152 research outputs found
Evaluating a novel cervical orthosis, the Sheffield Support Snood, in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/motor neuron disease with neck weakness
Current practice and guidelines recommend the use of neck orthoses for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to compensate for neck weakness and to provide surrogate neck control. However, available options are frequently described by patients as restrictive and unsuitable and there was a need for a new device that addressed the needs of people with ALS. This project utilized a co-design process to develop a new neck orthosis that was more flexible yet supportive. Following
development of a prototype device, a mixed methods cohort study was undertaken with patients and carers, in order to
evaluate the new orthosis. Twenty-six patients were recruited to the study, with 20 of these completing all phases of data collection. Participants described the impact of neck weakness on their life and limitations of existing supports. Evaluation of the new orthosis identified key beneficial features: notably, increased support while providing a greater range of movement, flexibility of use, and improved appearance and comfort. In conclusion, the results of this evaluation highlight
the value of this alternative option for people with ALS, and potentially other patient groups who require a neck orthosis
Exceptionally Slow Rise in Differential Reflectivity Spectra of Excitons in GaN: Effect of Excitation-induced Dephasing
Femtosecond pump-probe (PP) differential reflectivity spectroscopy (DRS) and
four-wave mixing (FWM) experiments were performed simultaneously to study the
initial temporal dynamics of the exciton line-shapes in GaN epilayers. Beats
between the A-B excitons were found \textit{only for positive time delay} in
both PP and FWM experiments. The rise time at negative time delay for the
differential reflection spectra was much slower than the FWM signal or PP
differential transmission spectroscopy (DTS) at the exciton resonance. A
numerical solution of a six band semiconductor Bloch equation model including
nonlinearities at the Hartree-Fock level shows that this slow rise in the DRS
results from excitation induced dephasing (EID), that is, the strong density
dependence of the dephasing time which changes with the laser excitation
energy.Comment: 8 figure
The effect of hyperbranched poly(acrylic acid)s on the morphology and size of precipitated nanoscale (fluor)hydroxyapatite
Hydroxyapatite and fluorhydroxyapatite (F)HA nanoparticles were synthesised in the presence of branched poly(acrylic acid)s (PAA) synthesised via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerisation and compared to those synthesised in the presence of linear PAA. Analysis of the resulting nanoparticles using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction and transition electron microscopy found that polymer was included within the nanoparticle samples and affected their morphology with nanoparticles synthesised in the presence of branched PAA being more acicular and smaller overall
Coherent Phonon Dynamics in Short-Period InAs/GaSb Superlattices
We have performed ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy studies on a series of
InAs/GaSb-based short-period superlattice (SL) samples with periods ranging
from 46 \AA to 71 \AA. We observe two types of oscillations in the differential
reflectivity with fast ( 1- 2 ps) and slow ( 24 ps) periods. The
period of the fast oscillations changes with the SL period and can be explained
as coherent acoustic phonons generated from carriers photoexcited within the
SL. This mode provides an accurate method for determining the SL period and
assessing interface quality. The period of the slow mode depends on the
wavelength of the probe pulse and can be understood as a propagating coherent
phonon wavepacket modulating the reflectivity of the probe pulse as it travels
from the surface into the sample.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Coherent Phonons in Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene
We review recent studies of coherent phonons (CPs) corresponding to the
radial breathing mode (RBM) and G-mode in single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)
and graphene. Because of the bandgap-diameter relationship, RBM-CPs cause
bandgap oscillations in SWCNTs, modulating interband transitions at terahertz
frequencies. Interband resonances enhance CP signals, allowing for chirality
determination. Using pulse shaping, one can selectively excite
speci!c-chirality SWCNTs within an ensemble. G-mode CPs exhibit
temperature-dependent dephasing via interaction with RBM phonons. Our
microscopic theory derives a driven oscillator equation with a
density-dependent driving term, which correctly predicts CP trends within and
between (2n+m) families. We also find that the diameter can initially increase
or decrease. Finally, we theoretically study the radial breathing like mode in
graphene nanoribbons. For excitation near the absorption edge, the driving term
is much larger for zigzag nanoribbons. We also explain how the armchair
nanoribbon width changes in response to laser excitation.Comment: 48 pages, 41 figure
Differential cross sections, charge production asymmetry, and spin-density matrix elements for D*(2010) produced in 500 GeV/c pi^- nucleon interactions
We report differential cross sections for the production of D*(2010) produced
in 500 GeV/c pi^- nucleon interactions from experiment E791 at Fermilab, as
functions of Feynman-x (x_F) and transverse momentum squared (p_T^2). We also
report the D* +/- charge asymmetry and spin-density matrix elements as
functions of these variables. Investigation of the spin-density matrix elements
shows no evidence of polarization. The average values of the spin alignment are
\eta= 0.01 +- 0.02 and -0.01 +- 0.02 for leading and non-leading particles,
respectively.Comment: LaTeX2e (elsart.cls). 13 pages, 6 figures (eps files). Submitted to
Physics Letters
An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics
For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types
Lives versus Livelihoods? Perceived economic risk has a stronger association with support for COVID-19 preventive measures than perceived health risk
This paper examines whether compliance with COVID-19 mitigation measures is motivated by wanting to save lives or save the economy (or both), and which implications this carries to fight the pandemic. National representative samples were collected from 24 countries (N = 25,435). The main predictors were (1) perceived risk to contract coronavirus, (2) perceived risk to suffer economic losses due to coronavirus, and (3) their interaction effect. Individual and country-level variables were added as covariates in multilevel regression models. We examined compliance with various preventive health behaviors and support for strict containment policies. Results show that perceived economic risk consistently predicted mitigation behavior and policy supportâand its effects were positive. Perceived health risk had mixed effects. Only two significant interactions between health and economic risk were identifiedâboth positive
Driver Fusions and Their Implications in the Development and Treatment of Human Cancers.
Gene fusions represent an important class of somatic alterations in cancer. We systematically investigated fusions in 9,624 tumors across 33 cancer types using multiple fusion calling tools. We identified a total of 25,664 fusions, with a 63% validation rate. Integration of gene expression, copy number, and fusion annotation data revealed that fusions involving oncogenes tend to exhibit increased expression, whereas fusions involving tumor suppressors have the opposite effect. For fusions involving kinases, we found 1,275 with an intact kinase domain, the proportion of which varied significantly across cancer types. Our study suggests that fusions drive the development of 16.5% of cancer cases and function as the sole driver in more than 1% of them. Finally, we identified druggable fusions involving genes such as TMPRSS2, RET, FGFR3, ALK, and ESR1 in 6.0% of cases, and we predicted immunogenic peptides, suggesting that fusions may provide leads for targeted drug and immune therapy
Track D Social Science, Human Rights and Political Science
Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138414/1/jia218442.pd
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