The Use of Palliative Performance Score in Patients with End-Stage Liver Disease

● Palliative Care services are often underutilized in patients with End-Stage Liver Disease (ESLD) and often only initiated at the end of life ● The Palliative Performance Score (PPS) is an important tool used in Palliative Care to assess functional status ● PPS has five functional dimensions: ambulation, activity level and evidence of disease, self-care, oral intake, and level of consciousness ● The aim of this study is to determine if there is a correlation between Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score and PPS in ESLD patients ● MELD is used to predict mortality and to prioritize liver transplant allocation in ESLD patientshttps://jdc.jefferson.edu/medposters/1011/thumbnail.jp

Challenges for the development of a biotic ligand model predicting copper toxicity in estuaries and seas

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2011 SETAC.An effort is ongoing to develop a biotic ligand model (BLM) that predicts copper (Cu) toxicity in estuarine and marine environments. At present, the BLM accounts for the effects of water chemistry on Cu speciation, but it does not consider the influence of water chemistry on the physiology of the organisms. We discuss how chemistry affects Cu toxicity not only by controlling its speciation, but also by affecting the osmoregulatory physiology of the organism, which varies according to salinity. In an attempt to understand the mechanisms of Cu toxicity and predict its impacts, we explore the hypothesis that the common factor linking the main toxic effects of Cu is the enzyme carbonic anhydrase (CA), because it is a Cu target with multiple functions and salinity-dependent expression and activity. According to this hypothesis, the site of action of Cu in marine fish may be not only the gill, but also the intestine, because in this tissue CA plays an important role in ion transport and water adsorption. Therefore, the BLM of Cu toxicity to marine fish should also consider the intestine as a biotic ligand. Finally, we underline the need to incorporate the osmotic gradient into the BLM calculations to account for the influence of physiology on Cu toxicity.Brunel Universit

Coupling strength control in photonic crystal/photonic wire multiple cavity devices

Resonance splitting has been demonstrated for two coupled micro-cavities with control of the free spectral range between the resonance peaks, together with a normalised transmission level of approximately 60%. Coupled micro-cavity-based structures that were separated by two closely spaced in-line coupler sections between the two micro-cavities have also been successfully fabricated and measured. The coupling strength of the two cavities was controlled via the use of hole tapering in the middle section between the two cavities. 2D finite-difference time-domain simulation shows close agreement with the results of measurements

Game Transfer Phenomena in video game playing: a qualitative interview study

Video game playing is a popular activity and its enjoyment among frequent players has been associated with absorption and immersion experiences. This paper examines how immersion in the video game environment can influence the player during the game and afterwards (including fantasies, thoughts, and actions). This is what we describe as Game Transfer Phenomena (GTP). GTP occurs when video game elements are associated with real life elements triggering subsequent thoughts, sensations and/or player actions. To investigate this further, a total of 42 frequent video game players aged between 15 and 21 years old were interviewed. Thematic analysis showed that many players experienced GTP, where players appeared to integrate elements of video game playing into their real lives. These GTP were then classified as either intentional or automatic experiences. Results also showed that players used video games for interacting with others as a form of amusement, modeling or mimicking video game content, and daydreaming about video games. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate how video games sometimes triggered intrusive thoughts, sensations, impulses, reflexes, optical illusions, and dissociations

A Nonsmooth Maximum Principle for Optimal Control Problems with State and Mixed Constraints-Convex Case

Here we derive a nonsmooth maximum principle for optimal control problems with both state and mixed constraints. Crucial to our development is a convexity assumption on the "velocity set". The approach consists of applying known penalization techniques for state constraints together with recent results for mixed constrained problems.Comment: Published in 'Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems, Vol. 2011, pp. 174-18

Advancing the performance of one-dimensional photonic crystal/photonic wire micro-cavities in silicon-on-insulator

We present new results that demonstrate advances in the performance achievable in photonic crystal/photonic wire micro-cavities. In one example, a quality-factor value as high as 147,000 has been achieved experimentally at a useful transmission level

Design and fabrication of high quality-factor 1-d photonic crystal/photonic wire extended microcavities

We have successfully demonstrated experimentally the fabrication and measurement of high quality-factor one-dimensional photonic crystal/photonic wire extended cavities based on silicon-on-insulator. The cavities that we have investigated ranged from 3 to 8 m in length. A quality-factor of nearly 74 000 was measured at a cavity length of 5 m through the use of tapering both within and outside the cavity, showing good agreement with the finite-difference time-domain simulation approach use

The Finslerian compact star model

We construct a toy model for compact stars based on the Finslerian structure of spacetime. By assuming a particular mass function, we find an exact solution of the Finsler-Einstein field equations with an anisotropic matter distribution. The solutions are revealed to be physically interesting and pertinent for the explanation of compact stars.Comment: Published in Eur.Phys.J.