454 research outputs found
The RAI travels to Latin America: Measuring regional authority under regime change
This paper presents a new dataset on regional authority in 27 Latin American and Caribbean countries for 1950–2010 based on the Regional Authority Index (RAI), which makes it possible to compare regional authority over time and across regions. We explain conceptualization, operationalization, and coding decisions with the aim of making judgments explicit, and therefore open to amendment or refutation. We present substantive observations about the variation across countries and over time and discuss the implications and challenges of expanding the RAI to contexts in which democracy and authoritarianism alternate
Observations of Seyferts by OSSE and parameters of their X-ray/gamma-ray sources
We present a summary of spectra of Seyfert galaxies observed by the OSSE
detector aboard Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. We obtain average spectra of
Seyferts of type 1 and 2, and find they are well fitted by thermal
Comptonization. We present detailed parameter ranges for the plasma temperature
and the Compton parameter in the case of spherical and slab geometries. We find
both the average and individual OSSE spectra of Seyfert 2s are significantly
harder than those of Seyfert 1s, which difference can be due to anisotropy of
Compton reflection and/or Thomson-thick absorption.Comment: ApJ, 10 Nov. 2000, in press, 13 page
Non-myeloablative allogeneic transplantation with alemtuzumab, fludarabine and cyclophosphamide using 3-6/6 HLA matched donors
Salivary Metabolomic Signatures and Body Mass Index in Italian Adolescents: A Pilot Study
Context: Obesity surveillance is scarce in adolescents, and little is known on whether salivary metabolomics data, emerging minimally invasive biomarkers, can characterize metabolic patterns associated with overweight or obesity in adolescents. Objective: This pilot study aims to identify the salivary molecular signatures associated with body mass index (BMI) in Italian adolescents. Methods: Saliva samples and BMI were collected in a subset of n = 74 young adolescents enrolled in the Public Health Impact of Metal Exposure study (2007-2014). A total of 217 untargeted metabolites were identified using liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry. Robust linear regression was used to cross-sectionally determine associations between metabolomic signatures and sex-specific BMI-for-age z-scores (z-BMI). Results: Nearly 35% of the adolescents (median age: 12 years; 51% females) were either obese or overweight. A higher z-BMI was observed in males compared to females (P = .02). One nucleoside (deoxyadenosine) and 2 lipids (18:0-18:2 phosphatidylcholine and dipalmitoyl-phosphoethanolamine) were negatively related to z-BMI (P < .05), whereas 2 benzenoids (3-hydroxyanthranilic acid and a phthalate metabolite) were positively associated with z-BMI (P < .05). In males, several metabolites including deoxyadenosine, as well as deoxycarnitine, hyodeoxycholic acid, N-methylglutamic acid, bisphenol P, and trigonelline were downregulated, while 3 metabolites (3-hydroxyanthranilic acid, theobromine/theophylline/paraxanthine, and alanine) were upregulated in relation to z-BMI (P < .05). In females, deoxyadenosine and dipalmitoyl-phosphoethanolamine were negatively associated with z-BMI while deoxycarnitine and a phthalate metabolite were positively associated (P < .05). A single energy-related pathway was enriched in the identified associations in females (carnitine synthesis, P = .04). Conclusion: Salivary metabolites involved in nucleotide, lipid, and energy metabolism were primarily altered in relation to BMI in adolescents
Compressive Sensing of Signals Generated in Plastic Scintillators in a Novel J-PET Instrument
The J-PET scanner, which allows for single bed imaging of the whole human
body, is currently under development at the Jagiellonian University. The dis-
cussed detector offers improvement of the Time of Flight (TOF) resolution due
to the use of fast plastic scintillators and dedicated electronics allowing for
sam- pling in the voltage domain of signals with durations of few nanoseconds.
In this paper we show that recovery of the whole signal, based on only a few
samples, is possible. In order to do that, we incorporate the training signals
into the Tikhonov regularization framework and we perform the Principal
Component Analysis decomposition, which is well known for its compaction
properties. The method yields a simple closed form analytical solution that
does not require iter- ative processing. Moreover, from the Bayes theory the
properties of regularized solution, especially its covariance matrix, may be
easily derived. This is the key to introduce and prove the formula for
calculations of the signal recovery error. In this paper we show that an
average recovery error is approximately inversely proportional to the number of
acquired samples
Application of the Compress Sensing Theory for Improvement of the TOF Resolution in a Novel J-PET Instrument
Nowadays, in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) systems, a Time of Flight
information is used to improve the image reconstruction process. In Time of
Flight PET (TOF-PET), fast detectors are able to measure the difference in the
arrival time of the two gamma rays, with the precision enabling to shorten
significantly a range along the line-of-response (LOR) where the annihilation
occurred. In the new concept, called J-PET scanner, gamma rays are detected in
plastic scintillators. In a single strip of J-PET system, time values are
obtained by probing signals in the amplitude domain. Owing to Compress Sensing
theory, information about the shape and amplitude of the signals is recovered.
In this paper we demonstrate that based on the acquired signals parameters, a
better signal normalization may be provided in order to improve the TOF
resolution. The procedure was tested using large sample of data registered by a
dedicated detection setup enabling sampling of signals with 50 ps intervals.
Experimental setup provided irradiation of a chosen position in the plastic
scintillator strip with annihilation gamma quanta
Novel method for hit-position reconstruction using voltage signals in plastic scintillators and its application to Positron Emission Tomography
Currently inorganic scintillator detectors are used in all commercial Time of
Flight Positron Emission Tomograph (TOF-PET) devices. The J-PET collaboration
investigates a possibility of construction of a PET scanner from plastic
scintillators which would allow for single bed imaging of the whole human body.
This paper describes a novel method of hit-position reconstruction based on
sampled signals and an example of an application of the method for a single
module with a 30 cm long plastic strip, read out on both ends by Hamamatsu
R4998 photomultipliers. The sampling scheme to generate a vector with samples
of a PET event waveform with respect to four user-defined amplitudes is
introduced. The experimental setup provides irradiation of a chosen position in
the plastic scintillator strip with an annihilation gamma quanta of energy
511~keV. The statistical test for a multivariate normal (MVN) distribution of
measured vectors at a given position is developed, and it is shown that signals
sampled at four thresholds in a voltage domain are approximately normally
distributed variables. With the presented method of a vector analysis made out
of waveform samples acquired with four thresholds, we obtain a spatial
resolution of about 1 cm and a timing resolution of about 80 p
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Relative contribution of clinicopathological variables, genomic markers, transcriptomic subtyping and microenvironment features for outcome prediction in stage II/III colorectal cancer
Background: It remains unknown to what extent consensus molecular subtype (CMS) groups and immune-stromal infiltration patterns improve our ability to predict outcomes over tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging and microsatellite instability (MSI) status in early-stage colorectal cancer (CRC). Patients and methods: We carried out a comprehensive retrospective biomarker analysis of prognostic markers in adjuvant chemotherapy-untreated (N = 1656) and treated (N = 980), stage II (N = 1799) and III (N = 837) CRCs. We defined CMS scores and estimated CD8+ cytotoxic lymphocytes (CytoLym) and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) infiltration scores from bulk tumor tissue transcriptomes (CMSclassifier and MCPcounter R packages); constructed a stratified multivariable Cox model for disease-free survival (DFS); and calculated the relative proportion of explained variation by each marker (clinicopathological [ClinPath], genomics [Gen: MSI, BRAF and KRAS mutations], CMS scores [CMS] and microenvironment cells [MicroCells: CytoLym+CAF]). Results: In multivariable models, only ClinPath and MicroCells remained significant prognostic factors, with both CytoLym and CAF infiltration scores improving survival prediction beyond other markers. The explained variation for DFS models of ClinPath, MicroCells, Gen markers and CMS4 scores was 77%, 14%, 5.3% and 3.7%, respectively, in stage II; and 55.9%, 35.1%, 4.1% and 0.9%, respectively, in stage III. Patients whose tumors were CytoLym high/CAF low had better DFS than other strata [HR=0.71 (0.6-0.9); P = 0.004]. Microsatellite stable tumors had the strongest signal for improved outcomes with CytoLym high scores (interaction P = 0.04) and the poor prognosis linked to high CAF scores was limited to stage III disease (interaction P = 0.04). Conclusions: Our results confirm that tumor microenvironment infiltration patterns represent potent determinants of the risk for distant dissemination in early-stage CRC. Multivariable models suggest that the prognostic value of MSI and CMS groups is largely explained by CytoLym and CAF infiltration patterns
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