4,776 research outputs found
Serological Prevalence of Schistosoma japonicum in Mobile Populations in Previously Endemic but Now Non-Endemic Regions of China: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Background:
Schistosomiasis japonica has been resurging in certain areas of China where its transmission was previously well controlled or interrupted. Several factors may be contributing to this, including mobile populations, which if infected, may spread the disease. A wide range of estimates have been published for S. japonicum infections in mobile populations, and a synthesis of these data will elucidate the relative risk presented from these groups.
Methods:
A literature search for publications up to Oct 31, 2014 on S. japonicum infection in mobile populations in previously endemic but now non-endemic regions was conducted using four bibliographic databases: China National Knowledge Infrastructure, WanFang, VIP Chinese Journal Databases, and PubMed. A meta-analysis was conducted by pooling one arm binary data with MetaAnalyst Beta 3.13. The protocol is available on PROSPERO (No. CRD42013005967).
Results:
A total of 41 studies in Chinese met the inclusion criteria, covering seven provinces of China. The time of post-interruption surveillance ranged from the first year to the 31st year. After employing a random-effects model, from 1992 to 2013 the pooled seroprevalence ranged from 0.9% (95% CI: 0.5-1.6%) in 2003 to 2.3% (95% CI: 1.5-3.4) in 1995; from the first year after the disease had been interrupted to the 31st year, the pooled seroprevalence ranged from 0.6% (95% CI: 0.2-2.1%) in the 27th year to 4.0% (95%CI: 1.3-11.3%) in the second year. The pooled seroprevalence in mobile populations each year was significantly lower than among the residents of endemic regions, whilst four papers reported a lower level of infection in the mobile populations than in the local residents out of only 13 papers which included this data.
Conclusions:
The re-emergence of S. japonicum in areas which had previously interrupted transmission might be due to other factors, although risk from re-introduction from mobile populations could not be excluded
Study on the influence of temperature on the surface asperity in micro cross wedge rolling
When the common deformation processes are scaled down to micro/meso dimensions, size effect is the particular phenomena in microforming, which is related to the dominant influence of single grains inside the micropart. The conventional cross wedge rolling (CWR) is introduced into the micro scale in order to take the advantages of CWR. The micro cross wedge rolling (MCWR) has to confront with the phenomena of size effect that occurs in the common microforming processes inevitably. One of the approaches to compensate size effect is to increase the deforming temperature. An increased formability is achieved because more slip systems of polycrystal metal are activated at the elevated temperature. This reduces the anisotropic material behavior resulting in a more homogeneous forming with improved reproducibility. In this study, a YAG laser beam is applied to heat the workpiece. Finite element model (FEM) associated with a material constitutive formulation considering dislocation mechanics is set up to simulate the MCWR of pure copper utilizing the laser heating. The surface asperity as an indication of material heterogeneity in micro scale is quantitatively analysed. The simulation results show a good agreement with experimental results in terms of the surface asperity. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC
Assessment of Cellular Estrogenic Activity Based on Estrogen Receptor-Mediated Reduction of Soluble-Form Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) Expression in an ELISA-Based System
published_or_final_versio
The effect of ex-vivo rotenone intoxication on dopamine re-uptake of LRRK2-R1441G mutant mouse
Poster presentationpublished_or_final_versio
ATLAS Z Excess in Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model
Recently the ATLAS collaboration reported a 3 sigma excess in the search for
the events containing a dilepton pair from a Z boson and large missing
transverse energy. Although the excess is not sufficiently significant yet, it
is quite tempting to explain this excess by a well-motivated model beyond the
standard model. In this paper we study a possibility of the minimal
supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) for this excess. Especially, we focus on
the MSSM spectrum where the sfermions are heavier than the gauginos and
Higgsinos. We show that the excess can be explained by the reasonable MSSM mass
spectrum.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures; published versio
Field Effect Transistors for Terahertz Detection: Physics and First Imaging Applications
Resonant frequencies of the two-dimensional plasma in FETs increase with the
reduction of the channel dimensions and can reach the THz range for sub-micron
gate lengths. Nonlinear properties of the electron plasma in the transistor
channel can be used for the detection and mixing of THz frequencies. At
cryogenic temperatures resonant and gate voltage tunable detection related to
plasma waves resonances, is observed. At room temperature, when plasma
oscillations are overdamped, the FET can operate as an efficient broadband THz
detector. We present the main theoretical and experimental results on THz
detection by FETs in the context of their possible application for THz imaging.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figures, review pape
Broken symmetry and the variation of critical properties in the phase behaviour of supramolecular rhombus tilings
The degree of randomness, or partial order, present in two-dimensional
supramolecular arrays of isophthalate tetracarboxylic acids is shown to vary
due to subtle chemical changes such as the choice of solvent or small
differences in molecular dimensions. This variation may be quantified using an
order parameter and reveals a novel phase behaviour including random tiling
with varying critical properties as well as ordered phases dominated by either
parallel or non-parallel alignment of neighbouring molecules, consistent with
long-standing theoretical studies. The balance between order and randomness is
driven by small differences in the intermolecular interaction energies, which
we show, using numerical simulations, can be related to the measured order
parameter. Significant variations occur even when the energy difference is much
less than the thermal energy highlighting the delicate balance between entropic
and energetic effects in complex self-assembly processes
Science Models as Value-Added Services for Scholarly Information Systems
The paper introduces scholarly Information Retrieval (IR) as a further
dimension that should be considered in the science modeling debate. The IR use
case is seen as a validation model of the adequacy of science models in
representing and predicting structure and dynamics in science. Particular
conceptualizations of scholarly activity and structures in science are used as
value-added search services to improve retrieval quality: a co-word model
depicting the cognitive structure of a field (used for query expansion), the
Bradford law of information concentration, and a model of co-authorship
networks (both used for re-ranking search results). An evaluation of the
retrieval quality when science model driven services are used turned out that
the models proposed actually provide beneficial effects to retrieval quality.
From an IR perspective, the models studied are therefore verified as expressive
conceptualizations of central phenomena in science. Thus, it could be shown
that the IR perspective can significantly contribute to a better understanding
of scholarly structures and activities.Comment: 26 pages, to appear in Scientometric
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