Behavioural Characteristics of Novice Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Pei-Fen; Lin, Miao-Chen

2015-01-01

This study investigates problem-solving difficulties of novices in a classroom setting, using a German instructional tool, the Fischertechnik kit of approximately 400 parts. In order to analyse the students' thinking processes as they solved the problems, verbal protocol analysis (VPA) was used to record the students'' thinking processes and…

atlant: Advanced Three Level Approximation for Numerical Treatment of Cosmological Recombination

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kholupenko, E. E.; Ivanchik, A. V.; Balashev, S. A.; Varshalovich, D. A.

2011-10-01

atlant is a public numerical code for fast calculations of cosmological recombination of primordial hydrogen-helium plasma is presented. This code is based on the three-level approximation (TLA) model of recombination and allows us to take into account some "fine" physical effects of cosmological recombination simultaneously with using fudge factors.

Usage of the hybrid encryption in a cloud instant messages exchange system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kvyetnyy, Roman N.; Romanyuk, Olexander N.; Titarchuk, Evgenii O.; Gromaszek, Konrad; Mussabekov, Nazarbek

2016-09-01

A new approach for constructing cloud instant messaging represented in this article allows users to encrypt data locally by using Diffie - Hellman key exchange protocol. The described approach allows to construct a cloud service which operates only by users encrypted messages; encryption and decryption takes place locally at the user party using a symmetric AES encryption. A feature of the service is the conferences support without the need for messages reecryption for each participant. In the article it is given an example of the protocol implementation on the ECC and RSA encryption algorithms basis, as well as a comparison of these implementations.

Leo Satellite Communication through a LEO Constellation using TCP/IP Over ATM

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Foore, Lawrence R.; Konangi, Vijay K.; Wallett, Thomas M.

1999-01-01

The simulated performance characteristics for communication between a terrestrial client and a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite server are presented. The client and server nodes consist of a Transmission Control Protocol /Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) over ATM configuration. The ATM cells from the client or the server are transmitted to a gateway, packaged with some header information and transferred to a commercial LEO satellite constellation. These cells are then routed through the constellation to a gateway on the globe that allows the client/server communication to take place. Unspecified Bit Rate (UBR) is specified as the quality of service (QoS). Various data rates are considered.

Isolation of zymogen granules from rat pancreas.

PubMed

Rindler, Michael J

2006-01-01

This unit describes methods for preparing zymogen granules from rat pancreas. Zymogen granules are storage organelles in pancreatic acinar cells containing digestive enzymes that are released into the pancreatic duct. The protocols in this unit take advantage of the large size (up to 1 microm diameter) and high density (>1.20 g/cm(3) on sucrose gradients) of the granules as compared to other cellular organelles. They use a combination of differential sedimentation and density gradient separation to accomplish the purification. Similar procedures can be used to isolate zymogen granules from mouse pancreas and canine pancreas. A protocol for preparing zymogen granules from dog pancreas is also included.

Distribution of squeezed states through an atmospheric channel.

PubMed

Peuntinger, Christian; Heim, Bettina; Müller, Christian R; Gabriel, Christian; Marquardt, Christoph; Leuchs, Gerd

2014-08-08

Continuous variable quantum states of light are used in quantum information protocols and quantum metrology and known to degrade with loss and added noise. We were able to show the distribution of bright polarization squeezed quantum states of light through an urban free-space channel of 1.6 km length. To measure the squeezed states in this extreme environment, we utilize polarization encoding and a postselection protocol that is taking into account classical side information stemming from the distribution of transmission values. The successful distribution of continuous variable squeezed states is accentuated by a quantum state tomography, allowing for determining the purity of the state.

Reconstitution of mouse oogenesis in a dish from pluripotent stem cells.

PubMed

Hayashi, Katsuhiko; Hikabe, Orie; Obata, Yayoi; Hirao, Yuji

2017-09-01

This protocol is an extension to: Nat. Protoc. 8, 1513-1524 (2013); doi: 10.1038/nprot.2013.090; published online 11 July 2013Generation of functional oocytes in culture from pluripotent stem cells should provide a useful model system for improving our understanding of the basic mechanisms underlying oogenesis. In addition, it has potential applications as an alternative source of oocytes for reproduction. Using the most advanced mouse model in regard to reproductive engineering and stem cell biology, we previously developed a culture method that produces functional primorial germ cells starting from pluripotent cells in culture and described it in a previous protocol. This Protocol Extension describes an adaptation of this existing Protocol in which oogenesis also occurs in vitro, thus substantially modifying the technique. Oocytes generated from embryonic stem cells (ESCs) or induced pluripotent stem cells give rise to healthy pups. Here, we describe the protocol for oocyte generation in culture. The protocol is mainly composed of three different culture stages: in vitro differentiation (IVDi), in vitro growth (IVG), and in vitro maturation (IVM), which in total take ∼5 weeks. In each culture period, there are several checkpoints that enable the number of oocytes being produced in the culture to be monitored. The basic structure of the culture system should provide a useful tool for clarifying the complicated sequence of oogenesis in mammals.

Influence of the Distribution of Tag IDs on RFID Memoryless Anti-Collision Protocols.

PubMed

Cmiljanic, Nikola; Landaluce, Hugo; Perallos, Asier; Arjona, Laura

2017-08-17

In recent years, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has become very popular. The main feature of this technology is that RFID tags do not require close handling and no line of sight is required between the reader and the tags. RFID is a technology that uses radio frequencies in order to identify tags, which do not need to be positioned accurately relative to the reader. Tags share the communication channel, increasing the likelihood of causing a problem, viz., a message collision. Tree based protocols can resolve these collisions, but require a uniform tag ID distribution. This means they are very dependent of the distribution of the IDs of the tags. Tag IDs are written in the tag and contain a predefined bit string of data. A study of the influence of the tag ID distribution on the protocols' behaviour is proposed here. A new protocol, called the Flexible Query window Tree (FQwT) is presented to estimate the tag ID distribution, taking into consideration the type of distribution. The aim is to create a flexible anti-collision protocol in order to identify a set of tags that constitute an ID distribution. As a result, the reader classifies tags into groups determined by using a distribution estimator. Simulations show that the FQwT protocol contributes to significant reductions in identification time and energy consumption regardless of the type of ID distribution.

Ramp and periodic dynamics across non-Ising critical points

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghosh, Roopayan; Sen, Arnab; Sengupta, K.

2018-01-01

We study ramp and periodic dynamics of ultracold bosons in an one-dimensional (1D) optical lattice which supports quantum critical points separating a uniform and a Z3 or Z4 symmetry broken density-wave ground state. Our protocol involves both linear and periodic drives which takes the system from the uniform state to the quantum critical point (for linear drive protocol) or to the ordered state and back (for periodic drive protocols) via controlled variation of a parameter of the system Hamiltonian. We provide exact numerical computation, for finite-size boson chains with L ≤24 using exact diagonalization (ED), of the excitation density D , the wave function overlap F , and the excess energy Q at the end of the drive protocol. For the linear ramp protocol, we identify the range of ramp speeds for which D and Q show Kibble-Zurek scaling. We find, based on numerical analysis with L ≤24 , that such scaling is consistent with that expected from critical exponents of the q -state Potts universality class with q =3 ,4 . For the periodic protocol, we show that the model displays near-perfect dynamical freezing at specific frequencies; at these frequencies D ,Q →0 and |F |→1 . We provide a semi-analytic explanation of such freezing behavior and relate this phenomenon to a many-body version of Stuckelberg interference. We suggest experiments which can test our theory.

A new communication protocol family for a distributed spacecraft control system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baldi, Andrea; Pace, Marco

1994-01-01

In this paper we describe the concepts behind and architecture of a communication protocol family, which was designed to fulfill the communication requirements of ESOC's new distributed spacecraft control system SCOS 2. A distributed spacecraft control system needs a data delivery subsystem to be used for telemetry (TLM) distribution, telecommand (TLC) dispatch and inter-application communication, characterized by the following properties: reliability, so that any operational workstation is guaranteed to receive the data it needs to accomplish its role; efficiency, so that the telemetry distribution, even for missions with high telemetry rates, does not cause a degradation of the overall control system performance; scalability, so that the network is not the bottleneck both in terms of bandwidth and reconfiguration; flexibility, so that it can be efficiently used in many different situations. The new protocol family which satisfies the above requirements is built on top of widely used communication protocols (UDP and TCP), provides reliable point-to-point and broadcast communication (UDP+) and is implemented in C++. Reliability is achieved using a retransmission mechanism based on a sequence numbering scheme. Such a scheme allows to have cost-effective performances compared to the traditional protocols, because retransmission is only triggered by applications which explicitly need reliability. This flexibility enables applications with different profiles to take advantage of the available protocols, so that the best rate between sped and reliability can be achieved case by case.

Practical quantum private query with better performance in resisting joint-measurement attack

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Chun-Yan; Wang, Tian-Yin; Gao, Fei

2016-04-01

As a kind of practical protocol, quantum-key-distribution (QKD)-based quantum private queries (QPQs) have drawn lots of attention. However, joint-measurement (JM) attack poses a noticeable threat to the database security in such protocols. That is, by JM attack a malicious user can illegally elicit many more items from the database than the average amount an honest one can obtain. Taking Jacobi et al.'s protocol as an example, by JM attack a malicious user can obtain as many as 500 bits, instead of the expected 2.44 bits, from a 104-bit database in one query. It is a noticeable security flaw in theory, and would also arise in application with the development of quantum memories. To solve this problem, we propose a QPQ protocol based on a two-way QKD scheme, which behaves much better in resisting JM attack. Concretely, the user Alice cannot get more database items by conducting JM attack on the qubits because she has to send them back to Bob (the database holder) before knowing which of them should be jointly measured. Furthermore, JM attack by both Alice and Bob would be detected with certain probability, which is quite different from previous protocols. Moreover, our protocol retains the good characters of QKD-based QPQs, e.g., it is loss tolerant and robust against quantum memory attack.

A protocol for generating a high-quality genome-scale metabolic reconstruction.

PubMed

Thiele, Ines; Palsson, Bernhard Ø

2010-01-01

Network reconstructions are a common denominator in systems biology. Bottom-up metabolic network reconstructions have been developed over the last 10 years. These reconstructions represent structured knowledge bases that abstract pertinent information on the biochemical transformations taking place within specific target organisms. The conversion of a reconstruction into a mathematical format facilitates a myriad of computational biological studies, including evaluation of network content, hypothesis testing and generation, analysis of phenotypic characteristics and metabolic engineering. To date, genome-scale metabolic reconstructions for more than 30 organisms have been published and this number is expected to increase rapidly. However, these reconstructions differ in quality and coverage that may minimize their predictive potential and use as knowledge bases. Here we present a comprehensive protocol describing each step necessary to build a high-quality genome-scale metabolic reconstruction, as well as the common trials and tribulations. Therefore, this protocol provides a helpful manual for all stages of the reconstruction process.

A protocol for generating a high-quality genome-scale metabolic reconstruction

PubMed Central

Thiele, Ines; Palsson, Bernhard Ø.

2011-01-01

Network reconstructions are a common denominator in systems biology. Bottom-up metabolic network reconstructions have developed over the past 10 years. These reconstructions represent structured knowledge-bases that abstract pertinent information on the biochemical transformations taking place within specific target organisms. The conversion of a reconstruction into a mathematical format facilitates myriad computational biological studies including evaluation of network content, hypothesis testing and generation, analysis of phenotypic characteristics, and metabolic engineering. To date, genome-scale metabolic reconstructions for more than 30 organisms have been published and this number is expected to increase rapidly. However, these reconstructions differ in quality and coverage that may minimize their predictive potential and use as knowledge-bases. Here, we present a comprehensive protocol describing each step necessary to build a high-quality genome-scale metabolic reconstruction as well as common trials and tribulations. Therefore, this protocol provides a helpful manual for all stages of the reconstruction process. PMID:20057383

Prediction based Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing Protocol for Vehicular Self-organizing Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Chunlin; Fan, Quanrun; Chen, Xiaolin; Xu, Wanjin

2018-03-01

PGPSR (Prediction based Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing) is based on and extended the GPSR protocol to adapt to the high speed mobility of the vehicle auto organization network (VANET) and the changes in the network topology. GPSR is used in the VANET network environment, the network loss rate and throughput are not ideal, even cannot work. Aiming at the problems of the GPSR, the proposed PGPSR routing protocol, it redefines the hello and query packet structure, in the structure of the new node speed and direction information, which received the next update before you can take advantage of its speed and direction to predict the position of node and new network topology, select the right the next hop routing and path. Secondly, the update of the outdated node information of the neighbor’s table is deleted in time. The simulation experiment shows the performance of PGPSR is better than that of GPSR.

Quality control and conduct of genome-wide association meta-analyses.

PubMed

Winkler, Thomas W; Day, Felix R; Croteau-Chonka, Damien C; Wood, Andrew R; Locke, Adam E; Mägi, Reedik; Ferreira, Teresa; Fall, Tove; Graff, Mariaelisa; Justice, Anne E; Luan, Jian'an; Gustafsson, Stefan; Randall, Joshua C; Vedantam, Sailaja; Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie; Kilpeläinen, Tuomas O; Scherag, André; Esko, Tonu; Kutalik, Zoltán; Heid, Iris M; Loos, Ruth J F

2014-05-01

Rigorous organization and quality control (QC) are necessary to facilitate successful genome-wide association meta-analyses (GWAMAs) of statistics aggregated across multiple genome-wide association studies. This protocol provides guidelines for (i) organizational aspects of GWAMAs, and for (ii) QC at the study file level, the meta-level across studies and the meta-analysis output level. Real-world examples highlight issues experienced and solutions developed by the GIANT Consortium that has conducted meta-analyses including data from 125 studies comprising more than 330,000 individuals. We provide a general protocol for conducting GWAMAs and carrying out QC to minimize errors and to guarantee maximum use of the data. We also include details for the use of a powerful and flexible software package called EasyQC. Precise timings will be greatly influenced by consortium size. For consortia of comparable size to the GIANT Consortium, this protocol takes a minimum of about 10 months to complete.

Synthesis of alkyl- and aryl-amino-substituted anthraquinone derivatives by microwave-assisted copper(0)-catalyzed Ullmann coupling reactions.

PubMed

Baqi, Younis; Müller, Christa E

2010-05-01

This protocol describes the efficient, generally applicable Ullmann coupling reaction of bromaminic acid with alkyl- or aryl-amines in phosphate buffer under microwave irradiation using elemental copper as a catalyst. The reaction leads to a number of biologically active compounds. As a prototypical example, the synthesis of a new, potent antagonist of human platelet P2Y(12) receptors, which has potential as an antithrombotic drug, is described in detail. The optimized protocol includes a description of an appropriate reaction setup, thin layer chromatography for monitoring the reaction and a procedure for the isolation, purification and characterization of the anticipated product. The reaction is performed without the use of a glove box and there is no requirement for an inert atmosphere. The reaction typically proceeds within 2-30 min, the protocol, including workup, generally takes 1-3 h to complete.

Optimal continuous variable quantum teleportation protocol for realistic settings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luiz, F. S.; Rigolin, Gustavo

2015-03-01

We show the optimal setup that allows Alice to teleport coherent states | α > to Bob giving the greatest fidelity (efficiency) when one takes into account two realistic assumptions. The first one is the fact that in any actual implementation of the continuous variable teleportation protocol (CVTP) Alice and Bob necessarily share non-maximally entangled states (two-mode finitely squeezed states). The second one assumes that Alice's pool of possible coherent states to be teleported to Bob does not cover the whole complex plane (| α | < ∞). The optimal strategy is achieved by tuning three parameters in the original CVTP, namely, Alice's beam splitter transmittance and Bob's displacements in position and momentum implemented on the teleported state. These slight changes in the protocol are currently easy to be implemented and, as we show, give considerable gain in performance for a variety of possible pool of input states with Alice.

Precision genome editing using CRISPR-Cas9 and linear repair templates in C. elegans.

PubMed

Paix, Alexandre; Folkmann, Andrew; Seydoux, Geraldine

2017-05-15

The ability to introduce targeted edits in the genome of model organisms is revolutionizing the field of genetics. State-of-the-art methods for precision genome editing use RNA-guided endonucleases to create double-strand breaks (DSBs) and DNA templates containing the edits to repair the DSBs. Following this strategy, we have developed a protocol to create precise edits in the C. elegans genome. The protocol takes advantage of two innovations to improve editing efficiency: direct injection of CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoprotein complexes and use of linear DNAs with short homology arms as repair templates. The protocol requires no cloning or selection, and can be used to generate base and gene-size edits in just 4days. Point mutations, insertions, deletions and gene replacements can all be created using the same experimental pipeline. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Odontostomatologic management of patients receiving oral anticoagulant therapy: a retrospective multicentric study

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Introduction Today, we frequently find patients taking oral anticoagulant therapy (OAT), a prophylaxis against the occurrence of thromboembolic events. An oral surgeon needs to know how to better manage such patients, in order to avoid hemorrhagic and thromboembolic complications. Materials and methods A group of 193 patients (119 men aged between 46 and 82 and 74 women aged between 54 and 76) undergoing OAT for more than 5 years were managed with a standardized management protocol and a 2-months follow-up. The aim of the present study was to apply a protocol, which could provide a safe intra- and postoperative management of patients on OAT. Results Among the 193 patients, only 2 had postoperative complications. Conclusions We think that the protocol used in the present study can be used for complete safety in the treatment of this type of patients. PMID:21771331

Traffic Adaptive Energy Efficient and Low Latency Medium Access Control for Wireless Sensor Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yadav, Rajesh; Varma, Shirshu; Malaviya, N.

2008-05-01

Medium access control for wireless sensor networks has been a very active research area in the recent years. The traditional wireless medium access control protocol such as IEEE 802.11 is not suitable for the sensor network application because these are battery powered. The recharging of these sensor nodes is expensive and also not possible. The most of the literature in the medium access for the sensor network focuses on the energy efficiency. The proposed MAC protocol solves the energy inefficiency caused by idle listening, control packet overhead and overhearing taking nodes latency into consideration based on the network traffic. Simulation experiments have been performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The validation of the simulation results of the proposed MAC has been done by comparing it with the analytical model. This protocol has been simulated in Network Simulator ns-2.

Simple Spectral Lines Data Model Version 1.0

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Osuna, Pedro; Salgado, Jesus; Guainazzi, Matteo; Dubernet, Marie-Lise; Roueff, Evelyne; Osuna, Pedro; Salgado, Jesus

2010-12-01

This document presents a Data Model to describe Spectral Line Transitions in the context of the Simple Line Access Protocol defined by the IVOA (c.f. Ref[13] IVOA Simple Line Access protocol) The main objective of the model is to integrate with and support the Simple Line Access Protocol, with which it forms a compact unit. This integration allows seamless access to Spectral Line Transitions available worldwide in the VO context. This model does not provide a complete description of Atomic and Molecular Physics, which scope is outside of this document. In the astrophysical sense, a line is considered as the result of a transition between two energy levels. Under the basis of this assumption, a whole set of objects and attributes have been derived to define properly the necessary information to describe lines appearing in astrophysical contexts. The document has been written taking into account available information from many different Line data providers (see acknowledgments section).

Quality control and conduct of genome-wide association meta-analyses

PubMed Central

Winkler, Thomas W; Day, Felix R; Croteau-Chonka, Damien C; Wood, Andrew R; Locke, Adam E; Mägi, Reedik; Ferreira, Teresa; Fall, Tove; Graff, Mariaelisa; Justice, Anne E; Luan, Jian'an; Gustafsson, Stefan; Randall, Joshua C; Vedantam, Sailaja; Workalemahu, Tsegaselassie; Kilpeläinen, Tuomas O; Scherag, André; Esko, Tonu; Kutalik, Zoltán; Heid, Iris M; Loos, Ruth JF

2014-01-01

Rigorous organization and quality control (QC) are necessary to facilitate successful genome-wide association meta-analyses (GWAMAs) of statistics aggregated across multiple genome-wide association studies. This protocol provides guidelines for [1] organizational aspects of GWAMAs, and for [2] QC at the study file level, the meta-level across studies, and the meta-analysis output level. Real–world examples highlight issues experienced and solutions developed by the GIANT Consortium that has conducted meta-analyses including data from 125 studies comprising more than 330,000 individuals. We provide a general protocol for conducting GWAMAs and carrying out QC to minimize errors and to guarantee maximum use of the data. We also include details for use of a powerful and flexible software package called EasyQC. For consortia of comparable size to the GIANT consortium, the present protocol takes a minimum of about 10 months to complete. PMID:24762786

Digital retinal imaging in a residency-based patient-centered medical home.

PubMed

Newman, Robert; Cummings, Doyle M; Doherty, Lisa; Patel, Nick R

2012-03-01

Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in adults in the United States, and early screening/treatment may preserve vision. This study examined the feasibility of using non-mydriatic digital retinal imaging (DRI) for retinopathy screening in a busy family medicine residency program at the point of care using a nurse-driven protocol. We compared the number of diabetics screened during a 1-year period before and after DRI protocol implementation. We also determined the prevalence of retinopathy, assessed patient satisfaction with the alternative screening process, and tracked ophthalmologic appointment compliance for patients referred because of abnormal screening results. Screening approximately doubled from 161 patients/year before the protocol to 330 patients/year after protocol implementation. However, DRI screening had no impact on ophthalmologic appointment compliance; only 58% of 153 patients referred for ophthalmologic evaluation because of positive screening findings completed their referral appointment. Seven cases needing urgent ophthalmologic treatment were identified. Satisfaction with primary care retinopathy screening was high. Use of a nurse-driven protocol for digital retinal imaging at the point of care dramatically improves rates of annual retinopathy screening in academic family medicine practice and can identify patients who require subspecialty referral. However, DRI screening does not improve visit compliance rates with ophthalmologists for evaluation and management.

[Analysis of palliative sedation in hospitalised elderly patients: Effectiveness of a protocol].

PubMed

Mateos-Nozal, Jesús; García-Cabrera, Lorena; Montero Errasquín, Beatriz; Cruz-Jentoft, Alfonso José; Rexach Cano, Lourdes

2016-01-01

To measure changes in the practice of palliative sedation during agony in hospitalised elderly patients before and after the implementation of a palliative sedation protocol. A retrospective before-after study was performed in hospitalised patients over 65 years old who received midazolam during hospital admission and died in the hospital in two 3-month periods, before and after the implementation of the protocol. Non-sedative uses of midazolam and patients in intensive care were excluded. Patient and admission characteristics, the consent process, withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments, and the sedation process (refractory symptom treated, drug doses, assessment and use of other drugs) were recorded. Association was analysed using the Chi(2) and Student t tests. A total of 143 patients were included, with no significant differences between groups in demographic characteristics or symptoms. Do not resuscitate (DNR) orders were recorded in approximately 70% of the subjects of each group, and informed consent for sedation was recorded in 91% before vs. 84% after the protocol. Induction and maintenance doses of midazolam followed protocol recommendations in 1.3% before vs 10.4% after the protocol was implemented (P=.02) and adequate rescue doses were used in 1.3% vs 11.9% respectively (P=.01). Midazolam doses were significantly lower (9.86mg vs 18.67mg, P<.001) when the protocol was used than when it was not used. Ramsay sedation score was used in 8% vs. 12% and the Palliative Care Team was involved in 35.5% and 16.4% of the cases (P=.008) before and after the protocol, respectively. Use of midazolam slightly improved after the implementation of a hospital protocol on palliative sedation. The percentage of adequate sedations and the general process of sedation were mostly unchanged by the protocol. More education and further assessment is needed to gauge the effect of these measures in the future. Copyright © 2015 SEGG. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

LINCS: Livermore's network architecture. [Octopus computing network

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

Fletcher, J.G.

1982-01-01

Octopus, a local computing network that has been evolving at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for over fifteen years, is currently undergoing a major revision. The primary purpose of the revision is to consolidate and redefine the variety of conventions and formats, which have grown up over the years, into a single standard family of protocols, the Livermore Interactive Network Communication Standard (LINCS). This standard treats the entire network as a single distributed operating system such that access to a computing resource is obtained in a single way, whether that resource is local (on the same computer as the accessingmore » process) or remote (on another computer). LINCS encompasses not only communication but also such issues as the relationship of customer to server processes and the structure, naming, and protection of resources. The discussion includes: an overview of the Livermore user community and computing hardware, the functions and structure of each of the seven layers of LINCS protocol, the reasons why we have designed our own protocols and why we are dissatisfied by the directions that current protocol standards are taking.« less

An in vitro protocol for direct isolation of potential probiotic lactobacilli from raw bovine milk and traditional fermented milks.

PubMed

Baruzzi, Federico; Poltronieri, Palmiro; Quero, Grazia Marina; Morea, Maria; Morelli, Lorenzo

2011-04-01

A method for isolating potential probiotic lactobacilli directly from traditional milk-based foods was developed. The novel digestion/enrichment protocol was set up taking care to minimize the protective effect of milk proteins and fats and was validated testing three commercial fermented milks containing well-known probiotic Lactobacillus strains. Only probiotic bacteria claimed in the label were isolated from two out of three commercial fermented milks. The application of the new protocol to 15 raw milk samples and 6 traditional fermented milk samples made it feasible to isolate 11 potential probiotic Lactobacillus strains belonging to Lactobacillus brevis, Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus gasseri, Lactobacillus johnsonii, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus reuteri, and Lactobacillus vaginalis species. Even though further analyses need to ascertain functional properties of these lactobacilli, the novel protocol set-up makes it feasible to isolate quickly potential probiotic strains from traditional milk-based foods reducing the amount of time required by traditional procedures that, in addition, do not allow to isolate microorganisms occurring as sub-dominant populations.

Optimized Setup and Protocol for Magnetic Domain Imaging with In Situ Hysteresis Measurement.

PubMed

Liu, Jun; Wilson, John; Davis, Claire; Peyton, Anthony

2017-11-07

This paper elaborates the sample preparation protocols required to obtain optimal domain patterns using the Bitter method, focusing on the extra steps compared to standard metallographic sample preparation procedures. The paper proposes a novel bespoke rig for dynamic domain imaging with in situ BH (magnetic hysteresis) measurements and elaborates the protocols for the sensor preparation and the use of the rig to ensure accurate BH measurement. The protocols for static and ordinary dynamic domain imaging (without in situ BH measurements) are also presented. The reported method takes advantage of the convenience and high sensitivity of the traditional Bitter method and enables in situ BH measurement without interrupting or interfering with the domain wall movement processes. This facilitates establishing a direct and quantitative link between the domain wall movement processes-microstructural feature interactions in ferritic steels with their BH loops. This method is anticipated to become a useful tool for the fundamental study of microstructure-magnetic property relationships in steels and to help interpret the electromagnetic sensor signals for non-destructive evaluation of steel microstructures.

Optimized Setup and Protocol for Magnetic Domain Imaging with In Situ Hysteresis Measurement

PubMed Central

Liu, Jun; Wilson, John; Davis, Claire; Peyton, Anthony

2017-01-01

This paper elaborates the sample preparation protocols required to obtain optimal domain patterns using the Bitter method, focusing on the extra steps compared to standard metallographic sample preparation procedures. The paper proposes a novel bespoke rig for dynamic domain imaging with in situ BH (magnetic hysteresis) measurements and elaborates the protocols for the sensor preparation and the use of the rig to ensure accurate BH measurement. The protocols for static and ordinary dynamic domain imaging (without in situ BH measurements) are also presented. The reported method takes advantage of the convenience and high sensitivity of the traditional Bitter method and enables in situ BH measurement without interrupting or interfering with the domain wall movement processes. This facilitates establishing a direct and quantitative link between the domain wall movement processes–microstructural feature interactions in ferritic steels with their BH loops. This method is anticipated to become a useful tool for the fundamental study of microstructure–magnetic property relationships in steels and to help interpret the electromagnetic sensor signals for non-destructive evaluation of steel microstructures. PMID:29155796

Efficient and universal quantum key distribution based on chaos and middleware

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Dong; Chen, Yuanyuan; Gu, Xuemei; Xie, Ling; Chen, Lijun

2017-01-01

Quantum key distribution (QKD) promises unconditionally secure communications, however, the low bit rate of QKD cannot meet the requirements of high-speed applications. Despite the many solutions that have been proposed in recent years, they are neither efficient to generate the secret keys nor compatible with other QKD systems. This paper, based on chaotic cryptography and middleware technology, proposes an efficient and universal QKD protocol that can be directly deployed on top of any existing QKD system without modifying the underlying QKD protocol and optical platform. It initially takes the bit string generated by the QKD system as input, periodically updates the chaotic system, and efficiently outputs the bit sequences. Theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate that our protocol can efficiently increase the bit rate of the QKD system as well as securely generate bit sequences with perfect statistical properties. Compared with the existing methods, our protocol is more efficient and universal, it can be rapidly deployed on the QKD system to increase the bit rate when the QKD system becomes the bottleneck of its communication system.

Embedding and Chemical Reactivation of Green Fluorescent Protein in the Whole Mouse Brain for Optical Micro-Imaging

PubMed Central

Gang, Yadong; Zhou, Hongfu; Jia, Yao; Liu, Ling; Liu, Xiuli; Rao, Gong; Li, Longhui; Wang, Xiaojun; Lv, Xiaohua; Xiong, Hanqing; Yang, Zhongqin; Luo, Qingming; Gong, Hui; Zeng, Shaoqun

2017-01-01

Resin embedding has been widely applied to fixing biological tissues for sectioning and imaging, but has long been regarded as incompatible with green fluorescent protein (GFP) labeled sample because it reduces fluorescence. Recently, it has been reported that resin-embedded GFP-labeled brain tissue can be imaged with high resolution. In this protocol, we describe an optimized protocol for resin embedding and chemical reactivation of fluorescent protein labeled mouse brain, we have used mice as experiment model, but the protocol should be applied to other species. This method involves whole brain embedding and chemical reactivation of the fluorescent signal in resin-embedded tissue. The whole brain embedding process takes a total of 7 days. The duration of chemical reactivation is ~2 min for penetrating 4 μm below the surface in the resin-embedded brain. This protocol provides an efficient way to prepare fluorescent protein labeled sample for high-resolution optical imaging. This kind of sample was demonstrated to be imaged by various optical micro-imaging methods. Fine structures labeled with GFP across a whole brain can be detected. PMID:28352214

The costs and cost-effectiveness of an integrated sepsis treatment protocol.

PubMed

Talmor, Daniel; Greenberg, Dan; Howell, Michael D; Lisbon, Alan; Novack, Victor; Shapiro, Nathan

2008-04-01

Sepsis is associated with high mortality and treatment costs. International guidelines recommend the implementation of integrated sepsis protocols; however, the true cost and cost-effectiveness of these are unknown. To assess the cost-effectiveness of an integrated sepsis protocol, as compared with conventional care. Prospective cohort study of consecutive patients presenting with septic shock and enrolled in the institution's integrated sepsis protocol. Clinical and economic outcomes were compared with a historical control cohort. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Overall, 79 patients presenting to the emergency department with septic shock in the treatment cohort and 51 patients in the control group. An integrated sepsis treatment protocol incorporating empirical antibiotics, early goal-directed therapy, intensive insulin therapy, lung-protective ventilation, and consideration for drotrecogin alfa and steroid therapy. In-hospital treatment costs were collected using the hospital's detailed accounting system. The cost-effectiveness analysis was performed from the perspective of the healthcare system using a lifetime horizon. The primary end point for the cost-effectiveness analysis was the incremental cost per quality-adjusted life year gained. Mortality in the treatment group was 20.3% vs. 29.4% in the control group (p = .23). Implementing an integrated sepsis protocol resulted in a mean increase in cost of approximately $8,800 per patient, largely driven by increased intensive care unit length of stay. Life expectancy and quality-adjusted life years were higher in the treatment group; 0.78 and 0.54, respectively. The protocol was associated with an incremental cost of $11,274 per life-year saved and a cost of $16,309 per quality-adjusted life year gained. In patients with septic shock, an integrated sepsis protocol, although not cost-saving, appears to be cost-effective and compares very favorably to other commonly delivered acute care interventions.

Adverse events and the relation with quality of life in adults with intellectual disability and challenging behaviour using psychotropic drugs.

PubMed

Scheifes, Arlette; Walraven, Sanne; Stolker, Joost Jan; Nijman, Henk L I; Egberts, Toine C G; Heerdink, Eibert R

2016-01-01

Psychotropic drugs are prescribed to approximately 30-40% of adults with intellectual disability (ID) and challenging behaviour, despite the limited evidence of effectiveness and the potential of adverse events. To assess the prevalence of adverse events in association with psychotropic drug use in adults with ID and challenging behaviour and to examine the relation of these adverse events with the person's quality of life. The presence of adverse events was measured with a questionnaire that had to be filled in by the physicians of the participants. Movement disorders were measured separately with a standardised protocol. The strength of the association between adverse events and Intellectual Disability Quality of Life-16 (IDQOL-16), and daily functioning was investigated using linear regression analyses, taking into account the severity of disease (CGI-S) as potential confounder. Virtually all of 103 adults with ID and challenging behaviour had at least one adverse event (84.4%) and almost half had ≥3 adverse events (45.6%) across different subclasses. Using psychotropic drugs increased the prevalence of adverse events significantly. Respectively 13% of the patients without psychotropic drugs and 61% of the patients with ≥2 psychotropic drugs had ≥3 adverse events. Having adverse events had a significantly negative influence on the quality of life. A large majority of all patients had at least one adverse event associated with psychotropic drug use. More attention is needed for these adverse events and their negative influence on the quality of life of these patients, taking into account the lack of evidence of effectiveness of psychotropic drugs for challenging behaviour. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Procedures and Standards Handbook. Version 3.0. What Works Clearinghouse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2014

2014-01-01

This "What Works Clearinghouse Procedures and Standards Handbook (Version 3.0)" provides a detailed description of the standards and procedures of the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). The remaining chapters of this Handbook are organized to take the reader through the basic steps that the WWC uses to develop a review protocol, identify…

We'll Take It from Here: Further Developments We'd Like To See in Virtual Reference Software.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coffman, Steven

2001-01-01

Discussion of virtual reference services focuses on software that is currently available and further developments that are needed. Topics include co-browsing and collaboration capabilities; communications technology, including chat technology and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP); networked reference services; and online reference collections…

Understanding False Belief as Generalized Operant Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McHugh, Louise; Barnes-Holmes, Yvonne; Barnes-Holmes, Dermot; Stewart, Ian

2006-01-01

The current work reports 2 experiments that investigate the development of false belief from the perspective of Relational Frame Theory. The true and false belief test protocol used across both experiments contained a range of tasks that involved responding in accordance with the 3 perspective-taking frames of I-YOU, HERE-THERE, NOW-THEN, and in…

Error analysis of finite difference schemes applied to hyperbolic initial boundary value problems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Skollermo, G.

1979-01-01

Finite difference methods for the numerical solution of mixed initial boundary value problems for hyperbolic equations are studied. The reported investigation has the objective to develop a technique for the total error analysis of a finite difference scheme, taking into account initial approximations, boundary conditions, and interior approximation. Attention is given to the Cauchy problem and the initial approximation, the homogeneous problem in an infinite strip with inhomogeneous boundary data, the reflection of errors in the boundaries, and two different boundary approximations for the leapfrog scheme with a fourth order accurate difference operator in space.

Improving management performance of P2PSIP for mobile sensing in wireless overlays.

PubMed

Sendín-Raña, Pablo; González-Castaño, Francisco Javier; Gómez-Cuba, Felipe; Asorey-Cacheda, Rafael; Pousada-Carballo, José María

2013-11-08

Future wireless communications are heading towards an all-Internet Protocol (all-IP) design, and will rely on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to manage services, such as voice over IP (VoIP). The centralized architecture of traditional SIP has numerous disadvantages for mobile ad hoc services that may be possibly overcome by advanced peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies initially developed for the Internet. In the context of mobile sensing, P2PSIP protocols facilitate decentralized and fast communications with sensor-enabled terminals. Nevertheless, in order to make P2PSIP protocols feasible in mobile sensing networks, it is necessary to minimize overhead transmissions for signaling purposes, which reduces the battery lifetime. In this paper, we present a solution to improve the management of wireless overlay networks by defining an adaptive algorithm for the calculation of refresh time. The main advantage of the proposed algorithm is that it takes into account new parameters, such as the delay between nodes, and provides satisfactory performance and reliability levels at a much lower management overhead than previous approaches. The proposed solution can be applied to many structured P2P overlays or P2PSIP protocols. We evaluate it with Kademlia-based distributed hash tables (DHT) and dSIP.

Improving Management Performance of P2PSIP for Mobile Sensing in Wireless Overlays

PubMed Central

Sendín-Raña, Pablo; González-Castaño, Francisco Javier; Gómez-Cuba, Felipe; Asorey-Cacheda, Rafael; Pousada-Carballo, José María

2013-01-01

Future wireless communications are heading towards an all-Internet Protocol (all-IP) design, and will rely on the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to manage services, such as voice over IP (VoIP). The centralized architecture of traditional SIP has numerous disadvantages for mobile ad hoc services that may be possibly overcome by advanced peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies initially developed for the Internet. In the context of mobile sensing, P2PSIP protocols facilitate decentralized and fast communications with sensor-enabled terminals. Nevertheless, in order to make P2PSIP protocols feasible in mobile sensing networks, it is necessary to minimize overhead transmissions for signaling purposes, which reduces the battery lifetime. In this paper, we present a solution to improve the management of wireless overlay networks by defining an adaptive algorithm for the calculation of refresh time. The main advantage of the proposed algorithm is that it takes into account new parameters, such as the delay between nodes, and provides satisfactory performance and reliability levels at a much lower management overhead than previous approaches. The proposed solution can be applied to many structured P2P overlays or P2PSIP protocols. We evaluate it with Kademlia-based distributed hash tables (DHT) and dSIP PMID:24217358

Reynolds number effects on mixing due to topological chaos

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

Smith, Spencer A.; Warrier, Sangeeta

2016-03-15

Topological chaos has emerged as a powerful tool to investigate fluid mixing. While this theory can guarantee a lower bound on the stretching rate of certain material lines, it does not indicate what fraction of the fluid actually participates in this minimally mandated mixing. Indeed, the area in which effective mixing takes place depends on physical parameters such as the Reynolds number. To help clarify this dependency, we numerically simulate the effects of a batch stirring device on a 2D incompressible Newtonian fluid in the laminar regime. In particular, we calculate the finite time Lyapunov exponent (FTLE) field for threemore » different stirring protocols, one topologically complex (pseudo-Anosov) and two simple (finite-order), over a range of viscosities. After extracting appropriate measures indicative of both the amount of mixing and the area of effective mixing from the FTLE field, we see a clearly defined Reynolds number range in which the relative efficacy of the pseudo-Anosov protocol over the finite-order protocols justifies the application of topological chaos. More unexpectedly, we see that while the measures of effective mixing area increase with increasing Reynolds number for the finite-order protocols, they actually exhibit non-monotonic behavior for the pseudo-Anosov protocol.« less

Performance Analysis of the IEEE 802.11p Multichannel MAC Protocol in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) employ multichannel to provide a variety of safety and non-safety applications, based on the IEEE 802.11p and IEEE 1609.4 protocols. The safety applications require timely and reliable transmissions, while the non-safety applications require efficient and high throughput. In the IEEE 1609.4 protocol, operating interval is divided into alternating Control Channel (CCH) interval and Service Channel (SCH) interval with an identical length. During the CCH interval, nodes transmit safety-related messages and control messages, and Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) mechanism is employed to allow four Access Categories (ACs) within a station with different priorities according to their criticality for the vehicle’s safety. During the SCH interval, the non-safety massages are transmitted. An analytical model is proposed in this paper to evaluate performance, reliability and efficiency of the IEEE 802.11p and IEEE 1609.4 protocols. The proposed model improves the existing work by taking serval aspects and the character of multichannel switching into design consideration. Extensive performance evaluations based on analysis and simulation help to validate the accuracy of the proposed model and analyze the capabilities and limitations of the IEEE 802.11p and IEEE 1609.4 protocols, and enhancement suggestions are given. PMID:29231882

Performance Analysis of the IEEE 802.11p Multichannel MAC Protocol in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks.

PubMed

Song, Caixia

2017-12-12

Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) employ multichannel to provide a variety of safety and non-safety applications, based on the IEEE 802.11p and IEEE 1609.4 protocols. The safety applications require timely and reliable transmissions, while the non-safety applications require efficient and high throughput. In the IEEE 1609.4 protocol, operating interval is divided into alternating Control Channel (CCH) interval and Service Channel (SCH) interval with an identical length. During the CCH interval, nodes transmit safety-related messages and control messages, and Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) mechanism is employed to allow four Access Categories (ACs) within a station with different priorities according to their criticality for the vehicle's safety. During the SCH interval, the non-safety massages are transmitted. An analytical model is proposed in this paper to evaluate performance, reliability and efficiency of the IEEE 802.11p and IEEE 1609.4 protocols. The proposed model improves the existing work by taking serval aspects and the character of multichannel switching into design consideration. Extensive performance evaluations based on analysis and simulation help to validate the accuracy of the proposed model and analyze the capabilities and limitations of the IEEE 802.11p and IEEE 1609.4 protocols, and enhancement suggestions are given.

Simulation Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Space Networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jennings, Esther H.; Segui, John

2006-01-01

In space exploration missions, the coordinated use of spacecraft as communication relays increases the efficiency of the endeavors. To conduct trade-off studies of the performance and resource usage of different communication protocols and network designs, JPL designed a comprehensive extendable tool, the Multi-mission Advanced Communications Hybrid Environment for Test and Evaluation (MACHETE). The design and development of MACHETE began in 2000 and is constantly evolving. Currently, MACHETE contains Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) protocol standards such as Proximity-1, Advanced Orbiting Systems (AOS), Packet Telemetry/Telecommand, Space Communications Protocol Specification (SCPS), and the CCSDS File Delivery Protocol (CFDP). MACHETE uses the Aerospace Corporation s Satellite Orbital Analysis Program (SOAP) to generate the orbital geometry information and contact opportunities. Matlab scripts provide the link characteristics. At the core of MACHETE is a discrete event simulator, QualNet. Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) is an end-to-end architecture providing communication in and/or through highly stressed networking environments. Stressed networking environments include those with intermittent connectivity, large and/or variable delays, and high bit error rates. To provide its services, the DTN protocols reside at the application layer of the constituent internets, forming a store-and-forward overlay network. The key capabilities of the bundling protocols include custody-based reliability, ability to cope with intermittent connectivity, ability to take advantage of scheduled and opportunistic connectivity, and late binding of names to addresses. In this presentation, we report on the addition of MACHETE models needed to support DTN, namely: the Bundle Protocol (BP) model. To illustrate the use of MACHETE with the additional DTN model, we provide an example simulation to benchmark its performance. We demonstrate the use of the DTN protocol and discuss statistics gathered concerning the total time needed to simulate numerous bundle transmissions

75 FR 8652 - Incidental Takes of Marine Mammals During Specified Activities; Marine Geophysical Survey in the...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-02-25

...) during the study. The shot interval will be relatively short (approximately 37.5 m or approximately 15 to... for odontocetes is derived from studies on the bottlenose dolphin and beluga. For the one harbor... . NMFS is not responsible for e-mail comments sent to addresses other than the one provided here...

Exterior view looking down through the approximate centerline of the ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

Exterior view looking down through the approximate centerline of the upper hatch and docking ring on the external airlock on the Orbiter Discovery. This photograph was take in the Orbiter Processing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center. - Space Transportation System, Orbiter Discovery (OV-103), Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, 2101 NASA Parkway, Houston, Harris County, TX

Non-Symbolic Arithmetic Abilities and Mathematics Achievement in the First Year of Formal Schooling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilmore, Camilla K.; McCarthy, Shannon E.; Spelke, Elizabeth S.

2010-01-01

Children take years to learn symbolic arithmetic. Nevertheless, non-human animals, human adults with no formal education, and human infants represent approximate number in arrays of objects and sequences of events, and they use these capacities to perform approximate addition and subtraction. Do children harness these abilities when they begin to…

Family Carers' Experiences Using Support Services in Europe: Empirical Evidence from the EUROFAMCARE Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lamura, Giovanni; Mnich, Eva; Nolan, Mike; Wojszel, Beata; Krevers, Barbro; Mestheneos, Liz; Dohner, Hanneli

2008-01-01

Purpose: This article explores the experiences of family carers of older people in using support services in six European countries: Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Sweden, and the UK. Design and Methods: Following a common protocol, data were collected from national samples of approximately 1,000 family carers per country and clustered into…

Teaching about Child Labor and International Human Rights. ERIC Digest.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamot, Gregory E.; Jensen, Elizabeth S.

An estimated 246 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 work in the agricultural, industrial, and craft sectors worldwide. Approximately 180 million of these children work under the worst forms of child labor as defined by the International Labor Organization (2002). In spite of conventions and protocols designed to eradicate the worst…

Protoplast isolation and plant regeneration of guava (Psidium guajava L.) using experiments in mixture-amount design

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

A protocol was established for plant regeneration from leaf protoplasts of guava (Psidium guajava L.) using mixture-amount (concentration) experiments. A protoplast yield of 3.7 × 106 (viability > 90 percent) was obtained when 1 g leaf strips were digested in a solution of approximately 0.75 M osmot...

Cross-Validation of a PACER Prediction Equation for Assessing Aerobic Capacity in Hungarian Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saint-Maurice, Pedro F.; Welk, Gregory J.; Finn, Kevin J.; Kaj, Mónika

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this article was to evaluate the validity of the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular and Endurance Run (PACER) test in a sample of Hungarian youth. Method: Approximately 500 participants (aged 10-18 years old) were randomly selected across Hungary to complete both laboratory (maximal treadmill protocol) and field assessments…

Taking a Concept to Commercialization: Designing Relevant Tests to Address Safety.

PubMed

Ferrara, Lisa A

2016-04-01

Taking a product from concept to commercialization requires careful navigation of the regulatory pathway through a series of steps: (A) moving the idea through proof of concept and beyond; (B) evaluating new technologies that may provide added value to the idea; (C) designing appropriate test strategies and protocols; and (D) evaluating and mitigating risks. Moving an idea from the napkin stage of development to the final product requires a team effort. When finished, the product rarely resembles the original design, but careful steps throughout the product life cycle ensure that the product meets the vision.

Efficacy of a Creon delayed-release pancreatic enzyme protocol for clearing occluded enteral feeding tubes.

PubMed

Stumpf, Janice L; Kurian, Rebecca M; Vuong, Jennifer; Dang, Kimberlyn; Kraft, Michael D

2014-04-01

Alkalinized Viokase pancreatic enzyme tablets restored patency to 71.9% of occluded Dobhoff tubes in a prospective study. After removal of Viokase tablets from the US market, the hospital protocol for unclogging enteral feeding tubes was adapted to use Creon pancreatic enzyme delayed-release capsules, despite the lack of published data. To evaluate the effectiveness of a Creon-based protocol to clear occluded enteral feeding tubes. This retrospective study included all adult and pediatric patients seen in the emergency department or in an inpatient setting who received Creon 12 000 units lipase delayed-release capsule dissolved in a solution of sodium bicarbonate 650 mg and sterile water for clearing occluded enteral feeding tubes between May 1 and November 30, 2010. The Creon protocol was deemed effective if tube clearance was documented in the medical record or if enteral feedings were resumed with no note regarding tube replacement. Alkalinized Creon delayed-release capsules were administered to 83 patients with a total of 118 clogged tubes. Three poorly documented cases and 5 tubes with mechanical clogs were excluded from data analysis. Patency was restored to 53 of 110 (48.2%) occluded tubes. More than 1 treatment course was attempted in 5 cases, with success in 3. An alkalinized Creon pancreatic enzyme protocol was effective in clearing approximately half of the occluded enteral feeding tubes in this retrospective study, an efficacy rate much less than that previously reported in the literature with a Viokase-based protocol.

Influence of curing protocol and ceramic composition on the degree of conversion of resin cement.

PubMed

Lanza, Marcos Daniel Septimio; Andreeta, Marcello Rubens Barsi; Pegoraro, Thiago Amadei; Pegoraro, Luiz Fernando; Carvalho, Ricardo Marins De

2017-01-01

Due to increasing of aesthetic demand, ceramic crowns are widely used in different situations. However, to obtain long-term prognosis of restorations, a good conversion of resin cement is necessary. To evaluate the degree of conversion (DC) of one light-cure and two dual-cure resin cements under a simulated clinical cementation of ceramic crowns. Prepared teeth were randomly split according to the ceramic's material, resin cement and curing protocol. The crowns were cemented as per manufacturer's directions and photoactivated either from occlusal suface only for 60 s; or from the buccal, occlusal and lingual surfaces, with an exposure time of 20 s on each aspect. After cementation, the specimens were stored in deionized water at 37°C for 7 days. Specimens were transversally sectioned from occlusal to cervical surfaces and the DC was determined along the cement line with three measurements taken and averaged from the buccal, lingual and approximal aspects using micro-Raman spectroscopy (Alpha 300R/WITec®). Data were analyzed by 3-way ANOVA and Tukey test at =5%. Statistical analysis showed significant differences among cements, curing protocols and ceramic type (p<0.001). The curing protocol 3x20 resulted in higher DC for all tested conditions; lower DC was observed for Zr ceramic crowns; Duolink resin cement culminated in higher DC regardless ceramic composition and curing protocol. The DC of resin cement layers was dependent on the curing protocol and type of ceramic.

Controlled breathing protocols probe human autonomic cardiovascular rhythms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cooke, W. H.; Cox, J. F.; Diedrich, A. M.; Taylor, J. A.; Beightol, L. A.; Ames, J. E. 4th; Hoag, J. B.; Seidel, H.; Eckberg, D. L.

1998-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine how breathing protocols requiring varying degrees of control affect cardiovascular dynamics. We measured inspiratory volume, end-tidal CO2, R-R interval, and arterial pressure spectral power in 10 volunteers who followed the following 5 breathing protocols: 1) uncontrolled breathing for 5 min; 2) stepwise frequency breathing (at 0.3, 0.25, 0.2, 0.15, 0.1, and 0.05 Hz for 2 min each); 3) stepwise frequency breathing as above, but with prescribed tidal volumes; 4) random-frequency breathing (approximately 0.5-0.05 Hz) for 6 min; and 5) fixed-frequency breathing (0.25 Hz) for 5 min. During stepwise breathing, R-R interval and arterial pressure spectral power increased as breathing frequency decreased. Control of inspired volume reduced R-R interval spectral power during 0.1 Hz breathing (P < 0.05). Stepwise and random-breathing protocols yielded comparable coherence and transfer functions between respiration and R-R intervals and systolic pressure and R-R intervals. Random- and fixed-frequency breathing reduced end-tidal CO2 modestly (P < 0.05). Our data suggest that stringent tidal volume control attenuates low-frequency R-R interval oscillations and that fixed- and random-rate breathing may decrease CO2 chemoreceptor stimulation. We conclude that autonomic rhythms measured during different breathing protocols have much in common but that a stepwise protocol without stringent control of inspired volume may allow for the most efficient assessment of short-term respiratory-mediated autonomic oscillations.

76 FR 68734 - Taking and Importing Marine Mammals: Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to Navy Training Exercises...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-11-07

... marine mammal is likely to travel during the time associated with the TDFD's time delay, and that... Navy provided the approximate distance that an animal would typically travel within a given time-delay... Speed and Length of Time-Delay Potential distance Species group Swim speed Time-delay traveled Delphinid...

78 FR 28411 - Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-14

... received noise. It has been shown that in most cases, TS occurs at the frequencies approximately one[email protected] . NMFS is not responsible for email comments sent to addresses other than the one..., shipwrecks). Marine surveys for site clearance and shallow hazard surveys can be accomplished by one vessel...

75 FR 60173 - Incidental Takes of Marine Mammals During Specified Activities; Marine Seismic Survey in the...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-29

... United States can apply for an authorization not to exceed one year to incidentally take small numbers of... seismic operations if collected data are of sub-standard quality). One CCG helicopter is available for... operations. Helicopter transfer of crew from the Healy is also planned for approximately one day during a...

78 FR 35507 - Takes of Marine Mammals Incidental to Specified Activities; Taking Marine Mammals Incidental to...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-06-12

... received noise. It has been shown that in most cases, TS occurs at the frequencies approximately one-octave... comments sent to addresses other than the one provided here. Comments sent via email, including all...) were measured by JASCO during a monitoring sound source verification (SSV) study conducted for Statoil...

An Energy-Efficient Cluster-Based Vehicle Detection on Road Network Using Intention Numeration Method

PubMed Central

Devasenapathy, Deepa; Kannan, Kathiravan

2015-01-01

The traffic in the road network is progressively increasing at a greater extent. Good knowledge of network traffic can minimize congestions using information pertaining to road network obtained with the aid of communal callers, pavement detectors, and so on. Using these methods, low featured information is generated with respect to the user in the road network. Although the existing schemes obtain urban traffic information, they fail to calculate the energy drain rate of nodes and to locate equilibrium between the overhead and quality of the routing protocol that renders a great challenge. Thus, an energy-efficient cluster-based vehicle detection in road network using the intention numeration method (CVDRN-IN) is developed. Initially, sensor nodes that detect a vehicle are grouped into separate clusters. Further, we approximate the strength of the node drain rate for a cluster using polynomial regression function. In addition, the total node energy is estimated by taking the integral over the area. Finally, enhanced data aggregation is performed to reduce the amount of data transmission using digital signature tree. The experimental performance is evaluated with Dodgers loop sensor data set from UCI repository and the performance evaluation outperforms existing work on energy consumption, clustering efficiency, and node drain rate. PMID:25793221

An energy-efficient cluster-based vehicle detection on road network using intention numeration method.

PubMed

Devasenapathy, Deepa; Kannan, Kathiravan

2015-01-01

The traffic in the road network is progressively increasing at a greater extent. Good knowledge of network traffic can minimize congestions using information pertaining to road network obtained with the aid of communal callers, pavement detectors, and so on. Using these methods, low featured information is generated with respect to the user in the road network. Although the existing schemes obtain urban traffic information, they fail to calculate the energy drain rate of nodes and to locate equilibrium between the overhead and quality of the routing protocol that renders a great challenge. Thus, an energy-efficient cluster-based vehicle detection in road network using the intention numeration method (CVDRN-IN) is developed. Initially, sensor nodes that detect a vehicle are grouped into separate clusters. Further, we approximate the strength of the node drain rate for a cluster using polynomial regression function. In addition, the total node energy is estimated by taking the integral over the area. Finally, enhanced data aggregation is performed to reduce the amount of data transmission using digital signature tree. The experimental performance is evaluated with Dodgers loop sensor data set from UCI repository and the performance evaluation outperforms existing work on energy consumption, clustering efficiency, and node drain rate.

Assessment tools for the measurement of the self-efficacy of drug users: protocol for a systematic review

PubMed Central

Vasconcelos, Selene Cordeiro; Frazão, Iracema da Silva; Sougey, Everton Botelho; de Souza, Sandra Lopes; da Silva, Tatiana de Paula Santana; Lima, Murilo Duarte da Costa

2018-01-01

Introduction The abuse of alcohol and other drugs is a worldwide problem, the treatment of which poses a challenge to healthcare workers. Objective This study presents a proposal for a systematic review to analyse the psychometric properties of assessment tools developed to measure the self-efficacy of drug users with regard to resisting the urge to take drugs in high-risk situations. Methods and Analysis The guiding question was based on PICOS (Population Intervention Comparator Outcome Setting), and the report of the methods of review protocol was written in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P). Searches will be performed in the PsycINFO, Cochrane, Pubmed, Web of Science, SCOPUS and CINAHL databases, followed by the use of the ‘snowball’ strategy. The inclusion criteria for the articles will be (1) assessment tool validation studies; (2) assessment tools developed to measure self-efficacy; (3) quantitative measures; (4) measures designed for use on adults; (5) data from self-reports of the participants; (6) studies involving a description of psychometric properties of the measures; and (7) studies that explain how the level of self-efficacy is scored. The search, selection and analysis will be performed by two independent reviewers. In cases of a divergence of opinion, a third reviewer will be consulted. The COSMIN checklist will be used for the appraisal of the methodological quality of the assessment tools and the certainty of the evidence in the articles (risk of bias) will be analysed using the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) approach. Ethics and dissemination This protocol does not require ethical approval. However, this protocol is part of the thesis entitled Drug-Taking Confidence Questionnaire for use in Brazil, presented for obtaining a doctorate in neuropsychiatry and behavioural sciences from the Federal University of Pernambuco, and has received approval from the human research ethics committee of the Federal University of Pernambuco (reference number: 1.179.162). The results will be disseminated to clinicians and researchers through peer-reviewed publications and conferences. PROSPERO registration number CRD42017068555. PMID:29540409

Optimal Vaccination in a Stochastic Epidemic Model of Two Non-Interacting Populations

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-02-17

of diminishing returns from vacci- nation will generally take place at smaller vaccine allocations V compared to the deterministic model. Optimal...take place and small r0 values where it does not is illustrat- ed in Fig. 4C. As r0 is decreased, the region between the two instances of switching...approximately distribute vaccine in proportion to population size. For large r0 (r0 ≳ 2.9), two switches take place . In the deterministic optimal solution, a

SU-F-I-36: In-Utero Dose Measurements Within Postmortem Subjects for Estimating Fetal Doses in Pregnant Patients Examined with Pulmonary Embolism, Trauma, and Appendicitis CT

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

Lipnharski, I; Quails, N; Carranza, C

Purpose: The imaging of pregnant patients is medically necessary in certain clinical situations. The purpose of this work was to directly measure uterine doses in a cadaver scanned with CT protocols commonly performed on pregnant patients in order to estimate fetal dose and assess potential risk. Method: One postmortem subject was scanned on a 320-slice CT scanner with standard pulmonary embolism, trauma, and appendicitis protocols. All protocols were performed with the scan parameters and ranges currently used in clinical practice. Exams were performed both with and without iterative reconstruction to highlight the dose savings potential. Optically stimulated luminescent dosimeters (OSLDs)more » were inserted into the uterus in order to approximate fetal doses. Results: In the pulmonary embolism CT protocol, the uterus is outside of the primary beam, and the dose to the uterus was under 1 mGy. In the trauma and appendicitis protocols, the uterus is in the primary beam, the fetal dose estimates were 30.5 mGy for the trauma protocol, and 20.6 mGy for the appendicitis protocol. Iterative reconstruction reduced fetal doses by 30%, with uterine doses at 21.3 for the trauma and 14.3 mGy for the appendicitis protocol. Conclusion: Fetal doses were under 1 mGy when exposed to scatter radiation, and under 50 mGy when exposed to primary radiation with the trauma and appendicitis protocols. Consistent with the National Council on Radiation Protection & Measurements (NCRP) and the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP), these doses exhibit a negligible risk to the fetus, with only a small increased risk of cancer. Still, CT scans are not recommended during pregnancy unless the benefits of the exam clearly outweigh the potential risk. Furthermore, when possible, pregnant patients should be examined on CT scanners equipped with iterative reconstruction in order to keep patient doses as low as reasonable achievable.« less

Secure and Efficient k-NN Queries⋆

PubMed Central

Asif, Hafiz; Vaidya, Jaideep; Shafiq, Basit; Adam, Nabil

2017-01-01

Given the morass of available data, ranking and best match queries are often used to find records of interest. As such, k-NN queries, which give the k closest matches to a query point, are of particular interest, and have many applications. We study this problem in the context of the financial sector, wherein an investment portfolio database is queried for matching portfolios. Given the sensitivity of the information involved, our key contribution is to develop a secure k-NN computation protocol that can enable the computation k-NN queries in a distributed multi-party environment while taking domain semantics into account. The experimental results show that the proposed protocols are extremely efficient. PMID:29218333

Defense frontier analysis of quantum cryptographic systems.

PubMed

Slutsky, B; Rao, R; Sun, P C; Tancevski, L; Fainman, S

1998-05-10

When a quantum cryptographic system operates in the presence of background noise, security of the key can be recovered by a procedure called key distillation. A key-distillation scheme effective against so-called individual (bitwise-independent) eavesdropping attacks involves sacrifice of some of the data through privacy amplification. We derive the amount of data sacrifice sufficient to defend against individual eavesdropping attacks in both BB84 and B92 protocols and show in what sense the communication becomes secure as a result. We also compare the secrecy capacity of various quantum cryptosystems, taking into account data sacrifice during key distillation, and conclude that the BB84 protocol may offer better performance characteristics than the B92.

Optical hybrid quantum teleportation and its applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takeda, Shuntaro; Okada, Masanori; Furusawa, Akira

2017-08-01

Quantum teleportation, a transfer protocol of quantum states, is the essence of many sophisticated quantum information protocols. There have been two complementary approaches to optical quantum teleportation: discrete variables (DVs) and continuous variables (CVs). However, both approaches have pros and cons. Here we take a "hybrid" approach to overcome the current limitations: CV quantum teleportation of DVs. This approach enabled the first realization of deterministic quantum teleportation of photonic qubits without post-selection. We also applied the hybrid scheme to several experiments, including entanglement swapping between DVs and CVs, conditional CV teleportation of single photons, and CV teleportation of qutrits. We are now aiming at universal, scalable, and fault-tolerant quantum computing based on these hybrid technologies.

RNA interactome capture in yeast.

PubMed

Beckmann, Benedikt M

2017-04-15

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) are key players in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in eukaryotic cells. To be able to unbiasedly identify RBPs in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we developed a yeast RNA interactome capture protocol which employs RNA labeling, covalent UV crosslinking of RNA and proteins at 365nm wavelength (photoactivatable-ribonucleoside-enhanced crosslinking, PAR-CL) and finally purification of the protein-bound mRNA. The method can be easily implemented in common workflows and takes about 3days to complete. Next to a comprehensive explanation of the method, we focus on our findings about the choice of crosslinking in yeast and discuss the rationale of individual steps in the protocol. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Computer-aided dental prostheses construction using reverse engineering.

PubMed

Solaberrieta, E; Minguez, R; Barrenetxea, L; Sierra, E; Etxaniz, O

2014-01-01

The implementation of computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) systems with virtual articulators, which take into account the kinematics, constitutes a breakthrough in the construction of customised dental prostheses. This paper presents a multidisciplinary protocol involving CAM techniques to produce dental prostheses. This protocol includes a step-by-step procedure using innovative reverse engineering technologies to transform completely virtual design processes into customised prostheses. A special emphasis is placed on a novel method that permits a virtual location of the models. The complete workflow includes the optical scanning of the patient, the use of reverse engineering software and, if necessary, the use of rapid prototyping to produce CAD temporary prostheses.

Scalable Authenticated Tree Based Group Key Exchange for Ad-Hoc Groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Desmedt, Yvo; Lange, Tanja; Burmester, Mike

Task-specific groups are often formed in an ad-hoc manner within large corporate structures, such as companies. Take the following typical scenario: A director decides to set up a task force group for some specific project. An order is passed down the hierarchy where it finally reaches a manager who selects some employees to form the group. The members should communicate in a secure way and for efficiency, a symmetric encryption system is chosen. To establish a joint secret key for the group, a group key exchange (GKE) protocol is used. We show how to use an existing Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to achieve authenticated GKE by modifying the protocol and particularly by including signatures.

Summary Report Panel 1: The Need for Protocols and Standards in Research on Underwater Noise Impacts on Marine Life.

PubMed

Erbe, Christine; Ainslie, Michael A; de Jong, Christ A F; Racca, Roberto; Stocker, Michael

2016-01-01

As concern about anthropogenic noise and its impacts on marine fauna is increasing around the globe, data are being compared across populations, species, noise sources, geographic regions, and time. However, much of the raw and processed data are not comparable due to differences in measurement methodology, analysis and reporting, and a lack of metadata. Common protocols and more formal, international standards are needed to ensure the effectiveness of research, conservation, regulation and practice, and unambiguous communication of information and ideas. Developing standards takes time and effort, is largely driven by a few expert volunteers, and would benefit from stakeholders' contribution and support.

Improvement of stance control and muscle performance induced by focal muscle vibration in young-elderly women: a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Filippi, Guido M; Brunetti, Orazio; Botti, Fabio M; Panichi, Roberto; Roscini, Mauro; Camerota, Filippo; Cesari, Matteo; Pettorossi, Vito E

2009-12-01

Filippi GM, Brunetti O, Botti FM, Panichi R, Roscini M, Camerota F, Cesari M, Pettorossi VE. Improvement of stance control and muscle performance induced by focal muscle vibration in young-elderly women: a randomized controlled trial. To determine the effect of a particular protocol of mechanical vibration, applied focally and repeatedly (repeated muscle vibration [rMV]) on the quadriceps muscles, on stance and lower-extremity muscle power of young-elderly women. Double-blind randomized controlled trial; 3-month follow-up after intervention. Human Physiology Laboratories, University of Perugia, Italy. Sedentary women volunteers (N=60), randomized in 3 groups (mean age +/- SD, 65.3+/-4.2y; range, 60-72). rMV (100Hz, 300-500microm, in three 10-minute sessions a day for 3 consecutive days) was applied to voluntary contracted quadriceps (vibrated and contracted group) and relaxed quadriceps (vibrated and relaxed group). A third group received placebo stimulation (nonvibrated group). Area of sway of the center of pressure, vertical jump height, and leg power. Twenty-four hours after the end of the complete series of applications, the area of sway of the center of pressure decreased significantly by approximately 20%, vertical jump increased by approximately 55%, and leg power increased by approximately 35%. These effects were maintained for at least 90 days after treatment. rMV is a short-lasting and noninvasive protocol that can significantly and persistently improve muscle performance in sedentary young-elderly women.

Advanced dementia pain management protocols.

PubMed

Montoro-Lorite, Mercedes; Canalias-Reverter, Montserrat

Pain management in advanced dementia is complex because of neurological deficits present in these patients, and nurses are directly responsible for providing interventions for the evaluation, management and relief of pain for people suffering from this health problem. In order to facilitate and help decision-makers, pain experts recommend the use of standardized protocols to guide pain management, but in Spain, comprehensive pain management protocols have not yet been developed for advanced dementia. This article reflects the need for an integrated management of pain in advanced dementia. From the review and analysis of the most current and relevant studies in the literature, we performed an approximation of the scales for the determination of pain in these patients, with the observational scale PAINAD being the most recommended for the hospital setting. In addition, we provide an overview for comprehensive management of pain in advanced dementia through the conceptual framework «a hierarchy of pain assessment techniques by McCaffery and Pasero» for the development and implementation of standardized protocols, including a four-phase cyclical process (evaluation, planning/performance, revaluation and recording), which can facilitate the correct management of pain in these patients. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Dissociation of learned helplessness and fear conditioning in mice: a mouse model of depression.

PubMed

Landgraf, Dominic; Long, Jaimie; Der-Avakian, Andre; Streets, Margo; Welsh, David K

2015-01-01

The state of being helpless is regarded as a central aspect of depression, and therefore the learned helplessness paradigm in rodents is commonly used as an animal model of depression. The term 'learned helplessness' refers to a deficit in escaping from an aversive situation after an animal is exposed to uncontrollable stress specifically, with a control/comparison group having been exposed to an equivalent amount of controllable stress. A key feature of learned helplessness is the transferability of helplessness to different situations, a phenomenon called 'trans-situationality'. However, most studies in mice use learned helplessness protocols in which training and testing occur in the same environment and with the same type of stressor. Consequently, failures to escape may reflect conditioned fear of a particular environment, not a general change of the helpless state of an animal. For mice, there is no established learned helplessness protocol that includes the trans-situationality feature. Here we describe a simple and reliable learned helplessness protocol for mice, in which training and testing are carried out in different environments and with different types of stressors. We show that with our protocol approximately 50% of mice develop learned helplessness that is not attributable to fear conditioning.

REVIEW OF THE NEGOTIATION OF THE MODEL PROTOCOL ADDITIONAL TO THE AGREEMENT(S) BETWEEN STATE(S) AND THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY FOR THE APPLICATION OF SAFEGUARDS, INFCIRC/540 (Corrected) VOLUME II/III IAEA COMMITTEE 24, Major Issues Underlying the Model Additional Protocol (1996-1997).

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

Rosenthal, M.D.; Saum-Manning, L.; Houck, F.

Volume I of this Review traces the origins of the Model Additional Protocol. It covers the period from 1991, when events in Iraq triggered an intensive review of the safeguards system, until 1996, when the IAEA Board of Governors established Committee 24 to negotiate a new protocol to safeguards agreement. The period from 1991-1996 set the stage for this negotiation and shaped its outcome in important ways. During this 5-year period, many proposals for strengthening safeguards were suggested and reviewed. Some proposals were dropped, for example, the suggestion by the IAEA Secretariat to verify certain imports, and others were refined.more » A rough consensus was established about the directions in which the international community wanted to go, and this was reflected in the draft of an additional protocol that was submitted to the IAEA Board of Governors on May 6, 1996 in document GOV/2863, Strengthening the Effectiveness and Improving the Efficiency of the Safeguards System - Proposals For Implementation Under Complementary Legal Authority, A Report by the Director General. This document ended with a recommendation that, 'the Board, through an appropriate mechanism, finalize the required legal instrument taking as a basis the draft protocol proposed by the Secretariat and the explanation of the measures contained in this document.'« less

Conducting Clinically Based Intimate Partner Violence Research: Safety Protocol Recommendations.

PubMed

Anderson, Jocelyn C; Glass, Nancy E; Campbell, Jacquelyn C

Maintaining safety is of utmost importance during research involving participants who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). Limited guidance on safety protocols to protect participants is available, particularly information related to technology-based approaches to informed consent, data collection, and contacting participants during the course of a study. The purpose of the article is to provide details on the safety protocol developed and utilized with women receiving care at an urban HIV clinic and who were taking part in an observational study of IPV, mental health symptoms, and substance abuse and their relationship to HIV treatment adherence. The protocol presents the technological strategies to promote safety and allow autonomy in participant decision-making throughout the research process, including Voice over Internet Protocol telephone numbers, and tablet-based eligibility screening and data collection. Protocols for management of participants at risk for suicide and/or intimate partner homicide that included automated high-risk messaging to participants and research staff and facilitated disclosure of risk to clinical staff based on participant preferences are discussed. Use of technology and partnership with clinic staff helped to provide an environment where research regarding IPV could be conducted without undue burden or risk to participants. Utilizing tablet-based survey administration provided multiple practical and safety benefits for participants. Most women who screened into high-risk categories for suicide or intimate partner homicide did not choose to have their results shared with their healthcare providers, indicating the importance of allowing participants control over information sharing whenever possible.

Secure and Lightweight Cloud-Assisted Video Reporting Protocol over 5G-Enabled Vehicular Networks

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

In the vehicular networks, the real-time video reporting service is used to send the recorded videos in the vehicle to the cloud. However, when facilitating the real-time video reporting service in the vehicular networks, the usage of the fourth generation (4G) long term evolution (LTE) was proved to suffer from latency while the IEEE 802.11p standard does not offer sufficient scalability for a such congested environment. To overcome those drawbacks, the fifth-generation (5G)-enabled vehicular network is considered as a promising technology for empowering the real-time video reporting service. In this paper, we note that security and privacy related issues should also be carefully addressed to boost the early adoption of 5G-enabled vehicular networks. There exist a few research works for secure video reporting service in 5G-enabled vehicular networks. However, their usage is limited because of public key certificates and expensive pairing operations. Thus, we propose a secure and lightweight protocol for cloud-assisted video reporting service in 5G-enabled vehicular networks. Compared to the conventional public key certificates, the proposed protocol achieves entities’ authorization through anonymous credential. Also, by using lightweight security primitives instead of expensive bilinear pairing operations, the proposed protocol minimizes the computational overhead. From the evaluation results, we show that the proposed protocol takes the smaller computation and communication time for the cryptographic primitives than that of the well-known Eiza-Ni-Shi protocol. PMID:28946633

Secure and Lightweight Cloud-Assisted Video Reporting Protocol over 5G-Enabled Vehicular Networks.

PubMed

Nkenyereye, Lewis; Kwon, Joonho; Choi, Yoon-Ho

2017-09-23

In the vehicular networks, the real-time video reporting service is used to send the recorded videos in the vehicle to the cloud. However, when facilitating the real-time video reporting service in the vehicular networks, the usage of the fourth generation (4G) long term evolution (LTE) was proved to suffer from latency while the IEEE 802.11p standard does not offer sufficient scalability for a such congested environment. To overcome those drawbacks, the fifth-generation (5G)-enabled vehicular network is considered as a promising technology for empowering the real-time video reporting service. In this paper, we note that security and privacy related issues should also be carefully addressed to boost the early adoption of 5G-enabled vehicular networks. There exist a few research works for secure video reporting service in 5G-enabled vehicular networks. However, their usage is limited because of public key certificates and expensive pairing operations. Thus, we propose a secure and lightweight protocol for cloud-assisted video reporting service in 5G-enabled vehicular networks. Compared to the conventional public key certificates, the proposed protocol achieves entities' authorization through anonymous credential. Also, by using lightweight security primitives instead of expensive bilinear pairing operations, the proposed protocol minimizes the computational overhead. From the evaluation results, we show that the proposed protocol takes the smaller computation and communication time for the cryptographic primitives than that of the well-known Eiza-Ni-Shi protocol.

Optimizing Variational Quantum Algorithms Using Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle

DOE PAGES

Yang, Zhi -Cheng; Rahmani, Armin; Shabani, Alireza; ...

2017-05-18

We use Pontryagin’s minimum principle to optimize variational quantum algorithms. We show that for a fixed computation time, the optimal evolution has a bang-bang (square pulse) form, both for closed and open quantum systems with Markovian decoherence. Our findings support the choice of evolution ansatz in the recently proposed quantum approximate optimization algorithm. Focusing on the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick spin glass as an example, we find a system-size independent distribution of the duration of pulses, with characteristic time scale set by the inverse of the coupling constants in the Hamiltonian. The optimality of the bang-bang protocols and the characteristic time scale ofmore » the pulses provide an efficient parametrization of the protocol and inform the search for effective hybrid (classical and quantum) schemes for tackling combinatorial optimization problems. Moreover, we find that the success rates of our optimal bang-bang protocols remain high even in the presence of weak external noise and coupling to a thermal bath.« less

Predicting thermal history a-priori for magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia of internal carcinoma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dhar, Purbarun; Sirisha Maganti, Lakshmi

2017-08-01

This article proposes a simplistic and realistic method where a direct analytical expression can be derived for the temperature field within a tumour during magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia. The approximated analytical expression for thermal history within the tumour is derived based on the lumped capacitance approach and considers all therapy protocols and parameters. The present method is simplistic and provides an easy framework for estimating hyperthermia protocol parameters promptly. The model has been validated with respect to several experimental reports on animal models such as mice/rabbit/hamster and human clinical trials. It has been observed that the model is able to accurately estimate the thermal history within the carcinoma during the hyperthermia therapy. The present approach may find implications in a-priori estimation of the thermal history in internal tumours for optimizing magnetic hyperthermia treatment protocols with respect to the ablation time, tumour size, magnetic drug concentration, field strength, field frequency, nanoparticle material and size, tumour location, and so on.

X-ray-generated heralded macroscopical quantum entanglement of two nuclear ensembles.

PubMed

Liao, Wen-Te; Keitel, Christoph H; Pálffy, Adriana

2016-09-19

Heralded entanglement between macroscopical samples is an important resource for present quantum technology protocols, allowing quantum communication over large distances. In such protocols, optical photons are typically used as information and entanglement carriers between macroscopic quantum memories placed in remote locations. Here we investigate theoretically a new implementation which employs more robust x-ray quanta to generate heralded entanglement between two crystal-hosted macroscopical nuclear ensembles. Mössbauer nuclei in the two crystals interact collectively with an x-ray spontaneous parametric down conversion photon that generates heralded macroscopical entanglement with coherence times of approximately 100 ns at room temperature. The quantum phase between the entangled crystals can be conveniently manipulated by magnetic field rotations at the samples. The inherent long nuclear coherence times allow also for mechanical manipulations of the samples, for instance to check the stability of entanglement in the x-ray setup. Our results pave the way for first quantum communication protocols that use x-ray qubits.

Profiling optimization for big data transfer over dedicated channels

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

Yun, D.; Wu, Qishi; Rao, Nageswara S

The transfer of big data is increasingly supported by dedicated channels in high-performance networks, where transport protocols play an important role in maximizing applicationlevel throughput and link utilization. The performance of transport protocols largely depend on their control parameter settings, but it is prohibitively time consuming to conduct an exhaustive search in a large parameter space to find the best set of parameter values. We propose FastProf, a stochastic approximation-based transport profiler, to quickly determine the optimal operational zone of a given data transfer protocol/method over dedicated channels. We implement and test the proposed method using both emulations based onmore » real-life performance measurements and experiments over physical connections with short (2 ms) and long (380 ms) delays. Both the emulation and experimental results show that FastProf significantly reduces the profiling overhead while achieving a comparable level of end-to-end throughput performance with the exhaustive search-based approach.« less

Optimizing Variational Quantum Algorithms Using Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle

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

Yang, Zhi -Cheng; Rahmani, Armin; Shabani, Alireza

We use Pontryagin’s minimum principle to optimize variational quantum algorithms. We show that for a fixed computation time, the optimal evolution has a bang-bang (square pulse) form, both for closed and open quantum systems with Markovian decoherence. Our findings support the choice of evolution ansatz in the recently proposed quantum approximate optimization algorithm. Focusing on the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick spin glass as an example, we find a system-size independent distribution of the duration of pulses, with characteristic time scale set by the inverse of the coupling constants in the Hamiltonian. The optimality of the bang-bang protocols and the characteristic time scale ofmore » the pulses provide an efficient parametrization of the protocol and inform the search for effective hybrid (classical and quantum) schemes for tackling combinatorial optimization problems. Moreover, we find that the success rates of our optimal bang-bang protocols remain high even in the presence of weak external noise and coupling to a thermal bath.« less

Comparison between stress myocardial perfusion SPECT recorded with cadmium-zinc-telluride and Anger cameras in various study protocols.

PubMed

Verger, Antoine; Djaballah, Wassila; Fourquet, Nicolas; Rouzet, François; Koehl, Grégoire; Imbert, Laetitia; Poussier, Sylvain; Fay, Renaud; Roch, Véronique; Le Guludec, Dominique; Karcher, Gilles; Marie, Pierre-Yves

2013-02-01

The results of stress myocardial perfusion SPECT could be enhanced by new cadmium-zinc-telluride (CZT) cameras, although differences compared to the results with conventional Anger cameras remain poorly known for most study protocols. This study was aimed at comparing the results of CZT and Anger SPECT according to various study protocols while taking into account the influence of obesity. The study population, which was from three different institutions equipped with identical CZT cameras, comprised 276 patients referred for study using protocols involving (201)Tl (n = 120) or (99m)Tc-sestamibi injected at low dose at stress ((99m)Tc-Low; stress/rest 1-day protocol; n = 110) or at high dose at stress ((99m)Tc-High; rest/stress 1-day or 2-day protocol; n = 46). Each Anger SPECT scan was followed by a high-speed CZT SPECT scan (2 to 4 min). Agreement rates between CZT and Anger SPECT were good irrespective of the study protocol (for abnormal SPECT, (201)Tl 92 %, (99m)Tc-Low 86 %, (99m)Tc-High 98 %), although quality scores were much higher for CZT SPECT with all study protocols. Overall correlations were high for the extent of myocardial infarction (r = 0.80) and a little lower for ischaemic areas (r = 0.72), the latter being larger on Anger SPECT (p < 0.001). This larger extent was mainly observed in 50 obese patients who were in the (201)Tl or (99m)Tc-Low group and in whom stress myocardial counts were particularly low with Anger SPECT (228 ± 101 kcounts) and dramatically enhanced with CZT SPECT (+279 ± 251 %). Concordance between the results of CZT and Anger SPECT is good regardless of study protocol and especially when excluding obese patients who have low-count Anger SPECT and for whom myocardial counts are dramatically enhanced on CZT SPECT.

Importance of Standardized DXA Protocol for Assessing Physique Changes in Athletes.

PubMed

Nana, Alisa; Slater, Gary J; Hopkins, Will G; Halson, Shona L; Martin, David T; West, Nicholas P; Burke, Louise M

2016-06-01

The implications of undertaking DXA scans using best practice protocols (subjects fasted and rested) or a less precise but more practical protocol in assessing chronic changes in body composition following training and a specialized recovery technique were investigated. Twenty-one male cyclists completed an overload training program, in which they were randomized to four sessions per week of either cold water immersion therapy or control groups. Whole-body DXA scans were undertaken with best practice protocol (Best) or random activity protocol (Random) at baseline, after 3 weeks of overload training, and after a 2-week taper. Magnitudes of changes in total, lean and fat mass from baseline-overload, overload-taper and baseline-taper were assessed by standardization (Δmean/SD). The standard deviations of change scores for total and fat-free soft tissue mass (FFST) from Random scans (2-3%) were approximately double those observed in the Best (1-2%), owing to extra random errors associated with Random scans at baseline. There was little difference in change scores for fat mass. The effect of cold water immersion therapy on baseline-taper changes in FFST was possibly harmful (-0.7%; 90% confidence limits ±1.2%) with Best scans but unclear with Random scans (0.9%; ±2.0%). Both protocols gave similar possibly harmful effects of cold water immersion therapy on changes in fat mass (6.9%; ±13.5% and 5.5%; ±14.3%, respectively). An interesting effect of cold water immersion therapy on training-induced changes in body composition might have been missed with a less precise scanning protocol. DXA scans should be undertaken with Best.

75 FR 5055 - Taking and Importing Marine Mammals; U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet Active Sonar Training (AFAST)

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-02-01

... U.S. to 45[deg] W. long. and south from the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Coasts to approximately 23..., hunt, capture, or kill or to attempt to harass, hunt, capture, or kill marine mammals. Regulations... modifications, all of which are of little to no consequence to marine mammals (in fact, the annual take...

Adolescents Carrying Handguns and Taking Them to School: Psychosocial Correlates among Public School Students in Illinois.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Sunyna S.; Mulhall, Peter F.; Reis, Janet S.; DeVille, John O.

2002-01-01

Examines psychosocial correlates of adolescents carrying a handgun and taking a handgun to school. Survey participants were approximately 22,000 6th, 8th, and 10th grade public school students from Illinois. Results showed that the strongest correlates of handgun carrying behaviors were variables directly associated with handguns and violence,…

Evaluating the effectiveness of burned area emergency response (BAER) efforts after the 2003 wildfires, southern California

Treesearch

Peter M. Wohlgemuth; Ken R. Hubbert; Jan L. Beyers; David R. Weise

2007-01-01

Wildfires burned approximately 300,000 hectares (750,000 acres) across southern California in the fall of 2003. Over 10 million dollars were spent on Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) treatments following these fires. To support the BAER efforts, we designed a comprehensive strategy with standardized protocols to evaluate the effectiveness of various erosion...

Linear approximations of nonlinear systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hunt, L. R.; Su, R.

1983-01-01

The development of a method for designing an automatic flight controller for short and vertical take off aircraft is discussed. This technique involves transformations of nonlinear systems to controllable linear systems and takes into account the nonlinearities of the aircraft. In general, the transformations cannot always be given in closed form. Using partial differential equations, an approximate linear system called the modified tangent model was introduced. A linear transformation of this tangent model to Brunovsky canonical form can be constructed, and from this the linear part (about a state space point x sub 0) of an exact transformation for the nonlinear system can be found. It is shown that a canonical expansion in Lie brackets about the point x sub 0 yields the same modified tangent model.

Two-rate periodic protocol with dynamics driven through many cycles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kar, Satyaki

2017-02-01

We study the long time dynamics in closed quantum systems periodically driven via time dependent parameters with two frequencies ω1 and ω2=r ω1 . Tuning of the ratio r there can unleash plenty of dynamical phenomena to occur. Our study includes integrable models like Ising and X Y models in d =1 and the Kitaev model in d =1 and 2 and can also be extended to Dirac fermions in graphene. We witness the wave-function overlap or dynamic freezing that occurs within some small/ intermediate frequency regimes in the (ω1,r ) plane (with r ≠0 ) when the ground state is evolved through a single cycle of driving. However, evolved states soon become steady with long driving, and the freezing scenario gets rarer. We extend the formalism of adiabatic-impulse approximation for many cycle driving within our two-rate protocol and show the near-exact comparisons at small frequencies. An extension of the rotating wave approximation is also developed to gather an analytical framework of the dynamics at high frequencies. Finally we compute the entanglement entropy in the stroboscopically evolved states within the gapped phases of the system and observe how it gets tuned with the ratio r in our protocol. The minimally entangled states are found to fall within the regime of dynamical freezing. In general, the results indicate that the entanglement entropy in our driven short-ranged integrable systems follow a genuine nonarea law of scaling and show a convergence (with a r dependent pace) towards volume scaling behavior as the driving is continued for a long time.

Clinical protocol. Gene therapy of Canavan disease: AAV-2 vector for neurosurgical delivery of aspartoacylase gene (ASPA) to the human brain.

PubMed

Janson, Christopher; McPhee, Scott; Bilaniuk, Larissa; Haselgrove, John; Testaiuti, Mark; Freese, Andrew; Wang, Dah-Jyuu; Shera, David; Hurh, Peter; Rupin, Joan; Saslow, Elizabeth; Goldfarb, Olga; Goldberg, Michael; Larijani, Ghassem; Sharrar, William; Liouterman, Larisa; Camp, Angelique; Kolodny, Edwin; Samulski, Jude; Leone, Paola

2002-07-20

This clinical protocol describes virus-based gene transfer for Canavan disease, a childhood leukodystrophy. Canavan disease, also known as Van Bogaert-Bertrand disease, is a monogeneic, autosomal recessive disease in which the gene coding for the enzyme aspartoacylase (ASPA) is defective. The lack of functional enzyme leads to an increase in the central nervous system of the substrate molecule, N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA), which impairs normal myelination and results in spongiform degeneration of the brain. No effective treatment currently exists; however, virus-based gene transfer has the potential to arrest or reverse the course of this otherwise fatal condition. This procedure involves neurosurgical administration of approximately 900 billion genomic particles (approximately 10 billion infectious particles) of recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) containing the aspartoacylase gene (ASPA) directly to affected regions of the brain in each of 21 patients with Canavan disease. Pre- and post-delivery assessments include a battery of noninvasive biochemical, radiological, and neurological tests. This gene transfer study represents the first clinical use of AAV in the human brain and the first instance of viral gene transfer for a neurodegenerative disease.

Comparative toxicity of pyrethroid insecticides to two estuarine crustacean species, Americamysis bahia and Palaemonetes pugio.

PubMed

DeLorenzo, Marie E; Key, Peter B; Chung, Katy W; Sapozhnikova, Yelena; Fulton, Michael H

2014-10-01

Pyrethroid insecticides are widely used on agricultural crops, as well as for nurseries, golf courses, urban structural and landscaping sites, residential home and garden pest control, and mosquito abatement. Evaluation of sensitive marine and estuarine species is essential for the development of toxicity testing and risk-assessment protocols. Two estuarine crustacean species, Americamysis bahia (mysids) and Palaemonetes pugio (grass shrimp), were tested with the commonly used pyrethroid compounds, lambda-cyhalothrin, permethrin, cypermethrin, deltamethrin, and phenothrin. Sensitivities of adult and larval grass shrimp and 7-day-old mysids were compared using standard 96-h LC50 bioassay protocols. Adult and larval grass shrimp were more sensitive than the mysids to all the pyrethroids tested. Larval grass shrimp were approximately 18-fold more sensitive to lambda-cyhalothrin than the mysids. Larval grass shrimp were similar in sensitivity to adult grass shrimp for cypermethrin, deltamethrin, and phenothrin, but larvae were approximately twice as sensitive to lambda-cyhalothrin and permethrin as adult shrimp. Acute toxicity to estuarine crustaceans occurred at low nanogram per liter concentrations of some pyrethroids, illustrating the need for careful regulation of the use of pyrethroid compounds in the coastal zone. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., a Wiley company.

Preparation of penta-O-galloyl-β-D-glucose from tannic acid and plasma pharmacokinetic analyses by liquid-liquid extraction and reverse-phase HPLC.

PubMed

Li, Li; Shaik, Ahmad Ali; Zhang, Jinhui; Nhkata, Katai; Wang, Lei; Zhang, Yong; Xing, Chengguo; Kim, Sung-Hoon; Lü, Junxuan

2011-02-20

The gallotannin penta-O-galloyl-beta-D-glucose (PGG) has many biological activities including in vivo anti-cancer efficacy. We present in this paper a scaled-up protocol for its preparation in high purity from tannic acid by acidic methanolysis with typical yield of 15%. We also describe a method for the analysis of PGG in mouse plasma by HPLC and its application in preliminary pharmacokinetic studies. A liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) protocol was optimized for the extraction of PGG from mouse plasma. The extraction efficiency for PGG at 1 μg/mL in mouse plasma was 70.0±1.3% (n=5). The limit of detection (LOD) for PGG was approximately 0.2 μg/mL. Preliminary pharmacokinetic parameters of PGG following a single i.p. injection with 5% ethanol/saline vehicle in mice were established. The peak plasma PGG concentrations (C(max)) were approximately 3-4 μM at a dose of 0.5 mg per mouse (∼20 mg/kg) at 2 h post-injection (T(max)). Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A statistical model of the human core-temperature circadian rhythm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, E. N.; Choe, Y.; Luithardt, H.; Czeisler, C. A.

2000-01-01

We formulate a statistical model of the human core-temperature circadian rhythm in which the circadian signal is modeled as a van der Pol oscillator, the thermoregulatory response is represented as a first-order autoregressive process, and the evoked effect of activity is modeled with a function specific for each circadian protocol. The new model directly links differential equation-based simulation models and harmonic regression analysis methods and permits statistical analysis of both static and dynamical properties of the circadian pacemaker from experimental data. We estimate the model parameters by using numerically efficient maximum likelihood algorithms and analyze human core-temperature data from forced desynchrony, free-run, and constant-routine protocols. By representing explicitly the dynamical effects of ambient light input to the human circadian pacemaker, the new model can estimate with high precision the correct intrinsic period of this oscillator ( approximately 24 h) from both free-run and forced desynchrony studies. Although the van der Pol model approximates well the dynamical features of the circadian pacemaker, the optimal dynamical model of the human biological clock may have a harmonic structure different from that of the van der Pol oscillator.

Performance analysis of optimal power allocation in wireless cooperative communication systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Babikir Adam, Edriss E.; Samb, Doudou; Yu, Li

2013-03-01

Cooperative communication has been recently proposed in wireless communication systems for exploring the inherent spatial diversity in relay channels.The Amplify-and-Forward (AF) cooperation protocols with multiple relays have not been sufficiently investigated even if it has a low complexity in term of implementation. We consider in this work a cooperative diversity system in which a source transmits some information to a destination with the help of multiple relay nodes with AF protocols and investigate the optimality of allocating powers both at the source and the relays system by optimizing the symbol error rate (SER) performance in an efficient way. Firstly we derive a closedform SER formulation for MPSK signal using the concept of moment generating function and some statistical approximations in high signal to noise ratio (SNR) for the system under studied. We then find a tight corresponding lower bound which converges to the same limit as the theoretical upper bound and develop an optimal power allocation (OPA) technique with mean channel gains to minimize the SER. Simulation results show that our scheme outperforms the equal power allocation (EPA) scheme and is tight to the theoretical approximation based on the SER upper bound in high SNR for different number of relays.

Closing the gap on Achilles tendon rupture: A cadaveric study quantifying the tendon apposition achieved with commonly used immobilisation practices.

PubMed

Collins, Ruaraidh; Sudlow, Alexis; Loizou, Constantinos; Loveday, David T; Smith, George

2018-04-01

The relative benefits of surgical and conservative treatment of Achilles tendon rupture are widely debated. With modern conservative management protocols, the re-rupture risk appears to fall to one similar to surgical repair with negligible loss of function. Conservative management typically employs a period of time in an equinus cast with sequential ankle dorsiflexion in a functional orthosis. The optimal duration of immobilisation and rate of dorsiflexion is unknown. We aimed to quantify the change in Achilles tendon approximation achieved in common immobilisation techniques to assist the design of rehabilitation protocols. Twelve fresh-frozen cadaveric specimens had 2.5cm of Achilles tendon excised. The gap between the tendon ends were measured via windowed full equinus casts and compared with functional boots with successively removed heel wedges. The greatest tendon apposition was achieved with the equinus cast. Each wedge removed decreased the reapproximation by approximately 5mm. This paper supports the early use of maximal equinus casting in early management of acute Achilles tendon ruptures. Copyright © 2017 European Foot and Ankle Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reprogramming retinal neurons and standardized quantification of their differentiation in 3-dimensional retinal cultures

PubMed Central

Hiler, Daniel J.; Barabas, Marie E.; Griffiths, Lyra M.; Dyer, Michael A.

2017-01-01

Postmitotic differentiated neurons are among the most difficult cells to reprogram into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) because they have poor viability when cultured as dissociated cells. Other protocols to reprogram postmitotic neurons have required the inactivation of the p53 tumor suppressor. We describe a method that does not require p53 inactivation and induces reprogramming in cells purified from the retinae of reprogrammable mice in aggregates with wild-type retinal cells. After the first 10 days of reprogramming, the aggregates are then dispersed and plated on irradiated feeder cells to propagate and isolate individual iPSC clones. The reprogramming efficiency of different neuronal populations at any stage of development can be quantitated using this protocol. Reprogramming retinal neurons with this protocol will take 56 days, and these retina-derived iPSCs can undergo retinal differentiation to produce retinae in 34 days. In addition, we describe a quantitative assessment of retinal differentiation from these neuron-derived iPSCs called STEM-RET. The procedure quantitates eye field specification, optic cup formation, and retinal differentiation in 3-dimensional cultures using molecular, cellular and morphological criteria. An advanced level of cell culture experience is required to carry out this protocol. PMID:27658012

Real-time echocardiogram transmission protocol based on regions and visualization modes.

PubMed

Cavero, Eva; Alesanco, Álvaro; García, José

2014-09-01

This paper proposes an Echocardiogram Transmission Protocol (ETP) for real-time end-to-end transmission of echocardiograms over IP networks. The ETP has been designed taking into account the echocardiogram characteristics of each visualized region, encoding each region according to its data type, visualization characteristics and diagnostic importance in order to improve the coding and thus the transmission efficiency. Furthermore, each region is sent separately and different error protection techniques can be used for each region. This leads to an efficient use of resources and provides greater protection for those regions with more clinical information. Synchronization is implemented for regions that change over time. The echocardiogram composition is different for each device. The protocol is valid for all echocardiogram devices thanks to the incorporation of configuration information which includes the composition of the echocardiogram. The efficiency of the ETP has been proved in terms of the number of bits sent with the proposed protocol. The codec and transmission rates used for the regions of interest have been set according to previous recommendations. Although the saving in the codified bits depends on the video composition, a coding gain higher than 7% with respect to without using ETP has been achieved.

VehiHealth: An Emergency Routing Protocol for Vehicular Ad Hoc Network to Support Healthcare System.

PubMed

Bhoi, S K; Khilar, P M

2016-03-01

Survival of a patient depends on effective data communication in healthcare system. In this paper, an emergency routing protocol for Vehicular Ad hoc Network (VANET) is proposed to quickly forward the current patient status information from the ambulance to the hospital to provide pre-medical treatment. As the ambulance takes time to reach the hospital, ambulance doctor can provide sudden treatment to the patient in emergency by sending patient status information to the hospital through the vehicles using vehicular communication. Secondly, the experienced doctors respond to the information by quickly sending a treatment information to the ambulance. In this protocol, data is forwarded through that path which has less link breakage problem between the vehicles. This is done by calculating an intersection value I v a l u e for the neighboring intersections by using the current traffic information. Then the data is forwarded through that intersection which has minimum I v a l u e . Simulation results show VehiHealth performs better than P-GEDIR, GyTAR, A-STAR and GSR routing protocols in terms of average end-to-end delay, number of link breakage, path length, and average response time.

Bank robberies: A psychological protocol of intervention in financial institutions and principal effects.

PubMed

Tabanelli, Maria Carla; Bonfiglioli, Roberta; Violante, Francesco S

2013-03-26

BACKGROUND: Robbery in workplaces represents a potentially traumatic experience for workers. OBJECTIVES: This article describes the set up and evaluation of a comprehensive psychological intervention designed to help to reduce the adverse consequences of bank robberies. PARTICIPANTS: The study population was selected among the employees of two Italian banks.METHODS: The psychological protocol was designed according to the results of a comprehensive non-systematic review of the scientific literature and it was evaluated at work site. RESULTS: The protocol consists of a "pre-event" formative intervention and "post-event" psychological support. The qualitative data collected allowed us to understand that the reactions after a robbery can differ depending on the phase during which the workers were exposed to the robbery. We noted that the main consequences can be classified in emotional/sentimental reactions, behavioral reactions, physiological reactions and experiences during the event; emotions/feelings following the robbery and psycho/physical state and emotions/feelings in the following days.CONCLUSIONS: In a working environment, the chance to take advantage of a specific protocol for the traumatic event of a bank robbery offers both the company and the workers important tools for well-being, including post-robbery psychological support and classroom instructions.

Flow Ambiguity: A Path Towards Classically Driven Blind Quantum Computation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mantri, Atul; Demarie, Tommaso F.; Menicucci, Nicolas C.; Fitzsimons, Joseph F.

2017-07-01

Blind quantum computation protocols allow a user to delegate a computation to a remote quantum computer in such a way that the privacy of their computation is preserved, even from the device implementing the computation. To date, such protocols are only known for settings involving at least two quantum devices: either a user with some quantum capabilities and a remote quantum server or two or more entangled but noncommunicating servers. In this work, we take the first step towards the construction of a blind quantum computing protocol with a completely classical client and single quantum server. Specifically, we show how a classical client can exploit the ambiguity in the flow of information in measurement-based quantum computing to construct a protocol for hiding critical aspects of a computation delegated to a remote quantum computer. This ambiguity arises due to the fact that, for a fixed graph, there exist multiple choices of the input and output vertex sets that result in deterministic measurement patterns consistent with the same fixed total ordering of vertices. This allows a classical user, computing only measurement angles, to drive a measurement-based computation performed on a remote device while hiding critical aspects of the computation.

A low power medium access control protocol for wireless medical sensor networks.

PubMed

Lamprinos, I; Prentza, A; Sakka, E; Koutsouris, D

2004-01-01

The concept of a wireless integrated network of sensors, already applied in several sectors of our everyday life, such as security, transportation and environment monitoring, can as well provide an advanced monitor and control resource for healthcare services. By networking medical sensors wirelessly, attaching them in patient's body, we create the appropriate infrastructure for continuous and real-time monitoring of patient without discomforting him. This infrastructure can improve healthcare by providing the means for flexible acquisition of vital signs, while at the same time it provides more convenience to the patient. Given the type of wireless network, traditional medium access control (MAC) protocols cannot take advantage of the application specific requirements and information characteristics occurring in medical sensor networks, such as the demand for low power consumption and the rather limited and asymmetric data traffic. In this paper, we present the architecture of a low power MAC protocol, designated to support wireless networks of medical sensors. This protocol aims to improve energy efficiency by exploiting the inherent application features and requirements. It is oriented towards the avoidance of main energy wastage sources, such as idle listening, collision and power outspending.

Reliable Multihop Broadcast Protocol with a Low-Overhead Link Quality Assessment for ITS Based on VANETs in Highway Scenarios

PubMed Central

Galaviz-Mosqueda, Alejandro; Villarreal-Reyes, Salvador; Galeana-Zapién, Hiram; Rubio-Loyola, Javier; Covarrubias-Rosales, David H.

2014-01-01

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have been identified as a key technology to enable intelligent transport systems (ITS), which are aimed to radically improve the safety, comfort, and greenness of the vehicles in the road. However, in order to fully exploit VANETs potential, several issues must be addressed. Because of the high dynamic of VANETs and the impairments in the wireless channel, one key issue arising when working with VANETs is the multihop dissemination of broadcast packets for safety and infotainment applications. In this paper a reliable low-overhead multihop broadcast (RLMB) protocol is proposed to address the well-known broadcast storm problem. The proposed RLMB takes advantage of the hello messages exchanged between the vehicles and it processes such information to intelligently select a relay set and reduce the redundant broadcast. Additionally, to reduce the hello messages rate dependency, RLMB uses a point-to-zone link evaluation approach. RLMB performance is compared with one of the leading multihop broadcast protocols existing to date. Performance metrics show that our RLMB solution outperforms the leading protocol in terms of important metrics such as packet dissemination ratio, overhead, and delay. PMID:25133224

An approximate analytical solution for interlaminar stresses in angle-ply laminates

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rose, Cheryl A.; Herakovich, Carl T.

1991-01-01

An improved approximate analytical solution for interlaminar stresses in finite width, symmetric, angle-ply laminated coupons subjected to axial loading is presented. The solution is based upon statically admissible stress fields which take into consideration local property mismatch effects and global equilibrium requirements. Unknown constants in the admissible stress states are determined through minimization of the complementary energy. Typical results are presented for through-the-thickness and interlaminar stress distributions for angle-ply laminates. It is shown that the results represent an improved approximate analytical solution for interlaminar stresses.

A study protocol for a randomised controlled trial of an interactive web-based intervention: CancerCope

PubMed Central

Chambers, Suzanne K; Ritterband, Lee; Thorndike, Frances; Nielsen, Lisa; Aitken, Joanne F; Clutton, Samantha; Scuffham, Paul; Youl, Philippa; Morris, Bronwyn; Baade, Peter; Dunn, Jeffrey

2017-01-01

Introduction Approximately 35% of patients with cancer experience clinically significant distress, and unmet psychological supportive care needs are prevalent. This study describes the protocol for a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to assess the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of an internet-based psychological intervention for distressed patients with cancer. Methods and analysis In phase I, the intervention was developed on an interactive web platform and pilot tested for acceptability using a qualitative methodology with 21 patients with cancer. Phase II is an RCT underway with patients with or at risk of elevated psychological distress comparing: (1) static patient education website with (2) individualised web-delivered cognitive behavioural intervention (CancerCope). Participants were recruited through the Queensland Cancer Registry and Cancer Council Helpline and met the following inclusion criteria: (1) recently diagnosed with cancer; (2) able to read and speak English; (3) no previous history of head injury, dementia or psychiatric illness; (4) no other concurrent cancer; (5) phone and internet access; (5) scored ≥4 on the Distress Thermometer. Participants are assessed at four time points: baseline/recruitment and 2, 6 and 12 months after recruitment and intervention commencement. Of the 163 participants recruited, 50% met caseness for distress. The area of highest unmet supportive care needs were psychological followed by physical and daily living needs. Primary outcomes are psychological and cancer-specific distress and unmet psychological supportive care needs. Secondary outcomes are positive adjustment, quality of life and cost-effectiveness. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval was obtained from the Griffith University Human Research Ethics Committee (Approval: PSY/70/13/HREC) and the Metro South Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC/13/QPAH/601). All participants provide informed consent prior to taking part in the study. Once completed, this study will provide recommendations about the efficacy of web-based cognitive behavioural interventions to facilitate better psychosocial adjustment for people with cancer. Trial registration number ANZCTR (ACTRN12613001026718). PMID:28645985

Obese parents--obese children? Psychological-psychiatric risk factors of parental behavior and experience for the development of obesity in children aged 0-3: study protocol.

PubMed

Grube, Matthias; Bergmann, Sarah; Keitel, Anja; Herfurth-Majstorovic, Katharina; Wendt, Verena; von Klitzing, Kai; Klein, Annette M

2013-12-17

The incidences of childhood overweight and obesity have increased substantially and with them the prevalence of associated somatic and psychiatric health problems. Therefore, it is important to identify modifiable risk factors for early childhood overweight in order to develop effective prevention or intervention programs. Besides biological factors, familial interactions and parental behavioral patterns may influence children's weight development. Longitudinal investigation of children at overweight risk could help to detect significant risk and protective factors. We aim to describe infants' weight development over time and identify risk and protective factors for the incidence of childhood obesity. Based on our findings we will draw up a risk model that will lay the foundation for an intervention/prevention program. We present the protocol of a prospective longitudinal study in which we investigate families with children aged from 6 months to 47 months. In half of the families at least one parent is obese (risk group), in the other half both parents are normal weight (control group). Based on developmental and health-psychological models, we consider measurements at three levels: the child, the parents and parent-child-relationship. Three assessment points are approximately one year apart. At each assessment point we evaluate the psychological, social, and behavioral situation of the parents as well as the physical and psychosocial development of the child. Parents are interviewed, fill in questionnaires, and take part in standardized interaction tasks with their child in a feeding and in a playing context in our research laboratory. The quality of these video-taped parent-child interactions is assessed by analyzing them with standardized, validated instruments according to scientific standards. Strengths of the presented study are the prospective longitudinal design, the multi-informant approach, including the fathers, and the observation of parent-child interaction. A limitation is the variation in children's age.

Do Intermediate Radiation Doses Contribute to Late Rectal Toxicity? An Analysis of Data From Radiation Therapy Oncology Group Protocol 94-06

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

Tucker, Susan L., E-mail: sltucker@mdanderson.org; Dong, Lei; Michalski, Jeff M.

2012-10-01

Purpose: To investigate whether the volumes of rectum exposed to intermediate doses, from 30 to 50 Gy, contribute to the risk of Grade {>=}2 late rectal toxicity among patients with prostate cancer receiving radiotherapy. Methods and Materials: Data from 1009 patients treated on Radiation Therapy Oncology Group protocol 94-06 were analyzed using three approaches. First, the contribution of intermediate doses to a previously published fit of the Lyman-Kutcher-Burman (LKB) normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) model was determined. Next, the extent to which intermediate doses provide additional risk information, after taking the LKB model into account, was investigated. Third, the proportionmore » of rectum receiving doses higher than a threshold, VDose, was computed for doses ranging from 5 to 85 Gy, and a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model was used to determine which of these parameters were significantly associated with time to Grade {>=}2 late rectal toxicity. Results: Doses <60 Gy had no detectable impact on the fit of the LKB model, as expected on the basis of the small estimate of the volume parameter (n = 0.077). Furthermore, there was no detectable difference in late rectal toxicity among cohorts with similar risk estimates from the LKB model but with different volumes of rectum exposed to intermediate doses. The multivariate Cox proportional hazards model selected V75 as the only value of VDose significantly associated with late rectal toxicity. Conclusions: There is no evidence from these data that intermediate doses influence the risk of Grade {>=}2 late rectal toxicity. Instead, the critical doses for this endpoint seem to be {>=}75 Gy. It is hypothesized that cases of Grade {>=}2 late rectal toxicity occurring among patients with V75 less than approximately 12% may be due to a 'background' level of risk, likely due mainly to biological factors.« less

The Combined Dexamethasone/TSST Paradigm – A New Method for Psychoneuroendocrinology

PubMed Central

Andrews, Julie; D’Aguiar, Catherine; Pruessner, Jens C.

2012-01-01

The two main physiological systems involved in the regulation of the stress response are the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). However, the interaction of these systems on the stress response remains poorly understood. To better understand the cross-regulatory effects of the different systems involved in stress regulation, we developed a new stress paradigm that keeps the activity of the HPA constant when exposing subjects to psychosocial stress. Thirty healthy male participants were recruited and randomly assigned to either a dexamethasone (DEX; n = 15) or placebo (PLC; n = 15) group. All subjects were instructed to take the Dexamethasone (2 mg) or Placebo pill the night before coming to the laboratory to undergo the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST). Salivary cortisol, salivary alpha amylase (sAA), heart rate, blood pressure and subjective stress were assessed throughout the protocol. As expected, the DEX group presented with suppressed cortisol levels. In comparison, their heart rate was elevated by approximately ten base points compared to the PLC group, with increases throughout the protocol and during the TSST. Neither sAA, nor systolic or diastolic blood pressures showed significant group differences. Subjective stress levels significantly increased from baseline, and were found to be higher before and after the TSST after DEX compared to placebo. These results demonstrate a significant interaction between the HPA and the SNS during acute stress. The SNS activity was found to be elevated in the presence of a suppressed HPA axis, with some further effects on subjective levels of stress. The method to suppress the HPA prior to inducing stress was found to completely reliable, without any adverse side effects. Therefore, we propose this paradigm as a new method to investigate the interaction of the two major stress systems in the regulation of the stress response. PMID:22701740

Effects of varenicline and cognitive bias modification on neural response to smoking-related cues: study protocol for a randomized controlled study.

PubMed

Attwood, Angela S; Williams, Tim; Adams, Sally; McClernon, Francis J; Munafò, Marcus R

2014-10-07

Smoking-related cues can trigger drug-seeking behaviors, and computer-based interventions that reduce cognitive biases towards such cues may be efficacious and cost-effective cessation aids. In order to optimize such interventions, there needs to be better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the effects of cognitive bias modification (CBM). Here we present a protocol for an investigation of the neural effects of CBM and varenicline in non-quitting daily smokers. We will recruit 72 daily smokers who report smoking at least 10 manufactured cigarettes or 15 roll-ups per day and who smoke within one hour of waking. Participants will attend two sessions approximately one week apart. At the first session participants will be screened for eligibility and randomized to receive either varenicline or a placebo over a seven-day period. On the final drug-taking day (day seven) participants will attend a second session and be further randomized to one of three CBM conditions (training towards smoking cues, training away from smoking cues, or control training). Participants will then undergo a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan during which they will view smoking-related pictorial cues. Primary outcome measures are changes in cognitive bias as measured by the visual dot-probe task, and neural responses to smoking-related cues. Secondary outcome measures will be cognitive bias as measured by a transfer task (modified Stroop test of smoking-related cognitive bias) and subjective mood and cigarette craving. This study will add to the relatively small literature examining the effects of CBM in addictions. It will address novel questions regarding the neural effects of CBM. It will also investigate whether varenicline treatment alters neural response to smoking-related cues. These findings will inform future research that can develop behavioral treatments that target relapse prevention. Registered with Current Controlled Trials: ISRCTN65690030. Registered on 30 January 2014.

Chronic hand eczema--self-management and prognosis: a study protocol for a randomised clinical trial.

PubMed

Mollerup, Annette; Veien, Niels Kren; Johansen, Jeanne Duus

2012-06-12

Hand eczema has a one-year prevalence of approximately 10 % in the general Danish population. Often the disease becomes chronic with numerous implications for the individual's daily life, occupation and quality of life. However, no guidelines of self-management recommendations beyond the acute stage are given. Self-management of the disease is pivotal and involves self-monitoring of the condition, medication adherence, and preventive behaviour. Interventions best to support the individual in this ongoing process need to be developed. This paper describes the design of a randomised clinical trial to test a newly developed intervention of individual counselling versus conventional information. 300 patients consecutively referred to dermatologic treatment at two different settings are individually randomised to either the intervention programme, named 'The Healthy Skin Clinic' or to the control group. Block-wise randomisation according to setting and gender is carried out.The intervention offers a tool for self-monitoring; basic and specific individual counselling; the possibility of asynchronous communication with the intervention team; and an electronic patient dialogue forum. Primary outcome variable is objective assessment of the hand eczema severity performed at baseline prior to randomisation, and repeated at six months follow-up. Secondary outcome variables are dermatology related life quality and perceived global burden of disease. The trial aims at evaluating a newly developed guidance programme which is expected to support self-management of patients referred to dermatology treatment due to chronic hand eczema. The design of the protocol is pragmatic with blinding of neither participants nor the investigator. Thus, in the interpretation of the results, the investigator takes into account effects that may be attributed to actors of the interventions rather than the intervention per se as well of potential observer bias. Inclusion criterions are wide in order to increase transferability of the results. The trial is registered in ClinicalTrials.Gov with registration number NCT01482663.

Thermal Scanning Conductometry (TSC) as a General Method for Studying and Controlling the Phase Behavior of Conductive Physical Gels.

PubMed

Bielejewski, Michal

2018-01-23

The thermal scanning conductometry protocol is a new approach in studying ionic gels based on low molecular weight gelators. The method is designed to follow the dynamically changing state of the ionogels, and to deliver more information and details about the subtle change of conductive properties with an increase or decrease in the temperature. Moreover, the method allows the performance of long term (i.e. days, weeks) measurements at a constant temperature to investigate the stability and durability of the system and the aging effects. The main advantage of the TSC method over classical conductometry is the ability to perform measurements during the gelation process, which was impossible with the classical method due to temperature stabilization, which usually takes a long time before the individual measurement. It is a well-known fact that to obtain the physical gel phase, the cooling stage must be fast; moreover, depending on the cooling rate, different microstructures can be achieved. The TSC method can be performed with any cooling/heating rate that can be assured by the external temperature system. In our case, we can achieve linear temperature change rates between 0.1 and approximately 10 °C/min. The thermal scanning conductometry is designed to work in cycles, continuously changing between heating and cooling stages. Such an approach allows study of the reproducibility of the thermally reversible gel-sol phase transition. Moreover, it allows the performance of different experimental protocols on the same sample, which can be refreshed to initial state (if necessary) without removal from the measuring cell. Therefore, the measurements can be performed faster, in a more efficient way, and with much higher reproducibility and accuracy. Additionally, the TSC method can be also used as a tool to manufacture the ionogels with targeted properties, like microstructure, with an instant characterization of conductive properties.

Obese parents – obese children? Psychological-psychiatric risk factors of parental behavior and experience for the development of obesity in children aged 0–3: study protocol

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background The incidences of childhood overweight and obesity have increased substantially and with them the prevalence of associated somatic and psychiatric health problems. Therefore, it is important to identify modifiable risk factors for early childhood overweight in order to develop effective prevention or intervention programs. Besides biological factors, familial interactions and parental behavioral patterns may influence children’s weight development. Longitudinal investigation of children at overweight risk could help to detect significant risk and protective factors. We aim to describe infants’ weight development over time and identify risk and protective factors for the incidence of childhood obesity. Based on our findings we will draw up a risk model that will lay the foundation for an intervention/prevention program. Methods/Design We present the protocol of a prospective longitudinal study in which we investigate families with children aged from 6 months to 47 months. In half of the families at least one parent is obese (risk group), in the other half both parents are normal weight (control group). Based on developmental and health-psychological models, we consider measurements at three levels: the child, the parents and parent–child-relationship. Three assessment points are approximately one year apart. At each assessment point we evaluate the psychological, social, and behavioral situation of the parents as well as the physical and psychosocial development of the child. Parents are interviewed, fill in questionnaires, and take part in standardized interaction tasks with their child in a feeding and in a playing context in our research laboratory. The quality of these video-taped parent–child interactions is assessed by analyzing them with standardized, validated instruments according to scientific standards. Discussion Strengths of the presented study are the prospective longitudinal design, the multi-informant approach, including the fathers, and the observation of parent–child interaction. A limitation is the variation in children’s age. PMID:24341703

Chronic hand eczema - self-management and prognosis: a study protocol for a randomised clinical trial

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Hand eczema has a one-year prevalence of approximately 10 % in the general Danish population. Often the disease becomes chronic with numerous implications for the individual’s daily life, occupation and quality of life. However, no guidelines of self-management recommendations beyond the acute stage are given. Self-management of the disease is pivotal and involves self-monitoring of the condition, medication adherence, and preventive behaviour. Interventions best to support the individual in this ongoing process need to be developed. Methods/design This paper describes the design of a randomised clinical trial to test a newly developed intervention of individual counselling versus conventional information. 300 patients consecutively referred to dermatologic treatment at two different settings are individually randomised to either the intervention programme, named ‘The Healthy Skin Clinic’ or to the control group. Block-wise randomisation according to setting and gender is carried out. The intervention offers a tool for self-monitoring; basic and specific individual counselling; the possibility of asynchronous communication with the intervention team; and an electronic patient dialogue forum. Primary outcome variable is objective assessment of the hand eczema severity performed at baseline prior to randomisation, and repeated at six months follow-up. Secondary outcome variables are dermatology related life quality and perceived global burden of disease. Discussion The trial aims at evaluating a newly developed guidance programme which is expected to support self-management of patients referred to dermatology treatment due to chronic hand eczema. The design of the protocol is pragmatic with blinding of neither participants nor the investigator. Thus, in the interpretation of the results, the investigator takes into account effects that may be attributed to actors of the interventions rather than the intervention per se as well of potential observer bias. Inclusion criterions are wide in order to increase transferability of the results. Trial registration The trial is registered in ClinicalTrials.Gov with registration number NCT01482663. PMID:22691871

Guidelines for randomized clinical trial protocol content: a systematic review

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background All randomized clinical trials (RCTs) require a protocol; however, numerous studies have highlighted protocol deficiencies. Reporting guidelines may improve the content of research reports and, if developed using robust methods, may increase the utility of reports to stakeholders. The objective of this study was to systematically identify and review RCT protocol guidelines, to assess their characteristics and methods of development, and to compare recommendations. Methods We conducted a systematic review of indexed literature (MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane Methodology Register from inception to September 2010; reference lists; related article features; forward citation searching) and a targeted search of supplementary sources, including a survey of major trial funding agencies in six countries. Records were eligible if they described a content guideline in English or French relevant to RCT protocols. Guidelines were excluded if they specified content for protocols for trials of specific procedures or conditions or were intended to assess trial quality. We extracted guideline characteristics and methods. Content was mapped for a subset of guidelines that described development methods or had institutional endorsement. Results Forty guidelines published in journals, books and institutional reports were included in the review; seven were specific to RCT protocols. Only eight (20%) described development methods which included informal consensus methods, pilot testing and formal validation; no guideline described all of these methods. No guideline described formal consensus methods or a systematic retrieval of empirical evidence to inform its development. The guidelines included a median of 23 concepts per guideline (interquartile range (IQR) = 14 to 34; range = 7 to 109). Among the subset of guidelines (n = 23) for which content was mapped, approximately 380 concepts were explicitly addressed (median concepts per guideline IQR = 31 (24,80); range = 16 to 150); most concepts were addressed in a minority of guidelines. Conclusions Existing guidelines for RCT protocol content varied substantially in their recommendations. Few reports described the methods of guideline development, limiting comparisons of guideline validity. Given the importance of protocols to diverse stakeholders, we believe a systematically developed, evidence-informed guideline for clinical trial protocols is needed. PMID:23006870

Guidelines for randomized clinical trial protocol content: a systematic review.

PubMed

Tetzlaff, Jennifer M; Chan, An-Wen; Kitchen, Jessica; Sampson, Margaret; Tricco, Andrea C; Moher, David

2012-09-24

All randomized clinical trials (RCTs) require a protocol; however, numerous studies have highlighted protocol deficiencies. Reporting guidelines may improve the content of research reports and, if developed using robust methods, may increase the utility of reports to stakeholders. The objective of this study was to systematically identify and review RCT protocol guidelines, to assess their characteristics and methods of development, and to compare recommendations. We conducted a systematic review of indexed literature (MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane Methodology Register from inception to September 2010; reference lists; related article features; forward citation searching) and a targeted search of supplementary sources, including a survey of major trial funding agencies in six countries. Records were eligible if they described a content guideline in English or French relevant to RCT protocols. Guidelines were excluded if they specified content for protocols for trials of specific procedures or conditions or were intended to assess trial quality. We extracted guideline characteristics and methods. Content was mapped for a subset of guidelines that described development methods or had institutional endorsement. Forty guidelines published in journals, books and institutional reports were included in the review; seven were specific to RCT protocols. Only eight (20%) described development methods which included informal consensus methods, pilot testing and formal validation; no guideline described all of these methods. No guideline described formal consensus methods or a systematic retrieval of empirical evidence to inform its development. The guidelines included a median of 23 concepts per guideline (interquartile range (IQR) = 14 to 34; range = 7 to 109). Among the subset of guidelines (n = 23) for which content was mapped, approximately 380 concepts were explicitly addressed (median concepts per guideline IQR = 31 (24,80); range = 16 to 150); most concepts were addressed in a minority of guidelines. Existing guidelines for RCT protocol content varied substantially in their recommendations. Few reports described the methods of guideline development, limiting comparisons of guideline validity. Given the importance of protocols to diverse stakeholders, we believe a systematically developed, evidence-informed guideline for clinical trial protocols is needed.

The Virtual Insect Brain protocol: creating and comparing standardized neuroanatomy

PubMed Central

Jenett, Arnim; Schindelin, Johannes E; Heisenberg, Martin

2006-01-01

Background In the fly Drosophila melanogaster, new genetic, physiological, molecular and behavioral techniques for the functional analysis of the brain are rapidly accumulating. These diverse investigations on the function of the insect brain use gene expression patterns that can be visualized and provide the means for manipulating groups of neurons as a common ground. To take advantage of these patterns one needs to know their typical anatomy. Results This paper describes the Virtual Insect Brain (VIB) protocol, a script suite for the quantitative assessment, comparison, and presentation of neuroanatomical data. It is based on the 3D-reconstruction and visualization software Amira, version 3.x (Mercury Inc.) [1]. Besides its backbone, a standardization procedure which aligns individual 3D images (series of virtual sections obtained by confocal microscopy) to a common coordinate system and computes average intensities for each voxel (volume pixel) the VIB protocol provides an elaborate data management system for data administration. The VIB protocol facilitates direct comparison of gene expression patterns and describes their interindividual variability. It provides volumetry of brain regions and helps to characterize the phenotypes of brain structure mutants. Using the VIB protocol does not require any programming skills since all operations are carried out at an intuitively usable graphical user interface. Although the VIB protocol has been developed for the standardization of Drosophila neuroanatomy, the program structure can be used for the standardization of other 3D structures as well. Conclusion Standardizing brains and gene expression patterns is a new approach to biological shape and its variability. The VIB protocol provides a first set of tools supporting this endeavor in Drosophila. The script suite is freely available at [2] PMID:17196102

Time Synchronization and Distribution Mechanisms for Space Networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Woo, Simon S.; Gao, Jay L.; Clare, Loren P.; Mills, David L.

2011-01-01

This work discusses research on the problems of synchronizing and distributing time information between spacecraft based on the Network Time Protocol (NTP), where NTP is a standard time synchronization protocol widely used in the terrestrial network. The Proximity-1 Space Link Interleaved Time Synchronization (PITS) Protocol was designed and developed for synchronizing spacecraft that are in proximity where proximity is less than 100,000 km distant. A particular application is synchronization between a Mars orbiter and rover. Lunar scenarios as well as outer-planet deep space mother-ship-probe missions may also apply. Spacecraft with more accurate time information functions as a time-server, and the other spacecraft functions as a time-client. PITS can be easily integrated and adaptable to the CCSDS Proximity-1 Space Link Protocol with minor modifications. In particular, PITS can take advantage of the timestamping strategy that underlying link layer functionality provides for accurate time offset calculation. The PITS algorithm achieves time synchronization with eight consecutive space network time packet exchanges between two spacecraft. PITS can detect and avoid possible errors from receiving duplicate and out-of-order packets by comparing with the current state variables and timestamps. Further, PITS is able to detect error events and autonomously recover from unexpected events that can possibly occur during the time synchronization and distribution process. This capability achieves an additional level of protocol protection on top of CRC or Error Correction Codes. PITS is a lightweight and efficient protocol, eliminating the needs for explicit frame sequence number and long buffer storage. The PITS protocol is capable of providing time synchronization and distribution services for a more general domain where multiple entities need to achieve time synchronization using a single point-to-point link.

Influence of the Distribution of Tag IDs on RFID Memoryless Anti-Collision Protocols

PubMed Central

Cmiljanic, Nikola; Landaluce, Hugo; Perallos, Asier; Arjona, Laura

2017-01-01

In recent years, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has become very popular. The main feature of this technology is that RFID tags do not require close handling and no line of sight is required between the reader and the tags. RFID is a technology that uses radio frequencies in order to identify tags, which do not need to be positioned accurately relative to the reader. Tags share the communication channel, increasing the likelihood of causing a problem, viz., a message collision. Tree based protocols can resolve these collisions, but require a uniform tag ID distribution. This means they are very dependent of the distribution of the IDs of the tags. Tag IDs are written in the tag and contain a predefined bit string of data. A study of the influence of the tag ID distribution on the protocols’ behaviour is proposed here. A new protocol, called the Flexible Query window Tree (FQwT) is presented to estimate the tag ID distribution, taking into consideration the type of distribution. The aim is to create a flexible anti-collision protocol in order to identify a set of tags that constitute an ID distribution. As a result, the reader classifies tags into groups determined by using a distribution estimator. Simulations show that the FQwT protocol contributes to significant reductions in identification time and energy consumption regardless of the type of ID distribution. PMID:28817070

[Professional divers: analysis of critical issues and proposal of a health protocol for work fitness].

PubMed

Pedata, Paola; Corvino, Anna Rita; Napolitano, Raffaele Carmine; Garzillo, Elpidio Maria; Furfaro, Ciro; Lamberti, Monica

2016-01-20

From many years now, thanks to the development of modern diving techniques, there has been a rapid spread of diving activities everywhere. In fact, divers are ever more numerous both among the Armed Forces and civilians who dive for work, like fishing, biological research and archeology. The aim of the study was to propose a health protocol for work fitness of professional divers keeping in mind the peculiar work activity, existing Italian legislation that is almost out of date and the technical and scientific evolution in this occupational field. We performed an analysis of the most frequently occurring diseases among professional divers and of the clinical investigation and imaging techniques used for work fitness assessment of professional divers. From analysis of the health protocol recommended by D.M. 13 January 1979 (Ministerial Decree), that is most used by occupational health physician, several critical issues emerged. Very often the clinical investigation and imaging techniques still used are almost obsolete, ignoring the execution of simple and inexpensive investigations that are more useful for work fitness assessment. Considering the out-dated legislation concerning diving disciplines, it is necessary to draw up a common health protocol that takes into account clinical and scientific knowledge and skills acquired in this area. This protocol's aim is to propose a useful tool for occupational health physicians who work in this sector.

Dynamic Hierarchical Energy-Efficient Method Based on Combinatorial Optimization for Wireless Sensor Networks.

PubMed

Chang, Yuchao; Tang, Hongying; Cheng, Yongbo; Zhao, Qin; Yuan, Baoqing Li andXiaobing

2017-07-19

Routing protocols based on topology control are significantly important for improving network longevity in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Traditionally, some WSN routing protocols distribute uneven network traffic load to sensor nodes, which is not optimal for improving network longevity. Differently to conventional WSN routing protocols, we propose a dynamic hierarchical protocol based on combinatorial optimization (DHCO) to balance energy consumption of sensor nodes and to improve WSN longevity. For each sensor node, the DHCO algorithm obtains the optimal route by establishing a feasible routing set instead of selecting the cluster head or the next hop node. The process of obtaining the optimal route can be formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem. Specifically, the DHCO algorithm is carried out by the following procedures. It employs a hierarchy-based connection mechanism to construct a hierarchical network structure in which each sensor node is assigned to a special hierarchical subset; it utilizes the combinatorial optimization theory to establish the feasible routing set for each sensor node, and takes advantage of the maximum-minimum criterion to obtain their optimal routes to the base station. Various results of simulation experiments show effectiveness and superiority of the DHCO algorithm in comparison with state-of-the-art WSN routing algorithms, including low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH), hybrid energy-efficient distributed clustering (HEED), genetic protocol-based self-organizing network clustering (GASONeC), and double cost function-based routing (DCFR) algorithms.

In Vitro Mass Propagation of Cymbopogon citratus Stapf., a Medicinal Gramineae.

PubMed

Quiala, Elisa; Barbón, Raúl; Capote, Alina; Pérez, Naivy; Jiménez, Elio

2016-01-01

Cymbopogon citratus (D.C.) Stapf. is a medicinal plant source of lemon grass oils with multiple uses in the pharmaceutical and food industry. Conventional propagation in semisolid culture medium has become a fast tool for mass propagation of lemon grass, but the production cost must be lower. A solution could be the application of in vitro propagation methods based on liquid culture advantages and automation. This chapter provides two efficient protocols for in vitro propagation via organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis of this medicinal plant. Firstly, we report the production of shoots using a temporary immersion system (TIS). Secondly, a protocol for somatic embryogenesis using semisolid culture for callus formation and multiplication, and liquid culture in a rotatory shaker and conventional bioreactors for the maintenance of embryogenic culture, is described. Well-developed plants can be achieved from both protocols. Here we provide a fast and efficient technology for mass propagation of this medicinal plant taking the advantage of liquid culture and automation.

Reliable WDM multicast in optical burst-switched networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jeong, Myoungki; Qiao, Chunming; Xiong, Yijun

2000-09-01

IN this paper,l we present a reliable WDM (Wavelength-Division Multiplexing) multicast protocol in optical burst-switched (OBS) networks. Since the burst dropping (loss) probability may be potentially high in a heavily loaded OBS backbone network, reliable multicast protocols that have developed for IP networks at the transport (or application) layer may incur heavy overheads such as a large number of duplicate retransmissions. In addition, it may take a longer time for an end host to detect and then recover from burst dropping (loss) occurred at the WDM layer. For efficiency reasons, we propose burst loss recovery within the OBS backbone (i.e., at the WDM link layer). The proposed protocol requires two additional functions to be performed by the WDM switch controller: subcasting and maintaining burst states, when the WDM switch has more than one downstream on the WDM multicast tree. We show that these additional functions are simple to implement and the overhead associated with them is manageable.

Absolute quantification of olive oil DNA by droplet digital-PCR (ddPCR): Comparison of isolation and amplification methodologies.

PubMed

Scollo, Francesco; Egea, Leticia A; Gentile, Alessandra; La Malfa, Stefano; Dorado, Gabriel; Hernandez, Pilar

2016-12-15

Olive oil is considered a premium product for its nutritional value and health benefits, and the ability to define its origin and varietal composition is a key step towards ensuring the traceability of the product. However, isolating the DNA from such a matrix is a difficult task. In this study, the quality and quantity of olive oil DNA, isolated using four different DNA isolation protocols, was evaluated using the qRT-PCR and ddPCR techniques. The results indicate that CTAB-based extraction methods were the best for unfiltered oil, while Nucleo Spin-based extraction protocols showed greater overall reproducibility. The use of both qRT-PCR and ddPCR led to the absolute quantification of the DNA copy number. The results clearly demonstrate the importance of the choice of DNA-isolation protocol, which should take into consideration the qualitative aspects of DNA and the evaluation of the amplified DNA copy number. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Is the Prosthetic Homologue Necessary for Embodiment?

PubMed Central

Dornfeld, Chelsea; Swanston, Michelle; Cassella, Joseph; Beasley, Casey; Green, Jacob; Moshayev, Yonatan; Wininger, Michael

2016-01-01

Embodiment is the process by which patients with limb loss come to accept their peripheral device as a natural extension of self. However, there is little guidance as to how exacting the prosthesis must be in order for embodiment to take place: is it necessary for the prosthetic hand to look just like the absent hand? Here, we describe a protocol for testing whether an individual would select a hand that looks like their own from among a selection of five hands, and whether the hand selection (regardless of homology) is consistent across multiple exposures to the same (but reordered) set of candidate hands. Pilot results using healthy volunteers reveals that hand selection is only modestly consistent, and that selection of the prosthetic homologue is atypical (61 of 192 total exposures). Our protocol can be executed in minutes, and makes use of readily available equipment and softwares. We present both a face-to-face and a virtual protocol, for maximum flexibility of implementation. PMID:28066228

Fast formation cycling for lithium ion batteries

DOE PAGES

An, Seong Jin; Li, Jianlin; Du, Zhijia; ...

2017-01-09

The formation process for lithium ion batteries typically takes several days or more, and it is necessary for providing a stable solid electrolyte interphase on the anode (at low potentials vs. Li/Li +) for preventing irreversible consumption of electrolyte and lithium ions. An analogous layer known as the cathode electrolyte interphase layer forms at the cathode at high potentials vs. Li/Li +. However, several days, or even up to a week, of these processes result in either lower LIB production rates or a prohibitively large size of charging-discharging equipment and space (i.e. excessive capital cost). In this study, a fastmore » and effective electrolyte interphase formation protocol is proposed and compared with an Oak Ridge National Laboratory baseline protocol. Graphite, NMC 532, and 1.2 M LiPF 6 in ethylene carbonate: diethyl carbonate were used as anodes, cathodes, and electrolytes, respectively. Finally, results from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy show the new protocol reduced surface film (electrolyte interphase) resistances, and 1300 aging cycles show an improvement in capacity retention.« less

Single-Cell Semiconductor Sequencing

PubMed Central

Kohn, Andrea B.; Moroz, Tatiana P.; Barnes, Jeffrey P.; Netherton, Mandy; Moroz, Leonid L.

2014-01-01

RNA-seq or transcriptome analysis of individual cells and small-cell populations is essential for virtually any biomedical field. It is especially critical for developmental, aging, and cancer biology as well as neuroscience where the enormous heterogeneity of cells present a significant methodological and conceptual challenge. Here we present two methods that allow for fast and cost-efficient transcriptome sequencing from ultra-small amounts of tissue or even from individual cells using semiconductor sequencing technology (Ion Torrent, Life Technologies). The first method is a reduced representation sequencing which maximizes capture of RNAs and preserves transcripts’ directionality. The second, a template-switch protocol, is designed for small mammalian neurons. Both protocols, from cell/tissue isolation to final sequence data, take up to 4 days. The efficiency of these protocols has been validated with single hippocampal neurons and various invertebrate tissues including individually identified neurons within a simpler memory-forming circuit of Aplysia californica and early (1-, 2-, 4-, 8-cells) embryonic and developmental stages from basal metazoans. PMID:23929110

Mothers After Gestational Diabetes in Australia Diabetes Prevention Program (MAGDA-DPP) post-natal intervention: an update to the study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Shih, Sophy T F; Davis-Lameloise, Nathalie; Janus, Edward D; Wildey, Carol; Versace, Vincent L; Hagger, Virginia; Asproloupos, Dino; O'Reilly, Sharleen L; Phillips, Paddy A; Ackland, Michael; Skinner, Timothy; Oats, Jeremy; Carter, Rob; Best, James D; Dunbar, James A

2014-06-30

The Mothers After Gestational Diabetes in Australia Diabetes Prevention Program (MAGDA-DPP) is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) that aims to assess the effectiveness of a structured diabetes prevention intervention for women who had gestational diabetes. The original protocol was published in Trials (http://www.trialsjournal.com/content/14/1/339). This update reports on an additional exclusion criterion and change in first eligibility screening to provide greater clarity. The new exclusion criterion "surgical or medical intervention to treat obesity" has been added to the original protocol. The risks of developing diabetes will be affected by any medical or surgical intervention as its impact on obesity will alter the outcomes being assessed by MAGDA-DPP. The screening procedures have also been updated to reflect the current recruitment operation. The first eligibility screening is now taking place either during or after pregnancy, depending on recruitment strategy. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ANZCTRN 12610000338066.

Evidence-based protocol for structural rehabilitation of the spine and posture: review of clinical biomechanics of posture (CBP®) publications

PubMed Central

Oakley, Paul A.; Harrison, Donald D.; Harrison, Deed E.; Haas, Jason W.

2005-01-01

BACKGROUND Although practice protocols exist for SMT and functional rehabilitation, no practice protocols exist for structural rehabilitation. Traditional chiropractic practice guidelines have been limited to acute and chronic pain treatment, with limited inclusion of functional and exclusion of structural rehabilitation procedures. OBJECTIVE (1) To derive an evidence-based practice protocol for structural rehabilitation from publications on Clinical Biomechanics of Posture (CBP®) methods, and (2) to compare the evidence for Diversified, SMT, and CBP®. METHODS Clinical control trials utilizing CBP® methods and spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) were obtained from searches in Mantis, CINAHL, and Index Medicus. Using data from SMT review articles, evidence for Diversified Technique (as taught in chiropractic colleges), SMT, and CBP® were rated and compared. RESULTS From the evidence from Clinical Control Trials on SMT and CBP®, there is very little evidence support for Diversified (our rating = 18), as taught in chiropractic colleges, for the treatment of pain subjects, while CBP® (our rating = 46) and SMT for neck pain (rating = 58) and low back pain (our rating = 202) have evidence-based support. CONCLUSIONS While CBP® Technique has approximately as much evidence-based support as SMT for neck pain, CBP® has more evidence to support its methods than the Diversified technique taught in chiropractic colleges, but not as much as SMT for low back pain. The evolution of chiropractic specialization has occurred, and doctors providing structural-based chiropractic care require protocol guidelines for patient quality assurance and standardization. A structural rehabilitation protocol was developed based on evidence from CBP® publications. PMID:17549209

Accounting for patient size in the optimization of dose and image quality of pelvis cone beam CT protocols on the Varian OBI system.

PubMed

Wood, Tim J; Moore, Craig S; Horsfield, Carl J; Saunderson, John R; Beavis, Andrew W

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop size-based radiotherapy kilovoltage cone beam CT (CBCT) protocols for the pelvis. Image noise was measured in an elliptical phantom of varying size for a range of exposure factors. Based on a previously defined "small pelvis" reference patient and CBCT protocol, appropriate exposure factors for small, medium, large and extra-large patients were derived which approximate the image noise behaviour observed on a Philips CT scanner (Philips Medical Systems, Best, Netherlands) with automatic exposure control (AEC). Selection criteria, based on maximum tube current-time product per rotation selected during the radiotherapy treatment planning scan, were derived based on an audit of patient size. It has been demonstrated that 110 kVp yields acceptable image noise for reduced patient dose in pelvic CBCT scans of small, medium and large patients, when compared with manufacturer's default settings (125 kVp). Conversely, extra-large patients require increased exposure factors to give acceptable images. 57% of patients in the local population now receive much lower radiation doses, whereas 13% require higher doses (but now yield acceptable images). The implementation of size-based exposure protocols has significantly reduced radiation dose to the majority of patients with no negative impact on image quality. Increased doses are required on the largest patients to give adequate image quality. The development of size-based CBCT protocols that use the planning CT scan (with AEC) to determine which protocol is appropriate ensures adequate image quality whilst minimizing patient radiation dose.

Influence of curing protocol and ceramic composition on the degree of conversion of resin cement

PubMed Central

Lanza, Marcos Daniel Septimio; Andreeta, Marcello Rubens Barsi; Pegoraro, Thiago Amadei; Pegoraro, Luiz Fernando; Carvalho, Ricardo Marins De

2017-01-01

Abstract Due to increasing of aesthetic demand, ceramic crowns are widely used in different situations. However, to obtain long-term prognosis of restorations, a good conversion of resin cement is necessary. Objective: To evaluate the degree of conversion (DC) of one light-cure and two dual-cure resin cements under a simulated clinical cementation of ceramic crowns. Material and Methods: Prepared teeth were randomly split according to the ceramic's material, resin cement and curing protocol. The crowns were cemented as per manufacturer's directions and photoactivated either from occlusal suface only for 60 s; or from the buccal, occlusal and lingual surfaces, with an exposure time of 20 s on each aspect. After cementation, the specimens were stored in deionized water at 37°C for 7 days. Specimens were transversally sectioned from occlusal to cervical surfaces and the DC was determined along the cement line with three measurements taken and averaged from the buccal, lingual and approximal aspects using micro-Raman spectroscopy (Alpha 300R/WITec®). Data were analyzed by 3-way ANOVA and Tukey test at =5%. Results: Statistical analysis showed significant differences among cements, curing protocols and ceramic type (p<0.001). The curing protocol 3x20 resulted in higher DC for all tested conditions; lower DC was observed for Zr ceramic crowns; Duolink resin cement culminated in higher DC regardless ceramic composition and curing protocol. Conclusion: The DC of resin cement layers was dependent on the curing protocol and type of ceramic. PMID:29211292

Superconductor-to-insulator transition and transport properties of underdoped YBa2Cu3O(y) crystals.

PubMed

Semba, K; Matsuda, A

2001-01-15

The carrier-concentration-driven superconductor-to-insulator (SI) transition as well as transport properties in underdoped YBa2Cu3O(y) twinned crystals is studied. The SI transition takes place at y approximately 6.3, carrier concentration n(SI)H approximately 3x10(20) cm(-3), anisotropy rho(c)/rho(ab) approximately 10(3), and the threshold resistivity rho(SI)ab approximately 0.8 mOmega cm which corresponds to a critical sheet resistance h/4e2 approximately 6.5 kOmega per CuO2 bilayer. The evolution of a carrier, nH infiniti y - 6.2, is clearly observed in the underdoped region. The resistivity and Hall coefficient abruptly acquire strong temperature dependence at y approximately 6.5 indicating a radical change in the electronic state.

Resistance Tests of a 1/16 Size Model of the Hughes-kaiser Flying Boat, NACA Model 183

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Posner, Jack; Woodward, David R.; Olson, Roland E.

1944-01-01

Tank tests were made of a hull model of the Hughes-Kaiser cargo airplane for estimates of take-off performance and maximum gross load for take-off. At hump speeds, with the model free to trim, the trim and resistance were high, which resulted in a load-resistance ratio of approximately 4.0 for a gross load coefficient of 0.75. With a 4000,000-lb load, the full size craft may take off in 69 sec over a distance of 5600 ft.

Sex-Specific Pathways to Early Puberty, Sexual Debut, and Sexual Risk Taking: Tests of an Integrated Evolutionary-Developmental Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

James, Jenee; Ellis, Bruce J.; Schlomer, Gabriel L.; Garber, Judy

2012-01-01

The current study tested sex-specific pathways to early puberty, sexual debut, and sexual risk taking, as specified by an integrated evolutionary-developmental model of adolescent sexual development and behavior. In a prospective study of 238 adolescents (n = 129 girls and n = 109 boys) followed from approximately 12-18 years of age, we tested for…

Engaging Students in a Large Lecture: An Experiment Using Sudoku Puzzles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brophy, Caroline; Hahn, Lukas

2014-01-01

In this paper, we describe an in-class experiment that is easy to implement with large groups of students. The experiment takes approximately 15-20 minutes to run and involves each student completing one of four types of Sudoku puzzles and recording the time it takes to completion. The resulting data set can be used as a teaching tool at an…

WCPSS Advanced Placement (AP) Test Results, 2009-10. E&R Report No. 10.29

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMillen, Brad

2010-01-01

Analysis of WCPSS' 2009-10 AP reports from the College Board reveal that the number and proportion of WCPSS students taking AP courses and exams continues to grow. Between 1996-97 and 2009-10, the number of students enrolled in WCPSS grew by approximately 63% and the number taking AP exams increased by 238% with a corresponding increase in exams…

Insights from a Survey of Astronomy Instructors in Community and Other Teaching-Oriented Colleges in the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fraknoi, Andrew

2004-01-01

Estimates are that approximately 100,000 to 125,000 students take introductory astronomy classes each year at colleges and universities that do not grant bachelor's or higher degrees in physics or astronomy. This represents roughly 40% to 50% of the total number of students taking intro astronomy in the United States. Such nonresearch institutions…

Caffeine ingestion enhances perceptual responses during intermittent exercise in female team-game players.

PubMed

Ali, Ajmol; O'Donnell, Jemma; Von Hurst, Pamela; Foskett, Andrew; Holland, Sherina; Starck, Carlene; Rutherfurd-Markwick, Kay

2016-01-01

We examined the influence of caffeine supplementation on cognitive performance and perceptual responses in female team-game players taking low-dose monophasic oral contraceptives of the same hormonal composition. Ten females (24 ± 4 years; 59.7 ± 3.5 kg body mass; 2-6 training sessions per week) took part in a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover-design trial. A 90-min intermittent treadmill-running protocol was completed 60 min following ingestion of a capsule containing either 6 mg • kg(-1) anhydrous caffeine or artificial sweetener (placebo). Perceptual responses (ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), feeling scale (FS), felt arousal scale (FAS)), mood (profile of mood states (POMS)) and cognitive performance (Stroop test, choice reaction time (CRT)) were completed before, during and after the exercise protocol, as well as after ~12 h post exercise. Caffeine ingestion significantly enhanced the ratings of pleasure (P = 0.008) and arousal (P = 0.002) during the exercise protocol, as well as increased vigour (POMS; P = 0.007), while there was a tendency for reduced fatigue (POMS; P = 0.068). Caffeine ingestion showed a tendency to decrease RPE (P = 0.068) and improve reaction times in the Stroop (P = 0.072) and CRT (P = 0.087) tests. Caffeine supplementation showed a positive effect on perceptual parameters by increasing vigour and a tendency to decrease fatigue during intermittent running activity in female games players taking low-dose monophasic oral contraceptive steroids (OCS).

Metabolic modeling of dynamic brain 13C NMR multiplet data: Concepts and simulations with a two-compartment neuronal-glial model

PubMed Central

Shestov, Alexander A.; Valette, Julien; Deelchand, Dinesh K.; Uğurbil, Kâmil; Henry, Pierre-Gilles

2016-01-01

Metabolic modeling of dynamic 13C labeling curves during infusion of 13C-labeled substrates allows quantitative measurements of metabolic rates in vivo. However metabolic modeling studies performed in the brain to date have only modeled time courses of total isotopic enrichment at individual carbon positions (positional enrichments), not taking advantage of the additional dynamic 13C isotopomer information available from fine-structure multiplets in 13C spectra. Here we introduce a new 13C metabolic modeling approach using the concept of bonded cumulative isotopomers, or bonded cumomers. The direct relationship between bonded cumomers and 13C multiplets enables fitting of the dynamic multiplet data. The potential of this new approach is demonstrated using Monte-Carlo simulations with a brain two-compartment neuronal-glial model. The precision of positional and cumomer approaches are compared for two different metabolic models (with and without glutamine dilution) and for different infusion protocols ([1,6-13C2]glucose, [1,2-13C2]acetate, and double infusion [1,6-13C2]glucose + [1,2-13C2]acetate). In all cases, the bonded cumomer approach gives better precision than the positional approach. In addition, of the three different infusion protocols considered here, the double infusion protocol combined with dynamic bonded cumomer modeling appears the most robust for precise determination of all fluxes in the model. The concepts and simulations introduced in the present study set the foundation for taking full advantage of the available dynamic 13C multiplet data in metabolic modeling. PMID:22528840

Efficacy of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in reducing consumption in patients with alcohol use disorders: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Trojak, Benoit; Soudry-Faure, Agnès; Abello, Nicolas; Carpentier, Maud; Jonval, Lysiane; Allard, Coralie; Sabsevari, Foroogh; Blaise, Emilie; Ponavoy, Eddy; Bonin, Bernard; Meille, Vincent; Chauvet-Gelinier, Jean-Christophe

2016-05-17

Approximately 15 million persons in the European Union and 10 million persons in the USA are alcohol-dependent. The global burden of disease and injury attributable to alcohol is considerable: worldwide, approximately one in 25 deaths in 2004 was caused by alcohol. At the same time, alcohol use disorders remain seriously undertreated. In this context, alternative or adjunctive therapies such as brain stimulation may play a prominent role. The early results of studies using transcranial direct current stimulation found that stimulations delivered to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex result in a significant reduction of craving and an improvement of the decision-making processes in various additive disorders. We, therefore, hypothesize that transcranial direct current stimulation can lead to a decrease in alcohol consumption in patients suffering from alcohol use disorders. We report the protocol of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trial, to evaluate the efficacy of transcranial direct current stimulation on alcohol reduction in patients with an alcohol use disorder. The study will be conducted in 14 centers in France and Monaco. Altogether, 340 subjects over 18 years of age and diagnosed with an alcohol use disorder will be randomized to receive five consecutive twice-daily sessions of either active or placebo transcranial direct current stimulation. One session consists in delivering a current flow continuously (anode F4; cathode F3) twice for 13 minutes, with treatments separated by a rest interval of 20 min. Efficacy will be evaluated using the change from baseline (alcohol consumption during the 4 weeks before randomization) to 24 weeks in the total alcohol consumption and number of heavy drinking days. Secondary outcome measures will include alcohol craving, clinical and biological improvements, and the effects on mood and quality of life, as well as cognitive and safety assessments, and, for smokers, an assessment of the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on tobacco consumption. Several studies have reported a beneficial effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on substance use disorders by reducing craving, impulsivity, and risk-taking behavior, and suggest that transcranial direct current stimulation may be a promising treatment in addiction. However, to date, no studies have included sufficiently large samples and sufficient follow-up to confirm the hypothesis. Results from this large randomized controlled trial will give a better overview of the therapeutic potential of transcranial direct current stimulation in alcohol use disorders. Clinical Trials Gov, NCT02505126 (registration date: July 15 2015).

Reducing the Radiation Dose for CT Colonography: Effect of Low Tube Voltage and Iterative Reconstruction.

PubMed

Yamamura, Sadahiro; Oda, Seitaro; Imuta, Masanori; Utsunomiya, Daisuke; Yoshida, Morikatsu; Namimoto, Tomohiro; Yuki, Hideaki; Kidoh, Masafumi; Funama, Yoshinori; Baba, Hideo; Yamashita, Yasuyuki

2016-02-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of a low-tube-voltage technique and iterative reconstruction (IR) on the radiation dose and image quality of computed tomography colonography (CTC). We studied 30 patients (14 women and 16 men; mean age, 64.5 ± 13.1 years; range, 39-90 years) with colorectal cancer referred for surgical treatment. All underwent CTC with fecal tagging under a standard 120-kVp protocol in the supine position and a 100-kVp protocol in the prone position. The 120-kVp images were reconstructed with filtered back projection (FBP). The 100-kVp images were postprocessed using FBP and a hybrid type of IR (adaptive iterative dose reduction 3D). The effective radiation dose (ED), image noise, and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) were compared among the three protocols. The visual image quality was scored on a four-point scale. The mean ED was significantly lower under the 100-kVp protocol than the 120-kVp protocol, resulting in a 27% radiation dose decrease (3.5 ± 2.0 vs 2.5 ± 1.5 mSv; P < .01). Image noise decreased by 48%, and the mean attenuation of tagged fluid increased from 452 to 558 HU on images acquired at 100 kVp with IR compared to that in the 120-kVp protocol; these differences were significant. The mean CNR was significantly higher under the 100 kVp with IR than the other two protocols. We found no significant differences in the visual scores for diagnostic utility between the 100 kVp with IR and the 120 kVp with FBP protocol (P = .10). Low-tube-voltage CTC reduced the radiation dose by approximately 27% while maintaining the image quality. Copyright © 2016 AUR. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of a Repeatable Regional Protocol for Performance-Based Monitoring of Forestry Best Management Practices

Treesearch

Roger Ryder; Pamela J. Edwards; Pamela J. Edwards

2005-01-01

There has been a long-standing interest in improving Best Management Practice (BMP) monitoring within and among states. States monitoring the implementation and effectiveness of BMPs for forest operations take a variety of approaches. This creates inconsistencies in data collection and how results are reported. Since 1990 attempts have been made to develop a consistent...

Talking the Test: Using Verbal Report Data in Looking at the Processing of Cloze Tasks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibson, Bob

1997-01-01

The use of verbal report procedures as a research tool for gaining insight into the language learning process is discussed. Specifically, having second language students complete think-aloud protocols when they take cloze tests can provide useful information about what is being measured and how it has been learned. Use of such introspective…

Effects of Dictation-Taking and Match-to-Sample Training on Listing and Spelling Responses in Adults with Intellectual Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Souza, Andresa A.; Rehfeldt, Ruth Anne

2013-01-01

Several studies have demonstrated that conditions can be arranged to promote increases in a nontargeted verbal operant following instruction of another verbal operant. In the current study, we used a multiple baseline design to evaluate the effects of 2 instructional protocols on nontargeted verbal repertoires (listing of synonyms and vocal…

Building Background: What It Takes to Really Make a Lesson Connect with Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calderón Pachón, Jennifer Paola; Jiménez Vargas, Milena Patricia

2009-01-01

Seeking the best pedagogical practices for bilingual higher education and guided by the principles of the sheltered instruction observation protocol (SIOP), we describe a sub-study of the Sheltered Instruction Research Project (SIRP) which deals with how professors at ÚNICA college in Bogotá, Colombia implement one of the components of the model:…

Fighting discrimination.

PubMed

Wientjens, Wim; Cairns, Douglas

2012-10-01

In the fight against discrimination, the IDF launched the first ever International Charter of Rights and Responsibilities of People with Diabetes in 2011: a balance between rights and duties to optimize health and quality of life, to enable as normal a life as possible and to reduce/eliminate the barriers which deny realization of full potential as members of society. It is extremely frustrating to suffer blanket bans and many examples exist, including insurance, driving licenses, getting a job, keeping a job and family affairs. In this article, an example is given of how pilots with insulin treated diabetes are allowed to fly by taking the responsibility of using special blood glucose monitoring protocols. At this time the systems in the countries allowing flying for pilots with insulin treated diabetes are applauded, particularly the USA for private flying, and Canada for commercial flying. Encouraging developments may be underway in the UK for commercial flying and, if this materializes, could be used as an example for other aviation authorities to help adopt similar protocols. However, new restrictions implemented by the new European Aviation Authority take existing privileges away for National Private Pilot Licence holders with insulin treated diabetes in the UK. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women: implications for access to abortion at the regional level.

PubMed

Ngwena, Charles G

2010-08-01

Article 14(2)(c) of the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women enjoins States Parties to take appropriate measures "to protect the reproductive rights of women by authorising medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, and where continued pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or the life of the mother or the foetus." This paper considers the implications of Article 14 for access to safe, legal abortion. It is submitted that Article 14 has the potential to impact positively on regional abortion law, policy, and practice in 3 main areas. First, it takes forward the global consensus on combating abortion as a major public health danger. Second, it provides African countries with not just an incentive, but also an imperative for reforming abortion laws in a transparent manner. Third, if implemented in the context of a treaty that centers on the equality and non-discrimination of women, Article 14 has the potential to contribute toward transforming access to abortion from a crime and punishment model to a reproductive health model. Copyright 2010 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selective amplification and sequencing of cyclic phosphate-containing RNAs by the cP-RNA-seq method.

PubMed

Honda, Shozo; Morichika, Keisuke; Kirino, Yohei

2016-03-01

RNA digestions catalyzed by many ribonucleases generate RNA fragments that contain a 2',3'-cyclic phosphate (cP) at their 3' termini. However, standard RNA-seq methods are unable to accurately capture cP-containing RNAs because the cP inhibits the adapter ligation reaction. We recently developed a method named cP-RNA-seq that is able to selectively amplify and sequence cP-containing RNAs. Here we describe the cP-RNA-seq protocol in which the 3' termini of all RNAs, except those containing a cP, are cleaved through a periodate treatment after phosphatase treatment; hence, subsequent adapter ligation and cDNA amplification steps are exclusively applied to cP-containing RNAs. cP-RNA-seq takes ∼6 d, excluding the time required for sequencing and bioinformatics analyses, which are not covered in detail in this protocol. Biochemical validation of the existence of cP in the identified RNAs takes ∼3 d. Even though the cP-RNA-seq method was developed to identify angiogenin-generating 5'-tRNA halves as a proof of principle, the method should be applicable to global identification of cP-containing RNA repertoires in various transcriptomes.

Path Diversity Improved Opportunistic Routing for Underwater Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Wang, Haiyan; He, Ke

2018-01-01

The packets carried along a pre-defined route in underwater sensor networks are very vulnerble. Node mobility or intermittent channel availability easily leads to unreachable routing. Opportunistic routing has been proven to be a promising paradigm to design routing protocols for underwater sensor networks. It takes advantage of the broadcast nature of the wireless medium to combat packet losses and selects potential paths on the fly. Finding an appropriate forwarding candidate set is a key issue in opportunistic routing. Many existing solutions ignore the impact of candidates location distribution on packet forwarding. In this paper, a path diversity improved candidate selection strategy is applied in opportunistic routing to improve packet forwarding efficiency. It not only maximizes the packet forwarding advancements but also takes the candidate’s location distribution into account. Based on this strategy, we propose two effective routing protocols: position improved candidates selection (PICS) and position random candidates selection (PRCS). PICS employs two-hop neighbor information to make routing decisions. PRCS only uses one-hop neighbor information. Simulation results show that both PICS and PRCS can significantly improve network performance when compared with the previous solutions, in terms of packet delivery ratio, average energy consumption and end-to-end delay. PMID:29690621

Optimized labeling of membrane proteins for applications to super-resolution imaging in confined cellular environments using monomeric streptavidin.

PubMed

Chamma, Ingrid; Rossier, Olivier; Giannone, Grégory; Thoumine, Olivier; Sainlos, Matthieu

2017-04-01

Recent progress in super-resolution imaging (SRI) has created a strong need to improve protein labeling with probes of small size that minimize the target-to-label distance, increase labeling density, and efficiently penetrate thick biological tissues. This protocol describes a method for labeling genetically modified proteins incorporating a small biotin acceptor peptide with a 3-nm fluorescent probe, monomeric streptavidin. We show how to express, purify, and conjugate the probe to organic dyes with different fluorescent properties, and how to label selectively biotinylated membrane proteins for SRI techniques (point accumulation in nanoscale topography (PAINT), stimulated emission depletion (STED), stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM)). This method is complementary to the previously described anti-GFP-nanobody/SNAP-tag strategies, with the main advantage being that it requires only a short 15-amino-acid tag, and can thus be used with proteins resistant to fusion with large tags and for multicolor imaging. The protocol requires standard molecular biology/biochemistry equipment, making it easily accessible for laboratories with only basic skills in cell biology and biochemistry. The production/purification/conjugation steps take ∼5 d, and labeling takes a few minutes to an hour.

Path Diversity Improved Opportunistic Routing for Underwater Sensor Networks.

PubMed

Bai, Weigang; Wang, Haiyan; He, Ke; Zhao, Ruiqin

2018-04-23

The packets carried along a pre-defined route in underwater sensor networks are very vulnerble. Node mobility or intermittent channel availability easily leads to unreachable routing. Opportunistic routing has been proven to be a promising paradigm to design routing protocols for underwater sensor networks. It takes advantage of the broadcast nature of the wireless medium to combat packet losses and selects potential paths on the fly. Finding an appropriate forwarding candidate set is a key issue in opportunistic routing. Many existing solutions ignore the impact of candidates location distribution on packet forwarding. In this paper, a path diversity improved candidate selection strategy is applied in opportunistic routing to improve packet forwarding efficiency. It not only maximizes the packet forwarding advancements but also takes the candidate’s location distribution into account. Based on this strategy, we propose two effective routing protocols: position improved candidates selection (PICS) and position random candidates selection (PRCS). PICS employs two-hop neighbor information to make routing decisions. PRCS only uses one-hop neighbor information. Simulation results show that both PICS and PRCS can significantly improve network performance when compared with the previous solutions, in terms of packet delivery ratio, average energy consumption and end-to-end delay.

Implementing AORN recommended practices for prevention of deep vein thrombosis.

PubMed

Van Wicklin, Sharon A

2011-11-01

One to two people per 1,000 are affected by deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or pulmonary embolism in the United States each year. AORN published its new "Recommended practices for prevention of deep vein thrombosis" to guide perioperative RNs in establishing organization-wide protocols for DVT prevention. Strategies for successful implementation of the recommended practices include taking a multidisciplinary approach to protocol development, providing education and guidance for performing preoperative patient assessments and administering DVT prophylaxis, and having appropriate resources and the facility's policy and procedure for DVT prevention readily available in the practice setting. Hospital and ambulatory patient scenarios have been included as examples of appropriate execution of the recommended practices. Copyright © 2011 AORN, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Moderate reagent mixing on an orbital shaker reduces the incubation time of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

PubMed

Kumar, Saroj; Ahirwar, Rajesh; Rehman, Ishita; Nahar, Pradip

2017-07-01

Rapid diagnostic tests can be developed using ELISA for detection of diseases in emergency conditions. Conventional ELISA takes 1-2 days, making it unsuitable for rapid diagnostics. Here, we report the effect of reagents mixing via shaking or vortexing on the assay timing of ELISA. A 48-min protocol of ELISA involving 12-min incubations with reagent mixing at 750 rpm for every step was optimized. Contrary to this, time-optimized control ELISA performed without mixing produced similar results in 8 h, leaving a time gain of 7 h using the developed protocol. Collectively, the findings suggest the development of ELISA-based rapid diagnostics. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Negative Impact and Positive Value in Caregiving: Validation of the COPE Index in a Six-Country Sample of Carers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balducci, Cristian; Mnich, Eva; McKee, Kevin J.; Lamura, Giovanni; Beckmann, Anke; Krevers, Barbro; Wojszel, Z. Beata; Nolan, Mike; Prouskas, Constantinos; Bien, Barbara; Oberg, Birgitta

2008-01-01

Purpose: The present study attempts to further validate the COPE Index on a large sample of carers drawn from six European countries. Design and Methods: We used a cross-sectional survey, with approximately 1,000 carers recruited in each of six countries by means of a common standard evaluation protocol. Our saturation recruitment of a designated…

Congressional Report on Defense Business Operations

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-03-15

by more than 1,700 users and used to store approximately 250 submissions a month. Each month, more than 2,000 documents are accessed and downloaded . 6...that is stored, managed and main- tained centrally. Data includes Geographic Information Systems ( GIS ) and Computer Aided Design and Drafting (CADD...Office FTP File Transfer Protocol FY Fiscal Year GAO Government Accountability Office GFEBS General Fund Enterprise Business System GIS Geographic

Inherited Retinal Degenerative Disease Clinical Trial Network. Addendum

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-10-01

by retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and other forms of rare inherited retinal degenerative diseases is estimated at approximately 200,000 individuals. RP... Retinitis Pigmentosa ). NNRI is awaiting final protocol review and HRPO approval for NNRI and the three enrolling clinical sites- the CTEC site at...acid) in individuals with autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa , with the ability to expand the enrollment to individuals with autosomal recessive

Environmental and Economic Impacts of Integrating Photovoltaic and Wind-Turbine Energy Systems in the Canadian Residential Sector

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Syed, Ali M.; Fung, Alan S.; Ugursal, V. Ismet

2008-01-01

The Canadian residential sector contributes approximately 80 megatons of GHGs to the environment yearly. With the ratification of Kyoto Protocol, Canada has committed to reduce its 1990 GHG emission levels by at least 5% between 2008 and 2012. To meet this target, Canada must evaluate and exploit all feasible means to reduce fossil fuel energy…

The Multiple Species Inventory and Monitoring Protocol: A Population, Community, and Biodiversity Monitoring Solution for National Forest System Lands

Treesearch

P. N. Manley; B. Van Horne

2006-01-01

The U.S. Forest Service manages approximately 76 million ha (191 million acres) of National Forest System (NFS) lands. The National Forest Management Act (1976) recognizes the importance of maintaining species and ecosystem diversity on NFS lands as a critical component of our ecological and cultural heritage. Information on the condition of populations and habitats of...

IN-HOME EXPOSURE THERAPY FOR VETERANS WITH POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-10-01

study protocol. 5 Our treatment clinicians are providing the manual-guided evidence - based PE PTSD intervention. Therapists attend a weekly PE...with PTSD confirming the noninferiority of using CVT to deliver an evidence - based treatment (EBT) for PTSD, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT; Resick...g. Treatment clinicians will conduct a manual-guided evidence based PTSD intervention, Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE), with approximately 175

Assisted closed-loop optimization of SSVEP-BCI efficiency

PubMed Central

Fernandez-Vargas, Jacobo; Pfaff, Hanns U.; Rodríguez, Francisco B.; Varona, Pablo

2012-01-01

We designed a novel assisted closed-loop optimization protocol to improve the efficiency of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) based on steady state visually evoked potentials (SSVEP). In traditional paradigms, the control over the BCI-performance completely depends on the subjects' ability to learn from the given feedback cues. By contrast, in the proposed protocol both the subject and the machine share information and control over the BCI goal. Generally, the innovative assistance consists in the delivery of online information together with the online adaptation of BCI stimuli properties. In our case, this adaptive optimization process is realized by (1) a closed-loop search for the best set of SSVEP flicker frequencies and (2) feedback of actual SSVEP magnitudes to both the subject and the machine. These closed-loop interactions between subject and machine are evaluated in real-time by continuous measurement of their efficiencies, which are used as online criteria to adapt the BCI control parameters. The proposed protocol aims to compensate for variability in possibly unknown subjects' state and trait dimensions. In a study with N = 18 subjects, we found significant evidence that our protocol outperformed classic SSVEP-BCI control paradigms. Evidence is presented that it takes indeed into account interindividual variabilities: e.g., under the new protocol, baseline resting state EEG measures predict subjects' BCI performances. This paper illustrates the promising potential of assisted closed-loop protocols in BCI systems. Probably their applicability might be expanded to innovative uses, e.g., as possible new diagnostic/therapeutic tools for clinical contexts and as new paradigms for basic research. PMID:23443214

Performance assessment of a glucose control protocol in septic patients with an automated intermittent plasma glucose monitoring device.

PubMed

Umbrello, M; Salice, V; Spanu, P; Formenti, P; Barassi, A; Melzi d'Eril, G V; Iapichino, G

2014-10-01

The optimal level and modality of glucose control in critically ill patients is still debated. A protocolized approach and the use of nearly-continuous technologies are recommended to manage hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia and glycemic variability. We recently proposed a pato-physiology-based glucose control protocol which takes into account patient glucose/carbohydrate intake and insulin resistance. Aim of the present investigation was to assess the performance of our protocol with an automated intermittent plasma glucose monitoring device (OptiScanner™ 5000). OptiScanner™ was used in 6 septic patients, providing glucose measurement every 15' from a side-port of an indwelling central venous catheter. Target level of glucose was 80-150 mg/dL. Insulin infusion and kcal with nutritional support were also recorded. 6 septic patients were studied for 319 h (1277 measurements); 58 [45-65] hours for each patient (measurements/patient: 231 [172-265]). Blood glucose was at target for 93 [90-98]% of study time. Mean plasma glucose was 126 ± 11 mg/dL. Only 3 hypoglycemic episodes (78, 78, 69 mg/dL) were recorded. Glucose variability was limited: plasma glucose coefficient of variation was 11.7 ± 4.0% and plasma glucose standard deviation was 14.3 ± 5.5 mg/dL. The local glucose control protocol achieved satisfactory glucose control in septic patients along with a high degree of safeness. Automated intermittent plasma glucose monitoring seemed useful to assess the performance of the protocol. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved.

Assisted closed-loop optimization of SSVEP-BCI efficiency.

PubMed

Fernandez-Vargas, Jacobo; Pfaff, Hanns U; Rodríguez, Francisco B; Varona, Pablo

2013-01-01

We designed a novel assisted closed-loop optimization protocol to improve the efficiency of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) based on steady state visually evoked potentials (SSVEP). In traditional paradigms, the control over the BCI-performance completely depends on the subjects' ability to learn from the given feedback cues. By contrast, in the proposed protocol both the subject and the machine share information and control over the BCI goal. Generally, the innovative assistance consists in the delivery of online information together with the online adaptation of BCI stimuli properties. In our case, this adaptive optimization process is realized by (1) a closed-loop search for the best set of SSVEP flicker frequencies and (2) feedback of actual SSVEP magnitudes to both the subject and the machine. These closed-loop interactions between subject and machine are evaluated in real-time by continuous measurement of their efficiencies, which are used as online criteria to adapt the BCI control parameters. The proposed protocol aims to compensate for variability in possibly unknown subjects' state and trait dimensions. In a study with N = 18 subjects, we found significant evidence that our protocol outperformed classic SSVEP-BCI control paradigms. Evidence is presented that it takes indeed into account interindividual variabilities: e.g., under the new protocol, baseline resting state EEG measures predict subjects' BCI performances. This paper illustrates the promising potential of assisted closed-loop protocols in BCI systems. Probably their applicability might be expanded to innovative uses, e.g., as possible new diagnostic/therapeutic tools for clinical contexts and as new paradigms for basic research.

Quantitative near-infrared spectroscopy on patients with peripheral vascular disease

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Franceschini, Maria-Angela; Fantini, Sergio; Palumbo, Renato; Pasqualini, Leonella; Vaudo, Gaetano; Franceschini, Edoardo; Gratton, Enrico; Palumbo, Barbara; Innocente, Salvatore; Mannarino, Elmo

1998-01-01

We have used near-infrared spectroscopy to measure the hemoglobin saturation at rest and during exercise on patients affected by peripheral vascular disease (PVD). The instrument used in our study is a frequency-domain tissue oximeter which employs intensity modulated (110 MHz) laser diodes. We examined 9 subjects, 3 of which were controls and 6 were patients affected by stage II PVD. The optical probe was located on the calf muscle of the subjects. The measurement protocol consisted of: (1) baseline (approximately 5 min); (2) stationary bicycle exercise (approximately 5 min); (3) recovery (approximately 15 min). The change in hemoglobin saturation during exercise ((Delta) Y) and the recovery time after exercise (trec) were significantly greater in the PVD patients ((Delta) Y equals -21 +/- 3%, trec equals 5.9 +/- 3.8 min) than in the control subjects ((Delta) Y equals 2 +/- 3%, trec equals 0.6 +/- 0.1 min).

A standardised protocol for texture feature analysis of endoscopic images in gynaecological cancer.

PubMed

Neofytou, Marios S; Tanos, Vasilis; Pattichis, Marios S; Pattichis, Constantinos S; Kyriacou, Efthyvoulos C; Koutsouris, Dimitris D

2007-11-29

In the development of tissue classification methods, classifiers rely on significant differences between texture features extracted from normal and abnormal regions. Yet, significant differences can arise due to variations in the image acquisition method. For endoscopic imaging of the endometrium, we propose a standardized image acquisition protocol to eliminate significant statistical differences due to variations in: (i) the distance from the tissue (panoramic vs close up), (ii) difference in viewing angles and (iii) color correction. We investigate texture feature variability for a variety of targets encountered in clinical endoscopy. All images were captured at clinically optimum illumination and focus using 720 x 576 pixels and 24 bits color for: (i) a variety of testing targets from a color palette with a known color distribution, (ii) different viewing angles, (iv) two different distances from a calf endometrial and from a chicken cavity. Also, human images from the endometrium were captured and analysed. For texture feature analysis, three different sets were considered: (i) Statistical Features (SF), (ii) Spatial Gray Level Dependence Matrices (SGLDM), and (iii) Gray Level Difference Statistics (GLDS). All images were gamma corrected and the extracted texture feature values were compared against the texture feature values extracted from the uncorrected images. Statistical tests were applied to compare images from different viewing conditions so as to determine any significant differences. For the proposed acquisition procedure, results indicate that there is no significant difference in texture features between the panoramic and close up views and between angles. For a calibrated target image, gamma correction provided an acquired image that was a significantly better approximation to the original target image. In turn, this implies that the texture features extracted from the corrected images provided for better approximations to the original images. Within the proposed protocol, for human ROIs, we have found that there is a large number of texture features that showed significant differences between normal and abnormal endometrium. This study provides a standardized protocol for avoiding any significant texture feature differences that may arise due to variability in the acquisition procedure or the lack of color correction. After applying the protocol, we have found that significant differences in texture features will only be due to the fact that the features were extracted from different types of tissue (normal vs abnormal).

Performance evaluation of reactive and proactive routing protocol in IEEE 802.11 ad hoc network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamma, Salima; Cizeron, Eddy; Issaka, Hafiz; Guédon, Jean-Pierre

2006-10-01

Wireless technology based on the IEEE 802.11 standard is widely deployed. This technology is used to support multiple types of communication services (data, voice, image) with different QoS requirements. MANET (Mobile Adhoc NETwork) does not require a fixed infrastructure. Mobile nodes communicate through multihop paths. The wireless communication medium has variable and unpredictable characteristics. Furthermore, node mobility creates a continuously changing communication topology in which paths break and new one form dynamically. The routing table of each router in an adhoc network must be kept up-to-date. MANET uses Distance Vector or Link State algorithms which insure that the route to every host is always known. However, this approach must take into account the adhoc networks specific characteristics: dynamic topologies, limited bandwidth, energy constraints, limited physical security, ... Two main routing protocols categories are studied in this paper: proactive protocols (e.g. Optimised Link State Routing - OLSR) and reactive protocols (e.g. Ad hoc On Demand Distance Vector - AODV, Dynamic Source Routing - DSR). The proactive protocols are based on periodic exchanges that update the routing tables to all possible destinations, even if no traffic goes through. The reactive protocols are based on on-demand route discoveries that update routing tables only for the destination that has traffic going through. The present paper focuses on study and performance evaluation of these categories using NS2 simulations. We have considered qualitative and quantitative criteria. The first one concerns distributed operation, loop-freedom, security, sleep period operation. The second are used to assess performance of different routing protocols presented in this paper. We can list end-to-end data delay, jitter, packet delivery ratio, routing load, activity distribution. Comparative study will be presented with number of networking context consideration and the results show the appropriate routing protocol for two kinds of communication services (data and voice).

Barriers and enablers to implementing clinical treatment protocols for fever, hyperglycaemia, and swallowing dysfunction in the Quality in Acute Stroke Care (QASC) Project--a mixed methods study.

PubMed

Dale, Simeon; Levi, Christopher; Ward, Jeanette; Grimshaw, Jeremy M; Jammali-Blasi, Asmara; D'Este, Catherine; Griffiths, Rhonda; Quinn, Clare; Evans, Malcolm; Cadilhac, Dominique; Cheung, N Wah; Middleton, Sandy

2015-02-01

The Quality in Acute Stroke Care (QASC) trial evaluated systematic implementation of clinical treatment protocols to manage fever, sugar, and swallow (FeSS protocols) in acute stroke care. This cluster-randomised controlled trial was conducted in 19 stroke units in Australia. To describe perceived barriers and enablers preimplementation to the introduction of the FeSS protocols and, postimplementation, to determine which of these barriers eventuated as actual barriers. Preimplementation: Workshops were held at the intervention stroke units (n = 10). The first workshop involved senior clinicians who identified perceived barriers and enablers to implementation of the protocols, the second workshop involved bedside clinicians. Postimplementation, an online survey with stroke champions from intervention sites was conducted. A total of 111 clinicians attended the preimplementation workshops, identifying 22 barriers covering four main themes: (a) need for new policies, (b) limited workforce (capacity), (c) lack of equipment, and (d) education and logistics of training staff. Preimplementation enablers identified were: support by clinical champions, medical staff, nursing management and allied health staff; easy adaptation of current protocols, care-plans, and local policies; and presence of specialist stroke unit staff. Postimplementation, only five of the 22 barriers identified preimplementation were reported as actual barriers to adoption of the FeSS protocols, namely, no previous use of insulin infusions; hyperglycaemic protocols could not be commenced without written orders; medical staff reluctance to use the ASSIST swallowing screening tool; poor level of engagement of medical staff; and doctors' unawareness of the trial. The process of identifying barriers and enablers preimplementation allowed staff to take ownership and to address barriers and plan for change. As only five of the 22 barriers identified preimplementation were reported to be actual barriers at completion of the trial, this suggests that barriers are often overcome whilst some are only ever perceived rather than actual barriers. © 2015 Sigma Theta Tau International.

National protocol framework for the inventory and monitoring of bees

USGS Publications Warehouse

Droege, Sam; Engler, Joseph D.; Sellers, Elizabeth A.; Lee O'Brien,

2016-01-01

This national protocol framework is a standardized tool for the inventory and monitoring of the approximately 4,200 species of native and non-native bee species that may be found within the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). However, this protocol framework may also be used by other organizations and individuals to monitor bees in any given habitat or location. Our goal is to provide USFWS stations within the NWRS (NWRS stations are land units managed by the USFWS such as national wildlife refuges, national fish hatcheries, wetland management districts, conservation areas, leased lands, etc.) with techniques for developing an initial baseline inventory of what bee species are present on their lands and to provide an inexpensive, simple technique for monitoring bees continuously and for monitoring and evaluating long-term population trends and management impacts. The latter long-term monitoring technique requires a minimal time burden for the individual station, yet can provide a good statistical sample of changing populations that can be investigated at the station, regional, and national levels within the USFWS’ jurisdiction, and compared to other sites within the United States and Canada. This protocol framework was developed in cooperation with the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the USFWS, and a worldwide network of bee researchers who have investigated the techniques and methods for capturing bees and tracking population changes. The protocol framework evolved from field and lab-based investigations at the USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Laboratory at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland starting in 2002 and was refined by a large number of USFWS, academic, and state groups. It includes a Protocol Introduction and a set of 8 Standard Operating Procedures or SOPs and adheres to national standards of protocol content and organization. The Protocol Narrative describes the history and need for the protocol framework and summarizes the basic elements of objectives, sampling design, field methods, training, data management, analysis, and reporting. The SOPs provide more detail and specific instructions for implementing the protocol framework. A central database, for managing all the resulting data is under development. We welcome use of this protocol framework by our partners, as appropriate for their bee inventory and monitoring objectives.

Comparison of Chest Pain Protocols for Electrocardiography-Gated Dual-Source Cardiothoracic CT in Children and Adults: The Effect of Tube Current Saturation on Radiation Dose Reduction

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Objective To compare radiation doses between conventional and chest pain protocols using dual-source retrospectively electrocardiography (ECG)-gated cardiothoracic computed tomography (CT) in children and adults and assess the effect of tube current saturation on radiation dose reduction. Materials and Methods This study included 104 patients (16.6 ± 7.7 years, range 5–48 years) that were divided into two groups: those with and those without tube current saturation. The estimated radiation doses of retrospectively ECG-gated spiral cardiothoracic CT were compared between conventional, uniphasic, and biphasic chest pain protocols acquired with the same imaging parameters in the same patients by using paired t tests. Dose reduction percentages, patient ages, volume CT dose index values, and tube current time products per rotation were compared between the two groups by using unpaired t tests. A p value < 0.05 was considered significant. Results The volume CT dose index values of the biphasic chest pain protocol (10.8 ± 3.9 mGy) were significantly lower than those of the conventional protocol (12.2 ± 4.7 mGy, p < 0.001) and those of the uniphasic chest pain protocol (12.9 ± 4.9 mGy, p < 0.001). The dose-saving effect of biphasic chest pain protocol was significantly less with a saturated tube current (4.5 ± 10.2%) than with unsaturated tube current method (14.8 ± 11.5%, p < 0.001). In 76 patients using 100 kVp, patient age showed no significant differences between the groups with and without tube current saturation in all protocols (p > 0.05); the groups with tube current saturation showed significantly higher volume CT dose index values (p < 0.01) and tube current time product per rotation (p < 0.001) than the groups without tube current saturation in all protocols. Conclusion The radiation dose of dual-source retrospectively ECG-gated spiral cardiothoracic CT can be reduced by approximately 15% by using the biphasic chest pain protocol instead of the conventional protocol in children and adults if radiation dose parameters are further optimized to avoid tube current saturation. PMID:29353996

Pulmonary gas exchange is not impaired 24 h after extravehicular activity.

PubMed

Prisk, G Kim; Fine, Janelle M; Cooper, Trevor K; West, John B

2005-12-01

Extravehicular activity (EVA) during spaceflight involves a significant decompression stress. Previous studies have shown an increase in the inhomogeneity of ventilation-perfusion ratio (VA/Q) after some underwater dives, presumably through the embolic effects of venous gas microemboli in the lung. Ground-based chamber studies simulating EVA have shown that venous gas microemboli occur in a large percentage of the subjects undergoing decompression, despite the use of prebreathe protocols to reduce dissolved N(2) in the tissues. We studied eight crewmembers (7 male, 1 female) of the International Space Station who performed 15 EVAs (initial cabin pressure 748 mmHg, final suit pressure either approximately 295 or approximately 220 mmHg depending on the suit used) and who followed the denitrogenation procedures approved for EVA from the International Space Station. The intrabreath VA/Q slope was calculated from the alveolar Po(2) and Pco(2) in a prolonged exhalation maneuver on the day after EVA and compared with measurements made in microgravity on days well separated from the EVA. There were no significant changes in intrabreath VA/Q slope as a result of EVA, although there was a slight increase in metabolic rate and ventilation (approximately 9%) on the day after EVA. Vital capacity and other measures of pulmonary function were largely unaltered by EVA. Because measurements could only be performed on the day after EVA because of logistical constraints, we were unable to determine an acute effect of EVA on VA/Q inequality. The results suggest that current denitrogenation protocols do not result in any major lasting alteration to gas exchange in the lung.

Squat exercise biomechanics during short-radius centrifugation.

PubMed

Duda, Kevin R; Jarchow, Thomas; Young, Laurence R

2012-02-01

Centrifuge-induced artificial gravity (AG) with exercise is a promising comprehensive countermeasure against the physiological de-conditioning that results from exposure to weightlessness. However, body movements onboard a rotating centrifuge are affected by both the gravity gradient and Coriolis accelerations. The effect of centrifugation on squat exercise biomechanics was investigated, and differences between AG and upright squat biomechanics were quantified. There were 28 subjects (16 male) who participated in two separate experiments. Knee position, foot reaction forces, and motion sickness were recorded during the squats in a 1-G field while standing upright and while supine on a horizontally rotating 2 m radius centrifuge at 0, 23, or 30 rpm. No participants terminated the experiment due to motion sickness symptoms. Total mediolateral knee deflection increased by 1.0 to 2.0 cm during centrifugation, and did not result in any injuries. There was no evidence of an increased mediolateral knee travel "after-effect" during postrotation supine squats. Peak foot reaction forces increased with rotation rate up to approximately 200% bodyweight (iRED on ISS provides approximately 210% bodyweight resistance). The ratio of left-to-right foot force throughout the squat cycle on the centrifuge was nonconstant and approximately sinusoidal. Total foot reaction force versus knee flexion-extension angles differed between upright and AG squats due to centripetal acceleration on the centrifuge. A brief exercise protocol during centrifugation can be safely completed without significant after-effects in mediolateral knee position or motion sickness. Several recommendations are made for the design of future centrifuge-based exercise protocols for in-space applications.

Camouflage Visualization

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-04-07

reflected light seen by the viewer does not depend on the viewer’s position. Such surfaces are dull or matte and the luminance of the diffuse reflected light...vegetation and reflect only the skylight . Generally, the reflectance of the ambient light is approximately represented as a global value, constant over all the...allowing the ambient contribution provided by skylight to vary with the orientation of the surface relative to zenith. This approximation takes into

Comments on localized and integral localized approximations in spherical coordinates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gouesbet, Gérard; Lock, James A.

2016-08-01

Localized approximation procedures are efficient ways to evaluate beam shape coefficients of laser beams, and are particularly useful when other methods are ineffective or inefficient. Comments on these procedures are, however, required in order to help researchers make correct decisions concerning their use. This paper has the flavor of a short review and takes the opportunity to attract the attention of the readers to a required refinement of terminology.

Directed Differentiation of Human-Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells to Mesenchymal Stem Cells.

PubMed

Lian, Qizhou; Zhang, Yuelin; Liang, Xiaoting; Gao, Fei; Tse, Hung-Fat

2016-01-01

Multipotent stromal cells, also known as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), possess great potential to generate a wide range of cell types including endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, bone, cartilage, and lipid cells. This protocol describes in detail how to perform highly efficient, lineage-specific differentiation of human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with an MSCs fate. The approach uses a clinically compliant protocol with chemically defined media, feeder-free conditions, and a CD105 positive and CD24 negative selection to achieve a single cell-based MSCs derivation from differentiating human pluripotent cells in approximately 20 days. Cells generated with this protocol express typical MSCs surface markers and undergo adipogenesis, osteogenesis, and chondrogenesis similar to adult bone marrow-derived MSCs (BM-MSCs). Nonetheless, compared with adult BM-MSCs, iPSC-MSCs display a higher proliferative capacity, up to 120 passages, without obvious loss of self-renewal potential and constitutively express MSCs surface antigens. MSCs generated with this protocol have numerous applications, including expansion to large scale cell numbers for tissue engineering and the development of cellular therapeutics. This approach has been used to rescue limb ischemia, allergic disorders, and cigarette smoke-induced lung damage and to model mesenchymal and vascular disorders of Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS).

US screening of international travelers for radioactive contamination after the Japanese nuclear plant disaster in March 2011.

PubMed

Wilson, Todd; Chang, Arthur; Berro, Andre; Still, Aaron; Brown, Clive; Demma, Andrew; Nemhauser, Jeffrey; Martin, Colleen; Salame-Alfie, Adela; Fisher-Tyler, Frieda; Smith, Lee; Grady-Erickson, Onalee; Alvarado-Ramy, Francisco; Brunette, Gary; Ansari, Armin; McAdam, David; Marano, Nina

2012-10-01

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi complex in Japan, resulting in radionuclide release. In response, US officials augmented existing radiological screening at its ports of entry (POEs) to detect and decontaminate travelers contaminated with radioactive materials. During March 12 to 16, radiation screening protocols detected 3 travelers from Japan with external radioactive material contamination at 2 air POEs. Beginning March 23, federal officials collaborated with state and local public health and radiation control authorities to enhance screening and decontamination protocols at POEs. Approximately 543 000 (99%) travelers arriving directly from Japan at 25 US airports were screened for radiation contamination from March 17 to April 30, and no traveler was detected with contamination sufficient to require a large-scale public health response. The response highlighted synergistic collaboration across government levels and leveraged screening methods already in place at POEs, leading to rapid protocol implementation. Policy development, planning, training, and exercising response protocols and the establishment of federal authority to compel decontamination of travelers are needed for future radiological responses. Comparison of resource-intensive screening costs with the public health yield should guide policy decisions, given the historically low frequency of contaminated travelers arriving during radiological disasters.

Dissociation of Learned Helplessness and Fear Conditioning in Mice: A Mouse Model of Depression

PubMed Central

Landgraf, Dominic; Long, Jaimie; Der-Avakian, Andre; Streets, Margo; Welsh, David K.

2015-01-01

The state of being helpless is regarded as a central aspect of depression, and therefore the learned helplessness paradigm in rodents is commonly used as an animal model of depression. The term ‘learned helplessness’ refers to a deficit in escaping from an aversive situation after an animal is exposed to uncontrollable stress specifically, with a control/comparison group having been exposed to an equivalent amount of controllable stress. A key feature of learned helplessness is the transferability of helplessness to different situations, a phenomenon called ‘trans-situationality’. However, most studies in mice use learned helplessness protocols in which training and testing occur in the same environment and with the same type of stressor. Consequently, failures to escape may reflect conditioned fear of a particular environment, not a general change of the helpless state of an animal. For mice, there is no established learned helplessness protocol that includes the trans-situationality feature. Here we describe a simple and reliable learned helplessness protocol for mice, in which training and testing are carried out in different environments and with different types of stressors. We show that with our protocol approximately 50% of mice develop learned helplessness that is not attributable to fear conditioning. PMID:25928892

[Atosiban treatment for preterm labor--financial considerations and savings by implementing clinical guidelines].

PubMed

Hadar, Eran; Mansur, Nariman; Ambar, Irit; Hod, Moshe

2011-06-01

Preterm delivery is a significant cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Pregnant women, with symptoms and signs consistent with preterm labor, can be treated with various tocolytic drugs. Atosiban is one of many drugs indicated to arrest imminent preterm labor. Various studies show that the efficacy of atosiban is similar to other tocolytic drugs. The main advantage of atosiban is a relativeLy low incidence of adverse maternal reactions. Its considerable shortcoming is the financial cost, compared to other available drugs. In view of its cost, we have decided to implement a strict protocol to direct the use of atosiban, with the intent to reduce costs, without hampering quality of care. The protocol was implemented from July 2009, and it outlines the medical and procedural terms to use atosiban. We compared similar time periods before and after implementation of the protocol. The outcomes compared included: treatment success, rates of preterm deliveries and financial costs. Within the timeframe that the protocol was implemented, we have been able to demonstrate a 40% reduction in atosiban related costs, compared to a parallel period, when the clinical guidelines were not implemented. This translates into savings of about NIS 40,000 (New Israeli Shekel) (approximately $10,000). This was achieved without an increase in the rate of preterm deliveries. Implementing and enforcing a simple protocol of supervision on the use of atosiban enables a considerable reduction of financial costs related to atosiban, without hampering medical care.

Robust generation and expansion of skeletal muscle progenitors and myocytes from human pluripotent stem cells.

PubMed

Shelton, Michael; Kocharyan, Avetik; Liu, Jun; Skerjanc, Ilona S; Stanford, William L

2016-05-15

Human pluripotent stem cells provide a developmental model to study early embryonic and tissue development, tease apart human disease processes, perform drug screens to identify potential molecular effectors of in situ regeneration, and provide a source for cell and tissue based transplantation. Highly efficient differentiation protocols have been established for many cell types and tissues; however, until very recently robust differentiation into skeletal muscle cells had not been possible unless driven by transgenic expression of master regulators of myogenesis. Nevertheless, several breakthrough protocols have been published in the past two years that efficiently generate cells of the skeletal muscle lineage from pluripotent stem cells. Here, we present an updated version of our recently described 50-day protocol in detail, whereby chemically defined media are used to drive and support muscle lineage development from initial CHIR99021-induced mesoderm through to PAX7-expressing skeletal muscle progenitors and mature skeletal myocytes. Furthermore, we report an optional method to passage and expand differentiating skeletal muscle progenitors approximately 3-fold every 2weeks using Collagenase IV and continued FGF2 supplementation. Both protocols have been optimized using a variety of human pluripotent stem cell lines including patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells. Taken together, our differentiation and expansion protocols provide sufficient quantities of skeletal muscle progenitors and myocytes that could be used for a variety of studies. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The effective dose of different scanning protocols using the Sirona GALILEOS® comfort CBCT scanner

PubMed Central

Bohay, R; Kaci, L; Barnett, R; Battista, J

2015-01-01

Objectives: To determine the effective dose and CT dose index (CTDI) for a range of imaging protocols using the Sirona GALILEOS® Comfort CBCT scanner (Sirona Dental Systems GmbH, Bensheim, Germany). Methods: Calibrated optically stimulated luminescence dosemeters were placed at 26 sites in the head and neck of a modified RANDO® phantom (The Phantom Laboratory, Greenwich, NY). Effective dose was calculated for 12 different scanning protocols. CTDI measurements were also performed to determine the dose–length product (DLP) and the ratio of effective dose to DLP for each scanning protocol. Results: The effective dose for a full maxillomandibular scan at 42 mAs was 102 ± 1 μSv and remained unchanged with varying contrast and resolution settings. This compares with 71 μSv for a maxillary scan and 76 μSv for a mandibular scan with identical milliampere-seconds (mAs) at high contrast and resolution settings. Conclusions: Changes to mAs and beam collimation have a significant influence on effective dose. Effective dose and DLP vary linearly with mAs. A collimated maxillary or mandibular scan decreases effective dose by approximately 29% and 24%, respectively, as compared with a full maxillomandibular scan. Changes to contrast and resolution settings have little influence on effective dose. This study provides data for setting individualized patient exposure protocols to minimize patient dose from ionizing radiation used for diagnostic or treatment planning tasks in dentistry. PMID:25358865

Modeling recovery of Swedish ecosystems from acidification.

PubMed

Sverdrup, Harald; Martinson, Liisa; Alveteg, Mattias; Moldan, Filip; Kronnäs, Veronika; Munthe, John

2005-02-01

Dynamic models complement existing time series of observations and static critical load calculations by simulating past and future development of chemistry in forest and lake ecosystems. They are used for dynamic assessment of the acidification and to produce target load functions, that describe what combinations of nitrogen and sulfur emission reductions are needed to achieve a chemical or biological criterion in a given target year. The Swedish approach has been to apply the dynamic acidification models MAGIC, to 133 lakes unaffected by agriculture and SAFE, to 645 productive forest sites. While the long-term goal is to protect 95% of the area, implementation of the Gothenburg protocol will protect approximately 75% of forest soils in the long term. After 2030, recovery will be very slow and involve only a limited geographical area. If there had been no emission reductions after 1980, 87% of the forest area would have unwanted soil status in the long term. In 1990, approximately 17% of all Swedish lakes unaffected by agriculture received an acidifying deposition above critical load. This fraction will decrease to 10% in 2010 after implementation of the Gothenburg protocol. The acidified lakes of Sweden will recover faster than the soils. According to the MAGIC model the median pre-industrial ANC of 107 microeq L(-1) in acid sensitive lakes decreased to about 60 microeq L(-1) at the peak of the acidification (1975-1990) and increases to 80 microeq L(-1) by 2010. Further increases were small, only 2 microeq L(-1) between 2010 and 2040. Protecting 95% of the lakes will require further emission reductions below the Gothenburg protocol levels. More than 7000 lakes are limed regularly in Sweden and it is unlikely that this practice can be discontinued in the near future without adverse effects on lake chemistry and biology.

Perfusion CT of the Brain and Liver and of Lung Tumors: Use of Monte Carlo Simulation for Patient Dose Estimation for Examinations With a Cone-Beam 320-MDCT Scanner.

PubMed

Cros, Maria; Geleijns, Jacob; Joemai, Raoul M S; Salvadó, Marçal

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to estimate the patient dose from perfusion CT examinations of the brain, lung tumors, and the liver on a cone-beam 320-MDCT scanner using a Monte Carlo simulation and the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). A Monte Carlo simulation based on the Electron Gamma Shower Version 4 package code was used to calculate organ doses and the effective dose in the reference computational phantoms for an adult man and adult woman as published by the ICRP. Three perfusion CT acquisition protocols--brain, lung tumor, and liver perfusion--were evaluated. Additionally, dose assessments were performed for the skin and for the eye lens. Conversion factors were obtained to estimate effective doses and organ doses from the volume CT dose index and dose-length product. The sex-averaged effective doses were approximately 4 mSv for perfusion CT of the brain and were between 23 and 26 mSv for the perfusion CT body protocols. The eye lens dose from the brain perfusion CT examination was approximately 153 mGy. The sex-averaged peak entrance skin dose (ESD) was 255 mGy for the brain perfusion CT studies, 157 mGy for the lung tumor perfusion CT studies, and 172 mGy for the liver perfusion CT studies. The perfusion CT protocols for imaging the brain, lung tumors, and the liver performed on a 320-MDCT scanner yielded patient doses that are safely below the threshold doses for deterministic effects. The eye lens dose, peak ESD, and effective doses can be estimated for other clinical perfusion CT examinations from the conversion factors that were derived in this study.

A code for optically thick and hot photoionized media

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dumont, A.-M.; Abrassart, A.; Collin, S.

2000-05-01

We describe a code designed for hot media (T >= a few 104 K), optically thick to Compton scattering. It computes the structure of a plane-parallel slab of gas in thermal and ionization equilibrium, illuminated on one or on both sides by a given spectrum. Contrary to the other photoionization codes, it solves the transfer of the continuum and of the lines in a two stream approximation, without using the local escape probability formalism to approximate the line transfer. We stress the importance of taking into account the returning flux even for small column densities (1022 cm-2), and we show that the escape probability approximation can lead to strong errors in the thermal and ionization structure, as well as in the emitted spectrum, for a Thomson thickness larger than a few tenths. The transfer code is coupled with a Monte Carlo code which allows to take into account Compton and inverse Compton diffusions, and to compute the spectrum emitted up to MeV energies, in any geometry. Comparisons with cloudy show that it gives similar results for small column densities. Several applications are mentioned.

TU-G-BRD-04: A Round Robin Dosimetry Intercomparison of Gamma Stereotactic Radiosurgery Calibration Protocols

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

Drzymala, R; Alvarez, P; Bednarz, G

2015-06-15

Purpose: The purpose of this multi-institutional study was to compare two new gamma stereotactic radiosurgery (GSRS) dosimetry protocols to existing calibration methods. The ultimate goal was to guide AAPM Task Group 178 in recommending a standard GSRS dosimetry protocol. Methods: Nine centers (ten GSRS units) participated in the study. Each institution made eight sets of dose rate measurements: six with two different ionization chambers in three different 160mm-diameter spherical phantoms (ABS plastic, Solid Water and liquid water), and two using the same ionization chambers with a custom in-air positioning jig. Absolute dose rates were calculated using a newly proposed formalismmore » by the IAEA working group for small and non-standard radiation fields and with a new air-kerma based protocol. The new IAEA protocol requires an in-water ionization chamber calibration and uses previously reported Monte-Carlo generated factors to account for the material composition of the phantom, the type of ionization chamber, and the unique GSRS beam configuration. Results obtained with the new dose calibration protocols were compared to dose rates determined by the AAPM TG-21 and TG-51 protocols, with TG-21 considered as the standard. Results: Averaged over all institutions, ionization chambers and phantoms, the mean dose rate determined with the new IAEA protocol relative to that determined with TG-21 in the ABS phantom was 1.000 with a standard deviation of 0.008. For TG-51, the average ratio was 0.991 with a standard deviation of 0.013, and for the new in-air formalism it was 1.008 with a standard deviation of 0.012. Conclusion: Average results with both of the new protocols agreed with TG-21 to within one standard deviation. TG-51, which does not take into account the unique GSRS beam configuration or phantom material, was not expected to perform as well as the new protocols. The new IAEA protocol showed remarkably good agreement with TG-21. Conflict of Interests: Paula Petti, Josef Novotny, Gennady Neyman and Steve Goetsch are consultants for Elekta Instrument A/B; Elekta Instrument AB, PTW Freiburg GmbH, Standard Imaging, Inc., and The Phantom Laboratory, Inc. loaned equipment for use in these experiments; The University of Wisconsin Accredited Dosimetry Calibration Laboratory provided calibration services.« less

Assessment tools for the measurement of the self-efficacy of drug users: protocol for a systematic review.

PubMed

Vasconcelos, Selene Cordeiro; Frazão, Iracema da Silva; Sougey, Everton Botelho; Souza, Sandra Lopes de; Silva, Tatiana de Paula Santana da; Lima, Murilo Duarte da Costa

2018-03-14

The abuse of alcohol and other drugs is a worldwide problem, the treatment of which poses a challenge to healthcare workers. This study presents a proposal for a systematic review to analyse the psychometric properties of assessment tools developed to measure the self-efficacy of drug users with regard to resisting the urge to take drugs in high-risk situations. The guiding question was based on PICOS (Population Intervention Comparator Outcome Setting), and the report of the methods of review protocol was written in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P). Searches will be performed in the PsycINFO, Cochrane, Pubmed, Web of Science, SCOPUS and CINAHL databases, followed by the use of the 'snowball' strategy. The inclusion criteria for the articles will be (1) assessment tool validation studies; (2) assessment tools developed to measure self-efficacy; (3) quantitative measures; (4) measures designed for use on adults; (5) data from self-reports of the participants; (6) studies involving a description of psychometric properties of the measures; and (7) studies that explain how the level of self-efficacy is scored. The search, selection and analysis will be performed by two independent reviewers. In cases of a divergence of opinion, a third reviewer will be consulted. The COSMIN checklist will be used for the appraisal of the methodological quality of the assessment tools and the certainty of the evidence in the articles (risk of bias) will be analysed using the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation) approach. This protocol does not require ethical approval. However, this protocol is part of the thesis entitled Drug-Taking Confidence Questionnaire for use in Brazil, presented for obtaining a doctorate in neuropsychiatry and behavioural sciences from the Federal University of Pernambuco, and has received approval from the human research ethics committee of the Federal University of Pernambuco (reference number: 1.179.162).The results will be disseminated to clinicians and researchers through peer-reviewed publications and conferences. CRD42017068555. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

FUNCTION Follows FORM: Building the Foundations for Student Achievement Employing "School as a Teaching Tool" Protocol a Place-Based Learning Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

da Silva, Joseph; Alvarado, Manuel Cordero

2011-01-01

The experience of observing students actively engaged in the learning process is precious. There is no better way to celebrate "Children's Health and Energy Awareness Month" than assembling in a world class high performance green school with gifted and talented students learning how to take an integrated approach to sustainable school…

Accounting for patient size in the optimization of dose and image quality of pelvis cone beam CT protocols on the Varian OBI system

PubMed Central

Moore, Craig S; Horsfield, Carl J; Saunderson, John R; Beavis, Andrew W

2015-01-01

Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop size-based radiotherapy kilovoltage cone beam CT (CBCT) protocols for the pelvis. Methods: Image noise was measured in an elliptical phantom of varying size for a range of exposure factors. Based on a previously defined “small pelvis” reference patient and CBCT protocol, appropriate exposure factors for small, medium, large and extra-large patients were derived which approximate the image noise behaviour observed on a Philips CT scanner (Philips Medical Systems, Best, Netherlands) with automatic exposure control (AEC). Selection criteria, based on maximum tube current–time product per rotation selected during the radiotherapy treatment planning scan, were derived based on an audit of patient size. Results: It has been demonstrated that 110 kVp yields acceptable image noise for reduced patient dose in pelvic CBCT scans of small, medium and large patients, when compared with manufacturer's default settings (125 kVp). Conversely, extra-large patients require increased exposure factors to give acceptable images. 57% of patients in the local population now receive much lower radiation doses, whereas 13% require higher doses (but now yield acceptable images). Conclusion: The implementation of size-based exposure protocols has significantly reduced radiation dose to the majority of patients with no negative impact on image quality. Increased doses are required on the largest patients to give adequate image quality. Advances in knowledge: The development of size-based CBCT protocols that use the planning CT scan (with AEC) to determine which protocol is appropriate ensures adequate image quality whilst minimizing patient radiation dose. PMID:26419892

Development of a fast PCR protocol enabling rapid generation of AmpFℓSTR® Identifiler® profiles for genotyping of human DNA

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Traditional PCR methods for forensic STR genotyping require approximately 2.5 to 4 hours to complete, contributing a significant portion of the time required to process forensic DNA samples. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a fast PCR protocol that enabled amplification of the 16 loci targeted by the AmpFℓSTR® Identifiler® primer set, allowing decreased cycling times. Methods Fast PCR conditions were achieved by substituting the traditional Taq polymerase for SpeedSTAR™ HS DNA polymerase which is designed for fast PCR, by upgrading to a thermal cycler with faster temperature ramping rates and by modifying cycling parameters (less time at each temperature) and adopting a two-step PCR approach. Results The total time required for the optimized protocol is 26 min. A total of 147 forensically relevant DNA samples were amplified using the fast PCR protocol for Identifiler. Heterozygote peak height ratios were not affected by fast PCR conditions, and full profiles were generated for single-source DNA amounts between 0.125 ng and 2.0 ng. Individual loci in profiles produced with the fast PCR protocol exhibited average n-4 stutter percentages ranging from 2.5 ± 0.9% (THO1) to 9.9 ± 2.7% (D2S1338). No increase in non-adenylation or other amplification artefacts was observed. Minor contributor alleles in two-person DNA mixtures were reliably discerned. Low level cross-reactivity (monomorphic peaks) was observed with some domestic animal DNA. Conclusions The fast PCR protocol presented offers a feasible alternative to current amplification methods and could aid in reducing the overall time in STR profile production or could be incorporated into a fast STR genotyping procedure for time-sensitive situations. PMID:22394458

Development of a fast PCR protocol enabling rapid generation of AmpFℓSTR® Identifiler® profiles for genotyping of human DNA.

PubMed

Foster, Amanda; Laurin, Nancy

2012-03-06

Traditional PCR methods for forensic STR genotyping require approximately 2.5 to 4 hours to complete, contributing a significant portion of the time required to process forensic DNA samples. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a fast PCR protocol that enabled amplification of the 16 loci targeted by the AmpFℓSTR® Identifiler® primer set, allowing decreased cycling times. Fast PCR conditions were achieved by substituting the traditional Taq polymerase for SpeedSTAR™ HS DNA polymerase which is designed for fast PCR, by upgrading to a thermal cycler with faster temperature ramping rates and by modifying cycling parameters (less time at each temperature) and adopting a two-step PCR approach. The total time required for the optimized protocol is 26 min. A total of 147 forensically relevant DNA samples were amplified using the fast PCR protocol for Identifiler. Heterozygote peak height ratios were not affected by fast PCR conditions, and full profiles were generated for single-source DNA amounts between 0.125 ng and 2.0 ng. Individual loci in profiles produced with the fast PCR protocol exhibited average n-4 stutter percentages ranging from 2.5 ± 0.9% (THO1) to 9.9 ± 2.7% (D2S1338). No increase in non-adenylation or other amplification artefacts was observed. Minor contributor alleles in two-person DNA mixtures were reliably discerned. Low level cross-reactivity (monomorphic peaks) was observed with some domestic animal DNA. The fast PCR protocol presented offers a feasible alternative to current amplification methods and could aid in reducing the overall time in STR profile production or could be incorporated into a fast STR genotyping procedure for time-sensitive situations.

Treatment planning for SBRT using automated field delivery: A case study

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

Ritter, Timothy A., E-mail: timritte@med.umich.edu; Department of Radiation Oncology, Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Health Care System, Ann Arbor, MI; Owen, Dawn

Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) treatment planning and delivery can be accomplished using a variety of techniques that achieve highly conformal dose distributions. Herein, we describe a template-based automated treatment field approach that enables rapid delivery of more than 20 coplanar fields. A case study is presented to demonstrate how modest adaptations to traditional SBRT planning can be implemented to take clinical advantage of this technology. Treatment was planned for a left-sided lung lesion adjacent to the chest wall using 25 coplanar treatment fields spaced at 11° intervals. The plan spares the contralateral lung and is in compliance with themore » conformality standards set forth in Radiation Therapy and Oncology Group protocol 0915, and the dose tolerances found in the report of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine Task Group 101. Using a standard template, treatment planning was accomplished in less than 20 minutes, and each 10 Gy fraction was delivered in approximately 5.4 minutes. For those centers equipped with linear accelerators capable of automated treatment field delivery, the use of more than 20 coplanar fields is a viable SBRT planning approach and yields excellent conformality and quality combined with rapid planning and treatment delivery. Although the case study discusses a laterally located lung lesion, this technique can be applied to centrally located tumors with similar results.« less

Examining the Influence of a New Light Rail Line on the Health of a Demographically Diverse and Understudied Population within the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area: A Protocol for a Natural Experiment Study

PubMed Central

Saksvig, Brit Irene; Brachman, Micah L.; Durand, Casey P.

2018-01-01

Approximately two-thirds of adults and youth in Prince George’s County, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. are overweight or obese and less than half are achieving daily physical activity recommendations. Active transportation (AT), such as walking, biking or using public transportation (PT), is a strategic pathway to improving physical activity levels and thus reducing excess weight. Utilizing an expansion of the Washington, D.C. area transportation system with a new light rail line, the Purple Line Outcomes on Transportation (PLOT) Study will exam pre- and post-Purple Line PT use, AT behaviors and attitudes and physical activity among Prince George’s County adults and youth. The PLOT Study will take advantage of this natural experiment in an area enduring significant racial/ethnic and gender-based overweight or obesity and physical inactivity disparities. While similar natural experiments on AT have been conducted in other U.S. cities, those studies lacked diverse and representative samples. To effectively evaluate these physical activity outcomes among this population, efforts will be used to recruit African American and Latino populations, the first and second most common racial/ethnic groups in Prince George’s County. Finally, the PLOT Study will also examine how contextual effects (e.g., neighborhood built environment) impact PT, AT and physical activity.

Small-molecule ligand docking into comparative models with Rosetta

PubMed Central

Combs, Steven A; DeLuca, Samuel L; DeLuca, Stephanie H; Lemmon, Gordon H; Nannemann, David P; Nguyen, Elizabeth D; Willis, Jordan R; Sheehan, Jonathan H; Meiler, Jens

2017-01-01

Structure-based drug design is frequently used to accelerate the development of small-molecule therapeutics. Although substantial progress has been made in X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, the availability of high-resolution structures is limited owing to the frequent inability to crystallize or obtain sufficient NMR restraints for large or flexible proteins. Computational methods can be used to both predict unknown protein structures and model ligand interactions when experimental data are unavailable. This paper describes a comprehensive and detailed protocol using the Rosetta modeling suite to dock small-molecule ligands into comparative models. In the protocol presented here, we review the comparative modeling process, including sequence alignment, threading and loop building. Next, we cover docking a small-molecule ligand into the protein comparative model. In addition, we discuss criteria that can improve ligand docking into comparative models. Finally, and importantly, we present a strategy for assessing model quality. The entire protocol is presented on a single example selected solely for didactic purposes. The results are therefore not representative and do not replace benchmarks published elsewhere. We also provide an additional tutorial so that the user can gain hands-on experience in using Rosetta. The protocol should take 5–7 h, with additional time allocated for computer generation of models. PMID:23744289

Self-organization of human embryonic stem cells on micropatterns

PubMed Central

Deglincerti, Alessia; Etoc, Fred; Guerra, M. Cecilia; Martyn, Iain; Metzger, Jakob; Ruzo, Albert; Simunovic, Mijo; Yoney, Anna; Brivanlou, Ali H.; Siggia, Eric; Warmflash, Aryeh

2018-01-01

Fate allocation in the gastrulating embryo is spatially organized as cells differentiate to specialized cell types depending on their positions with respect to the body axes. There is a need for in vitro protocols that allow the study of spatial organization associated with this developmental transition. While embryoid bodies and organoids can exhibit some spatial organization of differentiated cells, these methods do not yield consistent and fully reproducible results. Here, we describe a micropatterning approach where human embryonic stem cells are confined to disk-shaped, sub-millimeter colonies. After 42 hours of BMP4 stimulation, cells form self-organized differentiation patterns in concentric radial domains, which express specific markers associated with the embryonic germ layers, reminiscent of gastrulating embryos. Our protocol takes 3 days; it uses commercial microfabricated slides (CYTOO), human laminin-521 (LN-521) as extra-cellular matrix coating, and either conditioned or chemically-defined medium (mTeSR). Differentiation patterns within individual colonies can be determined by immunofluorescence and analyzed with cellular resolution. Both the size of the micropattern and the type of medium affect the patterning outcome. The protocol is appropriate for personnel with basic stem cell culture training. This protocol describes a robust platform for quantitative analysis of the mechanisms associated with pattern formation at the onset of gastrulation. PMID:27735934

Multiple-access relaying with network coding: iterative network/channel decoding with imperfect CSI

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vu, Xuan-Thang; Renzo, Marco Di; Duhamel, Pierre

2013-12-01

In this paper, we study the performance of the four-node multiple-access relay channel with binary Network Coding (NC) in various Rayleigh fading scenarios. In particular, two relay protocols, decode-and-forward (DF) and demodulate-and-forward (DMF) are considered. In the first case, channel decoding is performed at the relay before NC and forwarding. In the second case, only demodulation is performed at the relay. The contributions of the paper are as follows: (1) two joint network/channel decoding (JNCD) algorithms, which take into account possible decoding error at the relay, are developed in both DF and DMF relay protocols; (2) both perfect channel state information (CSI) and imperfect CSI at receivers are studied. In addition, we propose a practical method to forward the relays error characterization to the destination (quantization of the BER). This results in a fully practical scheme. (3) We show by simulation that the number of pilot symbols only affects the coding gain but not the diversity order, and that quantization accuracy affects both coding gain and diversity order. Moreover, when compared with the recent results using DMF protocol, our proposed DF protocol algorithm shows an improvement of 4 dB in fully interleaved Rayleigh fading channels and 0.7 dB in block Rayleigh fading channels.

Ecological quality boundary-setting procedures: the Gulf of Riga case study.

PubMed

Aigars, Juris; Müller-Karulis, Bärbel; Martin, Georg; Jermakovs, Vadims

2008-03-01

Two approaches for setting ecological class boundaries, response curves and a simplified mathematical boundary-setting protocol, were tested for coastal, transitional and open waters in the Gulf of Riga, Baltic Sea. The simplified mathematical boundary-setting protocol defines acceptable ecological status based on expert judgment by a uniform relative deviation from reference conditions. In contrast, response curves derive class boundary definitions from observed changes in biological quality elements along environmental pressure gradients for class boundary definitions. Identification of relevant environmental pressures for the construction of response curves was based on a conceptual model of eutrophication in the Gulf of Riga. Response curves were successfully established for summer chlorophyll a and transparency, as well as for macrozoobenthos abundance in the Central Gulf, macrozoobenthos biotic coefficient in the Southern Gulf, and maximum depth of phytobenthos in the Northern Gulf. In the Gulf of Riga response curves almost always permitted a larger deviation from reference conditions than the 50% deviation applied for the simplified mathematical boundary-setting protocol. The case study clearly demonstrated that class boundary definitions should take into account the sensitivity of the target water body. Also, the class boundaries for different ecological quality elements were internally more consistent than those derived by the simplified mathematical boundary-setting protocol.

Ground-state-entanglement bound for quantum energy teleportation of general spin-chain models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hotta, Masahiro

2013-03-01

Many-body quantum systems in the ground states have zero-point energy due to the uncertainty relation. In many cases, the system in the ground state accompanies spatially entangled energy density fluctuation via the noncommutativity of the energy density operators, though the total energy takes a fixed value, i.e., the lowest eigenvalue of the Hamiltonian. Quantum energy teleportation (QET) is a protocol for the extraction of the zero-point energy out of one subsystem using information of a remote measurement of another subsystem. From an operational viewpoint of protocol users, QET can be regarded as an effective rapid energy transportation without breaking all physical laws, including causality and local energy conservation. In the protocol, the ground-state entanglement plays a crucial role. In this paper, we show analytically for a general class of spin-chain systems that the entanglement entropy is lower bounded by a positive quadratic function of the teleported energy between the regions of a QET protocol. This supports a general conjecture that ground-state entanglement is an evident physical resource for energy transportation in the context of QET. The result may also deepen our understanding of the energy density fluctuation in condensed-matter systems from a perspective of quantum information theory.

Thermodynamic equilibrium solubility measurements in simulated fluids by 96-well plate method in early drug discovery.

PubMed

Bharate, Sonali S; Vishwakarma, Ram A

2015-04-01

An early prediction of solubility in physiological media (PBS, SGF and SIF) is useful to predict qualitatively bioavailability and absorption of lead candidates. Despite of the availability of multiple solubility estimation methods, none of the reported method involves simplified fixed protocol for diverse set of compounds. Therefore, a simple and medium-throughput solubility estimation protocol is highly desirable during lead optimization stage. The present work introduces a rapid method for assessment of thermodynamic equilibrium solubility of compounds in aqueous media using 96-well microplate. The developed protocol is straightforward to set up and takes advantage of the sensitivity of UV spectroscopy. The compound, in stock solution in methanol, is introduced in microgram quantities into microplate wells followed by drying at an ambient temperature. Microplates were shaken upon addition of test media and the supernatant was analyzed by UV method. A plot of absorbance versus concentration of a sample provides saturation point, which is thermodynamic equilibrium solubility of a sample. The established protocol was validated using a large panel of commercially available drugs and with conventional miniaturized shake flask method (r(2)>0.84). Additionally, the statistically significant QSPR models were established using experimental solubility values of 52 compounds. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cushing’s Syndrome with Concurrent Diabetes Mellitus in a Rhesus Monkey

DTIC Science & Technology

1999-05-01

adverse effects ( 10). Feldman et al. evaluated ketoconazole in over 50 dogs with spontaneous hyperadrenocorticism due to Cushing’s disease and...choice to control the hypercortisolism. The monkey bas shown remarkable improvement with the dual therapies of insulin and ketoconazole . Approximately 2...months after the initiation of ketoconazole therapy, the animal wu returned to an experimental protocol under the conditions of twi~ treatment and

Estimating the quadratic mean diameters of fine woody debris in forests of the United States

Treesearch

Christopher W. Woodall; Vicente J. Monleon

2010-01-01

Most fine woody debris (FWD) line-intersect sampling protocols and associated estimators require an approximation of the quadratic mean diameter (QMD) of each individual FWD size class. There is a lack of empirically derived QMDs by FWD size class and species/forest type across the U.S. The objective of this study is to evaluate a technique known as the graphical...

Hybridization parameters revisited: solutions containing SDS.

PubMed

Rose, Ken; Mason, John O; Lathe, Richard

2002-07-01

Salt concentration governs nucleic acid hybridization according to the Schildkraut-Lifson equation. High concentrations of SDS are used in some common protocols, but the effects of SDS on hybridization stringency have not been reported. We investigated hybridization parameters in solutions containing SDS. With targets immobilized on nylon membranes and PCR- or transcription-generated probes, we report that the 50% dissociation temperature (Tm*) in the absence of SDS was 15 degrees C-17degrees C lower than the calculated Tm. SDS had only modest effects on Tm* [1% (w/v) equating to 8 mM NaCl]. RNA/DNA hybrids were approximately 11 degrees C more stable than DNA/DNA hybrids. Incomplete homology (69%) significantly reduced the Tm* for DNA/DNA hybrids (approximately /4degrees C; 0.45 degrees C/% nonhomology) but far less so for RNA/DNA hybrids (approximately 2.3 degrees C; approximately 0.07 degrees C/% non-homology); incomplete homology also markedly reduced the extent of hybridization. On these nylonfilters, SDS had a major effect on nonspecific binding. Buffers lacking SDS, or with low salt concentration, gave high hybridization backgrounds; buffers containing SDS, or high-salt buffers, gave reproducibly low backgrounds.

Ocean fertilization, carbon credits and the Kyoto Protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Westley, M. B.; Gnanadesikan, A.

2008-12-01

Commercial interest in ocean fertilization as a carbon sequestration tool was excited by the December 1997 agreement of the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change. The Protocol commits industrialized countries to caps on net greenhouse gas emissions and allows for various flexible mechanisms to achieve these caps in the most economically efficient manner possible, including trade in carbon credits from projects that reduce emissions or enhance sinks. The carbon market was valued at 64 billion in 2007, with the bulk of the trading (50 billion) taking place in the highly regulated European Union Emission Trading Scheme, which deals primarily in emission allowances in the energy sector. A much smaller amount, worth $265 million, was traded in the largely unregulated "voluntary" market (Capoor and Ambrosi 2008). As the voluntary market grows, so do calls for its regulation, with several efforts underway to set rules and standards for the sale of voluntary carbon credits using the Kyoto Protocol as a starting point. Four US-based companies and an Australian company currently seek to develop ocean fertilization technologies for the generation of carbon credits. We review these plans through the lens of the Kyoto Protocol and its flexible mechanisms, and examine whether and how ocean fertilization could generate tradable carbon credits. We note that at present, ocean sinks are not included in the Kyoto Protocol, and that furthermore, the Kyoto Protocol only addresses sources and sinks of greenhouse gases within national boundaries, making open-ocean fertilization projects a jurisdictional challenge. We discuss the negotiating history behind the limited inclusion of land use, land use change and forestry in the Kyoto Protocol and the controversy and eventual compromise concerning methodologies for terrestrial carbon accounting. We conclude that current technologies for measuring and monitoring carbon sequestration following ocean fertilization are unlikely to meet the Kyoto Protocol's verification and accounting standards for trading carbon credits on the regulated market. The marketability of ocean fertilization in the voluntary carbon marketplace will likely depend on companies' efforts to minimize environmental risks and consumers' willingness to accept remaining risks.

Effect of external shielding for neutrons during radiotherapy for prostate cancer, considering the 2300 CD linear accelerator and voxel phantom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thalhofer, J. L.; Roque, H. S.; Rebello, W. F.; Correa, S. A.; Silva, A. X.; Souza, E. M.; Batita, D. V. S.; Sandrini, E. S.

2014-02-01

Photoneutron production occurs when high energy photons, greater than 6.7 MeV, interact with linear accelerator head structures. In Brazil, the National Cancer Institute, one of the centers of reference in cancer treatment, uses radiation at 4 angles (0°, 90°, 180° and 270°) as treatment protocol for prostate cancer. With the objective of minimizing the dose deposited in the patient due to photoneutrons, this study simulated radiotherapy treatment using MCNPX, considering the most realistic environment; simulating the radiotherapy room, the Linac 2300 head, the MAX phantom and the treatment protocol with the accelerator operating at 18 MV. In an attempt to reduce the dose deposited by photoneutrons, an external shielding was added to the Linac 2300. Results show that the equivalent dose due to photoneutrons deposited in the patient diminished. The biggest reduction was seen in bone structures, such as the tibia and fibula, and mandible, at approximately 75%. Besides that, organs such as the brain, pancreas, small intestine, lungs and thyroid revealed a reduction of approximately 60%. It can be concluded that the shielding developed by our research group is efficient in neutron shielding, reducing the dose for the patient, and thus, the risk of secondary cancer, and increasing patient survival rates.

Towards Reliable and Energy-Efficient Incremental Cooperative Communication for Wireless Body Area Networks.

PubMed

Yousaf, Sidrah; Javaid, Nadeem; Qasim, Umar; Alrajeh, Nabil; Khan, Zahoor Ali; Ahmed, Mansoor

2016-02-24

In this study, we analyse incremental cooperative communication for wireless body area networks (WBANs) with different numbers of relays. Energy efficiency (EE) and the packet error rate (PER) are investigated for different schemes. We propose a new cooperative communication scheme with three-stage relaying and compare it to existing schemes. Our proposed scheme provides reliable communication with less PER at the cost of surplus energy consumption. Analytical expressions for the EE of the proposed three-stage cooperative communication scheme are also derived, taking into account the effect of PER. Later on, the proposed three-stage incremental cooperation is implemented in a network layer protocol; enhanced incremental cooperative critical data transmission in emergencies for static WBANs (EInCo-CEStat). Extensive simulations are conducted to validate the proposed scheme. Results of incremental relay-based cooperative communication protocols are compared to two existing cooperative routing protocols: cooperative critical data transmission in emergencies for static WBANs (Co-CEStat) and InCo-CEStat. It is observed from the simulation results that incremental relay-based cooperation is more energy efficient than the existing conventional cooperation protocol, Co-CEStat. The results also reveal that EInCo-CEStat proves to be more reliable with less PER and higher throughput than both of the counterpart protocols. However, InCo-CEStat has less throughput with a greater stability period and network lifetime. Due to the availability of more redundant links, EInCo-CEStat achieves a reduced packet drop rate at the cost of increased energy consumption.

Dynamic Hierarchical Energy-Efficient Method Based on Combinatorial Optimization for Wireless Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Tang, Hongying; Cheng, Yongbo; Zhao, Qin; Li, Baoqing; Yuan, Xiaobing

2017-01-01

Routing protocols based on topology control are significantly important for improving network longevity in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Traditionally, some WSN routing protocols distribute uneven network traffic load to sensor nodes, which is not optimal for improving network longevity. Differently to conventional WSN routing protocols, we propose a dynamic hierarchical protocol based on combinatorial optimization (DHCO) to balance energy consumption of sensor nodes and to improve WSN longevity. For each sensor node, the DHCO algorithm obtains the optimal route by establishing a feasible routing set instead of selecting the cluster head or the next hop node. The process of obtaining the optimal route can be formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem. Specifically, the DHCO algorithm is carried out by the following procedures. It employs a hierarchy-based connection mechanism to construct a hierarchical network structure in which each sensor node is assigned to a special hierarchical subset; it utilizes the combinatorial optimization theory to establish the feasible routing set for each sensor node, and takes advantage of the maximum–minimum criterion to obtain their optimal routes to the base station. Various results of simulation experiments show effectiveness and superiority of the DHCO algorithm in comparison with state-of-the-art WSN routing algorithms, including low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH), hybrid energy-efficient distributed clustering (HEED), genetic protocol-based self-organizing network clustering (GASONeC), and double cost function-based routing (DCFR) algorithms. PMID:28753962

Towards Reliable and Energy-Efficient Incremental Cooperative Communication for Wireless Body Area Networks

PubMed Central

Yousaf, Sidrah; Javaid, Nadeem; Qasim, Umar; Alrajeh, Nabil; Khan, Zahoor Ali; Ahmed, Mansoor

2016-01-01

In this study, we analyse incremental cooperative communication for wireless body area networks (WBANs) with different numbers of relays. Energy efficiency (EE) and the packet error rate (PER) are investigated for different schemes. We propose a new cooperative communication scheme with three-stage relaying and compare it to existing schemes. Our proposed scheme provides reliable communication with less PER at the cost of surplus energy consumption. Analytical expressions for the EE of the proposed three-stage cooperative communication scheme are also derived, taking into account the effect of PER. Later on, the proposed three-stage incremental cooperation is implemented in a network layer protocol; enhanced incremental cooperative critical data transmission in emergencies for static WBANs (EInCo-CEStat). Extensive simulations are conducted to validate the proposed scheme. Results of incremental relay-based cooperative communication protocols are compared to two existing cooperative routing protocols: cooperative critical data transmission in emergencies for static WBANs (Co-CEStat) and InCo-CEStat. It is observed from the simulation results that incremental relay-based cooperation is more energy efficient than the existing conventional cooperation protocol, Co-CEStat. The results also reveal that EInCo-CEStat proves to be more reliable with less PER and higher throughput than both of the counterpart protocols. However, InCo-CEStat has less throughput with a greater stability period and network lifetime. Due to the availability of more redundant links, EInCo-CEStat achieves a reduced packet drop rate at the cost of increased energy consumption. PMID:26927104

Combining field work and laboratory work in the study of financial risk-taking.

PubMed

Coates, John; Gurnell, Mark

2017-06-01

A contribution to a special issue on Hormones and Human Competition. Financial markets are periodically destabilized by bubbles and crashes during which investors display respectively what has been called "irrational exuberance" and "irrational pessimism". How can we best study these pathologies in competitive and risk-taking behaviours? In this article, we argue that a science of risk-taking and of the financial markets needs to draw heavily on physiology and especially endocrinology, due to their central roles in moderating human behaviour. Importantly, this science of competition and risk requires the same spectrum of research protocols as is found in mature biological and medical sciences, a spectrum running from field work conducted within financial institutions themselves to more controlled laboratory studies, which permit cause to be distinguished from effect. Such a spectrum of studies is especially important for translational behavioural science. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Two Different Fatigue Protocols and Lower Extremity Motion Patterns During a Stop-Jump Task

PubMed Central

Quammen, David; Cortes, Nelson; Van Lunen, Bonnie L.; Lucci, Shawn; Ringleb, Stacie I.; Onate, James

2012-01-01

Context: Altered neuromuscular control strategies during fatigue probably contribute to the increased incidence of non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injuries in female athletes. Objective: To determine biomechanical differences between 2 fatigue protocols (slow linear oxidative fatigue protocol [SLO-FP] and functional agility short-term fatigue protocol [FAST-FP]) when performing a running-stop-jump task. Design: Controlled laboratory study. Setting: Laboratory. Patients or Other Participants: A convenience sample of 15 female soccer players (age = 19.2 ±0.8 years, height = 1.67±0.05m, mass = 61.7 + 8.1 kg) without injury participated. Intervention(s): Five successful trials of a running–stop-jump task were obtained prefatigue and postfatigue during the 2 protocols. For the SLO-FP, a peak oxygen consumption (V˙o2peak) test was conducted before the fatigue protocol. Five minutes after the conclusion of the V˙o2peak test, participants started the fatigue protocol by performing a 30-minute interval run. The FAST-FP consisted of 4 sets of a functional circuit. Repeated 2 (fatigue protocol) × 2 (time) analyses of variance were conducted to assess differences between the 2 protocols and time (prefatigue, postfatigue). Main Outcome Measure(s): Kinematic and kinetic measures of the hip and knee were obtained at different times while participants performed both protocols during prefatigue and postfatigue. Results: Internal adduction moment at initial contact (IC) was greater during FAST-FP (0.064 ±0.09 Nm/kgm) than SLO-FP (0.024±0.06 Nm/kgm) (F1,14 = 5.610, P=.03). At IC, participants had less hip flexion postfatigue (44.7°±8.1°) than prefatigue (50.1°±9.5°) (F1,14 = 16.229, P=.001). At peak vertical ground reaction force, participants had less hip flexion postfatigue (44.7°±8.4°) than prefatigue (50.4°±10.3°) (F1,14 = 17.026, P=.001). At peak vertical ground reaction force, participants had less knee flexion postfatigue (−35.9°±6.5°) than prefatigue (−38.8°±5.03°) (F1,14 = 11.537, P=.001). Conclusions: Our results demonstrated a more erect landing posture due to a decrease in hip and knee flexion angles in the postfatigue condition. The changes were similar between protocols; however, the FAST-FP was a clinically applicable 5-minute protocol, whereas the SLO-FP lasted approximately 45 minutes. PMID:22488228

A Sensitivity Analysis of Circular Error Probable Approximation Techniques

DTIC Science & Technology

1992-03-01

SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF CIRCULAR ERROR PROBABLE APPROXIMATION TECHNIQUES THESIS Presented to the Faculty of the School of Engineering of the Air Force...programming skills. Major Paul Auclair patiently advised me in this endeavor, and Major Andy Howell added numerous insightful contributions. I thank my...techniques. The two ret(st accuratec techniiques require numerical integration and can take several hours to run ov a personal comlputer [2:1-2,4-6]. Some

SU-D-BRA-07: A Phantom Study to Assess the Variability in Radiomics Features Extracted From Cone-Beam CT Images

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

Fave, X; Fried, D; UT Health Science Center Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, TX

2015-06-15

Purpose: Several studies have demonstrated the prognostic potential for texture features extracted from CT images of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. The purpose of this study was to determine if these features could be extracted with high reproducibility from cone-beam CT (CBCT) images in order for features to be easily tracked throughout a patient’s treatment. Methods: Two materials in a radiomics phantom, designed to approximate NSCLC tumor texture, were used to assess the reproducibility of 26 features. This phantom was imaged on 9 CBCT scanners, including Elekta and Varian machines. Thoracic and head imaging protocols were acquired on eachmore » machine. CBCT images from 27 NSCLC patients imaged using the thoracic protocol on Varian machines were obtained for comparison. The variance for each texture measured from these patients was compared to the variance in phantom values for different manufacturer/protocol subsets. Levene’s test was used to identify features which had a significantly smaller variance in the phantom scans versus the patient data. Results: Approximately half of the features (13/26 for material1 and 15/26 for material2) had a significantly smaller variance (p<0.05) between Varian thoracic scans of the phantom compared to patient scans. Many of these same features remained significant for the head scans on Varian (12/26 and 8/26). However, when thoracic scans from Elekta and Varian were combined, only a few features were still significant (4/26 and 5/26). Three features (skewness, coarsely filtered mean and standard deviation) were significant in almost all manufacturer/protocol subsets. Conclusion: Texture features extracted from CBCT images of a radiomics phantom are reproducible and show significantly less variation than the same features measured from patient images when images from the same manufacturer or with similar parameters are used. Reproducibility between CBCT scanners may be high enough to allow the extraction of meaningful texture values for patients. This project was funded in part by the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). Xenia Fave is a recipient of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine Graduate Fellowship.« less

Proposal for implementation of CCSDS standards for use with spacecraft engineering/housekeeping data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Welch, Dave

1994-01-01

Many of today's low earth orbiting spacecraft are using the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) protocol for better optimization of down link RF bandwidth and onboard storage space. However, most of the associated housekeeping data has continued to be generated and down linked in a synchronous, Time Division Multiplexed (TDM) fashion. There are many economies that the CCSDS protocol will allow to better utilize the available bandwidth and storage space in order to optimize the housekeeping data for use in operational trending and analysis work. By only outputting what is currently important or of interest, finer resolution of critical items can be obtained. This can be accomplished by better utilizing the normally allocated housekeeping data down link and storage areas rather than taking space reserved for science.

Exploring Assessment Tools for Research and Evaluation in Astronomy Education and Outreach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buxner, S. R.; Wenger, M. C.; Dokter, E. F. C.

2011-09-01

The ability to effectively measure knowledge, attitudes, and skills in formal and informal educational settings is an important aspect of astronomy education research and evaluation. Assessments may take the form of interviews, observations, surveys, exams, or other probes to help unpack people's understandings or beliefs. In this workshop, we discussed characteristics of a variety of tools that exist to assess understandings of different concepts in astronomy as well as attitudes towards science and science teaching; these include concept inventories, surveys, interview protocols, observation protocols, card sorting, reflection videos, and other methods currently being used in astronomy education research and EPO program evaluations. In addition, we discussed common questions in the selection of assessment tools including issues of reliability and validity, time to administer, format of implementation, analysis, and human subject concerns.

Copper(I)/TEMPO Catalyzed Aerobic Oxidation of Primary Alcohols to Aldehydes with Ambient Air

PubMed Central

Hoover, Jessica M.; Steves, Janelle E.; Stahl, Shannon S.

2012-01-01

This protocol describes a practical laboratory-scale method for aerobic oxidation of primary alcohols to aldehydes, using a chemoselective CuI/TEMPO catalyst system. The catalyst is prepared in situ from commercially available reagents, and the reactions are performed in a common organic solvent (acetonitrile) with ambient air as the oxidant. Three different reaction conditions and three procedures for the isolation and purification of the aldehyde product are presented. The oxidations of eight different alcohols, described here, include representative examples of each reaction condition and purification method. Reaction times vary from 20 min to 24 h, depending on the alcohol, while the purification methods each take about 2 h. The total time necessary for the complete protocol ranges from 3 – 26 h. PMID:22635108

Proposal for implementation of CCSDS standards for use with spacecraft engineering/housekeeping data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Welch, Dave

1994-11-01

Many of today's low earth orbiting spacecraft are using the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) protocol for better optimization of down link RF bandwidth and onboard storage space. However, most of the associated housekeeping data has continued to be generated and down linked in a synchronous, Time Division Multiplexed (TDM) fashion. There are many economies that the CCSDS protocol will allow to better utilize the available bandwidth and storage space in order to optimize the housekeeping data for use in operational trending and analysis work. By only outputting what is currently important or of interest, finer resolution of critical items can be obtained. This can be accomplished by better utilizing the normally allocated housekeeping data down link and storage areas rather than taking space reserved for science.

Optimised cross-layer synchronisation schemes for wireless sensor networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nasri, Nejah; Ben Fradj, Awatef; Kachouri, Abdennaceur

2017-07-01

This paper aims at synchronisation between the sensor nodes. Indeed, in the context of wireless sensor networks, it is necessary to take into consideration the energy cost induced by the synchronisation, which can represent the majority of the energy consumed. On communication, an already identified hard point consists in imagining a fine synchronisation protocol which must be sufficiently robust to the intermittent energy in the sensors. Hence, this paper worked on aspects of performance and energy saving, in particular on the optimisation of the synchronisation protocol using cross-layer design method such as synchronisation between layers. Our approach consists in balancing the energy consumption between the sensors and choosing the cluster head with the highest residual energy in order to guarantee the reliability, integrity and continuity of communication (i.e. maximising the network lifetime).

Fast Virtual Fractional Flow Reserve Based Upon Steady-State Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis: Results From the VIRTU-Fast Study.

PubMed

Morris, Paul D; Silva Soto, Daniel Alejandro; Feher, Jeroen F A; Rafiroiu, Dan; Lungu, Angela; Varma, Susheel; Lawford, Patricia V; Hose, D Rodney; Gunn, Julian P

2017-08-01

Fractional flow reserve (FFR)-guided percutaneous intervention is superior to standard assessment but remains underused. The authors have developed a novel "pseudotransient" analysis protocol for computing virtual fractional flow reserve (vFFR) based upon angiographic images and steady-state computational fluid dynamics. This protocol generates vFFR results in 189 s (cf >24 h for transient analysis) using a desktop PC, with <1% error relative to that of full-transient computational fluid dynamics analysis. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that physiological lesion significance was influenced less by coronary or lesion anatomy (33%) and more by microvascular physiology (59%). If coronary microvascular resistance can be estimated, vFFR can be accurately computed in less time than it takes to make invasive measurements.

Multi-party Measurement-Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution Based on Cluster States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Chuanqi; Zhu, Changhua; Ma, Shuquan; Pei, Changxing

2018-03-01

We propose a novel multi-party measurement-device-independent quantum key distribution (MDI-QKD) protocol based on cluster states. A four-photon analyzer which can distinguish all the 16 cluster states serves as the measurement device for four-party MDI-QKD. Any two out of four participants can build secure keys after the analyzers obtains successful outputs and the two participants perform post-processing. We derive a security analysis for the protocol, and analyze the key rates under different values of polarization misalignment. The results show that four-party MDI-QKD is feasible over 280 km in the optical fiber channel when the key rate is about 10- 6 with the polarization misalignment parameter 0.015. Moreover, our work takes an important step toward a quantum communication network.

A Mobile Phone App to Support Young People in Making Shared Decisions in Therapy (Power Up): Study Protocol.

PubMed

Chapman, Louise; Edbrooke-Childs, Julian; Martin, Kate; Webber, Helen; Craven, Michael P; Hollis, Chris; Deighton, Jessica; Law, Roslyn; Fonagy, Peter; Wolpert, Miranda

2017-10-30

Evidence suggests that young people want to be active participants in their care and involved in decisions about their treatment. However, there is a lack of digital shared decision-making tools available to support young people in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). The primary aim of this paper is to present the protocol of a feasibility trial for Power Up, a mobile phone app to empower young people in CAMHS to make their voices heard and participate in decisions around their care. In the development phase, 30 young people, parents, and clinicians will take part in interviews and focus groups to elicit opinions on an early version of the app. In the feasibility testing phase, 60 young people from across 7 to 10 London CAMHS sites will take part in a trial looking at the feasibility and acceptability of measuring the impact of Power Up on shared decision making. Data collection for the development phase ended in December 2016. Data collection for the feasibility testing phase will end in December 2017. Findings will inform the planning of a cluster controlled trial and contribute to the development and implementation of a shared decision-making app to be integrated into CAMHS. ISRCTN77194423; http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN77194423 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6td6MINP0). ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02987608; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02987608 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6td6PNBZM). ©Louise Chapman, Julian Edbrooke-Childs, Kate Martin, Helen Webber, Michael P Craven, Chris Hollis, Jessica Deighton, Roslyn Law, Peter Fonagy, Miranda Wolpert. Originally published in JMIR Research Protocols (http://www.researchprotocols.org), 30.10.2017.

A protocol for analysing thermal stress in insects using infrared thermography.

PubMed

Gallego, Belén; Verdú, José R; Carrascal, Luis M; Lobo, Jorge M

2016-02-01

The study of insect responses to thermal stress has involved a variety of protocols and methodologies that hamper the ability to compare results between studies. For that reason, the development of a protocol to standardize thermal assays is necessary. In this sense, infrared thermography solves some of the problems allowing us to take continuous temperature measurements without handling the individuals, an important fact in cold-blooded organisms like insects. Here, we present a working protocol based on infrared thermography to estimate both cold and heat thermal stress in insects. We analyse both the change in the body temperature of individuals and their behavioural response. In addition, we used partial least squares regression for the statistical analysis of our data, a technique that solves the problem of having a large number of variables and few individuals, allowing us to work with rare or endemic species. To test our protocol, we chose two species of congeneric, narrowly distributed dung beetles that are endemic to the southeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula. With our protocol we have obtained five variables in the response to cold and twelve in the response to heat. With this methodology we discriminate between the two flightless species of Jekelius through their thermal response. In response to cold, Jekelius hernandezi showed a higher rate of cooling and reached higher temperatures of stupor and haemolymph freezing than Jekelius punctatolineatus. Both species displayed similar thermoregulation ranges before reaching lethal body temperature with heat stress. Overall, we have demonstrated that infrared thermography is a suitable method to assess insect thermal responses with a high degree of sensitivity, allowing for the discrimination between closely related species. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A shorter and more specific oral sensitization-based experimental model of food allergy in mice.

PubMed

Bailón, Elvira; Cueto-Sola, Margarita; Utrilla, Pilar; Rodríguez-Ruiz, Judith; Garrido-Mesa, Natividad; Zarzuelo, Antonio; Xaus, Jordi; Gálvez, Julio; Comalada, Mònica

2012-07-31

Cow's milk protein allergy (CMPA) is one of the most prevalent human food-borne allergies, particularly in children. Experimental animal models have become critical tools with which to perform research on new therapeutic approaches and on the molecular mechanisms involved. However, oral food allergen sensitization in mice requires several weeks and is usually associated with unspecific immune responses. To overcome these inconveniences, we have developed a new food allergy model that takes only two weeks while retaining the main characters of allergic response to food antigens. The new model is characterized by oral sensitization of weaned Balb/c mice with 5 doses of purified cow's milk protein (CMP) plus cholera toxin (CT) for only two weeks and posterior challenge with an intraperitoneal administration of the allergen at the end of the sensitization period. In parallel, we studied a conventional protocol that lasts for seven weeks, and also the non-specific effects exerted by CT in both protocols. The shorter protocol achieves a similar clinical score as the original food allergy model without macroscopically affecting gut morphology or physiology. Moreover, the shorter protocol caused an increased IL-4 production and a more selective antigen-specific IgG1 response. Finally, the extended CT administration during the sensitization period of the conventional protocol is responsible for the exacerbated immune response observed in that model. Therefore, the new model presented here allows a reduction not only in experimental time but also in the number of animals required per experiment while maintaining the features of conventional allergy models. We propose that the new protocol reported will contribute to advancing allergy research. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Role of Additional Pulses in Electropermeabilization Protocols

PubMed Central

Suárez, Cecilia; Soba, Alejandro; Maglietti, Felipe; Olaiz, Nahuel; Marshall, Guillermo

2014-01-01

Electropermeabilization (EP) based protocols such as those applied in medicine, food processing or environmental management, are well established and widely used. The applied voltage, as well as tissue electric conductivity, are of utmost importance for assessing final electropermeabilized area and thus EP effectiveness. Experimental results from literature report that, under certain EP protocols, consecutive pulses increase tissue electric conductivity and even the permeabilization amount. Here we introduce a theoretical model that takes into account this effect in the application of an EP-based protocol, and its validation with experimental measurements. The theoretical model describes the electric field distribution by a nonlinear Laplace equation with a variable conductivity coefficient depending on the electric field, the temperature and the quantity of pulses, and the Penne's Bioheat equation for temperature variations. In the experiments, a vegetable tissue model (potato slice) is used for measuring electric currents and tissue electropermeabilized area in different EP protocols. Experimental measurements show that, during sequential pulses and keeping constant the applied voltage, the electric current density and the blackened (electropermeabilized) area increase. This behavior can only be attributed to a rise in the electric conductivity due to a higher number of pulses. Accordingly, we present a theoretical modeling of an EP protocol that predicts correctly the increment in the electric current density observed experimentally during the addition of pulses. The model also demonstrates that the electric current increase is due to a rise in the electric conductivity, in turn induced by temperature and pulse number, with no significant changes in the electric field distribution. The EP model introduced, based on a novel formulation of the electric conductivity, leads to a more realistic description of the EP phenomenon, hopefully providing more accurate predictions of treatment outcomes. PMID:25437512

Optimizing the MAC Protocol in Localization Systems Based on IEEE 802.15.4 Networks

PubMed Central

Claver, Jose M.; Ezpeleta, Santiago

2017-01-01

Radio frequency signals are commonly used in the development of indoor localization systems. The infrastructure of these systems includes some beacons placed at known positions that exchange radio packets with users to be located. When the system is implemented using wireless sensor networks, the wireless transceivers integrated in the network motes are usually based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. But, the CSMA-CA, which is the basis for the medium access protocols in this category of communication systems, is not suitable when several users want to exchange bursts of radio packets with the same beacon to acquire the radio signal strength indicator (RSSI) values needed in the location process. Therefore, new protocols are necessary to avoid the packet collisions that appear when multiple users try to communicate with the same beacons. On the other hand, the RSSI sampling process should be carried out very quickly because some systems cannot tolerate a large delay in the location process. This is even more important when the RSSI sampling process includes measures with different signal power levels or frequency channels. The principal objective of this work is to speed up the RSSI sampling process in indoor localization systems. To achieve this objective, the main contribution is the proposal of a new MAC protocol that eliminates the medium access contention periods and decreases the number of packet collisions to accelerate the RSSI collection process. Moreover, the protocol increases the overall network throughput taking advantage of the frequency channel diversity. The presented results show the suitability of this protocol for reducing the RSSI gathering delay and increasing the network throughput in simulated and real environments. PMID:28684666

Delay and Disruption Tolerant Networking MACHETE Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Segui, John S.; Jennings, Esther H.; Gao, Jay L.

2011-01-01

To verify satisfaction of communication requirements imposed by unique missions, as early as 2000, the Communications Networking Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) saw the need for an environment to support interplanetary communication protocol design, validation, and characterization. JPL's Multi-mission Advanced Communications Hybrid Environment for Test and Evaluation (MACHETE), described in Simulator of Space Communication Networks (NPO-41373) NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 29, No. 8 (August 2005), p. 44, combines various commercial, non-commercial, and in-house custom tools for simulation and performance analysis of space networks. The MACHETE environment supports orbital analysis, link budget analysis, communications network simulations, and hardware-in-the-loop testing. As NASA is expanding its Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) capabilities to support planned and future missions, building infrastructure to maintain services and developing enabling technologies, an important and broader role is seen for MACHETE in design-phase evaluation of future SCaN architectures. To support evaluation of the developing Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) field and its applicability for space networks, JPL developed MACHETE models for DTN Bundle Protocol (BP) and Licklider/Long-haul Transmission Protocol (LTP). DTN is an Internet Research Task Force (IRTF) architecture providing communication in and/or through highly stressed networking environments such as space exploration and battlefield networks. Stressed networking environments include those with intermittent (predictable and unknown) connectivity, large and/or variable delays, and high bit error rates. To provide its services over existing domain specific protocols, the DTN protocols reside at the application layer of the TCP/IP stack, forming a store-and-forward overlay network. The key capabilities of the Bundle Protocol include custody-based reliability, the ability to cope with intermittent connectivity, the ability to take advantage of scheduled and opportunistic connectivity, and late binding of names to addresses.

Evaluation of telomere length in human cardiac tissues using cardiac quantitative FISH.

PubMed

Sharifi-Sanjani, Maryam; Meeker, Alan K; Mourkioti, Foteini

2017-09-01

Telomere length has been correlated with various diseases, including cardiovascular disease and cancer. The use of currently available telomere-length measurement techniques is often restricted by the requirement of a large amount of cells (Southern-based techniques) or the lack of information on individual cells or telomeres (PCR-based methods). Although several methods have been used to measure telomere length in tissues as a whole, the assessment of cell-type-specific telomere length provides valuable information on individual cell types. The development of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technologies enables the quantification of telomeres in individual chromosomes, but the use of these methods is dependent on the availability of isolated cells, which prevents their use with fixed archival samples. Here we describe an optimized quantitative FISH (Q-FISH) protocol for measuring telomere length that bypasses the previous limitations by avoiding contributions from undesired cell types. We have used this protocol on small paraffin-embedded cardiac-tissue samples. This protocol describes step-by-step procedures for tissue preparation, permeabilization, cardiac-tissue pretreatment and hybridization with a Cy3-labeled telomeric repeat complementing (CCCTAA) 3 peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probe coupled with cardiac-specific antibody staining. We also describe how to quantify telomere length by means of the fluorescence intensity and area of each telomere within individual nuclei. This protocol provides comparative cell-type-specific telomere-length measurements in relatively small human cardiac samples and offers an attractive technique to test hypotheses implicating telomere length in various cardiac pathologies. The current protocol (from tissue collection to image procurement) takes ∼28 h along with three overnight incubations. We anticipate that the protocol could be easily adapted for use on different tissue types.

Optimizing the MAC Protocol in Localization Systems Based on IEEE 802.15.4 Networks.

PubMed

Pérez-Solano, Juan J; Claver, Jose M; Ezpeleta, Santiago

2017-07-06

Radio frequency signals are commonly used in the development of indoor localization systems. The infrastructure of these systems includes some beacons placed at known positions that exchange radio packets with users to be located. When the system is implemented using wireless sensor networks, the wireless transceivers integrated in the network motes are usually based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. But, the CSMA-CA, which is the basis for the medium access protocols in this category of communication systems, is not suitable when several users want to exchange bursts of radio packets with the same beacon to acquire the radio signal strength indicator (RSSI) values needed in the location process. Therefore, new protocols are necessary to avoid the packet collisions that appear when multiple users try to communicate with the same beacons. On the other hand, the RSSI sampling process should be carried out very quickly because some systems cannot tolerate a large delay in the location process. This is even more important when the RSSI sampling process includes measures with different signal power levels or frequency channels. The principal objective of this work is to speed up the RSSI sampling process in indoor localization systems. To achieve this objective, the main contribution is the proposal of a new MAC protocol that eliminates the medium access contention periods and decreases the number of packet collisions to accelerate the RSSI collection process. Moreover, the protocol increases the overall network throughput taking advantage of the frequency channel diversity. The presented results show the suitability of this protocol for reducing the RSSI gathering delay and increasing the network throughput in simulated and real environments.

Adherence to, and outcomes of, a galactomannan screening protocol in high-risk hematology patients.

PubMed

Harricharan, S; Biederman, K; Bombassaro, A M; Lazo-Langner, A; Elsayed, S; Fulford, A; Delport, J A; Xenocostas, A

2018-04-01

A twice-weekly galactomannan (gm) screening protocol was implemented in high-risk hematology inpatients. Study objectives were to determine adherence to the protocol, use of selected resources, and patient outcomes. This retrospective cohort study compared outcomes of interest before and after implementation of gm screening. Adults undergoing matched related allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation or induction chemotherapy for acute leukemia were eligible. Patients could be enrolled more than once and were evaluated as episodes. Adherence to the gm protocol was assessed in post-implementation episodes. Use of broad-spectrum antifungals (bsafs), consultations (infectious diseases, respirology), and diagnostic procedures (computed tomography imaging, bronchoalveolar lavage) were compared between phases, as were the patient outcomes of all-cause mortality and clinical success (alive and not taking a bsaf). Of 182 episodes consecutively screened, 70 per phase were enrolled. Clinical characteristics and duration of assessment were similar for the phases. Full or partial adherence to the protocol was observed in 61 post-implementation episodes (87%), with full adherence in 40 episodes (57%). More episodes in the pre-implementation phase than in the post-implementation phase involved receipt of bsafs, consultations, and diagnostics (27% vs. 7%, p = 0.02; 46% vs. 26%, p = 0.014; and 46% vs. 31%, p = 0.083 respectively). Although mortality was similar in the two phases, clinical success at the final assessment was observed in fewer pre-implementation than post-implementation episodes (79% vs. 98%, p < 0.001). Implementation of a gm screening protocol was feasible and associated with significantly fewer episodes involving receipt of bsafs and consultations, and with significantly more episodes showing clinical success.

A history of bingeing on fat enhances cocaine seeking and taking.

PubMed

Puhl, Matthew D; Cason, Angie M; Wojnicki, Francis H E; Corwin, Rebecca L; Grigson, Patricia S

2011-12-01

Binge eating and substance dependence are disorders characterized by a loss of control over consummatory behaviors. Given the common characteristics of these two types of disorders, it is not surprising that the comorbidity between eating disorders and substance abuse disorders is high (20-40%; Conason et al., 2006). It is unknown, however, whether loss of control in one disorder predisposes an individual to loss of control in the other. The present study, therefore, used a rodent model to test whether a history of binge eating would augment subsequent responding for cocaine. Using the limited access protocol described by Corwin et al. (1998), 45 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were maintained on one of four dietary protocols for a period of six weeks: chow only (Chow; n = 9), continuous access to an optional source of dietary fat (Ad Lib; n = 12), 1-h access to an optional source of dietary fat daily (Daily; n = 12), or 1-h access to an optional source of dietary fat on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (MWF; n = 12). All four groups also had unrestricted access to a nutritionally complete diet of chow and water. Fat-bingeing behaviors developed in the MWF rats, the group with the most restricted access to the optional fat. Thereafter, cocaine-seeking and -taking behaviors were assessed in all rats using a self-administration protocol modified from that described by Deroche-Gamonet et al. (2004), which focused on the motivation for and preoccupation with obtaining and consuming drug (assessed using a progressive ratio [PR] schedule of reinforcement) and persistence in responding for drug during periods of signaled drug non-availability (SNA). Rats with the MWF history tended to take more cocaine late in fixed ratio (FR) training, they persisted in their efforts to obtain cocaine in the face of signaled non-availability, worked harder for cocaine on a PR schedule of reinforcement, and exhibited more goal-directed behavior toward the cocaine-associated operandum. These results demonstrate a link between binge-type intake of fat and the development of drug-seeking and -taking behaviors, suggesting that a history of fat bingeing may predispose individuals to exhibit more robust "addiction-like" behaviors toward a substance of abuse. Thus, it appears that conditions promoting excessive behavior toward one substance (e.g., a palatable fatty food) beget excessive behavior toward another (e.g., cocaine). PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

Linked Orders Improve Safety in Scheduling and Administration of Chemotherapeutic Agents

PubMed Central

Whipple, Nancy; Boulware, Joy; Danca, Kala; Boyarin, Kirill; Ginsberg, Eliot; Poon, Eric; Sweet, Micheal; Schade, Sue; Rogala, Jennifer

2010-01-01

The pharmacologic treatment for cancer must adhere to complex, finely orchestrated treatment plans, including not only chemotherapy medications, but pre/post-hydration, anti-emetics, anti-anxiety, and other medications that are given before, during and after chemotherapy doses. The treatment plans specify the medications and dictate precise dosing, frequency, and timing. This is a challenge to most Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE), Pharmacy and Electronic Medication Administration record (eMAR) Systems. Medications are scheduled on specific dates, referred to as chemo days, from the onset of the treatment, and precisely timed on the designated chemo day. For patients enrolled in research protocols, the adherence to the defined schedule takes on additional import, since variation is a violation of the protocol. If the oncologist determines that medications must be administered outside the defined constraints, the patient must be un-enrolled from the protocol and the course of therapy is re-written. Pharmacy and eMAR systems utilized in processing chemotherapy medications must be able to support the intricate relationships between each drug defined in the treatment plans. PMID:21347104

Combining fluorescence imaging with Hi-C to study 3D genome architecture of the same single cell.

PubMed

Lando, David; Basu, Srinjan; Stevens, Tim J; Riddell, Andy; Wohlfahrt, Kai J; Cao, Yang; Boucher, Wayne; Leeb, Martin; Atkinson, Liam P; Lee, Steven F; Hendrich, Brian; Klenerman, Dave; Laue, Ernest D

2018-05-01

Fluorescence imaging and chromosome conformation capture assays such as Hi-C are key tools for studying genome organization. However, traditionally, they have been carried out independently, making integration of the two types of data difficult to perform. By trapping individual cell nuclei inside a well of a 384-well glass-bottom plate with an agarose pad, we have established a protocol that allows both fluorescence imaging and Hi-C processing to be carried out on the same single cell. The protocol identifies 30,000-100,000 chromosome contacts per single haploid genome in parallel with fluorescence images. Contacts can be used to calculate intact genome structures to better than 100-kb resolution, which can then be directly compared with the images. Preparation of 20 single-cell Hi-C libraries using this protocol takes 5 d of bench work by researchers experienced in molecular biology techniques. Image acquisition and analysis require basic understanding of fluorescence microscopy, and some bioinformatics knowledge is required to run the sequence-processing tools described here.

Fast Preparation of Critical Ground States Using Superluminal Fronts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Agarwal, Kartiek; Bhatt, R. N.; Sondhi, S. L.

2018-05-01

We propose a spatiotemporal quench protocol that allows for the fast preparation of ground states of gapless models with Lorentz invariance. Assuming the system initially resides in the ground state of a corresponding massive model, we show that a superluminally moving "front" that locally quenches the mass, leaves behind it (in space) a state arbitrarily close to the ground state of the gapless model. Importantly, our protocol takes time O (L ) to produce the ground state of a system of size ˜Ld (d spatial dimensions), while a fully adiabatic protocol requires time ˜O (L2) to produce a state with exponential accuracy in L . The physics of the dynamical problem can be understood in terms of relativistic rarefaction of excitations generated by the mass front. We provide proof of concept by solving the proposed quench exactly for a system of free bosons in arbitrary dimensions, and for free fermions in d =1 . We discuss the role of interactions and UV effects on the free-theory idealization, before numerically illustrating the usefulness of the approach via simulations on the quantum Heisenberg spin chain.

Should the diagnostic and therapeutic protocols for adrenal incidentalomas be changed?

PubMed

Mateo-Gavira, Isabel; Vilchez-López, Francisco Javier; Larrán-Escandón, Laura; Ojeda-Schuldt, María Belén; Tinoco, Cristina López; Aguilar-Diosdado, Manuel

2015-01-01

The prevalence of adrenal incidentalomas is increasing with the aging of the population and the use of high resolution imaging technics. Current protocols propose a comprehensive monitoring of their functional and morphological state, but with no conclusive clinical evidence that endorses it. Retrospective study of 96 patients diagnosed with adrenal incidentaloma between 2008 and 2012. We evaluated clinical, functional and imaging at baseline and during follow-up. Initially, 9 cases were surgically removed: 4 due to hyperfunction (2 Cushing syndromes and 2 pheochromocytomas) and 5 due to size larger than 4cm. During follow-up one case of pheochromocytoma was diagnosed and another grew more than 1cm, needing surgery. In 98.86% of nonfunctional and benign lesions, there was no functional and/or morphological changes in the final evaluation. The results of our study challenge the validity of current diagnostic-therapeutic protocols of incidentalomas, which should be reassessed in prospective studies taking into account efficiency characteristics. Copyright © 2013 AEC. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Visualization of cortical, subcortical, and deep brain neural circuit dynamics during naturalistic mammalian behavior with head-mounted microscopes and chronically implanted lenses

PubMed Central

Resendez, Shanna L.; Jennings, Josh H.; Ung, Randall L.; Namboodiri, Vijay Mohan K.; Zhou, Zhe Charles; Otis, James M.; Nomura, Hiroshi; McHenry, Jenna A.; Kosyk, Oksana; Stuber, Garret D.

2016-01-01

Genetically encoded calcium indicators for visualizing dynamic cellular activity have greatly expanded our understanding of the brain. However, due to light scattering properties of the brain as well as the size and rigidity of traditional imaging technology, in vivo calcium imaging has been limited to superficial brain structures during head fixed behavioral tasks. This limitation can now be circumvented by utilizing miniature, integrated microscopes in conjunction with an implantable microendoscopic lens to guide light into and out of the brain, thus permitting optical access to deep brain (or superficial) neural ensembles during naturalistic behaviors. Here, we describe procedural steps to conduct such imaging studies using mice. However, we anticipate the protocol can be easily adapted for use in other small vertebrates. Successful completion of this protocol will permit cellular imaging of neuronal activity and the generation of data sets with sufficient statistical power to correlate neural activity with stimulus presentation, physiological state, and other aspects of complex behavioral tasks. This protocol takes 6–11 weeks to complete. PMID:26914316

A protocol for systematic reviews of Ayurveda treatments

PubMed Central

Narahari, Saravu R; Aggithaya, Madhur Guruprasad; Suraj, Kumbla R.

2010-01-01

This protocol is intended primarily for Ayurveda doctors who wish to take up systematic reviews along with an expert who has experience in doing such reviews. We have structured this protocol by incorporating the principles of patient treatment in Ayurveda, within the Cochrane framework, using Vitiligo as a model. The treatment section provides a comprehensive list of classical medicines used in the treatment of the disease. This will help in increasing the search terms. Such a list also helps to determine the needs of individualized treatment principles used in the trial and to assess the confounding factors. The search strategy includes an extensive listing of eastern data bases and hand searching. In Ayurveda, the titles of articles are not in the Population, Intervention, Control, and Outcome (PICO) pattern and sometimes the title and methodology do not tally. Therefore, a search of all types of studies is necessary to pool all the relevant publications. A data extraction form is proposed for use in assessing the quality of Ayurvedic studies. The form provides a template for performing evidence reviews of Ayurvedic interventions. PMID:21455455

Metabolic profiling of body fluids and multivariate data analysis.

PubMed

Trezzi, Jean-Pierre; Jäger, Christian; Galozzi, Sara; Barkovits, Katalin; Marcus, Katrin; Mollenhauer, Brit; Hiller, Karsten

2017-01-01

Metabolome analyses of body fluids are challenging due pre-analytical variations, such as pre-processing delay and temperature, and constant dynamical changes of biochemical processes within the samples. Therefore, proper sample handling starting from the time of collection up to the analysis is crucial to obtain high quality samples and reproducible results. A metabolomics analysis is divided into 4 main steps: 1) Sample collection, 2) Metabolite extraction, 3) Data acquisition and 4) Data analysis. Here, we describe a protocol for gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) based metabolic analysis for biological matrices, especially body fluids. This protocol can be applied on blood serum/plasma, saliva and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples of humans and other vertebrates. It covers sample collection, sample pre-processing, metabolite extraction, GC-MS measurement and guidelines for the subsequent data analysis. Advantages of this protocol include: •Robust and reproducible metabolomics results, taking into account pre-analytical variations that may occur during the sampling process•Small sample volume required•Rapid and cost-effective processing of biological samples•Logistic regression based determination of biomarker signatures for in-depth data analysis.

Pilot trial of osteopathic manipulative therapy for patients with frequent episodic tension-type headache.

PubMed

Rolle, Guido; Tremolizzo, Lucio; Somalvico, Francesco; Ferrarese, Carlo; Bressan, Livio C

2014-09-01

Osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMTh; manipulative care provided by foreign-trained osteopaths) may be used for managing headache pain and related disability, but there is a need for high-quality randomized controlled trials to assess the effectiveness of this intervention. To explore the efficacy of OMTh for pain management in frequent episodic tension-type headache (TTH). Single-blind randomized placebo-controlled pilot study. Patients were recruited from 5 primary care settings. Forty-four patients who were affected by frequent episodic TTH and not taking any drugs for prophylactic management of episodic TTH were recruited. Patients were randomly allocated to an experimental or control group. The experimental group received corrective OMTh techniques, tailored for each patient; the control group received assessment of the cranial rhythmic impulse (sham therapy). The study included a 1-month baseline period, a 1-month treatment period, and a 3-month follow-up period. The primary outcome was the change in patient-reported headache frequency, and secondary outcomes included changes in headache pain intensity (discrete score, 1 [lowest perceived pain] to 5 [worst perceived pain]), over-the-counter medication use, and Headache Disability Inventory score. Forty patients completed the study (OMTh, n=21; control, n=19). The OMTh group had a significant reduction in headache frequency over time that persisted 1 month (approximate reduction, 40%; P<.001) and 3 months (approximate reduction, 50%; P<.001) after the end of treatment. Moreover, there was an absolute difference between the 2 treatment groups at the end of the study, with a 33% lower frequency of headache in the OMTh group (P<.001). This feasibility study demonstrated the efficacy of OMTh in the management of frequent episodic TTH, compared with sham therapy in a control group. Osteopathic manipulative therapy may be preferred over other treatment modalities and may benefit patients who have adverse effects to medications or who have difficulty complying with pharmacologic regimens. This protocol may serve as a model for future studies. © 2014 The American Osteopathic Association.

First data on direct costs of lung cancer management in Morocco.

PubMed

Tachfouti, N; Belkacemi, Y; Raherison, C; Bekkali, R; Benider, A; Nejjari, C

2012-01-01

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer morbidity and mortality. Its management has a significant economic impact on society. Despite a high incidence of cancer, so far, there is no national register for this disease in Morocco. The main goal of this report was to estimate the medical costs of lung cancer in our country. We first estimated the number of annual new cases according to stage of the disease on the basis of the Grand-Casablanca-Region Cancer Registry data. For each sub-group, the protocol of treatment was described taking into account the international guidelines, and an evaluation of individual costs during the first year following diagnosis was made. Extrapolation of the results to the whole country was used to calculate the total annual cost of treatments for lung cancer in Morocco. Overall approximately 3,500 new cases of lung cancer occur each year in the country. Stages I and II account for only 4% of cases, while 96% are diagnosed at locally advanced or metastatic stages III and IV. The total medical cost of lung cancer in Morocco is estimated to be around USD 12 million. This cost represents approximately 1% of the global budget of the Health Department. According to AROME Guidelines, about 86% of the newly diagnosed lung cancer cases needed palliative treatment while 14% required curative intent therapy. The total cost of early and advanced stages lung cancer management during the first year were estimated to be 4,600 and 3,420 USD, respectively. This study provides health decision-makers with a first estimate of costs and the opportunity to achieve the optimal use of available data to estimate the needs of health facilities in Morocco. A substantial proportion of the burden of lung cancer could be prevented through the application of existing cancer control knowledge and by implementing tobacco control programs.

Comparison of 10 efficient protocols for photodynamic therapy of actinic keratosis: How relevant are effective light dose and local damage in predicting the complete response rate at 3 months?

PubMed

Vignion-Dewalle, Anne-Sophie; Baert, Gregory; Thecua, Elise; Lecomte, Fabienne; Vicentini, Claire; Abi-Rached, Henry; Mortier, Laurent; Mordon, Serge

2018-04-18

Topical photodynamic therapy is an established treatment modality for various dermatological conditions, including actinic keratosis. In Europe, the approved protocols for photodynamic therapy of actinic keratosis involve irradiation with either an Aktilite CL 128 lamp or daylight, whereas irradiation with the Blu-U illuminator is approved in the United States. Many other protocols using irradiation by a variety of light sources are also clinically efficient. This paper aims to compare 10 different protocols with clinically proven efficacy for photodynamic therapy of actinic keratosis and the available spectral irradiance of the light source. Effective irradiance, effective light dose, and local damage are compared. We also investigate whether there is an association between the complete response rate at 3 months and the effective light dose or local damage. The effective irradiance, also referred to as protoporphyrin IX-weighted irradiance, is obtained by integrating the spectral irradiance weighted by the normalized absorption spectrum of protoporphyrin IX over the wavelength. Integrating the effective irradiance over the irradiation time yields the effective light dose, which is also known as the protoporphyrin IX-weighted light dose. Local damage, defined as the total cumulative singlet oxygen molecules produced during treatment, is estimated using mathematical modeling of the photodynamic therapy process. This modeling is based on an iterative procedure taking into account the spatial and temporal variations in the protoporphyrin IX absorption spectrum during treatment. The protocol for daylight photodynamic therapy on a clear sunny day, the protocol for daylight photodynamic therapy on an overcast day, the photodynamic therapy protocol for a white LED lamp for operating rooms and the photodynamic therapy protocol for the Blu-U illuminator perform better than the six other protocols-all involving red light illumination-in terms of both effective light dose and local damage. However, no association between the complete response rate at 3 months and the effective light dose or local damage was found. Protocols that achieve high complete response rates at 3 months and low pain scores should be preferred regardless of the effective light dose and local damage. Lasers Surg. Med. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Theory of twisted nonuniformly heated bars

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shorr, B. F.

1980-01-01

Nonlineary distributed stresses in twisted nonuniformly heated bars of arbitrary cross section are calculated taking into account various elasticity parameters. The approximate theory is shown to be sufficiently general and accurate by comparison with experimental data.

Glucose Variability is Associated With High Mortality After Severe Burn

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-11-01

bacteremia and fungemia, reduced skin graft take, urinary tract infections , immune dysregulation, increased catabolism, and higher mortality.8,9,12...injured; intensive insulin protocols reduce mortality, improve wound healing, and decrease susceptibility to infection . High glucose vari- ability...San Antonio, TX 78234-6315; email: heather.pidcoke@amedd.army.mil. DOI: 10.1097/TA.0b013e3181baef4b 990 The Journal of TRAUMA® Injury, Infection , and

A Transmission Availability Forecast Service for Internet Protocol Networks

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-12-01

long term changes in the network situation. The probe measurement takes a finite period and so can aggregate and characterise short term variations in...network situation. Nevertheless, the process remains vulnerable to medium term variations, ie changes that occur after the probe and before the download...vulnerable to the medium term changes that might occur between the completion of the examination and the commencement of the download. 3.2 TAF

Safety of light emitting diodes in toys.

PubMed

Higlett, M P; O'Hagan, J B; Khazova, M

2012-03-01

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are increasingly being used in toys. An assessment methodology is described for determining the accessible emission limits for the optical radiation from the toys, which takes account of expected use and reasonably foreseeable misuse of toys. Where data are available, it may be possible to assess the toy from the data sheet alone. If this information is not available, a simple measurement protocol is proposed.

Automatic Traffic-Based Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) Model Generation for ns-3

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-12-01

through visiting the inferred automata o Fuzzing of an implementation by generating altered message formats We tested with 3 versions of Netzob. First...relationships. Afterwards, we used the Automata module to generate state machines using different functions: “generateChainedStateAutomata...The “generatePTAAutomata” takes as input several communication sessions and then identifies common paths and merges these into a single automata . The