23,443 research outputs found
A Persian Adaptation of Medication Adherence Self-Efficacy Scale (MASES) in Hypertensive Patients: Psychometric Properties and Factor Structure
© 2015, Springer International Publishing Switzerland. Introduction: Poor adherence to anti-hypertensive treatment significantly contributes to the failure to achieve well-controlled blood pressure in patients with hypertension. Aim: To convert the original English version of Medication Adherence Self-efficacy Scale (MASES) into a Persian version for clinical application in hypertensive patients. Methods: The backwardâforward translation method was used to produce the Persian version of the questionnaire. Then the internal consistency was assessed using Cronbachâs alpha. Exploratory Factor Analysis was applied to extract the components of the questionnaire. Correlation between blood pressures and drug adherence was then determined using the Persian MASES in hypertensive patients. Results: Cronbachâs alpha coefficient of the Persian version of MASES was >0.92, suggesting that it can yield consistent results. Exploratory Factor Analysis suggested an uni-dimensionality of the scale. Patients with uncontrolled hypertension showed poor adherence to hypertensive medications, therefore had significant lower self-efficacy scores than those with well-controlled blood pressure by medications. Conclusion: The Persian version of MASES is valid and reliable to assess self-efficacy of antihypertensive medication adherence in hypertensive patient, which is helpful to improve medication compliance in such patients in order to achieve better blood pressure controls
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Nanoindentation Of Si Nanostructures: Buckling And Friction At Nanoscales
A nanoindentation system was employed to characterize mechanical properties of silicon nanolines (SiNLs), which were fabricated by an anisotropic wet etching (AWE) process. The SiNLs had the linewidth ranging from 24 nm to 90 nm, having smooth and vertical sidewalls and the aspect ratio (height/linewidth) from 7 to 18. During indentation, a buckling instability was observed at a critical load, followed by a displacement burst without a load increase, then a full recovery of displacement upon unloading. This phenomenon was explained by two bucking modes. It was also found that the difference in friction at the contact between the indenter and SiNLs directly affected buckling response of these nanolines. The friction coefficient was estimated to be in a range of 0.02 to 0.05. For experiments with large indentation displacements, irrecoverable indentation displacements were observed due to fracture of Si nanolines, with the strain to failure estimated to be from 3.8% to 9.7%. These observations indicated that the buckling behavior of SiNLs depended on the combined effects of load, line geometry, and the friction at contact. This study demonstrated a valuable approach to fabrication of well-defined Si nanoline structures and the application of the nanoindentation method for investigation of their mechanical properties at the nanoscale.Microelectronics Research Cente
A luminous blue kilonova and an off-axis jet from a compact binary merger at z=0.1341
The recent discovery of a faint gamma-ray burst (GRB) coincident with the
gravitational wave (GW) event GW 170817 revealed the existence of a population
of low-luminosity short duration gamma-ray transients produced by neutron star
mergers in the nearby Universe. These events could be routinely detected by
existing gamma-ray monitors, yet previous observations failed to identify them
without the aid of GW triggers. Here we show that GRB150101B was an analogue of
GRB170817A located at a cosmological distance. GRB 150101B was a faint short
duration GRB characterized by a bright optical counterpart and a long-lived
X-ray afterglow. These properties are unusual for standard short GRBs and are
instead consistent with an explosion viewed off-axis: the optical light is
produced by a luminous kilonova component, while the observed X-rays trace the
GRB afterglow viewed at an angle of ~13 degrees. Our findings suggest that
these properties could be common among future electromagnetic counterparts of
GW sources.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publicatio
Generalized solvent boundary potential for computer simulations
Copyright 2001 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in The Journal of Chemical Physics and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1336570.A general approach has been developed to allow accurate simulations of a small region part of a large macromolecular system while incorporating the influence of the remaining distant atoms with an effective boundary potential. The method is called the Generalized Solvent Boundary Potential (GSBP). By representing the surrounding solvent as a continuum dielectric, both the solvent-shielded static field from the distant atoms of the macromolecule and the reaction field from the dielectricsolvent acting on the atoms in the region of interest are included. The static field is calculated once, using the finite-difference PoissonâBoltzmann (PB) equation, and the result is stored on a discrete grid for efficient simulations. The solventreaction field is developed using a basis-set expansion whose coefficients correspond to generalized electrostatic multipoles. A matrix representing the reaction field Greenâs function between those generalized multipoles is calculated only once using the PB equation and stored for efficient simulations. In the present work, the formalism is applied to both spherical and orthorhombic simulation regions for which orthonormal basis-sets exist based on spherical harmonics or cartesian Legendre polynomials. The GSBP method is also tested and illustrated with simple model systems and two detailed atomic systems: the active site region of aspartyl-tRNA synthetase (spherical region) and the interior of the KcsA potassium channel (orthorhombic region). Comparison with numerical finite-difference PB calculations shows that GSBP can accurately describe all long-range electrostatic interactions and remain computationally inexpensive
The Origin of the Intrinsic Scatter in the Relation Between Black Hole Mass and Bulge Luminosity for Nearby Active Galaxies
We investigate the origin of the intrinsic scatter in the correlation between
black hole mass (MBH) and bulge luminosity [L(bulge)] in a sample of 45
massive, local (z < 0.35) type~1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We derive MBH
from published optical spectra assuming a spherical broad-line region, and
L(bulge) from detailed two-dimensional decomposition of archival optical Hubble
Space Telescope images. AGNs follow the MBH-L(bulge) relation of inactive
galaxies, but the zero point is shifted by an average of \Delta log MBH ~ -0.3
dex. We show that the magnitude of the zero point offset, which is responsible
for the intrinsic scatter in the MBH-L(bulge) relation, is correlated with
several AGN and host galaxy properties, all of which are ultimately related to,
or directly impact, the BH mass accretion rate. At a given bulge luminosity,
sources with higher Eddington ratios have lower MBH. The zero point offset can
be explained by a change in the normalization of the virial product used to
estimate MBH, in conjunction with modest BH growth (~ 10%--40%) during the AGN
phase. Galaxy mergers and tidal interactions appear to play an important role
in regulating AGN fueling in low-redshift AGNs.Comment: To appear in ApJ; 67 pages, 56 figures, 4 tables, version with full
resolution figures at http://users.ociw.edu/mjkim/papers/scatter.pd
Sputum smear positivity among patients presenting to the dots clinic with chronic cough
Cough is one of the cardinal features of Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB). However, even in communities with high prevalence of TB, lung diseases other than TB appear to account for this symptom. Objective: To estimate the prevalence of sputum smear positivity among patients with TB who presented with complaints of chronic cough to the Directly Observed Therapy Short Course (DOTS) clinic at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, North Eastern Nigeria. Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) Borno state, Northeastern Nigeria between September 2014 and January 2017. All patients (new or previously treated) who presented to the DOTS clinic of the UMTH with complaints of chronic cough and had screening for pulmonary TB using sputum smear microscopy were reviewed. The minimum and the maximum ages were 1 year and 85 years, respectively, and the mean age was 36.0 (SD=14.0) years. The mean age did not differ among the male and female patients (i.e.37.3 ± 14.4 vs 34.1 ± 13.2, p=0.78). The overall prevalence of sputum smear positivity for TB was 26.5%. Although majority of patients who were sputum smear positive for TB fell within the age groups 30-39 and 20-29 thus accounting for 42.6% and 28.7% respectively, however, there was no significant association between age of those with chronic cough and sputum smear positivity TB (p=0.80). Among those who were sputum smear positive, 24.3% were new cases and 2.2% were previously treated. Conclusions: Data were entered into a computer database and analyzed with SPSS version 20.0 statistical software. Results: This study showed a high prevalence of sputum smear positivity among suspected TB patients with complaints of chronic cough This could be explained by the fact that the DOTS strategy has improved the case detection of PTB in this community. All patients with chronic cough should be evaluated for PTB
Irreducible characters of GSp(4, q) and dimensions of spaces of fixed vectors
In this paper, we compute the conjugacy classes and the list of irreducible
characters of GSp(4,q), where q is odd. We also determine precisely which
irreducible characters are non-cuspidal and which are generic. These characters
are then used to compute dimensions of certain subspaces of fixed vectors of
smooth admissible non-supercuspidal representations of GSp(4,F), where F is a
non-archimedean local field of characteristic zero with residue field of order
q.Comment: 48 pages, 21 tables. Corrected an error in Table 16 for type V*
representations (theta_11 and theta_12 were switched
Hepatic transaminase and alkaline phosphatase enzyme levels in HIV/HBV coâinfected and HIV monoâinfected patients in Maiduguri, Nigeria
Background: Studies have shown that HIVâHBV coâinfected patients have an increased risk of liverârelated morbidity and mortality compared to their HIVâmonoâinfected counterparts. Furthermore, it has been reported that HIVâHBV coâinfected patients have a significantly high incidence of drugâinduced hepatotoxicity following commencement of HAART than HIVâmonoâinfected patients.Objectives: To compare the levels of aspartate amino transferase (AST), alanine amino transferase (ALT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALKPO4) enzyme levels between HAART naĂŻve HIVâHBV coâinfected patients and their HIVâmonoâinfected counterparts.Materials and Methods: A crossâsectional descriptive study in which 142 newly diagnosed HIV/HBV coâinfected and HIV monoâinfected adults were investigated for alkaline aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and alkaline phosphatase enzyme levels.Results: The study subjects comprised of 80 (56.3%) females and 62 (46.7%) males. The age range of the study population was 15â65 years. The mean ages of male and female subjects were 45.5 ± 10.5 years and 39.1 ± 7.5 years respectively (P < 0.05). Sixtyâthree (44.4%) study subjects were HIV/HBV coâinfected while 79 (55.6%) were HIV monoâinfected. The mean ALT enzyme level of HIV/HBV coâinfected subjects was significantly higher than that of HIV monoâinfected ones i.e., 42.12 IU/l vs. 27.86 IU/l, (P = 0.038). However, there was no statistically significant difference in the mean AST (30.14 IU/l vs. 29.09 IU/l, P = 0.893) and ALKPO4 (55.86 IU/l vs. 60.97 IU/l, P = 0.205) enzyme levels between HIVâHBV coâinfected and HIV monoâinfected subjects albeit the two enzymes were moderately elevated in both categories of subjects.Conclusion: The significantly elevated ALT enzyme levels amongst HIVâHBV coâinfected subjects suggest that HIVâHBV coâinfected patients may have an increased risk of liverârelated morbidity and mortality than their HIV monoâinfected counterparts. Screening for serological markers of chronic HBV infection, as well as hepatic transaminase enzyme levels in all newly diagnosed HIVâpositive patients is therefore recommended before commencement of HAART.Keywords: Alkaline phosphatase enzyme, hepatitis B virus surface antigen, hepatic transaminase enzymes, human immunodeficiency virusNigerian Journal of Clinical Practice âą Oct-Dec 2013 âą Vol 16 âą Issue
Optical flow analysis reveals that Kinesin-mediated advection impacts on the orientation of microtubules in the Drosophila oocyte.
The orientation of microtubule networks is exploited by motors to deliver cargoes to specific intracellular destinations, and is thus essential for cell polarity and function. Reconstituted in vitro systems have largely contributed to understanding the molecular framework regulating the behavior of microtubule filaments. In cells however, microtubules are exposed to various biomechanical forces that might impact on their orientation, but little is known about it. Oocytes, which display forceful cytoplasmic streaming, are excellent model systems to study the impact of motion forces on cytoskeletons in vivo. Here we implement variational optical flow analysis as a new approach to analyze the polarity of microtubules in the Drosophila oocyte, a cell that displays distinct Kinesin-dependent streaming. After validating the method as robust for describing microtubule orientation from confocal movies, we find that increasing the speed of flows results in aberrant plus end growth direction. Furthermore, we find that in oocytes where Kinesin is unable to induce cytoplasmic streaming, the growth direction of microtubule plus ends is also altered. These findings lead us to propose that cytoplasmic streaming - and thus motion by advection - contributes to the correct orientation of MTs in vivo. Finally, we propose a possible mechanism for a specialised cytoplasmic actin network (the actin mesh) to act as a regulator of flow speeds; to counteract the recruitment of Kinesin to microtubules. [Media: see text] [Media: see text] [Media: see text] [Media: see text] [Media: see text] [Media: see text] [Media: see text] [Media: see text] [Media: see text] [Media: see text]
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