1,008 research outputs found
Two-part and k-Sperner families: New proofs using permutations
This is a paper about the beauty of the permutation method. New and shorter proofs are given for the theorem [P. L. Erdős and G. O. H. Katona, J. Combin. Theory. Ser. A,4
Monetary costs of agitation in older adults with Alzheimer's disease in the UK: prospective cohort study
While nearly half of all people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) have agitation symptoms every month, little is known about the costs of agitation in AD. We calculated the monetary costs associated with agitation in older adults with AD in the UK from a National Health Service and personal social services perspective
Comparative in vitro studies on native and recombinant human cationic trypsins - Cathepsin B is a possible pathological activator of trypsinogen in pancreatitis
Hereditary pancreatitis, an autosomal dominant disease is
believed to
be caused by mutation in the human trypsinogen gene. The role of
mutations has been investigated by in vitro studies using
recombinant
rat and human trypsinogen (TG), In this study we compare the
enzymatic
properties and inhibition by human pancreatic secretory trypsin
inhibitor (hPSTI) of the native, postsynthetically modified and
recombinant cationic trypsin, and found these values practically
identical, We also determined the autolytic stability of
recombinant
wild type (Hu1Asn21) and pancreatitis-associated (Hu1Ile21)
trypsin,
Both forms were equally stable. Similarly, we found no
difference in
the rate of activation of the two zymogens by human cationic and
anionic trypsin. Mesotrypsin did not activate either form. The
rate of
autocatalytic activation of Hu1Asn21 TG and Hu1Ile21 TG was also
identical at pH 8 both in the presence and absence of Ca2+. At
pH 5
Hu1Ile21 TG autoactivated about twice as fast as HulAsn21 TG,
The
presence of physiological amount of hPSTI completely prevented
autoactivation of both zymogens at pH 8 and at pH 5 as well.
Cathepsin
B readily activated both zymogens although Hu1Ile21 TG was
activated
about 2.5-3 times as fast as Hu1Asn21 TG, The presence of hPSTI
did not
prevent the activation of zymogens by cathepsin B, Our results
underlie
the central role of cathepsin B in the development of different
forms
of pancreatitis
Temporal response to harmonic driving in electroconvection
The temporal evolution of the spatially periodic electroconvection (EC)
patterns has been studied within the period of the driving ac voltage by
monitoring the light intensity diffracted from the pattern. Measurements have
been carried out on a variety of nematic systems, including those with negative
dielectric and positive conductivity anisotropy, exhibiting "standard EC"
(s-EC), those with both anisotropies negative exhibiting "non-standard EC"
(ns-EC), as well as those with the two anisotropies positive. Theoretical
predictions have been confirmed for stationary s-EC and ns-EC patterns.
Transitions with Hopf bifurcation have also been studied. While traveling had
no effect on the temporal evolution of dielectric s-EC, traveling conductive
s-EC and ns-EC patterns exhibited a substantially altered temporal behavior
with a dependence on the Hopf frequency. It has also been shown that in
nematics with both anisotropies positive, the pattern develops and decays
within an interval much shorter than the period, even at relatively large
driving frequencies.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure
Non-pharmacological interventions for agitation in dementia: systematic review of randomised controlled trials.
Background Agitation in dementia is common, persistent and distressing and can lead to care breakdown. Medication is often ineffective and harmful. Aims To systematically review randomised controlled trial evidence regarding non-pharmacological interventions. Method We reviewed 33 studies fitting predetermined criteria, assessed their validity and calculated standardised effect sizes (SES). Results Person-centred care, communication skills training and adapted dementia care mapping decreased symptomatic and severe agitation in care homes immediately (SES range 0.3-1.8) and for up to 6 months afterwards (SES range 0.2-2.2). Activities and music therapy by protocol (SES range 0.5-0.6) decreased overall agitation and sensory intervention decreased clinically significant agitation immediately. Aromatherapy and light therapy did not demonstrate efficacy. Conclusions There are evidence-based strategies for care homes. Future interventions should focus on consistent and long-term implementation through staff training. Further research is needed for people living in their own homes
Optimal pebbling number of graphs with given minimum degree
Consider a distribution of pebbles on a connected graph . A pebbling move
removes two pebbles from a vertex and places one to an adjacent vertex. A
vertex is reachable under a pebbling distribution if it has a pebble after the
application of a sequence of pebbling moves. The optimal pebbling number
is the smallest number of pebbles which we can distribute in such a
way that each vertex is reachable. It was known that the optimal pebbling
number of any connected graph is at most , where
is the minimum degree of the graph. We strengthen this bound by showing that
equality cannot be attained and that the bound is sharp. If
then we further improve the bound to
. On the other hand, we show that for
arbitrary large diameter and any there are infinitely many graphs
whose optimal pebbling number is bigger than
Persistent global power fluctuations near a dynamic transition in electroconvection
This is a study of the global fluctuations in power dissipation and light
transmission through a liquid crystal just above the onset of
electroconvection.
The source of the fluctuations is found to be the creation and annihilation
of defects. They are spatially uncorrelated and yet temporally correlated. The
temporal correlation is seen to persist for extremely long times. There seems
to be an especially close relation between defect creation/annihilat ion in
electroconvection and thermal plumes in Rayleigh-B\'enard convection
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