6,742 research outputs found
Fracture patternsas seen at the accident and emergency department of the university of maiduguri teaching hospital Nigeria: - a five year prospective study
Most trauma resulting from vehicular accidents or otherwise, often involve the skeleton (made up of 206 bones), resulting into a fracture. Fractures are a cause of high morbidity and occasionally mortality. Objective: The aim of this study is to analyze the anatomical regions most involved, fracture types, their causes, outcome of treatment and the commonest complication of the fracture in our environment. Method: A five year prospective study (January 2005 to December 2009) was undertaken. All patients presented at the Accident and Emergency Unit of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, both fresh and old fractures were included. All were followed up to discharge from the hospital and some years after. Those that died were noted. A proforma was used to collect the data. Follow up was between 2 to5 years. Results: During the period of the study, there were 24, 041 emergencies that reported to UMTH, 6,535(27.2%) were due to RTA and 596 (2.5%) had fractures, presenting with 677 fractures. There were 477(80.2%) males and 189(19.8%) females, giving a ratio of 4:1. The lower limbs were affected in 247(41.5%) patients, upper limbs in 146(24.6%), more than one region 54(9.1%), maxillofacial 47(7.9%), skull 41(6.9%), spinal fractures 33(5.5%) andpelvic fractures 28(4.7%). There were 435(73.2%) motor vehicular cases, (3.4%) follows domestic accidents and11(1.9%) from assaults. There were 66 associated injuries. Conclusion: Fractures occurred in about 10% of RTAs with males more involved than Females (4:1) and motor vehicular accidents causing most of the fractures. The lower limbs were more involved and most of the fractures were closed. Association with head injury leads to more mortality
Acclimation of morphology and physiology in turf grass to low light environment: A review
This short review elucidated the significance of the research on acclimation of the morphology and physiology in turf grass to low light environment, the mechanism of physiological response and the photosynthetic regulation and control of turf grass to suit low light environment. We also discussed current research problems and provided insight into future relevant research.Key words: Low light, morphological change, physiological acclimation, regulation mechanism, turf grass
Adverse prognostic and predictive significance of low DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs) expression in early-stage breast cancers
Background: DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs), a serine threonine kinase belonging to the PIKK family (phosphoinositide 3-kinase-like-family of protein kinase), is a critical component of the non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) pathway required for the repair of DNA double strand breaks. DNA-PKcs may be involved in breast cancer pathogenesis. Methods: We evaluated clinicopathological significance of DNA-PKcs protein expression in 1161 tumours and DNA-PKcs mRNA expression in 1950 tumours. We correlated DNA-PKcs to other markers of aggressive phenotypes, DNA repair, apoptosis and cell cycle regulation. Results: Low DNA-PKcs protein expression was associated with higher tumour grade, higher mitotic index, tumour de-differentiation and tumour type (ps<0.05). Absence of BRCA1, low XRCC1/SMUG1/APE1/Polβ were also more likely in low DNA-PKcs expressing tumours (ps<0.05). Low DNA-PKcs protein expression was significantly associated with worse breast cancer specific survival (BCCS) in univariate and multivariate analysis (ps<0.01). At the mRNA level, low DNA-PKcs was associated with PAM50.Her2 and PAM50.LumA molecular phenotypes (ps<0.01) and poor BCSS. In patients with ER positive tumours who received endocrine therapy, low DNA-PKcs (protein and mRNA) was associated with poor survival. In ER negative patients, low DNA-PKcs mRNA remains significantly associated with adverse outcome. Conclusions: Our study suggests that low DNA-PKcs expression may have prognostic and predictive significance in breast cancers
Silicon-based spin and charge quantum computation
Silicon-based quantum-computer architectures have attracted attention because
of their promise for scalability and their potential for synergetically
utilizing the available resources associated with the existing Si technology
infrastructure. Electronic and nuclear spins of shallow donors (e.g.
phosphorus) in Si are ideal candidates for qubits in such proposals due to the
relatively long spin coherence times. For these spin qubits, donor electron
charge manipulation by external gates is a key ingredient for control and
read-out of single-qubit operations, while shallow donor exchange gates are
frequently invoked to perform two-qubit operations. More recently, charge
qubits based on tunnel coupling in P substitutional molecular ions in Si
have also been proposed. We discuss the feasibility of the building blocks
involved in shallow donor quantum computation in silicon, taking into account
the peculiarities of silicon electronic structure, in particular the six
degenerate states at the conduction band edge. We show that quantum
interference among these states does not significantly affect operations
involving a single donor, but leads to fast oscillations in electron exchange
coupling and on tunnel-coupling strength when the donor pair relative position
is changed on a lattice-parameter scale. These studies illustrate the
considerable potential as well as the tremendous challenges posed by donor spin
and charge as candidates for qubits in silicon.Comment: Review paper (invited) - to appear in Annals of the Brazilian Academy
of Science
Liquid Polymorphism and Double Criticality in a Lattice Gas Model
We analyze the possible phase diagrams of a simple model for an associating
liquid proposed previously. Our two-dimensional lattice model combines
oreintati onal ice-like interactions and \"{}Van der Waals\"{} interactions
which may be repulsive, and in this case represent a penalty for distortion of
hydrogen bonds in the presence of extra molecules. These interactions can be
interpreted in terms of two competing distances, but not necessarily soft-core.
We present mean -field calculations and an exhaustive simulation study for
different parameters which represent relative strength of the bonding
interaction to the energy penalty for its distortion. As this ratio decreases,
a smooth disappearance of the doubl e criticality occurs. Possible connections
to liquid-liquid transitions of molecul ar liquids are suggested
Why should we care about quantum discord?
Entanglement is a central feature of quantum theory. Mathematical properties
and physical applications of pure state entanglement make it a template to
study quantum correlations. However, an extension of entanglement measures to
mixed states in terms of separability does not always correspond to all the
operational aspects. Quantum discord measures allow an alternative way to
extend the idea of quantum correlations to mixed states. In many cases these
extensions are motivated by physical scenarios and quantum information
protocols. In this chapter we discuss several settings involving correlated
quantum systems, ranging from distributed gates to detectors testing quantum
fields. In each setting we show how entanglement fails to capture the relevant
features of the correlated system, and discuss the role of discord as a
possible alternative.Comment: Written for "Lectures on general quantum correlations and their
applications
The conceptualisation and measurement of DSM-5 Internet Gaming Disorder: the development of the IGD-20 Test
Background: Over the last decade, there has been growing concern about ‘gaming addiction’ and its widely documented detrimental impacts on a minority of individuals that play excessively. The latest (fifth) edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) included nine criteria for the potential diagnosis of Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) and noted that it was a condition that warranted further empirical study. Aim: The main aim of this study was to develop a valid and reliable standardised psychometrically robust tool in addition to providing empirically supported cut-off points. Methods: A sample of 1003 gamers (85.2% males; mean age 26 years) from 57 different countries were recruited via online gaming forums. Validity was assessed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), criterion-related validity, and concurrent validity. Latent profile analysis was also carried to distinguish disordered gamers from non-disordered gamers. Sensitivity and specificity analyses were performed to determine an empirical cut-off for the test. Results: The CFA confirmed the viability of IGD-20 Test with a six-factor structure (salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict and relapse) for the assessment of IGD according to the nine criteria from DSM-5. The IGD-20 Test proved to be valid and reliable. According to the latent profile analysis, 5.3% of the total participants were classed as disordered gamers. Additionally, an optimal empirical cut-off of 71 points (out of 100) seemed to be adequate according to the sensitivity and specificity analyses carried
CDK-dependent nuclear localization of B-Cyclin Clb1 promotes FEAR activation during meiosis I in budding yeast
Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK) are master regulators of the cell cycle in eukaryotes. CDK activity is regulated by the presence, post-translational modification and spatial localization of its regulatory subunit cyclin. In budding yeast, the B-cyclin Clb1 is phosphorylated and localizes to the nucleus during meiosis I. However the functional significance of Clb1's phosphorylation and nuclear localization and their mutual dependency is unknown. In this paper, we demonstrate that meiosis-specific phosphorylation of Clb1 requires its import to the nucleus but not vice versa. While Clb1 phosphorylation is dependent on activity of both CDK and polo-like kinase Cdc5, its nuclear localization requires CDK but not Cdc5 activity. Furthermore we show that increased nuclear localization of Clb1 during meiosis enhances activation of FEAR (Cdc Fourteen Early Anaphase Release) pathway. We discuss the significance of our results in relation to regulation of exit from meiosis I
Predicting protein functions by relaxation labelling protein interaction network
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>One of key issues in the post-genomic era is to assign functions to uncharacterized proteins. Since proteins seldom act alone; rather, they must interact with other biomolecular units to execute their functions. Thus, the functions of unknown proteins may be discovered through studying their interactions with proteins having known functions. Although many approaches have been developed for this purpose, one of main limitations in most of these methods is that the dependence among functional terms has not been taken into account.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We developed a new network-based protein function prediction method which combines the likelihood scores of local classifiers with a relaxation labelling technique. The framework can incorporate the inter-relationship among functional labels into the function prediction procedure and allow us to efficiently discover relevant non-local dependence. We evaluated the performance of the new method with one other representative network-based function prediction method using E. coli protein functional association networks.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results showed that the new method has better prediction performance than the previous method. The better predictive power of our method gives new insights about the importance of the dependence between functional terms in protein functional prediction.</p
Exoplanet phase curves: observations and theory
Phase curves are the best technique to probe the three dimensional structure
of exoplanets' atmospheres. In this chapter we first review current exoplanets
phase curve observations and the particular challenges they face. We then
describe the different physical mechanisms shaping the atmospheric phase curves
of highly irradiated tidally locked exoplanets. Finally, we discuss the
potential for future missions to further advance our understanding of these new
worlds.Comment: Fig.5 has been updated. Table 1 and corresponding figures have been
updated with new values for WASP-103b and WASP-18b. Contains a table
sumarizing phase curve observation
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