715 research outputs found

    Concert recording 2019-03-06

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    [Track 1]. A place in this world / Taylor Swift -- [Track 2]. Alone / Heart -- [Track 3]. Baby Love / The Supremes -- [Track 4]. Before he cheats / Carrie Underwood -- [Track 5]. A case of you / Joni Mitchell -- [Track 6]. I hate love songs / Kelsea Ballerini -- [Track 7]. Jolene / Dolly Parton -- [Track 8]. Once upon another time / Sara Bareilles -- [Track 9]. Rhiannon / Fleetwood Mac -- [Track 10]. Say a little prayer for you / Aretha Franklin -- [Track 11]. Single ladies / Beyoncé -- [Track 12]. Sk8r boi / Avril Lavigne -- [Track 13]. Take it all / Adele -- [Track 14]. Valerie / Amy Winehouse -- [Track 15]. You make me feel like a natural woman / Aretha Franklin -- [Track 16]. You needed me / Anne Murray

    A versatile injection system for flow-injection analysis

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    Analyser injection systems based on the principle of flow-injection analysis depend on the technique used. They generally take the form of an injection loop valve; the injected sample volume is determined by the volume of the valve. Injection systems are seldom designed with a time factor to define this volume. The authors report on an original injection system, which enables the two techniques to be used. The paper describes the evaluation of this system using both injection techniques and the comparison between them. The results show good linearity (r = 0.999 to 1.000) and an average precision (CV = 1.04 to 1.51%) for the volume-based injection technique; (ii) good linearity (r = 1.000) and better precision (CV = 0.73 to 1.30%) for the time-based injection technique. The system can be used equally well by the loop and by the clock; however, the latter is preferable because of its practicability

    Strategies for improving mental health and wellbeing used by older people living with HIV: A qualitative investigation

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    Recent research into “successful ageing” and “resilience” in the context of ageing with HIV highlights older people living with HIV’s (OPLWH) adaptations and coping strategies hitherto neglected by early research’s emphasis on difficulties and challenges. Yet “resilience” and “successful ageing” are limited by their inconsistent definition, conflation of personal traits and coping strategies, normative dimension, and inattention to cultural variation and the distinctive nature of older age. This article thus adopts an interpretivist approach to how OPLWH manage the challenges to their mental health and wellbeing of ageing with HIV. Drawing on interviews with 76 OPLWH (aged 50+) living in the United Kingdom, we document both the strategies these participants use (for example, “accentuating the positive” and accessing external support) and the challenges to these strategies’ success posed by the need to manage their HIV’s social and clinical dimensions and prevent their HIV from dominating their lives. This points to (a) the complex overlaps between challenges to and strategies for improving or maintaining mental health and wellbeing in the context of ageing with HIV, and (b) the limitations of the “resilience” and “successful ageing” approaches to ageing with HIV. Ageing, HIV, resilience, successful ageing, mental health strategies, wellbeing, interpretivist approach

    Antifibrinolytics attenuate inflammatory gene expression after cardiac surgery

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    ObjectivesAnti-inflammatory effects of tranexamic acid and aprotinin, used to abate perioperative blood loss, are reported and might be of substantial clinical relevance. The study of messenger ribonucleic acid synthesis provides a valuable asset in evaluating the inflammatory pathways involved.MethodsWhole-blood messenger ribonucleic acid expression of 114 inflammatory genes was compared pre- and postoperatively in 35 patients randomized to receive either placebo, tranexamic acid, or aprotinin. These results were further confirmed by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction.ResultsOf the 23 genes exhibiting independently altered postoperative gene expression levels, 8 were restricted to the aprotinin group only (growth differentiation factor 3, interleukin 19, interleukin 1 family member 7, transforming growth factor α, tumor necrosis factor superfamily 10, tumor necrosis factor superfamily 12, tumor necrosis factor superfamily 13B, vascular endothelial growth factor α), whereas both aprotinin and tranexamic acid altered gene expression of 3 genes as compared with placebo (FMS-related tyrosine kinase 3 ligand, growth differentiation factor 5, interferon-α8). In general, less upregulation of pro-inflammatory, and more upregulation of anti-inflammatory, genes was observed for patients treated with antifibrinolytics. Gene expression affected by aprotinin coded mostly for proteins that function through serine proteases.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that the use of tranexamic acid and aprotinin results in altered inflammatory pathways on the genomic expression level. We further demonstrate that the use of aprotinin leads to significant attenuation of the immune response, with several inhibitory effects restricted to the use of aprotinin only. The results aid in a better understanding of the targets of these drugs, and add to the discussion on which antifibrinolytic can best be used in the cardiac surgical patient

    児童期までの食事経験がその後の家族関係に及ぼす影響について : 家族イメージ法を用いて

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    本研究は、大学生の児童期までの食事経験が現在の家族関係にどのような影響を及ぼすのかを検討する目的で行われた。食事経験に関する項目として「大学生が認知した過去の食事場面の状況に関する項目」、現在の家族関係に関する尺度として「家族機能測定尺度」、「家族イメージ法」を用いて、大学生199名を対象に実施した。「大学生の認知した過去の食事場面の項目」を因子分析した結果、「料理への配慮」、「料理の簡便性」、「相互交流」、「雰囲気のよさ」、「しつけ・マナー」の5因子が抽出された。また、家族機能測定尺度の因子分析の結果、「凝集性」、「適応性」の2因子が抽出された。重回帰分析の結果、「凝集性」、「適応性」にはともに「雰囲気のよさ」、「相互交流」において有意差がみられた。また、「子の濃さ」、「母子の結びつきの強さ」、「父子の結びつきの強さ」は「雰囲気のよさ」に有意差がみられた。先行研究の報告と同様に、過去の家族との食事の「雰囲気のよさ」は改めて重要であることが確認された。食事場面では、単なる会話だけをする場ではなく雰囲気を楽しむことが大切である。しかし、この雰囲気のよさは一体何に規定されるのかは明らかにすることが今後の課題として挙げられた

    Phylogeography of the second plague pandemic revealed through analysis of historical Yersinia pestis genomes

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    The second plague pandemic, caused by Yersinia pestis, devastated Europe and the nearby regions between the 14th and 18th centuries AD. Here we analyse human remains from ten European archaeological sites spanning this period and reconstruct 34 ancient Y. pestis genomes. Our data support an initial entry of the bacterium through eastern Europe, the absence of genetic diversity during the Black Death, and low within-outbreak diversity thereafter. Analysis of post-Black Death genomes shows the diversification of a Y. pestis lineage into multiple genetically distinct clades that may have given rise to more than one disease reservoir in, or close to, Europe. In addition, we show the loss of a genomic region that includes virulence-related genes in strains associated with late stages of the pandemic. The deletion was also identified in genomes connected with the first plague pandemic (541–750 AD), suggesting a comparable evolutionary trajectory of Y. pestis during both events

    Self-oscillation

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    Physicists are very familiar with forced and parametric resonance, but usually not with self-oscillation, a property of certain dynamical systems that gives rise to a great variety of vibrations, both useful and destructive. In a self-oscillator, the driving force is controlled by the oscillation itself so that it acts in phase with the velocity, causing a negative damping that feeds energy into the vibration: no external rate needs to be adjusted to the resonant frequency. The famous collapse of the Tacoma Narrows bridge in 1940, often attributed by introductory physics texts to forced resonance, was actually a self-oscillation, as was the swaying of the London Millennium Footbridge in 2000. Clocks are self-oscillators, as are bowed and wind musical instruments. The heart is a "relaxation oscillator," i.e., a non-sinusoidal self-oscillator whose period is determined by sudden, nonlinear switching at thresholds. We review the general criterion that determines whether a linear system can self-oscillate. We then describe the limiting cycles of the simplest nonlinear self-oscillators, as well as the ability of two or more coupled self-oscillators to become spontaneously synchronized ("entrained"). We characterize the operation of motors as self-oscillation and prove a theorem about their limit efficiency, of which Carnot's theorem for heat engines appears as a special case. We briefly discuss how self-oscillation applies to servomechanisms, Cepheid variable stars, lasers, and the macroeconomic business cycle, among other applications. Our emphasis throughout is on the energetics of self-oscillation, often neglected by the literature on nonlinear dynamical systems.Comment: 68 pages, 33 figures. v4: Typos fixed and other minor adjustments. To appear in Physics Report

    Patterns of healthy lifestyle and positive health attitudes in older europeans.

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    Objectives: To determine (i) the extent to which recommended lifestyle healthy behaviors are adopted and the existence of positive attitudes to health; (ii) the relative influence of socio-demographic variables on multiple healthy lifestyle behaviors and positive attitudes to health; (iii) the association between healthy lifestyle behaviors and positive attitudes to health. Design: two distinct healthy behavioral measures were developed: (i) healthy lifestyles based on physical activity, no cigarette smoking, no/moderate alcohol drinking, maintaining a "healthy" weight and having no sleeping problems and (ii) positive health attitudes based on having positive emotional attitudes, such as: self-perceived good health status, being calm, peaceful and happy for most of the time, not expecting health to get worse and regular health check-ups. A composite healthy lifestyle index, ranging from 0 (none of behaviors met) to 5 (all behaviors met) was calculated by summing up the individual's scores for the five healthy lifestyle items. Afterwards, each individual's index was collapsed into three levels: 0-2 equivalent to 'level 1' (subjectively regarded as 'too low'), a score of 3 equivalent to 'level 2' ('fair') and 4-5 as 'level 3' satisfactory 'healthy lifestyle' practices. The same procedure was applied to the positive health attitudes index. Multinomial logistic regression analyses by a forward selection procedure were used to calculate the adjusted odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI). Participants: a multi-national sample consisting of 638 older Europeans from 8 countries, aged 65-74 and 75+, living alone or with others. Results and conclusions: maintaining a "healthy" weight was the most frequently cited factor in the healthy lifestyles index and therefore assumed to be the most important to the older Europeans in the study; positive attitudes to health were relatively low; participants achieved a 'satisfactory' level for healthy lifestyles index (level 3) more frequently than a satisfactory level for positive attitudes to health; having a satisfactory 'healthy lifestyle' was directly related to having a satisfactory level of positive attitudes to health based on the positive health attitudes index; income and geographical location in Europe appeared to be key predictors for meeting both the recommended healthy lifestyle factors in the index and having positive health attitudes however, the composition and nature of the study sample should be taken into consideration when considering the impact of the location on healthy lifestyles and attitudes to health across Europe

    Determinants of access to experimental antiretroviral drugs in an Italian cohort of patients with HIV: a multilevel analysis

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Identification of the determinants of access to investigational drugs is important to promote equity and scientific validity in clinical research. We aimed to analyze factors associated with the use of experimental antiretrovirals in Italy.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We studied participants in the Italian Cohort of Antiretroviral-Naive Patients (ICoNA). All patients 18 years or older who had started cART (≥ 3 drugs including at least two NRTI) after their enrolment and during 1997-2007 were included in this analysis. We performed a random effect logistic regression analysis to take into account clustering observations within clinical units. The outcome variable was the use of an experimental antiretroviral, defined as an antiretroviral started before commercial availability, in any episode of therapy initiation/change. Use of an experimental antiretroviral obtained through a clinical trial or an expanded access program (EAP) was also analyzed separately.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 9,441 episodes of therapy initiation/change were analyzed in 3,752 patients. 392 episodes (360 patients) involved an experimental antiretroviral. In multivariable analysis, factors associated with the overall use of experimental antiretrovirals were: number of experienced drugs (≥ 8 drugs versus "naive": adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 3.71) or failed antiretrovirals(3-4 drugs and ≥ 5 drugs versus 0-2 drugs: AOR = 1.42 and 2.38 respectively); calendar year (AOR = 0.80 per year) and plasma HIV-RNA copies/ml at therapy change (≥ 4 log versus < 2 log: AOR = 1.55). The probability of taking an experimental antiretroviral through a trial was significantly lower for patients suffering from liver co-morbidity(AOR = 0.65) and for those who experienced 3-4 drugs (vs naive) (AOR = 0.55), while it increased for multi-treated patients(AOR = 2.60). The probability to start an experimental antiretroviral trough an EAP progressively increased with the increasing number of experienced and of failed drugs and also increased for patients with liver co-morbidity (AOR = 1.44; p = 0.053). and for male homosexuals (vs heterosexuals: AOR = 1.67). Variability of the random effect associated to clinical units was statistically significant (p < 0.001) although no association was found with specific characteristics of clinical unit examined.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Among patients with HIV infection in Italy, access to experimental antiretrovirals seems to be influenced mainly by exhaustion of treatment options and not by socio-demographic factors.</p
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