55,764 research outputs found
Contribution of the antibiotic chloramphenicol and its analogues as precursors of dichloroacetamide and other disinfection byproducts in drinking water
Dichloroacetamide (DCAcAm), a disinfection byproduct, has been detected in drinking water. Previous research showed that amino acids may be DCAcAm precursors. However, other precursors may be present. This study explored the contribution of the antibiotic chloramphenicol (CAP) and two of its analogues (thiamphenicol, TAP; florfenicol, FF) (referred to collectively as CAPs), which occur in wastewater-impacted source waters, to the formation of DCAcAm. Their formation yields were compared to free and combined amino acids, and they were investigated in filtered waters from drinking-water-treatment plants, heavily wastewater-impacted natural waters, and secondary effluents from wastewater treatment plants. CAPs had greater DCAcAm formation potential than two representative amino acid precursors. However, in drinking waters with ng/L levels of CAPs, they will not contribute as much to DCAcAm formation as the μg/L levels of amino acids. Also, the effect of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) on DCAcAm formation from CAPs in real water samples during subsequent chlorination was evaluated. Preoxidation of CAPs with AOPs reduced the formation of DCAcAm during postchlorination. The results of this study suggest that CAPs should be considered as possible precursors of DCAcAm, especially in heavily wastewater-impacted waters
In vitro and in vivo effects of salbutamol on neutrophil function in acute lung injury
Background: Intravenous salbutamol (albuterol) reduces lung water in patients with the acute respiratory
distress syndrome (ARDS). Experimental data show that it also reduces pulmonary neutrophil accumulation or
activation and inflammation in ARDS.
Aim: To investigate the effects of salbutamol on neutrophil function.
Methods: The in vitro effects of salbutamol on neutrophil function were determined. Blood and
bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid were collected from 35 patients with acute lung injury (ALI)/ARDS, 14
patients at risk from ARDS and 7 ventilated controls at baseline and after 4 days’ treatment with placebo or
salbutamol (ALI/ARDS group). Alveolar–capillary permeability was measured in vivo by thermodilution
(PiCCO). Neutrophil activation, adhesion molecule expression and inflammatory cytokines were measured.
Results: In vitro, physiological concentrations of salbutamol had no effect on neutrophil chemotaxis, viability
or apoptosis. Patients with ALI/ARDS showed increased neutrophil activation and adhesion molecule
expression compared with at risk-patients and ventilated controls. There were associations between alveolar–
capillary permeability and BAL myeloperoxidase (r = 0.4, p = 0.038) and BAL interleukin 8 (r = 0.38,
p = 0.033). In patients with ALI/ARDS, salbutamol increased numbers of circulating neutrophils but had no
effect on alveolar neutrophils.
Conclusion: At the onset of ALI/ARDS, there is increased neutrophil recruitment and activation. Physiological
concentrations of salbutamol did not alter neutrophil chemotaxis, viability or apoptosis in vitro. In vivo,
salbutamol increased circulating neutrophils, but had no effect on alveolar neutrophils or on neutrophil
activation. These data suggest that the beneficial effects of salbutamol in reducing lung water are unrelated to
modulation of neutrophil-dependent inflammatory pathways
SOS-convex Semi-algebraic Programs and its Applications to Robust Optimization: A Tractable Class of Nonsmooth Convex Optimization
In this paper, we introduce a new class of nonsmooth convex functions called
SOS-convex semialgebraic functions extending the recently proposed notion of
SOS-convex polynomials. This class of nonsmooth convex functions covers many
common nonsmooth functions arising in the applications such as the Euclidean
norm, the maximum eigenvalue function and the least squares functions with
-regularization or elastic net regularization used in statistics and
compressed sensing. We show that, under commonly used strict feasibility
conditions, the optimal value and an optimal solution of SOS-convex
semi-algebraic programs can be found by solving a single semi-definite
programming problem (SDP). We achieve the results by using tools from
semi-algebraic geometry, convex-concave minimax theorem and a recently
established Jensen inequality type result for SOS-convex polynomials. As an
application, we outline how the derived results can be applied to show that
robust SOS-convex optimization problems under restricted spectrahedron data
uncertainty enjoy exact SDP relaxations. This extends the existing exact SDP
relaxation result for restricted ellipsoidal data uncertainty and answers the
open questions left in [Optimization Letters 9, 1-18(2015)] on how to recover a
robust solution from the semi-definite programming relaxation in this broader
setting
Multiscale Discriminant Saliency for Visual Attention
The bottom-up saliency, an early stage of humans' visual attention, can be
considered as a binary classification problem between center and surround
classes. Discriminant power of features for the classification is measured as
mutual information between features and two classes distribution. The estimated
discrepancy of two feature classes very much depends on considered scale
levels; then, multi-scale structure and discriminant power are integrated by
employing discrete wavelet features and Hidden markov tree (HMT). With wavelet
coefficients and Hidden Markov Tree parameters, quad-tree like label structures
are constructed and utilized in maximum a posterior probability (MAP) of hidden
class variables at corresponding dyadic sub-squares. Then, saliency value for
each dyadic square at each scale level is computed with discriminant power
principle and the MAP. Finally, across multiple scales is integrated the final
saliency map by an information maximization rule. Both standard quantitative
tools such as NSS, LCC, AUC and qualitative assessments are used for evaluating
the proposed multiscale discriminant saliency method (MDIS) against the
well-know information-based saliency method AIM on its Bruce Database wity
eye-tracking data. Simulation results are presented and analyzed to verify the
validity of MDIS as well as point out its disadvantages for further research
direction.Comment: 16 pages, ICCSA 2013 - BIOCA sessio
Generalized modified gravity with the second order acceleration equation
In the theories of generalized modified gravity, the acceleration equation is
generally fourth order. So it is hard to analyze the evolution of the Universe.
In this paper, we present a class of generalized modified gravity theories
which have the acceleration equation of second order derivative. Then both the
cosmic evolution and the weak-field limit of the theories are easily
investigated. We find that not only the Big-bang singularity problem but also
the current cosmic acceleration problem could be easily dealt with.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.
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