Physiological and morphological determinants of maximal expiratory flow in chronic obstructive lung disease

Maximal expiratory flow in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) could be reduced by three different mechanisms; loss of lung elastic recoil, decreased airway conductance upstream of flow-limiting segments; and increased collapsibility of airways. We hypothesized that decreased upstream conductance would be related to inflammation and thickening of the airway walls, increased collapsibility would be related to decreased airway cartilage volume, and decreased collapsibility to inflammation and thickening of the airway walls. Lung tissue was obtained from 72 patients with different degrees of COPD, who were operated upon for a solitary peripheral lung lesion. Maximal flow-static recoil (MFSR) plots to estimate upstream resistance and airway collapsibility were derived in 59 patients from preoperatively measured maximal expiratory flow-volume and pressure-volume curves. In 341 transversely cut airway sections, airway size, airway wall dimensions and inflammatory changes were measured. Airflow obstruction correlated with lung elastic recoil and the MFSR estimate of airway conductance but not to airway collapsibility or to the amount of airway cartilage. The upstream conductance decreased as the inner wall became thicker. Airway collapsibility did not correlate with the amount of airway cartilage, inflammation, or airway wall thickness. We conclude that the maximal flow-static recoil model does not adequately reflect the collapsibility of the flow-limiting segment

The celebrity entrepreneur on television: profile, politics and power

This article examines the rise of the ‘celebrity entrepreneur’ on television through the emergence of the ‘business entertainment format’ and considers the ways in which regular television exposure can be converted into political influence. Within television studies there has been a preoccupation in recent years with how lifestyle and reality formats work to transform ‘ordinary’ people into celebrities. As a result, the contribution of vocationally skilled business professionals to factual entertainment programming has gone almost unnoticed. This article draws on interviews with key media industry professionals and begins by looking at the construction of entrepreneurs as different types of television personalities and how discourses of work, skill and knowledge function in business shows. It then outlines how entrepreneurs can utilize their newly acquired televisual skills to cultivate a wider media profile and secure various forms of political access and influence. Integral to this is the centrality of public relations and media management agencies in shaping media discourses and developing the individual as a ‘brand identity’ that can be used to endorse a range of products or ideas. This has led to policy makers and politicians attempting to mobilize the media profile of celebrity entrepreneurs to reach out and connect with the public on business and enterprise-related issues

Syntheses, Structures, and Photophysical Properties of Mono- and Dinuclear Sulfur-Rich Gold(I) Complexes

Sulfur-rich 1,2 dithiolene and neutral thione ligands were used for the synthesis of gold complexes, some of them exhibiting aurophilic interactions. Surprisingly, the closest Au···Au contact is observed in an unsupported dinuclear complex, which makes part of a supramolecular network. Photophysical studies, combined with DFT calculations, indicate that the participations of the Au···Au interactions have some relevance to the rich luminescence properties of these compounds

Evaluating Lifeworld as an emancipatory methodology

Disability research is conducted within a highly politicised ‘hotbed’ of competing paradigms and principles. New researchers, who want to work within the social model, are soon faced with complex and challenging methodological and philosophical dilemmas. The social model advocates research agendas that are focused on the emancipation and empowerment of disabled people but, in reality, these are rarely achieved. To be successful researchers need to engage with innovative and creative methodologies and to share their experiences of these within environments that welcome challenge and debate. This paper focuses on Lifeworld and assesses its value as a tool for emancipatory research. Using examples from a study with parents, whose children were in the process of being labelled as having autism, the paper illustrates how the principles that ‘underpin’ the methodology offered a supportive framework for a novice researcher

Nowe spojrzenie na związek między chorobami układu sercowo-naczyniowego a depresją

Wstęp: Mimo że związek między depresją a chorobami układu sercowo-naczyniowego jest dobrze udokumentowany, mechanizmy leżące u podłoża tej zależności nie są dokładnie poznane. W niniejszej pracy przedstawiono 3 prawdopodobne modele, które mogą odpowiadaæ za współwystępowanie depresji i chorób układu sercowo-naczyniowego. Metody: W pierwszym modelu depresja stanowi czynnik ryzyka dla rozwoju chorób układu sercowo-naczyniowego, zaś w drugim choroby te są rozpatrywane jako czynnik ryzyka depresji. Trzeci model zakłada istnienie wspólnego szlaku, poprzez który działania wywierane na organizm przez przewlekły stres objawiaja się depresją i chorobami układu sercowo-naczyniowego. Wnioski: Jeśli proponowany przez autorów model okaże się prawdziwy, wczesne działania prewencyjne, podjęte jeszcze przed wystąpieniem jawnych objawów klinicznych depresji i/lub chorób układu sercowo-naczyniowego, mogą opóźnić wystąpienie tych poważnych schorzeń lub zapobiec mu

Evidence against or for topological defects in the BOOMERanG data ?

The recently released BOOMERanG data was taken as ``contradicting topological defect predictions''. We show that such a statement is partly misleading. Indeed, the presence of a series of acoustic peaks is perfectly compatible with a non-negligible topological defects contribution. In such a mixed perturbation model (inflation and topological defects) for the source of primordial fluctuations, the natural prediction is a slightly lower amplitude for the Doppler peaks, a feature shared by many other purely inflationary models. Thus, for the moment, it seems difficult to rule out these models with the current data.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Some changes following extraordinarily slow referee Reports and new data. Main results unchanged (sorry

A Survey of Volunteered Open Geo-Knowledge Bases in the Semantic Web

Over the past decade, rapid advances in web technologies, coupled with innovative models of spatial data collection and consumption, have generated a robust growth in geo-referenced information, resulting in spatial information overload. Increasing 'geographic intelligence' in traditional text-based information retrieval has become a prominent approach to respond to this issue and to fulfill users' spatial information needs. Numerous efforts in the Semantic Geospatial Web, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), and the Linking Open Data initiative have converged in a constellation of open knowledge bases, freely available online. In this article, we survey these open knowledge bases, focusing on their geospatial dimension. Particular attention is devoted to the crucial issue of the quality of geo-knowledge bases, as well as of crowdsourced data. A new knowledge base, the OpenStreetMap Semantic Network, is outlined as our contribution to this area. Research directions in information integration and Geographic Information Retrieval (GIR) are then reviewed, with a critical discussion of their current limitations and future prospects

Heavy Quarks and Heavy Quarkonia as Tests of Thermalization

We present here a brief summary of new results on heavy quarks and heavy quarkonia from the PHENIX experiment as presented at the "Quark Gluon Plasma Thermalization" Workshop in Vienna, Austria in August 2005, directly following the International Quark Matter Conference in Hungary.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, Quark Gluon Plasma Thermalization Workshop (Vienna August 2005) Proceeding

Single Electrons from Heavy Flavor Decays in p+p Collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV

The invariant differential cross section for inclusive electron production in p+p collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV has been measured by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider over the transverse momentum range $0.4 <= p_T <= 5.0 GeV/c at midrapidity (eta <= 0.35). The contribution to the inclusive electron spectrum from semileptonic decays of hadrons carrying heavy flavor, i.e. charm quarks or, at high p_T, bottom quarks, is determined via three independent methods. The resulting electron spectrum from heavy flavor decays is compared to recent leading and next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations. The total cross section of charm quark-antiquark pair production is determined as sigma_(c c^bar) = 0.92 +/- 0.15 (stat.) +- 0.54 (sys.) mb.Comment: 329 authors, 6 pages text, 3 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm