Clinical effect of intravenous thrombolysis combined with nicorandil therapy in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of intravenous thrombolysis in combination with nicorandil in the treatment of acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI).Methods: Patients who developed acute STEMI and underwent intravenous thrombolysis in the hospital were selected and divided into observation group (n = 128) and control group (n = 114). Besides thrombolytic therapy, the observation group was also given 20 mg of nicorandil. The control group received conventional thrombolytic therapy only. Clinical effects and rehabilitation of patients were observed.Results: Cardiac troponin I (cTNI) level of the observation group was 4.0 ± 1.5, 8.3 ± 2.8 and 9.8 ± 3.9 after 4, 12 and 24 h, respectively, which is much lower than 5.8 ± 1.4, 11.4 ± 2.7 and 13.2 ± 4.2 in the control group (p < 0.05). ST-segment resolution of observation group was higher (44 ± 14, 52 ± 17, 69 ± 21 and 80 ± 18) % at different time points, compared with the control group (p < 0.05). The  proportion of patients with Curtis-Walker score > 3 points, and ventricular wall motion score (4.70 %; 1.38 ± 0.11) in the observation group were both lower than those of the control group (21.00 %; 1.43 ± 0.15) (p < 0.05). The difference in adverse cardiac events between the observation group (N = 6, 4.70 %) and control group (N = 12, 10.50 %) was not statistically significant (p > 0.05)Conclusion: Combining intravenous thrombolysis with nicorandil therapy can  enhance myocardial perfusion level, reduce myocardial damage, improve cardiac function and decrease risk of arrhythmia for acute STEMI patients.Keywords: ST-segment elevation, Myocardial infarction, Arrhythmia, Nicorandil, ST-segment, Thrombolytic therapy, Curtis-Walker scor

Portfolio of compositions and written commentary: Integration of acoustic and computer-generated sounds in mixed-media contemporary concert music through sonic interaction using serial and microsonic techniques

This thesis examines the integration of acoustic and computer-generated sounds in contemporary concert music through a portfolio of eight musical compositions and a written commentary. Through the development of the creative work, idiosyncratic compositional strategies for sonic interaction integrating diverse sources are developed. These strategies expand on existing work on sonic interaction and provide distinctive approaches using serial, indeterministic and microsonic techniques as methods for integration. The written commentary outlines the research narrative of the creative work, outlining its background, research questions, aims, objectives, methodology, and contributions. The commentary adopts the methodology of annotated portfolios with the aim of clarifying the research narrative in the creative work, at the same time capturing its multifaceted nature and the interrelations between the pieces in the portfolio. The eight compositions are analysed through five annotation topics: pitch to noise continuum, sonic gesture, sound mass, juxtaposition and superimposition of sound, and spatialisation. The annotations give key insights about the compositional strategies and play a significant role in addressing the research questions. This thesis aims to contribute to the field of mixed-media composition by producing a body of work with idiosyncratic compositional thinking, identity and perspectives, and providing individual perspectives into how compositional strategies may be developed for the integration of acoustic and computer-generated sounds

Continuing Use of SNS Games for the Growth of Social Network Services

By using Social Network Services (SNSs) as platforms, game developers have gathered a huge user base, and the entertainment these games provide has further enlarged the SNS user base. However, there are signs that this symbiotic growth is slowing down. We developed a model and tested 14 hypotheses. Our main findings are: Although SNSs are “social,” “social norms” do not have much impact on the intention to use the games continually. Although users generally are not addicted to SNS games, the creation of addiction is an effective way to achieve continuance

Finite Field Multiple Access

In the past several decades, various multiple-access (MA) techniques have been developed and used. These MA techniques are carried out in complex-field domain to separate the outputs of the users. It becomes problematic to find new resources from the physical world. It is desirable to find new resources, physical or virtual, to confront the fast development of MA systems. In this paper, an algebraic virtual resource is proposed to support multiuser transmission. For binary transmission systems, the algebraic virtual resource is based on assigning each user an element pair (EP) from a finite field GF($p^m$). The output bit from each user is mapped into an element in its assigned EP, called the output symbol. For a downlink MA system, the output symbols from the users are jointly multiplexed into a unique symbol in the same field GF($p^m$) for further physical-layer transmission. The EPs assigned to the users are said to form a multiuser algebraic uniquely decodable (UD) code. Using EPs over a finite field, a network, a downlink, and an uplink orthogonal/non-orthogonal MA systems are proposed, which are called finite-field MA (FFMA) systems. Methods for constructing algebraic UD codes for FFMA systems are presented. An FFMA system can be designed in conjunction with the classical complex-field MA techniques to provide more flexibility and varieties.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figure

Rigidity controllable as-rigid-as-possible shape deformations

Shape deformation is one of the fundamental techniques in geometric processing. One principle of deformation is to preserve the geometric details while distributing the necessary distortions uniformly. To achieve this, state-of-the-art techniques deform shapes in a locally as-rigid-as-possible (ARAP) manner. Existing ARAP deformation methods optimize rigid transformations in the 1-ring neighborhoods and maintain the consistency between adjacent pairs of rigid transformations by single overlapping edges. In this paper, we make one step further and propose to use larger local neighborhoods to enhance the consistency of adjacent rigid transformations. This is helpful to keep the geometric details better and distribute the distortions more uniformly. Moreover, the size of the expanded local neighborhoods provides an intuitive parameter to adjust physical stiffness. The larger the neighborhood is, the more rigid the material is. Based on these, we propose a novel rigidity controllable mesh deformation method where shape rigidity can be flexibly adjusted. The size of the local neighborhoods can be learned from datasets of deforming objects automatically or specified by the user, and may vary over the surface to simulate shapes composed of mixed materials. Various examples are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method

Toward optimal multistep forecasts in non-stationary autoregressions

This paper investigates multistep prediction errors for non-stationary autoregressive processes with both model order and true parameters unknown. We give asymptotic expressions for the multistep mean squared prediction errors and accumulated prediction errors of two important methods, plug-in and direct prediction. These expressions not only characterize how the prediction errors are influenced by the model orders, prediction methods, values of parameters and unit roots, but also inspire us to construct some new predictor selection criteria that can ultimately choose the best combination of the model order and prediction method with probability 1. Finally, simulation analysis confirms the satisfactory finite sample performance of the newly proposed criteria.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.3150/08-BEJ165 the Bernoulli (http://isi.cbs.nl/bernoulli/) by the International Statistical Institute/Bernoulli Society (http://isi.cbs.nl/BS/bshome.htm

Summary of a Topical Forum FAQ Based on the Chinese Composition Structure

An automatic multiple-document summarization system for producing frequently asked questions (FAQ) of a topical forum can save forum Webmasters a great deal of time in theory. This work will address summary composition issue of a previous work by proposing a structured presentation based on a four-part pattern of traditional Chinese articles. The result of the experiment shows that the enhanced system with both domain-terminology corpus methods produced a significantly better summary presentation than the original system. Recall rate and precision rate performance indices and user evaluations are also presented and discussed to show their practical implications

Thermal Imprint Introduced Crystallization of A Solution Processed Subphthalocyanine Thin Film

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134175/1/admi201600179.pd