3,451 research outputs found
Superconducting receiver coils for sodium magnetic resonance imaging
Presents the results from sodium magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) experiments using high-temperature superconducting (HTS) receiver coils. Sodium imaging has been shown to have great potential for the assessment of cell integrity but suffers from substantially lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) than that of hydrogen imaging. The use of an HTS receiver coil was found to significantly increase the SNR relative to an equivalent copper receiver coil at room temperature. The SNR gains afforded by HTS coils can also be used to decrease the imaging time.published_or_final_versio
Generationing development
The articles in this special issue present a persuasive case for accounts of development to recognise the integral and fundamental roles played by age and generation. While the past two decades have witnessed a burgeoning of literature demonstrating that children and youth are impacted by development, and that they can and do participate in development, the literature has tended to portray young people as a special group whose perspectives should not be forgotten. By contrast, the articles collected here make the case that age and generation, as relational constructs, cannot be ignored. Appropriating the term âgenerationingâ, the editors argue that a variety of types of age relations profoundly structure the ways in which societies are transformed through development â both immanent processes of neoliberal modernisation and the interventions of development agencies that both respond and contribute to these. Drawing on the seven empirical articles, I attempt to draw some of the ideas together into a narrative that further argues the case for âgenerationingâ but also identifies gaps, questions and implications for further research
Effects of a Single Intra-Articular Injection of a Microsphere-Formulation of Triamcinolone Acetonide on Knee Osteoarthritis Pain: A Double-Blinded, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Multinational Study
Background: Intra-articular corticosteroids relieve osteoarthritis pain, but rapid systemic absorption limits efficacy. FX006, a novel, microsphere-based, extended-release triamcinolone acetonide (TA) formulation, prolongs TA joint residence and reduces systemic exposure compared with standard TA crystalline suspension (TAcs). We assessed symptomatic benefits and safety of FX006 compared with saline-solution placebo and TAcs.
Methods: In this Phase-3, multicenter, double-blinded, 24-week study, adults â„40 years of age with knee osteoarthritis (Kellgren-Lawrence grade 2 or 3) and average-daily-pain (ADP)-intensity scores of â„5 and â€9 (0 to 10 numeric rating scale) were centrally randomized (1:1:1) to a single intra-articular injection of FX006 (32 mg), saline-solution placebo, or TAcs (40 mg). The primary end point was change from baseline to week 12 in weekly mean ADP-intensity scores for FX006 compared with saline-solution placebo. Secondary end points were area-under-effect (AUE) curves of the change in weekly mean ADP-intensity scores from baseline to week 12 for FX006 compared with saline-solution placebo, AUE curves of the change in weekly mean ADP-intensity scores from baseline to week 12 for FX006 compared with TAcs, change in weekly mean ADP-intensity scores from baseline to week 12 for FX006 compared with TAcs, and AUE curves of the change in weekly mean ADP-intensity scores from baseline to week 24 for FX006 compared with saline-solution placebo. Exploratory end points included week-12 changes in Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) and Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score Quality of Life (KOOS-QOL) subscale scores for FX006 compared with saline-solution placebo and TAcs. Adverse events were elicited at each inpatient visit.
Results: The primary end point was met. Among 484 treated patients (n = 161 for FX006, n = 162 for saline-solution placebo, and n = 161 for TAcs), FX006 provided significant week-12 improvement in ADP intensity compared with that observed for saline-solution placebo (least-squares mean change from baseline: â3.12 versus â2.14; p < 0.0001) indicating âŒ50% improvement. FX006 afforded improvements over saline-solution placebo for all secondary and exploratory end points (p < 0.05). Improvements in osteoarthritis pain were not significant for FX006 compared with TAcs using the ADP-based secondary measures. Exploratory analyses of WOMAC-A, B, and C and KOOS-QOL subscales favored FX006 (p †0.05). Adverse events were generally mild, occurring at similar frequencies across treatments.
Conclusions: FX006 provided significant, clinically meaningful pain reduction compared with saline-solution placebo at week 12 (primary end point)
Methadone, Buprenorphine, and Street Drug Interactions with Antiretroviral Medications
While street drugs appear unlikely to alter the metabolism of antiretroviral (ARV) medications, several ARVs may induce or inhibit metabolism of various street drugs. However, research on these interactions is limited. Case reports have documented life-threatening overdoses of ecstasy and gamma-hydroxybutyrate after starting ritonavir, an ARV that inhibits several metabolic enzymes. For opioid addiction, methadone or buprenorphine are the treatments of choice. Because a number of ARVs decrease or increase methadone levels, patients should be monitored for methadone withdrawal or toxicity when they start or stop ARVs. Most ARVs do not cause buprenorphine withdrawal or toxicity, even if they alter buprenorphine levels, with rare exceptions to date including atazanavir/ritonavir associated with significant increases in buprenorphine and adverse events related to sedation and mental status changes in some cases. There are newer medications yet to be studied with methadone or buprenorphine. Further, there are many frequently used medications in treatment of complications of HIV disease that have not been studied. There is need for continuing research to define these drug interactions and their clinical significance
The order of the quantum chromodynamics transition predicted by the standard model of particle physics
We determine the nature of the QCD transition using lattice calculations for
physical quark masses. Susceptibilities are extrapolated to vanishing lattice
spacing for three physical volumes, the smallest and largest of which differ by
a factor of five. This ensures that a true transition should result in a
dramatic increase of the susceptibilities.No such behaviour is observed: our
finite-size scaling analysis shows that the finite-temperature QCD transition
in the hot early Universe was not a real phase transition, but an analytic
crossover (involving a rapid change, as opposed to a jump, as the temperature
varied). As such, it will be difficult to find experimental evidence of this
transition from astronomical observations.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Secure Multiparty Computation from SGX
International audienceIsolated Execution Environments (IEE) offered by novel commodity hardware such as Intel's SGX deployed in Skylake processors permit executing software in a protected environment that shields it from a malicious operating system; it also permits a remote user to obtain strong interactive attestation guarantees on both the code running in an IEE and its input/output behaviour. In this paper we show how IEEs provide a new path to constructing general secure multiparty computation (MPC) protocols. Our protocol is intuitive and elegant: it uses code within an IEE to play the role of a trusted third party (TTP), and the attestation guarantees of SGX to bootstrap secure communications between participants and the TTP. In our protocol the load of communications and computations on participants only depends on the size of each party's inputs and outputs and is thus small and independent from the intricacy of the functionality to be computed. The remaining computational load-essentially that of computing the functionality-is moved to an untrusted party running an IEE-enabled machine, an appealing feature for Cloud-based scenarios. However, as often the case even with the simplest cryptographic protocols, we found that there is a large gap between this intuitively appealing solution and a protocol with rigorous security guarantees. We bridge this gap through a comprehensive set of results that include: i. a detailed construction of a protocol for secure computation for arbitrary functionalities; ii. formal security definitions for the security of the overall protocol and that of its components; and iii. a modular security analysis of our protocol that relies on a novel notion of labeled attested computation. We implemented and extensively evaluated our solution on SGX-enabled hardware, providing detailed measurements of our protocol as well as comparisons with software-only MPC solutions. Furthermore, we show the cost induced by using constant-time, i.e., timing side channel resilient, code in our implementation
C35 overexpression defines subsets of human breast cancer and its immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif represents a novel treatment target
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Anomaly Equations and Intersection Theory
Six-dimensional supergravity theories with N=(1,0) supersymmetry must satisfy
anomaly equations. These equations come from demanding the cancellation of
gravitational, gauge and mixed anomalies. The anomaly equations have
implications for the geometrical data of Calabi-Yau threefolds, since F-theory
compactified on an elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau threefold with a section
generates a consistent six-dimensional N=(1,0) supergravity theory. In this
paper, we show that the anomaly equations can be summarized by three
intersection theory identities. In the process we also identify the geometric
counterpart of the anomaly coefficients---in particular, those of the abelian
gauge groups---that govern the low-energy dynamics of the theory. We discuss
the results in the context of investigating string universality in six
dimensions.Comment: 29 pages + appendices, 8 figures; v2: minor corrections, references
added; v3: minor corrections, reference adde
Report on eighth WHO meeting on development of influenza vaccines that induce broadly protective and long-lasting immune responses: Chicago, USA, 23-24 August 2016
Refined Cigar and Omega-deformed Conifold
Antoniadis et al proposed a relation between the Omega-deformation and
refined correlation functions of the topological string theory. We investigate
the proposal for the deformed conifold geometry from a non-compact Gepner model
approach. The topological string theory on the deformed conifold has a dual
description in terms of the c=1 non-critical string theory at the self-dual
radius, and the Omega-deformation yields the radius deformation. We show that
the refined correlation functions computed from the twisted SL(2,R)/U(1)
Kazama-Suzuki coset model at level k=1 have direct c=1 non-critical string
theory interpretations. After subtracting the leading singularity to procure
the 1PI effective action, we obtain the agreement with the proposal.Comment: 15 pages, v2: reference added, v3: published versio
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