A Preliminary Study of the Effectiveness of Chinese Therapeutic Food on Regulating Female Reproductive Hormones

This study investigated the effectiveness of Chinese therapeutic food on female reproductive hormones in a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Chinese kiwi fruit extract (Hong En No. 1) was provided for Australian peri-menopausal women for one month. Chinese medical assessment and urinary 2-hydroxyestrone (2-OHE) and 16alpha-hydroxyestrone (16alpha-OHE) tests were conducted. Twenty-six urinary samples (pre and post-trial) which met the requirement of testing were analysed, the ratio 2-OHE:16alpha-OHE of pre-trial (1.18 ± 0.34) and post-trial (0.97 ± 0.29) in the control group (n = 6) decreased but showed no significant change, this ratio of pre-trial (1.44 ± 0.16) and post-trial (1.65 ± 0.21) in the treatment group (n = 7) indicated an improvement (P = 0.066), which results in beneficial hormone regulation. The Chinese medicine assessment indicated that the patterns of disharmony mainly include Liver Qi stagnation and Liver-Kidney Yin deficiency patterns. No significant change observed in the control group, significant score reduction of the patterns of disharmony was achieved at post-trial in the treatment group, which indicates an improvement of general health condition

Noise in Vortex Matter

URL: http://www-spht.cea.fr/articles/S03/018 (sur invitation).International audienceThe large increase in the flux-flow voltage noise, commonly observed in the vicinity of the peak-effect in super- conductors, is ascribed to a novel noise mechanism. The mechanism consists in random injection of the strongly pinned metastable disordered vortex phase through the sample edges and its subsequent random annealing into the weakly pinned ordered phase in the bulk. This results in large critical current fluctuations causing strong vortex velocity fluctuations. The excess noise due to this dynamic admixture of two vortex phases is found to dis- play pronounced reentrant behavior. In the Corbino geometry the injection of the metastable phase is prevented and, accordingly, the excess noise disappears. Excess flux-flow noise in the peak effect regime is dominated by vortex velocity fluctuations while the density fluctuations, frequently considered in the conventional flux-flow noise models, are negligibly weak. Strong nongaussian fluctuations are associated with S-shaped current-voltage characteristics. The spectral properties of the noise reflect the first order filter-like response of the dynamically coexisting vortex phases. The cutoff frequency in the spectra corresponds to the time-of-flight of vortices through the disordered part of the sample

Structural identifiability of surface binding reactions involving heterogeneous analyte : application to surface plasmon resonance experiments

Binding affinities are useful measures of target interaction and have an important role in understanding biochemical reactions that involve binding mechanisms. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) provides convenient real-time measurement of the reaction that enables subsequent estimation of the reaction constants necessary to determine binding affinity. Three models are considered for application to SPR experiments—the well mixed Langmuir model and two models that represent the binding reaction in the presence of transport effects. One of these models, the effective rate constant approximation, can be derived from the other by applying a quasi-steady state assumption. Uniqueness of the reaction constants with respect to SPR measurements is considered via a structural identifiability analysis. It is shown that the models are structurally unidentifiable unless the sample concentration is known. The models are also considered for analytes with heterogeneity in the binding kinetics. This heterogeneity further confounds the identifiability of key parameters necessary for reliable estimation of the binding affinit

Camera motion estimation through planar deformation determination

In this paper, we propose a global method for estimating the motion of a camera which films a static scene. Our approach is direct, fast and robust, and deals with adjacent frames of a sequence. It is based on a quadratic approximation of the deformation between two images, in the case of a scene with constant depth in the camera coordinate system. This condition is very restrictive but we show that provided translation and depth inverse variations are small enough, the error on optical flow involved by the approximation of depths by a constant is small. In this context, we propose a new model of camera motion, that allows to separate the image deformation in a similarity and a ``purely'' projective application, due to change of optical axis direction. This model leads to a quadratic approximation of image deformation that we estimate with an M-estimator; we can immediatly deduce camera motion parameters.Comment: 21 pages, version modifi\'ee accept\'e le 20 mars 200

Dynamic transition in driven vortices across the peak effect in superconductors

We study the zero-temperature dynamic transition from the disordered flow to an ordered flow state in driven vortices in type-II superconductors. The transition current $I_{p}$ is marked by a sharp kink in the $V(I)$ characteristic with a concomitant large increase in the defect concentration. On increasing magnetic field $B$, the $I_{p}(B)$ follows the behaviour of the critical current $I_{c}(B)$. Specifically, in the peak effect regime $I_{p}(B)$ increases rapidly along with $I_{c}$. We also discuss the effect of varying disorder strength on $I_{p}$.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Vortex Pinball Under Crossed AC Drives in Superconductors with Periodic Pinning Arrays

Vortices driven with both a transverse and a longitudinal AC drive which are out of phase are shown to exhibit a novel commensuration-incommensuration effect when interacting with periodic substrates. For different AC driving parameters, the motion of the vortices forms commensurate orbits with the periodicity of the pinning array. When the commensurate orbits are present, there is a finite DC critical depinning threshold, while for the incommensurate phases the vortices are delocalized and the DC depinning threshold is absent.Comment: 4 pages, 4 postscript figure

Dakota Gold®-brand dried distiller’s grains with solubles: effects on finishing performance and carcass characteristics

A 153-day trial was conducted using 345 heifers to determine optimal level of Dakota Gold dried distiller’s grains with solubles (DDGS) in finishing diets based on steam-flaked corn. Diets contained six levels of DDGS: 0%, 15%, 30%, 45%, 60%, and 75%. DDGS affected average daily gain, final weight and hot carcass weight, all of which increased with 15% DDGS and then decreased as additional DDGS was added. Growth performance of heifers fed 30% DDGS was similar to those fed no DDGS. In general, heifers were overfinished, with 61% being Yield Grade 3 or greater and 83% grading Choice or Prime. Backfat tended to decrease with addition of DDGS, and kidney, pelvic, and heart fat and marbling scores tended to be greatest for intermediate levels of DDGS. Percentage of carcasses grading Choice or Prime tended to be lower for heifers fed 60 or 75% DDGS

V-I characteristics in the vicinity of order-disorder transition in vortex matter

The shape of the V-I characteristics leading to a peak in the differential resistance r_d=dV/dI in the vicinity of the order-disorder transition in NbSe2 is investigated. r_d is large when measured by dc current. However, for a small Iac on a dc bias r_d decreases rapidly with frequency, even at a few Hz, and displays a large out-of-phase signal. In contrast, the ac response increases with frequency in the absence of dc bias. These surprisingly opposite phenomena and the peak in r_d are shown to result from a dynamic coexistence of two vortex matter phases rather than from the commonly assumed plastic depinning.Comment: 12 pages 4 figures. Accepted for publication in PRB rapi

A Bayesian elicitation of veterinary beliefs regarding systemic dry cow therapy: variation and importance for clinical trial design

The two key aims of this research were: (i) to conduct a probabilistic elicitation to quantify the variation in veterinarians’ beliefs regarding the efficacy of systemic antibiotics when used as an adjunct to intra-mammary dry cow therapy and (ii) to investigate (in a Bayesian statistical framework) the strength of future research evidence required (in theory) to change the beliefs of practising veterinary surgeons regarding the efficacy of systemic antibiotics, given their current clinical beliefs. The beliefs of 24 veterinarians in 5 practices in England were quantified as probability density functions. Classic multidimensional scaling revealed major variations in beliefs both within and between veterinary practices which included: confident optimism, confident pessimism and considerable uncertainty. Of the 9 veterinarians interviewed holding further cattle qualifications, 6 shared a confidently pessimistic belief in the efficacy of systemic therapy and whilst 2 were more optimistic, they were also more uncertain. A Bayesian model based on a synthetic dataset from a randomised clinical trial (showing no benefit with systemic therapy) predicted how each of the 24 veterinarians’ prior beliefs would alter as the size of the clinical trial increased, assuming that practitioners would update their beliefs rationally in accordance with Bayes’ theorem. The study demonstrated the usefulness of probabilistic elicitation for evaluating the diversity and strength of practitioners’ beliefs. The major variation in beliefs observed raises interest in the veterinary profession's approach to prescribing essential medicines. Results illustrate the importance of eliciting prior beliefs when designing clinical trials in order to increase the chance that trial data are of sufficient strength to alter the clinical beliefs of practitioners and do not merely serve to satisfy researchers

Critical depinning force and vortex lattice order in disordered superconductors

We simulate the ordering of vortices and its effects on the critical current in superconductors with varied vortex-vortex interaction strength and varied pinning strengths for a two-dimensional system. For strong pinning the vortex lattice is always disordered and the critical depinning force only weakly increases with decreasing vortex-vortex interactions. For weak pinning the vortex lattice is defect free until the vortex-vortex interactions have been reduced to a low value, when defects begin to appear with a simultaneous rapid increase in the critical depinning force. In each case the depinning force shows a maximum for non-interacting vortices. The relative height of the peak increases and the peak width decreases for decreasing pinning strength in excellent agreement with experimental trends associated with the peak effect. We show that scaling relations exist between the distance between defects in the vortex lattice and the critical depinning force.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure