217 research outputs found
Development of a process for continuous dyeing of pet carpet and machnozzle pre-steaming in nylon carpet finishing
Issued as final reportSouthern Company Service
Physical Properties of Biological Entities: An Introduction to the Ontology of Physics for Biology
As biomedical investigators strive to integrate data and analyses across spatiotemporal scales and biomedical domains, they have recognized the benefits of formalizing languages and terminologies via computational ontologies. Although ontologies for biological entitiesâmolecules, cells, organsâare well-established, there are no principled ontologies of physical propertiesâenergies, volumes, flow ratesâof those entities. In this paper, we introduce the Ontology of Physics for Biology (OPB), a reference ontology of classical physics designed for annotating biophysical content of growing repositories of biomedical datasets and analytical models. The OPB's semantic framework, traceable to James Clerk Maxwell, encompasses modern theories of system dynamics and thermodynamics, and is implemented as a computational ontology that references available upper ontologies. In this paper we focus on the OPB classes that are designed for annotating physical properties encoded in biomedical datasets and computational models, and we discuss how the OPB framework will facilitate biomedical knowledge integration
Histological and Gross Studies of Brain Tissue of Kittens Exhibiting Spastic Behavior
Histological and gross studies of brain tissue revealed lowered brain weight, lower brain weight to body weight ratios, and poor brain development in relation to the degree of spasticity exhibited in kittens but did not reveal any definite histological changes
The TOPGAME-study: effectiveness of extracorporeal shockwave therapy in jumping athletes with patellar tendinopathy. Design of a randomised controlled trial
BACKGROUND: Patellar tendinopathy is a major problem for many athletes, especially those involved in jumping activities. Despite its frequency and negative impact on athletic careers, no evidence-based guidelines for management of this overuse injury exist. Since functional outcomes of conservative and surgical treatments remain suboptimal, new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies have to be developed and evaluated. Extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) appears to be a promising treatment in patients with chronic patellar tendinopathy. ESWT is most often applied after the known conservative treatments have failed. However, its effectiveness as primary therapy has not been studied in athletes who keep playing sports despite having patellar tendon pain. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of ESWT in athletes with patellar tendinopathy who are still in training and competition. METHODS/DESIGN: The TOPGAME-study (Tendinopathy of Patella Groningen Amsterdam Maastricht ESWT) is a multicentre two-armed randomised controlled trial with blinded participants and outcome assessors, in which the effectiveness of patient-guided focussed ESWT treatment (compared to placebo ESWT) on pain reduction and recovery of function in athletes with patellar tendinopathy will be investigated. Participants are volleyball, handball and basketball players with symptoms of patellar tendinopathy for a minimum of 3 to a maximum duration of 12 months who are still able to train and compete. The intervention group receives three patient-guided focussed medium-energy density ESWT treatments without local anaesthesia at a weekly interval in the first half of the competition. The control group receives placebo treatment. The follow-up measurements take place 1, 12 and 22 weeks after the final ESWT or placebo treatment, when athletes are still in competition. Primary outcome measure is the VISA-P (Victorian Institute of Sport Assessment - patella) score. Data with regard to pain during function tests (jump tests and single-leg decline squat) and ultrasound characteristics are also collected. During the follow-up period participants also register pain, symptoms, sports participation, side effects of treatment and additional medical consumption in an internet-based diary. DISCUSSION: The TOPGAME-study is the first RCT to study the effectiveness of patient-guided ESWT in athletes with patellar tendinopathy who are still in training and competition. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Trial registration number NTR1408
Binary classification of dyslipidemia from the waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index: a comparison of linear, logistic, and CART models
BACKGROUND: We sought to improve upon previously published statistical modeling strategies for binary classification of dyslipidemia for general population screening purposes based on the waist-to-hip circumference ratio and body mass index anthropometric measurements. METHODS: Study subjects were participants in WHO-MONICA population-based surveys conducted in two Swiss regions. Outcome variables were based on the total serum cholesterol to high density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio. The other potential predictor variables were gender, age, current cigarette smoking, and hypertension. The models investigated were: (i) linear regression; (ii) logistic classification; (iii) regression trees; (iv) classification trees (iii and iv are collectively known as "CART"). Binary classification performance of the region-specific models was externally validated by classifying the subjects from the other region. RESULTS: Waist-to-hip circumference ratio and body mass index remained modest predictors of dyslipidemia. Correct classification rates for all models were 60â80%, with marked gender differences. Gender-specific models provided only small gains in classification. The external validations provided assurance about the stability of the models. CONCLUSIONS: There were no striking differences between either the algebraic (i, ii) vs. non-algebraic (iii, iv), or the regression (i, iii) vs. classification (ii, iv) modeling approaches. Anticipated advantages of the CART vs. simple additive linear and logistic models were less than expected in this particular application with a relatively small set of predictor variables. CART models may be more useful when considering main effects and interactions between larger sets of predictor variables
LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products
(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in
the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of
science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will
have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is
driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking
an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and
mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at
Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m
effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel
camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second
exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given
night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000
square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5
point-source depth in a single visit in will be (AB). The
project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations
by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg with
, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, ,
covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time
will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a
18,000 deg region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the
anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to . The
remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a
Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products,
including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion
objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures
available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie
Superhumps in Cataclysmic Binaries. XXIV. Twenty More Dwarf Novae
We report precise measures of the orbital and superhump period in twenty more
dwarf novae. For ten stars, we report new and confirmed spectroscopic periods -
signifying the orbital period P_o - as well as the superhump period P_sh. These
are GX Cas, HO Del, HS Vir, BC UMa, RZ Leo, KV Dra, KS UMa, TU Crt, QW Ser, and
RZ Sge. For the remaining ten, we report a medley of P_o and P_sh measurements
from photometry; most are new, with some confirmations of previous values.
These are KV And, LL And, WX Cet, MM Hya, AO Oct, V2051 Oph, NY Ser, KK Tel, HV
Vir, and RX J1155.4-5641.
Periods, as usual, can be measured to high accuracy, and these are of special
interest since they carry dynamical information about the binary. We still have
not quite learned how to read the music, but a few things are clear. The
fractional superhump excess epsilon [=(P_sh-P_o)/P_o] varies smoothly with P_o.
The scatter of the points about that smooth curve is quite low, and can be used
to limit the intrinsic scatter in M_1, the white dwarf mass, and the
mass-radius relation of the secondary. The dispersion in M_1 does not exceed
24%, and the secondary-star radii scatter by no more than 11% from a fixed
mass-radius relation. For the well-behaved part of epsilon(P_o) space, we
estimate from superhump theory that the secondaries are 18+-6% larger than
theoretical ZAMS stars. This affects some other testable predictions about the
secondaries: at a fixed P_o, it suggests that the secondaries are (compared
with ZAMS predictions) 40+-14% less massive, 12+-4% smaller, 19+-6% cooler, and
less luminous by a factor 2.5(7). The presence of a well-defined mass-radius
relation, reflected in a well-defined epsilon(P_o) relation, strongly limits
effects of nuclear evolution in the secondaries.Comment: PDF, 62 pages, 7 tables, 21 figures; accepted, in press, to appear
November 2003, PASP; more info at http://cba.phys.columbia.edu
Nitrogen and Carbon Isotopic Dynamics of Subarctic Soils and Plants in Southern Yukon Territory and its Implications for Paleoecological and Paleodietary Studies
We examine here the carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions of bulk soils (8 topsoil and 7 subsoils, including two soil profiles) and five different plant parts of 79 C3 plants from two main functional groups: herbs and shrubs/subshrubs, from 18 different locations in grasslands of southern Yukon Territory, Canada (eastern shoreline of Kluane Lake and Whitehorse area). The Kluane Lake region in particular has been identified previously as an analogue for Late Pleistocene eastern Beringia. All topsoils have higher average total nitrogen ÎŽ15N and organic carbon ÎŽ13C than plants from the same sites with a positive shift occurring with depth in two soil profiles analyzed. All plants analyzed have an average whole plant ÎŽ13C of â27.5 ± 1.2 â° and foliar ÎŽ13C of ±28.0 ± 1.3 â°, and average whole plant ÎŽ15N of â0.3 ± 2.2 â° and foliar ÎŽ15N of ±0.6 ± 2.7 â°. Plants analyzed here showed relatively smaller variability in ÎŽ13C than ÎŽ15N. Their average ÎŽ13C after suitable corrections for the Suess effect should be suitable as baseline for interpreting diets of Late Pleistocene herbivores that lived in eastern Beringia. Water availability, nitrogen availability, spacial differences and intra-plant variability are important controls on ÎŽ15N of herbaceous plants in the study area. The wider range of ÎŽ15N, the more numerous factors that affect nitrogen isotopic composition and their likely differences in the past, however, limit use of the modern N isotopic baseline for vegetation in paleodietary models for such ecosystems. That said, the positive correlation between foliar ÎŽ15N and N content shown for the modern plants could support use of plant ÎŽ15N as an index for plant N content and therefore forage quality. The modern N isotopic baseline cannot be applied directly to the past, but it is prerequisite to future efforts to detect shifts in N cycling and forage quality since the Late Pleistocene through comparison with fossil plants from the same region
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