176 research outputs found
Do antibiotics improve outcomes in chronic rhinosinusitis?
For children, antibiotics do not appear to improve short-term (3-6 weeks) or long-term (3 months) outcomes of chronic rhinosinusitis (strength of recommendation [SOR]: A, randomized controlled trials). No adequate placebo-controlled trials have been performed in adults. Two consensus statements report that 10 to 21 days of antibiotics active against organisms producing beta-lactamase might be beneficial in some cases (SOR: C)
Jatropha Curcas Development as Intervention Potential to Tackling Land, Energy and Food Challenges of Rural Communities in Dryland Sub-Saharan Africa
Global population growth is placing increasing pressures on land for food and feed production as well as energy security. In particular in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), these issues require urgent attention. This is clearly stated in The United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development emphasizing the importance of sustainable use of land resources to increase food productivity and energy requirement. SSA lags behind most regions of the world in household food security and access to energy. The rural agriculture-dependent communities of SSA are the hardest hit by food and energy scarcity and the impact is felt most by communities in the dryland farming areas. In terms of energy supply appropriate measures and interventions are required to address this challenge. Jatropha curcas L. oil fast tracked itself from obscurity to prominence. Its main advantage is the high content of methyl ester (or bio-diesel). It conforms to EN 14214 specifications, exhibiting emission reduction potential and qualifying as a lucrative bio-diesel alternative to fossil diesel. This paper proposes a focus on Jatropha technology as a holistic approach to tackling the land, energy and food degradation challenges in unison for dry-land SSA. The new Jatropha strategy would be innovative and environmentally friendly soil resource recapitalization and supply feed stock for rural energy generation while fulfilling the criteria of delivering other benefits, such as addressing land use conflict for food and energy production
Malignant Transformation of an HNF1a-Inactivated Hepatocellular Adenoma to Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Hepatocellular adenomas (HCA) are rare benign tumors of the liver, occurring predominantly in females using oral contraceptives. Our case describes a 66-year-old woman presenting with a palpable mass in her upper abdomen. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging showed a large exophytic mass protruding from the caudal border of liver segments IV and V, without visible metastases. Laparoscopic resection of the tumor and gallbladder was performed. Histopathological examination showed a hepatocellular carcinoma with areas of HNF1a-HCA (H-HCA). This case shows that malignant transformation is possible in H-HCA. We present our preoperative decision-making process, as well as the role of imaging techniques in this rare case
Abrupt appearance of the domain pattern and fatigue of thin ferroelectric films
We study the domain structure in ferroelectric thin films with a `passive'
layer (material with damaged ferroelectric properties) at the interface between
the film and electrodes within a continuous medium approximation. An abrupt
transition from a monodomain to a polydomain state has been found with the
increase of the `passive' layer thickness . The domain width changes very
quickly at the transition (exponentially with ). We have estimated the
dielectric response (the slope of the hysteresis loop) in the
`fatigued' multidomain state and found that it is in agreement with experiment,
assuming realistic parameters of the layer. We derive a simple universal
relation for the dielectric response, which scales as , involving only the
properties of the passive layer. This relation qualitatively reproduces the
evolution of the hysteresis loop in fatigued samples and it could be tested
with controlled experiments. It is expected that the coercive field should
increase with decreasing lateral size of the film. We believe that specific
properties of the domain structure under bias voltage in ferroelectrics with a
passive layer can resolve the long-standing `paradox of the coercive field'.Comment: 5 pages, REVTeX 3.1 with two eps-figures. Minor amendments. To appear
in Phys. Rev. Letter
Behavior and complications of hepatocellular adenoma during pregnancy and puerperium:a retrospective study and systematic review
BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular adenomas (HCA) are benign liver tumors at risk of hemorrhage. The influence of pregnancy on HCA growth and potential bleeding remains unclear. This study investigates HCA-associated behavior and bleeding complications during or shortly after pregnancy. METHODS: (I) Single center retrospective cohort study of HCA during and after pregnancy (II) Systematic literature review. RESULTS: The retrospective study included 11 patients, of which 4 with HCA ≥5 cm. In only two patients HCA showed growth during pregnancy. In this local cohort, no HCA-related hemorrhages occurred during median follow-up of 34 months (interquartile range 19-58 months). The systematic review yielded 33 studies, totaling 90 patients with 99 pregnancies. Of 73 pregnancies without prior HCA-related intervention, 39 HCA remained stable (53.4%), 11 regressed (15.1%), and 23 (31.5%) progressed. Fifteen HCA-related hemorrhages occurred in HCA measuring 6.5-17.0 cm. Eight patients experienced bleeding during pregnancy, two during labor and five postpartum. CONCLUSION: Although hemorrhage of HCA during or shortly after pregnancy is rare and only reported in HCA ≥6.5 cm, it can be fatal. Pregnancy in women with HCA, regardless of size, warrant a close surveillance strategy. Observational studies on behavior and management of HCA ≥5 cm during and immediately after pregnancy are needed
Drug-induced caspase 8 upregulation sensitises cisplatin-resistant ovarian carcinoma cells to rhTRAIL-induced apoptosis
BACKGROUND: Drug resistance is a major problem in ovarian cancer. Triggering apoptosis using death ligands such as tumour necrosis factor-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) might overcome chemoresistance. METHODS: We investigated whether acquired cisplatin resistance affects sensitivity to recombinant human (rh) TRAIL alone or in combination with cisplatin in an ovarian cancer cell line model consisting of A2780 and its cisplatin-resistant subline CP70. RESULTS: Combining cisplatin and rhTRAIL strongly enhanced apoptosis in both cell lines. CP70 expressed less caspase 8 protein, whereas mRNA levels were similar compared with A2780. Pre-exposure of particularly CP70 to cisplatin resulted in strongly elevated caspase 8 protein and mRNA levels. Caspase 8 mRNA turnover and protein stability in the presence or absence of cisplatin did not differ between both cell lines. Cisplatin-induced caspase 8 protein levels were essential for the rhTRAIL-sensitising effect as demonstrated using caspase 8 small-interfering RNA (siRNA) and caspase-8 overexpressing constructs. Cellular FLICE-inhibitory protein (c-FLIP) and p53 siRNA experiments showed that neither an altered caspase 8/c-FLIP ratio nor a p53-dependent increase in DR5 membrane expression following cisplatin were involved in rhTRAIL sensitisation. CONCLUSION: Cisplatin enhances rhTRAIL-induced apoptosis in cisplatin-resistant ovarian cancer cells, and induction of caspase 8 protein expression is the key factor of rhTRAIL sensitisation. British Journal of Cancer (2011) 104, 1278-1287. doi:10.1038/bjc.2011.84 www.bjcancer.com (C) 2011 Cancer Research U
Dynamic Phase Transition, Universality, and Finite-size Scaling in the Two-dimensional Kinetic Ising Model in an Oscillating Field
We study the two-dimensional kinetic Ising model below its equilibrium
critical temperature, subject to a square-wave oscillating external field. We
focus on the multi-droplet regime where the metastable phase decays through
nucleation and growth of many droplets of the stable phase. At a critical
frequency, the system undergoes a genuine non-equilibrium phase transition, in
which the symmetry-broken phase corresponds to an asymmetric stationary limit
cycle for the time-dependent magnetization. We investigate the universal
aspects of this dynamic phase transition at various temperatures and field
amplitudes via large-scale Monte Carlo simulations, employing finite-size
scaling techniques adopted from equilibrium critical phenomena. The critical
exponents, the fixed-point value of the fourth-order cumulant, and the critical
order-parameter distribution all are consistent with the universality class of
the two-dimensional equilibrium Ising model. We also study the cross-over from
the multi-droplet to the strong-field regime, where the transition disappears
Analytical and computational study of magnetization switching in kinetic Ising systems with demagnetizing fields
An important aspect of real ferromagnetic particles is the demagnetizing
field resulting from magnetostatic dipole-dipole interaction, which causes
large particles to break up into domains. Sufficiently small particles,
however, remain single-domain in equilibrium. This makes such small particles
of particular interest as materials for high-density magnetic recording media.
In this paper we use analytic arguments and Monte Carlo simulations to study
the effect of the demagnetizing field on the dynamics of magnetization
switching in two-dimensional, single-domain, kinetic Ising systems. For systems
in the ``Stochastic Region,'' where magnetization switching is on average
effected by the nucleation and growth of fewer than two well-defined critical
droplets, the simulation results can be explained by the dynamics of a simple
model in which the free energy is a function only of magnetization. In the
``Multi-Droplet Region,'' a generalization of Avrami's Law involving a
magnetization-dependent effective magnetic field gives good agreement with our
simulations.Comment: 29 pages, REVTeX 3.0, 10 figures, 2 more figures by request.
Submitted Phys. Rev.
Test of the Kolmogorov-Johnson-Mehl-Avrami picture of metastable decay in a model with microscopic dynamics
The Kolmogorov-Johnson-Mehl-Avrami (KJMA) theory for the time evolution of
the order parameter in systems undergoing first-order phase transformations has
been extended by Sekimoto to the level of two-point correlation functions.
Here, this extended KJMA theory is applied to a kinetic Ising lattice-gas
model, in which the elementary kinetic processes act on microscopic length and
time scales. The theoretical framework is used to analyze data from extensive
Monte Carlo simulations. The theory is inherently a mesoscopic continuum
picture, and in principle it requires a large separation between the
microscopic scales and the mesoscopic scales characteristic of the evolving
two-phase structure. Nevertheless, we find excellent quantitative agreement
with the simulations in a large parameter regime, extending remarkably far
towards strong fields (large supersaturations) and correspondingly small
nucleation barriers. The original KJMA theory permits direct measurement of the
order parameter in the metastable phase, and using the extension to correlation
functions one can also perform separate measurements of the nucleation rate and
the average velocity of the convoluted interface between the metastable and
stable phase regions. The values obtained for all three quantities are verified
by other theoretical and computational methods. As these quantities are often
difficult to measure directly during a process of phase transformation, data
analysis using the extended KJMA theory may provide a useful experimental
alternative.Comment: RevTex, 21 pages including 14 ps figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. B.
One misprint corrected in Eq.(C1
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