Reduced hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity in chronic multi-site musculoskeletal pain : partly masked by depressive and anxiety disorders

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Fluorescence and Hybrid Detection Aperture of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The aperture of the Fluorescence Detector (FD) of the Pierre Auger Observatory is evaluated from simulated events using different detector configurations: mono, stereo, 3-FD and 4-FD. The trigger efficiency has been modeled using shower profiles with ground impacts in the field of view of a single telescope and studying the trigger response (at the different levels) by that telescope and by its neighbours. In addition, analysis cuts imposed by event reconstruction have been applied. The hybrid aperture is then derived for the Auger final extension. Taking into account the actual Surface Detector (SD) array configuration and its trigger response, the aperture is also calculated for a typical configuration of the present phase.Comment: contribution to the 29th International Cosmic Ray Conference, Pune, India, 3-10 August 200

Аналитическое описание порообразования при установившейся ползучести металлов

На основании обобщения синтезной теории пластичности и ползучести аналитически описан процесс порообразования в металле во время установившейся ползучести. Получены соотношения между объемом микропор и деформацией установившейся ползучести при разных уровнях напряжения. Аналитически полученные результаты хорошо согласуются с экспериментальными.На основі узагальнення синтезної теорії пластичності і повзучості представлено аналітичний опис процесу пороутворення за усталеної повзучості металів. Отримано співвідношення між об’ємом мікропор і деформацією усталеної повзучості за різних рівнів напруження. Аналітичні результати добре узгоджуються з експериментальними.Using generalization of the synthetic theory of plasticity and creep, we provide the analytical description of void formation in a metal under steady-state creep conditions. We obtained the relations between the size of microvoids and the steady-state creep strain for various stress levels. Analytical results are in a good agreement with the available experimental data

The Recognition of Hypothalamo-Neurohypophysial Functions by Developing T Cells

Neuropeptide signals and specific neuropeptide receptors have been described in the thymus supporting the concept of a close dialogue between the neuroendocrine and the immune systems at the level of early T-cell differentiation. In this paper, we review recent data about neurohypophysial (NHP)-related peptides detected in the thymus from different species. We suggest that we are dealing in fact with other member(s) of the NHP hormone family, which seems to exert its activity locally through a novel model of cell-to-cell signaling, that of cryptocrine communication. This model involves exchange of signals between thymic epithelial cells and developing thymocytes. The NHP-related peptides have been shown to trigger thymocyte proliferation and could induce immune tolerance of this highly conserved neuroendocrine family

Robust 3D U-Net Segmentation of Macular Holes

Macular holes are a common eye condition which result in visual impairment. We look at the application of deep convolutional neural networks to the problem of macular hole segmentation. We use the 3D U-Net architecture as a basis and experiment with a number of design variants. Manually annotating and measuring macular holes is time consuming and error prone. Previous automated approaches to macular hole segmentation take minutes to segment a single 3D scan. Our proposed model generates significantly more accurate segmentations in less than a second. We found that an approach of architectural simplification, by greatly simplifying the network capacity and depth, exceeds both expert performance and state-of-the-art models such as residual 3D U-Nets

Hypertension-induced renal fibrosis and spironolactone response vary by rat strain and mineralocorticoid receptor gene expression

Introduction. Aldosterone promotes renal fibrosis via the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), thus contributing to hypertension-induced nephropathy. We investigated whether MR gene expression influences renal fibrosis and MR antagonist response in a two-kidney, one-clip hypertensive rat model. Materials and methods. Brown Norway (BN), Lewis, and ACI rats were randomised to spironolactone 20 mg/kg/day or water by gavage, starting four weeks after left renal artery clipping. Blood pressure was measured bi-weekly by tail cuff. After eight weeks of treatment, right kidneys were removed and examined for fibrosis and gene expression. Rats of each strain undergoing no intervention served as controls. Results. Blood pressure increased similarly among strains after clipping and was unaffected by spironolactone. Hypertension caused the greatest renal fibrosis in BN rats (p \u3c 0.001 by ANOVA compared to other strains). Real-time PCR analysis showed greater renal collagen type I and MR gene expression in untreated, hypertensive BN rats (both p \u3c 0.05 compared to other strains). Spironolactone attenuated fibrosis, with similar fibrosis among strains of spironolactone-treated rats. Conclusion. Hypertension-induced renal fibrosis was greatest in rats with the highest MR gene expression. Spironolactone abolished inter-strain differences in fibrosis. Our data suggest that MR genotype may influence aldosterone-induced renal damage, and consequently, renal response to aldosterone antagonism

Increasing the information provided by probabilistic sensitivity analysis:The relative density plot

Background Results of probabilistic sensitivity analyses (PSA) are frequently visualized as a scatterplot, which is limited through overdrawing and a lack of insight in relative density. To overcome these limitations, we have developed the Relative Density plot (PSA-ReD). Methods The PSA-ReD combines a density plot and a contour plot to visualize and quantify PSA results. Relative density, depicted using a color gradient, is transformed to a cumulative probability. Contours are then plotted over regions with a specific cumulative probability. We use two real-world case studies to demonstrate the value of the PSA-ReD plot. Results The PSA-ReD method demonstrates proof-of-concept and feasibility. In the real-world case-studies, PSA-ReD provided additional visual information that could not be understood from the traditional scatterplot. High density areas were identified by color-coding and the contour plot allowed for quantification of PSA iterations within areas of the cost-effectiveness plane, diminishing overdrawing and putting infrequent iterations in perspective. Critically, the PSA-ReD plot informs modellers about non-linearities within their model. Conclusions The PSA-ReD plot is easy to implement, presents more of the information enclosed in PSA data, and prevents inappropriate interpretation of PSA results. It gives modelers additional insight in model functioning and the distribution of uncertainty around the cost-effectiveness estimate