Small-Angle Scattering and Diffusion: Application to Relativistic Shock Acceleration

We investigate ways of accurately simulating the propagation of energetic charged particles over small times where the standard Monte Carlo approximation to diffusive transport breaks down. We find that a small-angle scattering procedure with appropriately chosen step-lengths and scattering angles gives accurate results, and we apply this to the simulation of propagation upstream in relativistic shock acceleration.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, proceedings of World Space Environment Forum (WSEF2002) to appear in Space Science Reviews, accepte

Tingkat Pengetahuan Keluarga Tentang Gastritis pada Lansia di Desa Ngaban Rw 04, Tanggulangin, Sidoarjo

Introduction. Lansia merupakan istilah tahap akhir dari proses penuaan, akibat proses ini lansia mengalami kemunduran, kelemahan manusiawi dan sosial. Gastritis merupakan salah satu penyakit yang terjadi pada lansia pada sistem pencernaan. Gastritis adalah suatu proses inflamasi pada lapisan mukosa dan submukosa lambung. Insiden gastritis meningkat dengan lanjutnya proses menua. Methods. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui tingkat pengetahuan keluarga lansia tentang gastritis pada lansia di Desa Ngaban RW 04 Tanggulangin. Desain dalam penelitian ini adalah deskriptif, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menggambarkan tingkat pengetahuan keluarga lansia tentang gastritis pada lansia di Desa Ngaban RW 04 Tanggulangin Sidoarjo, sampel sebanyak 35 responden diambil dengan tekhnik total sampling. Data diperoleh dengan menggunakan kuesioner tertutup skala ordinal. Setelah data terkumpul selanjutnya dilakukan pengolahan data dengan menggunakan cara editing, scoring, dan tabulating. Results. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa lebih dari setengah sebanyak 21 orang (60%) mengalami pengetahuan cukup. Discussion. Untuk itu diharapkan pelayanan kesehatan di Desa Ngaban diadakan pendidikan kesehatan atau penyuluhan tentang gastritis pada lansia sehingga dapat menambah pengetahuan keluarga tetntang gastritis pada lansia

New perspectives on the potential role of aquaporins (AQPs) in the physiology of inflammation

Aquaporins (AQPs) are emerging, in the last few decades, as critical proteins regulating water fluid homeostasis in cells involved in inflammation. AQPs represent a family of ubiquitous membrane channels that regulate osmotically water flux in various tissues and sometimes the transport of small solutes, including glycerol. Extensive data indicate that AQPs, working as water channel proteins, regulate not only cell migration, but also common events essential for inflammatory response. The involvement of AQPs in several inflammatory processes, as demonstrated by their dysregulation both in human and animal diseases, identifies their new role in protection and response to different noxious stimuli, including bacterial infection. This contribution could represent a new key to clarify the dilemma of host-pathogen communications, and opens up new scenarios regarding the investigation of the modulation of specific AQPs, as target for new pharmacological therapies. This review provides updated information on the underlying mechanisms of AQPs in the regulation of inflammatory responses in mammals and discusses the broad spectrum of options that can be tailored for different diseases and their pharmacological treatment

Software development effort estimation using function points and simpler functional measures: a comparison

Background-Functional Size Measures are widely used for estimating the development effort of software. After the introduction of Function Points, a few "simplified"measures have been proposed, aiming to make measurement simpler and quicker, but also to make measures applicable when fully detailed software specifications are not yet available. It has been shown that, in general, software size measures expressed in Function Points do not support more accurate effort estimation with respect to simplified measures. Objective-Many practitioners believe that when considering "complex"projects, i.e., project that involve many complex transactions and data, traditional Function Points measures support more accurate estimates than simpler functional size measures that do not account for greater-Then-Average complexity. In this paper, we aim to produce evidence that confirms or disproves such belief. Method-Based on a dataset that contains both effort and size data, an empirical study is performed, to provide some evidence concerning the relations that link functional size (measured in different ways) and development effort. Results-Our analysis shows that there is no statistically significant evidence that Function Points are generally better at estimating more complex projects than simpler measures. Function Points appeared better in some specific conditions, but in those conditions they also performed worse than simpler measures when dealing with less complex projects. Conclusions-Traditional Function Points do not seem to effectively account for software complexity. To improve effort estimation, researchers should probably dedicate their effort to devise a way of measuring software complexity that can be used in effort models together with (traditional or simplified) functional size measures

Estimating functional size of software with confidence intervals

In many projects, software functional size is measured via the IFPUG (International Function Point Users Group) Function Point Analysis method. However, applying Function Point Analysis using the IFPUG process is possible only when functional user requirements are known completely and in detail. To solve this problem, several early estimation methods have been proposed and have become de facto standard processes. Among these, a prominent one is the ‘NESMA (Netherlands Software Metrics Association) estimated’ (also known as High-level Function Point Analysis) method. The NESMA estimated method simplifies the measurement by assigning fixed weights to Base Functional Components, instead of determining the weights via the detailed analysis of data and transactions. This makes the process faster and cheaper, and applicable when some details concerning data and transactions are not yet known. The accuracy of the mentioned method has been evaluated, also via large-scale empirical studies, showing that the yielded approximate measures are sufficiently accurate for practical usage. However, a limitation of the method is that it provides a specific size estimate, while other methods can provide confidence intervals, i.e., they indicate with a given confidence level that the size to be estimated is in a range. In this paper, we aim to enhance the NESMA estimated method with the possibility of computing a confidence interval. To this end, we carry out an empirical study, using data from real-life projects. The proposed approach appears effective. We expect that the possibility to estimate that the size of an application is in a range will help project managers deal with the risks connected with inevitable estimation errors

Using locally weighted regression to estimate the functional size of software: a preliminary study

In software engineering, measuring software functional size via the IFPUG (International Function Point Users Group) Function Point Analysis using the standard manual process can be a long and expensive activity. To solve this problem, several early estimation methods have been proposed and have become de facto standard processes. Among these, a prominent one is High-level Function Point Analysis. Recently, the Simple Function Point method has been released by IFPUG; although it is a proper measurement method, it has a great level of convertibility to traditional Function Points and may be used as an estimation method. Both High-level Function Point Analysis and Simple Function Point skip the difficult and time-consuming activities needed to weight data and transaction functions. This makes the process faster and cheaper, but yields approximate measures. The accuracy of the mentioned method has been evaluated, also via large-scale empirical studies, showing that the yielded approximate measures are sufficiently accurate for practical usage. In this paper, locally weighted regression is applied to the problem outlined above. This empirical study shows that estimates obtained via locally weighted regression are more accurate than those obtained via High-level Function Point Analysis, but are not substantially better than those yielded by alternative estimation methods using linear regression. The Simple Function Point method appears to yield measures that are well correlated with those obtained via standard measurement. In conclusion, locally weighted regression appears to be effective and accurate enough for estimating software functional size

Aquaporins in health and disease: An overview focusing on the gut of different species

Aquaporins (AQPs) play a pivotal role in gut homeostasis since their distribution and function is modulated both in physiological and in pathophysiological conditions. The transport of water and solutes through gut epithelia is essential for osmoregulation and digestive and absorptive functions. This passage is regulated by different AQP isoforms and characterized by their peculiar distribution in the gastrointestinal tract. To date, AQP localization has been identified in the gut and associated organs of several mammalian species by different techniques (immunohistochemical, western blotting, and RT-PCR). The present review describes the modulation of AQP expression, distribution, and function in gut pathophysiology. At the same time, the comparative description of AQP in animal species sheds light on the full range of AQP functions and the screening of their activity as transport modulators, diagnostic biomarkers, and drug targets. Moreover, the phenotype of knockout mice for several AQPs and their compensatory role and the use of specific AQP inhibitors have been also reviewed. The reported data could be useful to design future research in both basic and clinical fields

Protective Immunity against Infection with <i>Mycoplasma haemofelis</i>

Hemoplasmas are potentially zoonotic mycoplasmal pathogens, which are not consistently cleared by antibiotic therapy. Mycoplasma haemofelis is the most pathogenic feline hemoplasma species. The aim of this study was to determine how cats previously infected with M. haemofelis that had recovered reacted when rechallenged with M. haemofelis and to characterize the immune response following de novo M. haemofelis infection and rechallenge. Five specific-pathogen-free (SPF)-derived naive cats (group A) and five cats that had recovered from M. haemofelis infection (group B) were inoculated subcutaneously with M. haemofelis. Blood M. haemofelis loads were measured by quantitative PCR (qPCR), antibody response to heat shock protein 70 (DnaK) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), blood lymphocyte cell subtypes by flow cytometry, and cytokine mRNA levels by quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR. Group A cats all became infected with high bacterial loads and seroconverted, while group B cats were protected from reinfection, thus providing the unique opportunity to study the immunological parameters associated with this protective immune response against M. haemofelis. First, a strong humoral response to DnaK was only observed in group A, demonstrating that an antibody response to DnaK is not important for protective immunity. Second, proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) mRNA levels appeared to increase rapidly postinoculation in group B, indicating a possible role in protective immunity. Third, an increase in IL-12p35 and -p40 mRNA and decrease in the Th2/Th1 ratio observed in group A suggest that a Th1-type response is important in primary infection. This is the first study to demonstrate protective immunity against M. haemofelis reinfection, and it provides important information for potential future hemoplasma vaccine design

Improving Rigid 3-D Calibration for Robotic Surgery

Autonomy is the next frontier of research in robotic surgery and its aim is to improve the quality of surgical procedures in the next future. One fundamental requirement for autonomy is advanced perception capability through vision sensors. In this article, we propose a novel calibration technique for a surgical scenario with a da Vinci Research Kit (dVRK) robot. Camera and robotic arms calibration are necessary to precise position and emulate expert surgeon. The novel calibration technique is tailored for RGB-D cameras. Different tests performed on relevant use cases prove that we significantly improve precision and accuracy with respect to state of the art solutions for similar devices on a surgical-size setups. Moreover, our calibration method can be easily extended to standard surgical endoscope used in real surgical scenario

Does Ménière's Disease in the Elderly Present Some Peculiar Features?

Object. Aim of our study was to establish some peculiar features of Ménière's Disease (MD) in a group of elderly MD patients, in which the first vertigo spell happened when over 65 years old. Material and Methods. We analyzed a group of 73 younger than 65-years-old and a group of 30 elderly MD patients. All patients underwent a neurotological evaluation, an anamnestic evaluation including a lifetime history of migraine, and blood withdrawal for autoantibody screening. Results. Some differences were found between elderly and younger MD patients. Elderly MD patients presented a higher prevalence of Tumarkin attacks and a lower prevalence of lifetime history of migraine; moreover, they presented a faster develop of hearing loss and vertigo spells than a subgroup of 32 younger patients matched for the duration of illness. Conclusions. Some clinical features of MD in elderly have been pointed out. Particularly, the lower rate of migrainous history and positivity for autoantibodies often associated with MD, in our opinion, support the hypothesis of a vascular disorder acting as a predisposing factor for MD in elderly