Development of podzol soils in east Australian coastal sand barriers

Introdução Cerca de 80 a 85 % dos acidentes vasculares cerebrais são isquémicos; destes aproximadamente 25 a 30% são causados por doença de pequenos vasos. Apesar da sua elevada prevalência ainda muito se desconhece acerca do seu substrato fisiopatológico. O papel do sistema imunológico no processo aterosclerótico subjacente ao acidente vascular cerebral aterotrombótico foi já extensamente demonstrado em estudos prévios, no entanto, não se encontra ainda bem estabelecido a sua contribuição na etiologia no acidente vascular cerebral por doença de pequenos vasos. Existe já evidência de que a inflamação na fase aguda do acidente vascular cerebral reflectirá o grau de lesão cerebral, sendo predictora da evolução clínica do paciente.Objectivos Este trabalho tem como objectivo clarificar a influência etiológica dos mecanismos inflamatórios sistémicos no acidente vascular cerebral por doença de pequenos vasos. Pretende, igualmente, avaliar o valor prognóstico destes mecanismos no acidente vascular cerebral isquémico por doença de pequenos vasos e aterotrombótico.Doentes e Métodos Foram estudados prospectivamente todos os doentes internados na Unidade de acidentes vasculares cerebrais e enfermaria de Neurologia A dos Hospitais da Universidade de Coimbra com o diagnóstico de acidente vascular cerebral isquémico, desde Agosto de 2010 a Agosto 2011. A etiologia dos eventos vasculares foi definida segundo os critérios Trial of ORG 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment modificados. Analisaram-se os resultados laboratoriais de proteína c reactiva ultrassensível e contagem leucocitária na admissão hospitalar. O resultado clínico foi avaliado de acordo com duas escalas, a de Rankin modificada à data de alta e o National Institute of Health Stroke Scale à data de alta hospitalar ou 7º dia.Resultados Não se encontraram diferenças estatísticamente significativas na avaliação dos parâmetros inflamatórios estudados entre o grupo de doentes com acidente vascular cerebral por doença de pequenos vasos e aterotrombótico. Foram encontradas diferenças estatísticamente significativas entre valores elevados de proteína c reactiva e o valor obtido nas escalas funcionais utilizadas.Conclusões Os marcadores inflamatórios comportam-se analiticamente da mesma forma no acidente vascular cerebral por doença de pequenos vasos e aterotrombótico, o que corrobora o papel do sistema imunológico na fisiopatologia do acidente vascular cerebral por doença de pequenos vasos. Valores elevados de proteína c reactiva condicionam um pior prognóstico clínico em doentes com acidente vascular cerebral por doença de pequenos vasos e aterotrombótico.Introduction From 80 to 85 % of strokes are ischemic; from those nearly 25 to 30% are brought about by small vessel disease. Despite of its high prevalence, still little is known about its physiopathological substract. The role of the immune system in the atheresclerotic process underlying the atherotrombotic stroke was extensively shown in several previous studies, yet, its contribution to the etiology of the stroke caused by small vessel disease is still not well established. There is already evidence that the inflammation during the acute phase of the stroke will reflect the degree of the cerebral lesion, this predicting the clinic outcome of the patient.Objectives The aim of the present work is clarifying the etiological influence of the systemic inflammatory mechanism in stroke caused by small vessel disease. It also intends to assess the prognostic importance of these mechanisms in the atherotrombotic ischemic stroke and caused by small vessel disease.Patients and Methods All the patients admitted at the Stroke Unity and the nurse ward Neurologia A at the Coimbra’s University Hospital, between August 2010 to August 2011, with the diagnose of acute ischemic stroke were prospectively studied. The stroke etiology was defined according to the criteria of a modified Trial of ORG 10172 in Acute Stroke Treatment. An analysis of the ultra-sensitive reactive c protein’s laboratorial results were made in addition to the leukocyte counting at the moment of hospital admission. The clinical results was accessed according to two different scales, Rankin’s modified scale at the time of patient discharge, and the National Institute of Health Scale at the seventh day after being hospitalized or at the time of the patient’s discharge.Results Statistically no significant differences have been found during the assessment of the studied inflammatory parameters among the stroke patients, atherotrombotic or caused by small vessel disease. Statistically significant differences have been found among reactive c protein high levels and the levels obtained in the functional scales that have been used.Conclusions Analytically, the inflammatory markers behave the same way in the atherotrombotic stroke and in the one caused by small vessel disease, what asserts the role of the immune system in the physiopathology of the small vessel disease stroke. The high levels of reactive c protein condition a less effective clinic prognosis in stroke patients, atherotrombotic and caused by small vessel disease

Factors associated with hepatitis B vaccine series completion in a randomized trial for injection drug users reached through syringe exchange programs in three US cities

juillet 19311931/07 (T8,A1931)-1931/12.Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire : PACA

Design of \u27Iris\u27, a Small Autonomous Surveillance UAV

This paper documents the design process used for a small autonomous surveillance UAV. The most significant requirements for the plane were size (man-packable), endurance (about 1 hour) and cost (essentially disposable). The plane that resulted, named Iris , is a tailless plane with a 45 cm wing span and a total mass of less than 200g. During flight tests, it achieved an endurance of 52 minutes. The estimated cost to manufacture the planes was $343, excluding the autopilot

A robust and efficient approach to detect 3D rectal tubes from CT colonography

Purpose: The rectal tube (RT) is a common source of false positives (FPs) in computer-aided detection (CAD) systems for CT colonography. A robust and efficient detection of RT can improve CAD performance by eliminating such “obvious” FPs and increase radiologists’ confidence in CAD. Methods: In this paper, we present a novel and robust bottom-up approach to detect the RT. Probabilistic models, trained using kernel density estimation on simple low-level features, are employed to rank and select the most likely RT tube candidate on each axial slice. Then, a shape model, robustly estimated using Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC), infers the global RT path from the selected local detections. Subimages around the RT path are projected into a subspace formed from training subimages of the RT. A quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA) provides a classification of a subimage as RT or non-RT based on the projection. Finally, a bottom-top clustering method is proposed to merge the classification predictions together to locate the tip position of the RT. Results: Our method is validated using a diverse database, including data from five hospitals. On a testing data with 21 patients (42 volumes), 99.5% of annotated RT paths have been successfully detected. Evaluated with CAD, 98.4% of FPs caused by the RT have been detected and removed without any loss of sensitivity. Conclusion: The proposed method demonstrates a high detection rate of the RT path, and when tested in a CAD system, reduces FPs caused by the RT without the loss of sensitivity

Assessment of source contributions to seasonal vegetative exposure to ozone in the U.S.

W126 is a cumulative ozone exposure index based on sigmoidally weighted daytime ozone concentrations used to evaluate the impacts of ozone on vegetation. We quantify W126 in the U.S. in the absence of North American anthropogenic emissions (North American background or “NAB”) using three regional or global chemical transport models for May–July 2010. All models overestimate W126 in the eastern U.S. due to a persistent bias in daytime ozone, while the models are relatively unbiased in California and the Intermountain West. Substantial difference in the magnitude and spatial and temporal variability of the estimates of W126 NAB between models supports the need for a multimodel approach. While the average NAB contribution to daytime ozone in the Intermountain West is 64–78%, the average W126 NAB is only 9–27% of current levels, owing to the weight given to high O3 concentrations in W126. Based on a three-model mean, NAB explains ~30% of the daily variability in the W126 daily index in the Intermountain West. Adjoint sensitivity analysis shows that nationwide W126 is influenced most by NOx emissions from anthropogenic (58% of the total sensitivity) and natural (25%) sources followed by nonmethane volatile organic compounds (10%) and CO (7%). Most of the influence of anthropogenic NOx comes from the U.S. (80%), followed by Canada (9%), Mexico (4%), and China (3%). Thus, long-range transport of pollution has a relatively small impact on W126 in the U.S., and domestic emissions control should be effective for reducing W126 levels

A Dark Incubation Period Is Important for Agrobacterium-Mediated Transformation of Mature Internode Explants of Sweet Orange, Grapefruit, Citron, and a Citrange Rootstock

BACKGROUND: Citrus has an extended juvenile phase and trees can take 2-20 years to transition to the adult reproductive phase and produce fruit. For citrus variety development this substantially prolongs the time before adult traits, such as fruit yield and quality, can be evaluated. Methods to transform tissue from mature citrus trees would shorten the evaluation period via the direct production of adult phase transgenic citrus trees. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Factors important for promoting shoot regeneration from internode explants from adult phase citrus trees were identified and included a dark incubation period and the use of the cytokinin zeatin riboside. Transgenic trees were produced from four citrus types including sweet orange, citron, grapefruit, and a trifoliate hybrid using the identified factors and factor settings. SIGNIFICANCE: The critical importance of a dark incubation period for shoot regeneration was established. These results confirm previous reports on the feasibility of transforming mature tissue from sweet orange and are the first to document the transformation of mature tissue from grapefruit, citron, and a trifoliate hybrid