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Biomarkers of chemical exposure: state of the art.
Establishing associations between environmental agents and disease presents challenges to both epidemiologists and toxicologists, particularly in cases of complex gene-environment interactions and when there is a long latency between exposure and disease. Biologic markers, physiological signals that reflect exposure, early cellular response, or inherent or acquired susceptibilities, provide a new strategy for resolving some of these problems. Biomarker research assumes that toxicant-induced diseases are progressive and that injury proceeds from entry of the toxicant into target cells, which induces subcellular biochemical events, to cell- and organ-level events that eventually induce irreversible or persistent organism dysfunction. The epidemiologic value of a biomarker lies in its ability to predict backward toward exposure and forward toward risk of clinical outcome, which is largely unknown. Research in mechanistic toxicology will advance the range of useful biomarkers in epidemiology and clinical medicine
Chaos in the Gauge/Gravity Correspondence
We study the motion of a string in the background of the Schwarzschild black
hole in AdS_5 by applying the standard arsenal of dynamical systems. Our
description of the phase space includes: the power spectrum, the largest
Lyapunov exponent, Poincare sections and basins of attractions. We find
convincing evidence that the motion is chaotic. We discuss the implications of
some of the quantities associated with chaotic systems for aspects of the
gauge/gravity correspondence. In particular, we suggest some potential
relevance for the information loss paradox.Comment: 29 pages, 11 figure
Gender inequalities in employment and wage-earning among internal labour migrants in Chinese cities
© 2016 Min Qin et al. BACKGROUND: Recent trends show an unprecedented feminisation of migration in China, triggered by the increasing demand for cheap labour in big cities and the availability of women in the labour market. These trends corroborate the evidence that non-agricultural work and remittance from urban labour migrants have become the major sources of rural household income. OBJECTIVE: This paper investigates the extent of gender inequalities in job participation and wage earning among internal labour migrants in China. We hypothesize that female migrants in cities are economically more disadvantaged than male migrants in the job market. METHODS: We use data from the 2010 National Migrant Dynamics Monitoring Survey conducted in 106 cities representing all 31 provinces and geographic regions. The study applies the standard Heckman two-step Probit-OLS method to model job participation and wage- earning, separately for 59,225 males and 41,546 females aged 16-59 years, adjusting for demographic and social characteristics and potential selection effects. RESULTS: Female migrants have much lower job-participation and wage-earning potential than male migrants. Male migrants earn 26% higher hourly wages than their female counterparts. Decomposition analysis confirms potential gender discrimination, suggesting that 88% of the gender difference in wages (or 12% of female migrant wage) is due to discriminatory treatment of female migrants in the Chinese job market. Migrants with rural hukou status have a smaller chance of participation in the job market and they earn lower wages than those with urban hukou, regardless of education advantage. CONCLUSIONS: There is evidence of significant female disadvantage among internal labour migrants in the job market in Chinese cities. Household registration by urban and rural areas, as controlled by the hukou status, partly explains the differing job participation and wage earning among female labour migrants in urban China
R2 imaging of ferritin iron in thalassaemia patients off and on iron-chelation therapy
Myocardial Tissue Characterization: Fat, Hemorrhage & Edema - Poster presentationAccurate assessment of iron burden is crucial for the management of iron-chelation therapy. MRI provides a means to non-invasively assess tissue iron concentration by exploiting the paramagnetic effects of iron on the relaxation rates of solvent protons. The most widely used method is R2* imaging, which has been shown to be sensitive to myocardial iron overload. Recently, a breath-hold fast spin echo sequence has been proposed for fast and accurate imaging of myocardial and hepatic R2. The purpose of this study was to determine which relaxation rates are sensitive to iron-chelation therapy.published_or_final_versionThe 17th Scientific Meeting & Exhibition of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), Honolulu, HI., 18-24 April 2009. In Proceedings of ISMRM 17th Scientific Meeting & Exhibition, 2009, p. 375
Weinberg like sum rules revisited
The generalized Weinberg sum rules containing the difference of isovector
vector and axial-vector spectral functions saturated by both finite and
infinite number of narrow resonances are considered. We summarize the status of
these sum rules and analyze their overall agreement with phenomenological
Lagrangians, low-energy relations, parity doubling, hadron string models, and
experimental data.Comment: 31 pages, noticed misprints are corrected, references are added, and
other minor corrections are mad
Erosion of Trust in the Medical Profession in India : Time for Doctors to Act
In India, over the last decade, a series of stewardship failures in the health system, particularly in the medical profession, have led to a massive erosion of trust in these institutions. In many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), the situation is similar and has reached crisis proportions; this crisis requires urgent attention. This paper draws on the insights from the recent developments in India, to argue that a purely control-based regulatory response to this crisis in the medical profession, as is being currently envisaged by the Parliament and the Supreme Court of India, runs the risk of undermining the trusting interpersonal relations between doctors and their patients. A more balanced approach which takes into account the differences between system and interpersonal forms of trust and distrust is warranted. Such an approach should on one hand strongly regulate the institutions mandated with the stewardship and qualities of care functions, and simultaneously on the other hand, initiate measures to nurture the trusting interpersonal relations between doctors and patients. The paper concludes by calling for doctors, and those mandated with the stewardship of the profession, to individually and collectively, critically self-reflect upon the state of their profession, its priorities and its future direction
Evolutionary Multi-Objective Design of SARS-CoV-2 Protease Inhibitor Candidates
Computational drug design based on artificial intelligence is an emerging
research area. At the time of writing this paper, the world suffers from an
outbreak of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. A promising way to stop the virus
replication is via protease inhibition. We propose an evolutionary
multi-objective algorithm (EMOA) to design potential protease inhibitors for
SARS-CoV-2's main protease. Based on the SELFIES representation the EMOA
maximizes the binding of candidate ligands to the protein using the docking
tool QuickVina 2, while at the same time taking into account further objectives
like drug-likeliness or the fulfillment of filter constraints. The experimental
part analyzes the evolutionary process and discusses the inhibitor candidates.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, submitted to PPSN 202
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