Resting-state abnormalities in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: a meta-analysis

published_or_final_versio

Toward a university-community-school partnership model - the experience of child development fund

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Moderating Effects of Cortisol on Neural-Cognitive Association in Cognitively Normal Elderly Subjects

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A comparative study of the quality of life of patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and terminal cancer

2005-2006 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Stem cell therapy for the treatment of early stage avascular necrosis of the femoral head: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: Avascular necrosis (AVN) of the femoral head (FH) is believed to be caused by a multitude of etiologic factors and is associated with significant morbidity in younger populations. Eventually, the disease progresses and results in FH collapse. Thus, a focus on early disease management aimed at joint preservation by preventing or delaying progression is key. The use of stem cells (SC) for the treatment of AVN of the FH has been proposed. We undertook a systematic review of the medical literature examining the use of SC for the treatment of early stage (precollapse) AVN of the FH, in both pre-clinical and clinical studies. METHODS: Data collected included: Pre-clinical studies – model of AVN, variety and dosage of SC, histologic and imaging analyses. Clinical studies – study design, classification and etiology of AVN, SC dosage and treatment protocol, incidence of disease progression, patient reported outcomes, volume of necrotic lesion and hip survivorship. RESULTS: In pre-clinical studies, the use of SC uniformly demonstrated improvements in osteogenesis and angiogenesis, yet source of implanted SC was variable. In clinical studies, groups treated with SC showed significant improvements in patient reported outcomes; however hip survivorship was not affected. Discrepancies regarding dose of SC, AVN etiology and disease severity were present. CONCLUSIONS: Routine use of this treatment method will first require further research into dose and quality optimization as well as confirmed improvements in hip survivorship

Software Sustainability: The Modern Tower of Babel

The development of sustainable software has been identified as one of the key challenges in the field of computational science and engineering. However, there is currently no agreed definition of the concept. Current definitions range from a composite, non-functional requirement to simply an emergent property. This lack of clarity leads to confusion, and potentially to ineffective and inefficient efforts to develop sustainable software systems. The aim of this paper is to explore the emerging definitions of software sustainability from the field of software engineering in order to contribute to the question, what is software sustainability? The preliminary analysis suggests that the concept of software sustainability is complex and multifaceted with any consensus towards a shared definition within the field of software engineering yet to be achieved

Tailoring degree of esterification and branching of poly(glycerol sebacate) by energy efficient microwave irradiation

Poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS) is known as an exciting biomaterial owing to its tunable mechanical properties and controllable degradation rate. However, it is always challenging to control these properties. In this study, we have proposed a solvent-based system to provide a better control of reaction temperature in a microwave cavity, which can minimize evaporation of monomers, and water was collected to analyse the degree of esterification. Pre-PGSs with varied degrees of esterification were prepared using both single mode and multimode microwave cavity irradiation (MI) in this solvent-based reaction system. For a similar degree of esterification of pre-PGSs, the reaction time was almost halved with a better control on mechanical properties by single mode MI compared to multimode MI. Furthermore, the single mode MI approach was compared with the conventional heating (CH) approach. The mechanical properties and degradation rate of PGSs can be controlled readily by using the single mode MI approach compared to CH, which are crucial for their application as a biomaterial. It has been found that the single mode MI not only accelerates the pre-polymerisation process rate by six times, but also speeds up the curing time to the same extent. The Young's modulus of PGSs prepared by single mode MI is increased from 0.77 to 3.14 MPa when the degree of esterification is 66.82%, which is 50% higher than that reported in the literature. Furthermore, PGS using a highly branched pre-PGS prepared by the single mode MI method has a large degree of flexibility. It can achieve a much higher Young's modulus than that obtained by CH with a short curing time (<10 hours). In addition, the residual mass of PGSs prepared by single mode MI is varied from 78.54% to 92.96% compared to the CH method that ranges from 84.24% to 93.31%. Thus, these highly branched PGSs produced by single mode MI also show a wider degradation window (approximately 59% higher degree of flexibility than the CH method), which is found to be highly dependent on the degree of esterification and curing time of the pre-polymer, and controlled by branching

Synthesis and molecular structures of monooxo aryl complexes of osmium(VI)

Reaction of [OsO4] with C7H7MgBr (C7H7 = 2-methylphenyl) followed by column chromatography afforded the reported osmium tetraaryl [Os(C7H7)4] along with the oxo-osmium(VI) ([OsO(C7H7)4]) (1) (13%) and the dioxoosmium(VI) ([OsO2(C7H7)2]) (2) (25%) complexes. Treatment of [OsO4] with C8H9MgBr (C8H9 = 2,5-dimethylphenyl) gave a mixture of [Os(C8H9)4] (3) (34%) and [OsO(C8H9)4] (4) (4%) while that with C8H9OMgBr (C8H9O = 4-methoxy-2-methylphenyl) afforded [OsO(C8H9O)4] (5) in 20% yield. Oxidation of 3 with 3-chloroperoxybenzoic acid afforded 4 in good yield. The solid-state structures of 1 and 4 have been established by X-ray crystallography. Crystals of 1 are tetragonal with a = 13.080(1) and c = 6.6506(5) Å, V = 1137.9(1) Å3, Z = 2, and space group of P4/n; while those of 4 are tetragonal with a = 13.593(2) and c = 7.377(2) Å, V = 1363.0(5) Å3, Z = 4, and space group of P4/n. The geometry around osmium in both complexes is square pyramidal with the oxo ligand occupying apical position. The Os - O and Os - C distances in 1 are 1.652(2) and 2.084(1) Å, respectively, while those in 4 are 1.688(7) and 2.088(4) Å, respectively. The cyclic voltammograms of the monooxo aryl osmium(VI) compounds show reversible Os(VI/V) couple at around -1.4 V vs. ferrocene/ferrocenium couple.published_or_final_versio

Effect of anthropogenic sulphate aerosol in China on the drought in the western-to-central US

In recent decades, droughts have occurred in the western-to-central United States (US), significantly affecting food production, water supplies, ecosystem health, and the propagation of vector-borne diseases. Previous studies have suggested natural sea surface temperature (SST) forcing in the Pacific as the main driver of precipitation deficits in the US. Here, we show that the aerosol forcing in China, which has been known to alter the regional hydrological cycle in East Asia, may also contribute to reducing the precipitation in the western-to-central US through atmospheric teleconnections across the Pacific. Our model experiments show some indications that both the SST forcing and the increase in regional sulphate forcing in China play a similar role in modulating the western-to-central US precipitation, especially its long-term variation. This result indicates that regional air quality regulations in China have important implications for hydrological cycles in East Asia, as well as in the USopen1