Identifying the critical success factors for relationship management in PPP projects

postprin

Factorial structure of the Chinese version of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire in adolescents

Aims. To evaluate the underlying factor structure of the Chinese version of General Health Questionnaire-12 using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in Chinese adolescents and find out which factor model proposed by previous empirical research is the best-fit model. Background. The 12-item General Health Questionnaire has been extensively used with adolescents in the West. Yet, it has not been used with adolescents in a Hong Kong Chinese context. Design. A cross-sectional study was employed. Method. Chinese students between the ages of 12-19 from four secondary schools were invited to participate in the study using the multiple-stage stratified random sampling method during the period from December 2007-February, 2008. The total sample size included in the final analysed was 1883. Results. The General Health Questionnaire-12 was found to be internally consistent. The results of exploratory factor analysis showed that there are two factors underlying the General Health Questionnaire-12. Of nine factor models were tested by means of confirmatory factor analysis, only three factor model: the eight-item two-factor model, 12-item three-factor model and 10-item two-factor model, demonstrated good model fit across all model fit indices. Conclusion. This study addressed a gap in the literature by evaluating the factorial structure of the Chinese version of General Health Questionnaire-12 using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in Chinese adolescents. The findings revealed that the eight-item two-factor model is the best-fit model. Relevance to clinical practice. The adolescent mental health problem is alarming and aggravating and warrants special attention. It is essential for community nurses to differentiate psychological distress in adolescents and to identify those adolescents who are at a higher risk of suffering from mental health problems. The availability of a valid and reliable instrument that measures adolescents' psychological distress is crucial before any nursing interventions to promote their mental health can be appropriately planned, implemented and evaluated. © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.postprin

Airway Smooth Muscle Inflammation Is Regulated by MicroRNA-145 in COPD.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common, highly debilitating disease of the airways, primarily caused by smoking. Chronic inflammation and structural remodelling are key pathological features of this disease, in part caused by the aberrant function of airway smooth muscle (ASM) cells under the regulation of transforming growth factor (TGF)-β. MicroRNAs are short, non-coding gene transcripts involved in the negative regulation of specific target genes, through their interactions with messenger RNAs. Previous studies have proposed that microRNA-145 (miR-145) may interact with SMAD3, an important downstream signalling molecule of the TGF-β pathway. TGF-β was used to stimulate primary human ASM cells isolated from healthy non-smokers, healthy smokers and COPD patients. This resulted in a TGF-β-dependent increase in CXCL8 and IL-6 release, most notably in the cells from COPD patients. TGF-β stimulation increased SMAD3 expression, only in cells from COPD patients, with a concurrent increased miR-145 expression. Regulation of miR-145 was found to be negatively controlled by pathways involving the MAP kinases, MEK-1/2 and p38 MAPK. Subsequent, overexpression of miR-145 (using synthetic mimics) in ASM cells from patients with COPD suppressed IL-6 and CXCL8 release, to levels comparable to the non-smoker controls. Therefore, this study suggests that miR-145 negatively regulates pro-inflammatory cytokine release from ASM cells in COPD by targeting SMAD3

Ductile silica/methacrylate hybrids for bone regeneration

Bioglass® was the first synthetic material capable of bonding with bone without fibrous encapsulation, and fulfils some of the criteria of an ideal synthetic bone graft. However, it is brittle and toughness is required. Here, we investigated hybrids consisting of co-networks of high cross-linking density polymethacrylate and silica (class II hybrid) as a potential new generation of scaffold materials. Poly(3-(methoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate) (pTMSPMA) and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) were used as sol–gel precursors and hybrids were synthesised with different inorganic to organic ratios (Ih). The hybrids were nanoporous, with a modal pore diameter of 1 nm. At Ih = 50%, the release of silica was controlled by varying the molecular weight of pTMSPMA while retaining a specific surface area above 100 m2 g−1. Strain to failure increased to 14.2%, for Ih = 50% using a polymer of 30 kDa, compared to 4.5% for pure glass. The modulus of toughness (UT) increased from 0.73 (pure glass) to 2.64 GPa. Although, the hybrid synthesised in this report did not contain calcium, pTMSPMA/SiO2 hybrid was found to nucleate bone-like mineral on its surface after 1 week of immersion in simulated body fluid (SBF), whereas pure silica sol–gel glass did not. This increase in apatite forming ability was due to the ion–dipole complexation of calcium with the ester moieties of the polymer that were exposed after release of soluble silica from TEOS. No adverse cytotoxicity for MC3T3-E1 osteoblast-like cells was detected and improved cell attachment was observed, compared to a pure silica gel. pTMSPMA/SiO2 hybrids have potential for the regeneration of hard tissue as they overcome the major drawbacks of pure inorganic substrates while retaining cell attachment

Patient complexity and genotype-phenotype correlations in biliary atresia: a cross-sectional analysis

published_or_final_versio

DNA methylation modules in airway smooth muscle are associated with asthma severity

Abnormal DNA methylation patterns distinguish airway smooth muscle cell function in asthma and asthma severity

Fast multipole networks

Two prerequisites for robotic multiagent systems are mobility and communication. Fast multipole networks (FMNs) enable both ends within a unified framework. FMNs can be organized very efficiently in a distributed way from local information and are ideally suited for motion planning using artificial potentials. We compare FMNs to conventional communication topologies, and find that FMNs offer competitive communication performance (including higher network efficiency per edge at marginal energy cost) in addition to advantages for mobility

Early detection of neurodegeneration in brain ischemia by manganese-enhanced MRI

This study aims to employ in vivo manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI) to detect neurodegenerative changes in two models of brain ischemia, photothrombotic cortical injury (PCI) and transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in rodents. After systemic Mn 2+ injection to both ischemic models, a close pattern of Tl-weighted hyperintensity was observed throughout different brain regions in comparison to the distribution of GFAP, MnSOD and GS immunoreactivities, whereby conventional MRI could hardly detect such. In addition, the infarct volumes in the posterior parts of the brain had significantly reduced after Mn 2+ injection to the MCAO model. It is suggested that exogenous Mn 2+ injection may provide enhanced MEMRI detection of oxidative stress and gliosis early after brain ischemia. Manganese may also mediate infarctions at remote brain regions in transient focal cerebral ischemia before delayed secondary damage takes place. © 2008 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe 30th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) 2008, Vancouver, BC., 20-25 August 2008. in Proceedings of the 30th EMBS, 2008, p. 3884-388