Nanosecond Pulse Electric Field Activated-Platelet Rich Plasma Enhances the Return of Blood Flow to Large and Ischemic Wounds in a Rabbit Model

Platelet-rich plasma is a therapeutic strategy used for accelerating wound healing of a wide range of tissues through the release of platelet growth factors. Here, we describe a nonchemical, safe method for preparing platelet-rich plasma using nanosecond-pulsed electric fields (nsPEFs) and investigated the effect of this platelet-rich plasma on reperfusion of blood in large skin flap or ischemic hind limb wounds in New Zealand White rabbits. Laser Doppler images of blood flow to the dorsal surface of skin flap wounds or to ischemic hind limb wounds were obtained from wounds treated with 0.9% saline or nanosecond-pulsed electric field prepared platelet-rich plasma (nsPRP). Reperfusion in the skin flap wounds was greater in the nsPRP-treated wounds than in the wounds treated with saline on postoperative days 3 (P \u3c 0.001) and 21 (P \u3c 0.03). Reperfusion in the ischemic hind-limb treated with nsPRP was greater than in the saline-treated limb on post-operative Day 3 (P \u3c 0.001), post-operative week 1 (P \u3c 0.025) and post-operative week 4 (P \u3c 0.015). In the hind limb ischemic tissue, the number of endothelial cells, collagen, and cells containing vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was greater in the nsPRP-treated tissue. These results demonstrate that nsPRP improves blood flow in large surgical skin wounds and in ischemic wounds

Welfare Research Perspectives: Past, Present, and Future, 2002 Edition

This is the fourth in a series of working papers designed to examine what has been learned since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996

Welfare Research Perspectives: Past, Present, and Future, 2001 Edition

This is the third in a series of working papers designed to examine what has been learned since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996

EPBD cost-optimal analysis for non-residential buildings in Malta

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) 2010/31/EU requires EU Member States to calculate the cost-optimal levels of minimum energy performance requirements for new buildings and buildings that undergo major renovation. The European Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 244/2012 and accompanying Guidelines 2012/C 115/01 establish a comparative methodology with regards to number of reference buildings for each building category, number of energy efficiency measures to be implemented in the study and the minimum level of cost analysis that is required. This paper fulfils the above requirements but also introduces an innovative approach that goes beyond the minimum requirements for the cost-optimal study, whereby a two-stage optimisation approach was undertaken. The first stage focuses on choosing a representative set of combined building envelope measures that cover the full range of possible energy performance levels, in such a way that these lie along the line of minimum space conditioning costs, known as the Pareto Front. While the second stage applies combinations of energy systems’ upgrades to the selected iterations of stage 1. The scope is to minimize the time cost of these cost-optimal studies without sacrificing on their effectiveness or creating biased results. Cost optimal and nearly-zero energy levels were found for homes for the elderly, hotels, offices, restaurants, shops and sports complexes. Results showed that cost optimal levels are best achieved through upgrades of energy systems and solar shading rather than building envelope U-value upgrades for all building categories. This is primarily a result of the mild Mediterranean climate of Malta. Solar water heating and solar photovoltaics have shown to be cost optimal for all categories, except where these cannot be installed such as in shops and restaurants. Shading, heat pump water heaters and high efficiency air-conditioning systems have also been identified as cost-optimal measures.peer-reviewe

Maximum likelihood estimates of pairwise rearrangement distances

Accurate estimation of evolutionary distances between taxa is important for many phylogenetic reconstruction methods. In the case of bacteria, distances can be estimated using a range of different evolutionary models, from single nucleotide polymorphisms to large-scale genome rearrangements. In the case of sequence evolution models (such as the Jukes-Cantor model and associated metric) have been used to correct pairwise distances. Similar correction methods for genome rearrangement processes are required to improve inference. Current attempts at correction fall into 3 categories: Empirical computational studies, Bayesian/MCMC approaches, and combinatorial approaches. Here we introduce a maximum likelihood estimator for the inversion distance between a pair of genomes, using the group-theoretic approach to modelling inversions introduced recently. This MLE functions as a corrected distance: in particular, we show that because of the way sequences of inversions interact with each other, it is quite possible for minimal distance and MLE distance to differently order the distances of two genomes from a third. This has obvious implications for the use of minimal distance in phylogeny reconstruction. The work also tackles the above problem allowing free rotation of the genome. Generally a frame of reference is locked, and all computation made accordingly. This work incorporates the action of the dihedral group so that distance estimates are free from any a priori frame of reference.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures. To appear in the Journal of Theoretical Biolog

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Customer Based Performance of the Hotel Industry: Analysis of Service Package and Brand Innovations

This study aims to examine the influence of service package and brand innovation on customer relational performance and customer profit performance of the hotel industry. Data were collected from 112 hotel operators. PLS-SEM was used to derive the path coefficient (β) and t statistics to determine the path relationship between service packages, brand innovation, customer based relational performance and customer based profit performance. This study shows that both service package and brand innovation have influence on both customer relational performance and customer profit performance. Brand innovation does not moderate the relationship between service package and customer relational performance of the hotel industry. The study findings may not be generalizable to other categories of the restaurant industry because of the relatively small sample size and the respondents selected from limited geographical area. The findings, however, will help hotel operators to implement critical packaging operations of the hotel services and improved brand innovations to elicit higher customers’ based performance. Unlike the previous studies on marketing performance, this study examines the combined effect of service package and brand innovation on customer based relational performance and customer based profit performance of the hotels