Estimates of mobility for prediction of structure-borne sound transmission in buildings

This paper aims to provide a practical approach to the prediction of structure-borne sound power of mechanical installations in buildings. For structure-borne power, two source quantities, activity and mobility, are required, in combination with one receiver quantity, the receiver mobility. The source activity, in the form of free velocity or blocked force, is usually measured. For source mobility and receiver mobility, estimates, based on simple expressions, can provide a useful starting point. Also, machine bases may be categorised as: compact, plate-like, flanged or framed. Receiver structures, floors and walls, may be categorised as: plate-like, ribbed plate or framed plate. The estimates of source mobility are based on the rigid body value, the characteristic plate mobility and the fundamental plate frequency. For ribbed and framed plate structures, the mobility will vary with location, but again simple estimates of mobility, based on characteristic values and distance from the ribs, are possible

Retained Surgical Items and Minimally Invasive Surgery

A retained surgical item is a surgical patient safety problem. Early reports have focused on the epidemiology of retained-item cases and the identification of patient risk factors for retention. We now know that retention has very little to do with patient characteristics and everything to do with operating room culture. It is a perception that minimally invasive procedures are safer with regard to the risk of retention. Minimally invasive surgery is still an operation where an incision is made and surgical tools are placed inside of patients, so these cases are not immune to the problem of inadvertent retention. Retained surgical items occur because of problems with multi-stakeholder operating room practices and problems in communication. The prevention of retained surgical items will therefore require practice change, knowledge, and shared information between all perioperative personnel

Primary pleural leiomyosarcoma with rapid progression and fatal outcome: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Leiomyosarcomas are neoplasms of smooth muscles that most commonly arise from the uterus, gastrointestinal tract, or soft tissue. Primary pleural leiomyosarcoma is extremely rare. To the best of our knowledge, only nine cases have been published to date. Because of the rarity of pleural leiomyosarcoma and its similarity (clinical and histological) to other pleural neoplasms, particularly sarcomatous mesothelioma, diagnosis is often difficult.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 58-year-old North African man was admitted with complaints of dyspnea and chest pain to our hospital. Chest computed tomography revealed right pleural effusion and pleural thickening. A transthoracic needle biopsy yielded a diagnosis of leiomyosarcoma, and tumor cells were strongly and uniformly positive for vimentin, a smooth muscle actin at immunohistochemical analysis. A general examination did not show any metastatic lesions in other areas. One month after diagnosis, the tumor grew rapidly, with pulmonary invasion, and therefore he was treated only by palliative care. He died from respiratory failure one month later. Because no organ of origin of the leiomyosarcoma, other than the pleura, was detected, this case was diagnosed as a primary pleural leiomyosarcoma.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Although leiomyosarcoma originating from the pleura is rare, this entity is increasingly described. The purpose of presenting this case report is to raise awareness among clinicians to consider this clinical entity as a differential diagnosis when a pleural mass is identified.</p

Markedly Divergent Tree Assemblage Responses to Tropical Forest Loss and Fragmentation across a Strong Seasonality Gradient

We examine the effects of forest fragmentation on the structure and composition of tree assemblages within three seasonal and aseasonal forest types of southern Brazil, including evergreen, Araucaria, and deciduous forests. We sampled three southernmost Atlantic Forest landscapes, including the largest continuous forest protected areas within each forest type. Tree assemblages in each forest type were sampled within 10 plots of 0.1 ha in both continuous forests and 10 adjacent forest fragments. All trees within each plot were assigned to trait categories describing their regeneration strategy, vertical stratification, seed-dispersal mode, seed size, and wood density. We detected differences among both forest types and landscape contexts in terms of overall tree species richness, and the density and species richness of different functional groups in terms of regeneration strategy, seed dispersal mode and woody density. Overall, evergreen forest fragments exhibited the largest deviations from continuous forest plots in assemblage structure. Evergreen, Araucaria and deciduous forests diverge in the functional composition of tree floras, particularly in relation to regeneration strategy and stress tolerance. By supporting a more diversified light-demanding and stress-tolerant flora with reduced richness and abundance of shade-tolerant, old-growth species, both deciduous and Araucaria forest tree assemblages are more intrinsically resilient to contemporary human-disturbances, including fragmentation-induced edge effects, in terms of species erosion and functional shifts. We suggest that these intrinsic differences in the direction and magnitude of responses to changes in landscape structure between forest types should guide a wide range of conservation strategies in restoring fragmented tropical forest landscapes worldwide

Comparison of embedded and added motor imagery training in patients after stroke: Study protocol of a randomised controlled pilot trial using a mixed methods approach

Copyright @ 2009 Schuster et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: Two different approaches have been adopted when applying motor imagery (MI) to stroke patients. MI can be conducted either added to conventional physiotherapy or integrated within therapy sessions. The proposed study aims to compare the efficacy of embedded MI to an added MI intervention. Evidence from pilot studies reported in the literature suggests that both approaches can improve performance of a complex motor skill involving whole body movements, however, it remains to be demonstrated, which is the more effective one.Methods/Design: A single blinded, randomised controlled trial (RCT) with a pre-post intervention design will be carried out. The study design includes two experimental groups and a control group (CG). Both experimental groups (EG1, EG2) will receive physical practice of a clinical relevant motor task ('Going down, laying on the floor, and getting up again') over a two week intervention period: EG1 with embedded MI training, EG2 with MI training added after physiotherapy. The CG will receive standard physiotherapy intervention and an additional control intervention not related to MI.The primary study outcome is the time difference to perform the task from pre to post-intervention. Secondary outcomes include level of help needed, stages of motor task completion, degree of motor impairment, balance ability, fear of falling measure, motivation score, and motor imagery ability score. Four data collection points are proposed: twice during baseline phase, once following the intervention period, and once after a two week follow up. A nested qualitative part should add an important insight into patients' experience and attitudes towards MI. Semi-structured interviews of six to ten patients, who participate in the RCT, will be conducted to investigate patients' previous experience with MI and their expectations towards the MI intervention in the study. Patients will be interviewed prior and after the intervention period.Discussion: Results will determine whether embedded MI is superior to added MI. Findings of the semi-structured interviews will help to integrate patient's expectations of MI interventions in the design of research studies to improve practical applicability using MI as an adjunct therapy technique

Hybridization in parasites: consequences for adaptive evolution, pathogenesis and public health in a changing world

[No abstract available

Umatilla Virus Genome Sequencing and Phylogenetic Analysis: Identification of Stretch Lagoon Orbivirus as a New Member of the Umatilla virus Species

The genus Orbivirus, family Reoviridae, includes 22 species of viruses with genomes composed of ten segments of linear dsRNA that are transmitted between their vertebrate hosts by insects or ticks, or with no identified vectors. Full-genome sequence data are available for representative isolates of the insect borne mammalian orbiviruses (including bluetongue virus), as well as a tick borne avian orbivirus (Great Island virus). However, no sequence data are as yet available for the mosquito borne avian orbiviruses

Adaptation to Aridity in the Malaria Mosquito Anopheles gambiae: Chromosomal Inversion Polymorphism and Body Size Influence Resistance to Desiccation

Chromosomal inversions are thought to confer a selective advantage in alternative habitats by protecting co-adapted alleles from recombination. The frequencies of two inversions (2La and 2Rb) of the afro-tropical malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae change gradually along geographical clines, increasing in frequency with degree of aridity. Such clines can result from gene flow and local selection acting upon alternative karyotypes along the cline, suggesting that these inversions may be associated with tolerance to xeric conditions. Since water loss represents a major challenge in xeric habitats, it can be supposed that genes inside these inversions are involved in water homeostasis. To test this hypothesis, we compared the desiccation resistance of alternative karyotypes from a colonised 2Rb/2La polymorphic population of A. gambiae from Cameroon. The strain included only the molecular form S, one of the genetic units marking incipient speciation in this taxon. Day-old mosquitoes of both sexes were assayed individually for time to death in a dry environment and the karyotype of each was determined post-mortem using molecular diagnostic assays for each inversion. In agreement with expectations based on their eco-geographical distribution, we found that 2La homokaryotypes survived significantly longer (1.3 hours) than the other karyotypes. However, there was weak support for the effect of 2Rb on desiccation resistance. Larger mosquitoes survived longer than smaller ones. Median survival of females was greater than males, but the effect of sex on desiccation resistance was weakly supported, indicating that differential survival was correlated to differences between sexes in average size. We found weak evidence for a heterotic effect of 2La karyotype on size in females. These results support the notion that genes located inside the 2La inversion are involved in water balance, contributing towards local adaptation of A. gambiae to xeric habitats, beyond the adaptive value conferred by a larger body size

Imputation of variants from the 1000 Genomes Project modestly improves known associations and can identify low-frequency variant-phenotype associations undetected by HapMap based imputation

notes: PMCID: PMC3655956This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Genome-wide association (GWA) studies have been limited by the reliance on common variants present on microarrays or imputable from the HapMap Project data. More recently, the completion of the 1000 Genomes Project has provided variant and haplotype information for several million variants derived from sequencing over 1,000 individuals. To help understand the extent to which more variants (including low frequency (1% ≤ MAF <5%) and rare variants (<1%)) can enhance previously identified associations and identify novel loci, we selected 93 quantitative circulating factors where data was available from the InCHIANTI population study. These phenotypes included cytokines, binding proteins, hormones, vitamins and ions. We selected these phenotypes because many have known strong genetic associations and are potentially important to help understand disease processes. We performed a genome-wide scan for these 93 phenotypes in InCHIANTI. We identified 21 signals and 33 signals that reached P<5×10(-8) based on HapMap and 1000 Genomes imputation, respectively, and 9 and 11 that reached a stricter, likely conservative, threshold of P<5×10(-11) respectively. Imputation of 1000 Genomes genotype data modestly improved the strength of known associations. Of 20 associations detected at P<5×10(-8) in both analyses (17 of which represent well replicated signals in the NHGRI catalogue), six were captured by the same index SNP, five were nominally more strongly associated in 1000 Genomes imputed data and one was nominally more strongly associated in HapMap imputed data. We also detected an association between a low frequency variant and phenotype that was previously missed by HapMap based imputation approaches. An association between rs112635299 and alpha-1 globulin near the SERPINA gene represented the known association between rs28929474 (MAF = 0.007) and alpha1-antitrypsin that predisposes to emphysema (P = 2.5×10(-12)). Our data provide important proof of principle that 1000 Genomes imputation will detect novel, low frequency-large effect associations