Biochemical and haematological aspects of ethanol metabolism in humans : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Biochemistry at Massey University, New Zealand

Macrocytosis or raised mean cell volume (MCV) (which as measured by the Coulter S counter) is one of the results of alcohol abuse. There is a need to identify (chronic) alcoholics by laboratory tests. The obvious measurement of blood alcohol is not suitable as ethanol is so rapidly cleared from the body. It is usually undetectable 2 – 3 hours after drinking. To this the following battery of tests: MCV, fast haemoglobin, gamma glutamyl transferase and thiamine, have been examined These tests which were performed, on a population consisting of 115 random hospital patients, 14 patients attending diabetic clinic and 13 'normal' volunteers. For ethical reasons it was not possible to obtain samples from known alcoholics. Instead those samples which contained red cells above 92 fl of MCV were suspected of including alcoholics and correlated with other parameter which may be assumed to be elevated in alcoholics. The results showed that there were 23 abnormal findings likely to be associated with heavy drinkings in 70 bloods selected for high MCV

Theory of discrete time SISO linear (L,M) shift invariant system

In this paper, we have characterized the discrete time single input single output (SISO) linear (L,M) shift invariant system by a two-dimensional kernel function and a filter bank structure. Based on the characterization, we have investigated the conditions for the stability, the invertibility, the causality and the finite response properties of a discrete time SISO linear (L,M) shift invariant system. The advantages of the analysis is that a linear time varying system can be analyzed and designed through a finite number of one-dimensional kernel functions and linear time invariant (LTI) filters. Hence, it facilitates the analysis and the design of a linear time varying system, such as an L/M rate changer used in the digital image processing and digital video processing

LINDSAY Virtual Nephron: From Physics to Physiology

The LINDSAY Virtual Human is a project that aims to design and simulate a human being in a virtual environment [1].  LINDSAY Composer is one of the components of the LINDSAY Virtual Human; it is a dedicated application that acts as a highly versatile simulation environment. The LINDSAY Virtual Nephron is a summer project that aimed to recreate the most basic functionality within a human nephron, while simultaneously ensuring that the mechanisms within the model were both accurate and reusable in other simulations. Using LINDSAY Composer as a test environment, two basic behaviours were developed for the virtual nephron: a tool to accommodate for ubiquitous flow, and selective permeability in the vessels of the nephron. The former is used to ensure that entities flowing through a complex vessel can navigate smoothly within the vessel walls. This was achieved using ray casting, a method for detection of nearby physical structures and adjusting the entity’s path to flow along the vessel in accordance with its distance from the vessel, as well as any forces acting on the entity. The latter selectively allows entities to pass from one vessel to another. Focus was placed on the relationship between ADH and water levels in the reabsorption model, osmotic pressure affected ADH release, which in turn altered membrane permeability. These simple functions were found to produce reasonably realistic behaviours for the entities in the simulation without the need for strictly defined behaviours through hard coding and scripted actions that are typical of most existing simulations. This allows the simulation to be highly modular and adaptable, in turn making it possible for these mechanisms to be reused and adapted for simulations in other regions of the body (such as circulation and digestion)

Fidelity susceptibility in the two-dimensional transverse field Ising and XXZ models

We study the fidelity susceptibility in the two-dimensional(2D) transverse field Ising model and the 2D XXZ model numerically. It is found that in both models, the fidelity susceptibility as a function of the driving parameter diverges at the critical points. The validity of the fidelity susceptibility to signal for the quantum phase transition is thus verified in these two models. We also compare the scaling behavior of the extremum of the fidelity susceptibility to that of the second derivative of the ground state energy. From those results, the theoretical argument that fidelity susceptibility is a more sensitive seeker for a second order quantum phase transition is also testified in the two models.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure