5,854 research outputs found
Providing of the information security of the schoolchildren’s thinking culture
In the article it is provided a modern state of the problem of the information security providing of a schoolchild’s personality, there are disclosed several supporting aspects as a guaranty of the remaining of the society spirituality and cultural intergenerational continuity. They bring a comparative analysis of the electronic mass media impact results on the process of thinking, forming of the young people value system of two dynamically developing countries — Kazakhstan and China
A nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation for water waves on finite depth with constant vorticity
A nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation for the envelope of two dimensional
surface water waves on finite depth with non zero constant vorticity is
derived, and the influence of this constant vorticity on the well known
stability properties of weakly nonlinear wave packets is studied. It is
demonstrated that vorticity modifies significantly the modulational instability
properties of weakly nonlinear plane waves, namely the growth rate and
bandwidth. At third order we have shown the importance of the coupling between
the mean flow induced by the modulation and the vorticity. Furthermore, it is
shown that these plane wave solutions may be linearly stable to modulational
instability for an opposite shear current independently of the dimensionless
parameter kh, where k and h are the carrier wavenumber and depth respectively
The application of ultrasonic NDT techniques in tribology
The use of ultrasonic reflection is emerging as a technique for studying tribological contacts. Ultrasonic waves can be transmitted non-destructively through machine components and their behaviour at an interface describes the characteristics of that contact. This paper is a review of the current state of understanding of the mechanisms of ultrasonic reflection at interfaces, and how this has been used to investigate the processes of dry rough surface contact and lubricated contact. The review extends to cover how ultrasound has been used to study the tribological function of certain engineering machine elements
Diabetic Cardiovascular Disease Induced by Oxidative Stress.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). DM can lead to multiple cardiovascular complications, including coronary artery disease (CAD), cardiac hypertrophy, and heart failure (HF). HF represents one of the most common causes of death in patients with DM and results from DM-induced CAD and diabetic cardiomyopathy. Oxidative stress is closely associated with the pathogenesis of DM and results from overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS overproduction is associated with hyperglycemia and metabolic disorders, such as impaired antioxidant function in conjunction with impaired antioxidant activity. Long-term exposure to oxidative stress in DM induces chronic inflammation and fibrosis in a range of tissues, leading to formation and progression of disease states in these tissues. Indeed, markers for oxidative stress are overexpressed in patients with DM, suggesting that increased ROS may be primarily responsible for the development of diabetic complications. Therefore, an understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms mediated by oxidative stress is crucial to the prevention and treatment of diabetes-induced CVD. The current review focuses on the relationship between diabetes-induced CVD and oxidative stress, while highlighting the latest insights into this relationship from findings on diabetic heart and vascular disease
A Pilot Study: The Beneficial Effects of Combined Statin-exercise Therapy on Cognitive Function in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease and Mild Cognitive Decline.
Objective Hypercholesterolemia, a risk factor in cognitive impairment, can be treated with statins. However, cognitive decline associated with "statins" (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) is a clinical concern. This pilot study investigated the effects of combining statins and regular exercise on cognitive function in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients with prior mild cognitive decline. Methods We recruited 43 consecutive CAD patients with mild cognitive decline. These patients were treated with a statin and weekly in-hospital aerobic exercise for 5 months. We measured serum lipids, exercise capacity, and cognitive function using the mini mental state examination (MMSE). Results Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were significantly decreased, and maximum exercise capacity (workload) was significantly increased in patients with CAD and mild cognitive decline after treatment compared with before. Combined statin-exercise therapy significantly increased the median (range) MMSE score from 24 (22-25) to 25 (23-27) across the cohort (p<0.01). Changes in body mass index (BMI) were significantly and negatively correlated with changes in the MMSE. After treatment, MMSE scores in the subgroup of patients that showed a decrease in BMI were significantly improved, but not in the BMI-increased subgroup. Furthermore, the patients already on a statin at the beginning of the trial displayed a more significant improvement in MMSE score than statin-naïve patients, implying that exercise might be the beneficial aspect of this intervention as regards cognition. In a multivariate logistic regression analysis adjusted for age >65 years, sex, and presence of diabetes mellitus, a decrease in BMI during statin-exercise therapy was significantly correlated with an increase in the MMSE score (odds ratio: 4.57, 95% confidence interval: 1.05-20.0; p<0.05). Conclusion Statin-exercise therapy may help improve cognitive dysfunction in patients with CAD and pre-existing mild cognitive decline
Current Status of Herbal Medicines in Chronic Liver Disease Therapy: The Biological Effects, Molecular Targets and Future Prospects
Chronic liver dysfunction or injury is a serious health problem worldwide. Chronic liver disease involves a wide range of liver pathologies that include fatty liver, hepatitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The efficiency of current synthetic agents in treating chronic liver disease is not satisfactory and they have undesirable side effects. Thereby, numerous medicinal herbs and phytochemicals have been investigated as complementary and alternative treatments for chronic liver diseases. Since some herbal products have already been used for the management of liver diseases in some countries or regions, a systematic review on these herbal medicines for chronic liver disease is urgently needed. Herein, we conducted a review describing the potential role, pharmacological studies and molecular mechanisms of several commonly used medicinal herbs and phytochemicals for chronic liver diseases treatment. Their potential toxicity and side effects were also discussed. Several herbal formulae and their biological effects in chronic liver disease treatment as well as the underlying molecular mechanisms are also summarized in this paper. This review article is a comprehensive and systematic analysis of our current knowledge of the conventional medicinal herbs and phytochemicals in treating chronic liver diseases and on the potential pitfalls which need to be addressed in future study. © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.published_or_final_versio
Effects of regional differences and demography in modelling foot-and-mouth disease in cattle at the national scale
Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a fast-spreading viral infection that can produce large and costly outbreaks in livestock populations. Transmission occurs at multiple spatial scales, as can the actions used to control outbreaks. The US cattle industry is spatially expansive, with heterogeneous distributions of animals and infrastructure. We have developed a model that incorporates the effects of scale for both disease transmission and control actions, applied here in simulating FMD outbreaks in US cattle. We simulated infection initiating in each of the 3049 counties in the contiguous US, 100 times per county. When initial infection was located in specific regions, large outbreaks were more likely to occur, driven by infrastructure and other demographic attributes such as premises clustering and number of cattle on premises. Sensitivity analyses suggest these attributes had more impact on outbreak metrics than the ranges of estimated disease parameter values. Additionally, although shipping accounted for a small percentage of overall transmission, areas receiving the most animal shipments tended to have other attributes that increase the probability of large outbreaks. The importance of including spatial and demographic heterogeneity in modelling outbreak trajectories and control actions is illustrated by specific regions consistently producing larger outbreaks than others
Red pigment from Saw Palmetto: a natural product for potential alternative cancer treatment
Conference Theme: Anticancer Drug Action and Drug Resistance: from Cancer Biology to the ClinicINTRODUCTION: Saw palmetto is extract of the fruit of Serenoa repens (Bartram) J.K.Small, an edible plant originated from the Southeastern United States. It has been used in traditional, complementary and
alternative medicine as a tonic, expectorant and antiseptic for treatment of various illnesses, especially urinary and reproductive system problems. Approximately 90% of Saw palmetto containing fatty acids and has been claimed for its therapeutic effect on benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Previous studies also suggested the in vitro and in vivo anti-cancer effect of lipidosterolic extract of Saw Palmetto. However, recent epidemiology and randomized trials ...published_or_final_versio
Recent progress on anticancer candidates in patents of herbal medicinal products
Herbal medicines in treatment of cancer as complementary and alternative therapy are accepted increasingly with growing scientific evidences of biomedical research and clinical trials. Anticancer drugs discovered from herbal medicines have a long history and some of them have been used in clinical setting as the conventional anticancer drugs. Actually, herbal medicines are a source for anticancer drug discovery and drug development. Recently, research continuously focuses on clues from traditional use of herbal medicines to develop new anticancer drugs in single pure compounds. On the other hand, standardized various extracts or fractions with anticancer effects or with adjuvant therapy in cancer treatment coming from single or mixed herbs are also accepted forms as dietary supplements and botanical drug products in the US for current statutory regulations. In the present paper, we analyzed the patented agents in the US from herbal medicines in recent ten years, both as potential anticancer extracts/fractions (containing multi-components) and single pure compound(s) that act as new anticancer substances. This review also highlighted the advances in knowledge about quality control, safety, efficacy and recent progress in anticancer candidates in patents of botanical drug products from herbal medicines. © 2011 Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.postprin
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