40,239 research outputs found
Impacts of User Education on Usersâ Awareness, Accessibility and Use of Information Resources and Services in Federal Polytechnic Ede Library, Osun State, Nigeria
This study investigated the impacts of user education on usersâ awareness, accessibility and use of information resources and services in Federal Polytechnic Ede Library. The study employed a survey research design. The population of this study consisted of all registered student users of the library totaling 6,000; 10% of the entire population amounting 600 was used for the study. The random sampling technique was adopted. Structured questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. Out of the 600 copies of questionnaire distributed, 517 (86.2%) were retrieved and found valid for analysis. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation. The findings of the study show that, user education programmes of the library do not have any significant impact on the usersâ awareness, accessibility and utilization of the collections and services in the library due to several challenges among which are; over dependence on one day orientation and lack of examinable library instruction. It was therefore recommended among others, that the Polytechnic Library Management should liaise with the Management of the Institution to ensure immediate commencement of âuse of libraryâ as a compulsory, credit-bearing and examinable course for all new students of the institution
Treatment responses to antiangiogenetic therapy and chemotherapy in nonsecreting paraganglioma (PGL4) of urinary bladder with SDHB mutation: a case report
Paraganglioma (PGL) is a rare neuroendocrine tumor. Currently, the malignancy is defined as the presence of metastatic spread at presentation or during follow-up. Several gene mutations are listed in the pathogenesis of PGL, among which succinate dehydrogenase (SDHX), particularly the SDHB isoform, is the main gene involved in malignancy. A 55-year-old male without evidence of catecholamine secretion had surgery for PGL of the urinary bladder. After 1 year, he showed a relapse of disease and demonstrated malignant PGL without evidence of catecholamine secretion with a germline heterozygous mutation of succinate dehydrogenase B (SDHB). After failure of a second surgery for relapse, he started medical treatment with sunitinib daily but discontinued due to serious side effects. Cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and dacarbazine (CVD) chemotherapeutic regimen stopped the disease progression for 7 months.
Conclusion: Malignant PGL is a very rare tumor, and SDHB mutations must be always considered in molecular diagnosis because they represent a critical event in the progression of the oncological disease. Currently, there are few therapeutic protocols, and it is often difficult, as this case demonstrates, to decide on a treatment option according to a reasoned set of choices.
Abbreviations: CVD = cyclophosphamide, vincristine and dacarbazine, HIF-1a = hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha, PGL = paraganglioma, SDH = succinate dehydrogenase, VEGF = vasoendothelial growth factor
Carcinoma cells activate AMP-activated protein kinase-dependent autophagy as survival response to kaempferol-mediated energetic impairment.
Kaempferol, a dietary cancer chemopreventive polyphenol, has been reported to trigger apoptosis in several tumor histotypes, but the mechanism underlying this phenomenon is not fully understood. Here, we demonstrate that in HeLa cells, kaempferol induces energetic failure due to inhibition of both glucose uptake and Complex I of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. As adaptive response, cells activate autophagy, the occurrence of which was established cytofluorometrically, upon acridine orange staining, and immunochemically, by following the increase of the autolysosome-associated form of the microtubule-associated protein light chain 3 (LC3-II). Autophagy is an early and reversible process occurring as survival mechanisms against apoptosis. Indeed, chemical inhibition of autophagy, by incubations with monensin, wortmannin, 3-methyladenine, or by silencing Atg5, significantly increases the extent of apoptosis, which takes place via the mitochondrial pathway, and shortens the time in which the apoptotic markers are detectable. We also demonstrate that autophagy depends on the early activation of the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)/mTOR-mediated pathway. The overexpression of dominant negative AMPK results in a decrease of autophagic cells, a decrement of LC3-II levels, and a significant increase of apoptosis. Experiments performed with another carcinoma cell line yielded the same results, suggesting for kaempferol a unique mechanism of action
exploring knowledge, risk perception, and sexual behaviors
High circular mobility creates vulnerability and elevates risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). We aim to explore knowledge, perceptions of risk, and sexual behaviors in relation to STIs/HIV, in Mozambican women involved in an informal cross border trade (ICBT) and residing in South Mozambique. A cross-sectional quantitative study, in 200 women cross border traders (WICBT), affiliated to the Mukhero Association, using a structured, face-to-face questionnaire, was conducted. Descriptive statistics and Pearsonâs Chi-square test were used. The median age of participants was 37.0 years (interquartile range (IQR): 31.0â43.0), 100% were literate, travelled on average six times a month. WICBT with a high education level were more likely to have awareness of Gonorrhea, Syphilis, and Candidiasis; to self-perceive being at risk of getting HIV, Syphilis, and Human Papilloma Virus (HPV); and to test for HIV and Syphilis. Those with a low education level were more likely to have misconceptions about HIV and ever have sex in exchange for money/goods/services. Married participants were more likely to know how to prevent HIV. Participants with a high income were more likely to know about HPV; to self-perceive being at risk of getting Syphilis; to point sex workers as being at higher risk of getting HPV; and to ever test for HIV. WICBT with a low income were more likely to have sex in exchange for money/goods/services. Low and inconsistent knowledge and misconceptions of STIs/HIV, high sexual risky behavior, low perception of risk of getting STIs/HIV among this neglected and key population suggests their increased vulnerability to the STIs/HIV.publishersversionpublishe
Presentations: from Kac-Moody groups to profinite and back
We go back and forth between, on the one hand, presentations of arithmetic
and Kac-Moody groups and, on the other hand, presentations of profinite groups,
deducing along the way new results on both
Scalar form factors and nuclear interactions
The scalar-isoscalar term in the two-pion exchange potential is
abnormally large and does not respect the hierarchy of effects predicted by
chiral perturbation theory. We argue that this anomaly is associated with
non-perturbative effects, which are also present in the scalar form
factor.Comment: Talk given at the 20EFB, Pisa, Italy, September 2007. 3 pages and 4
figure
Effects of experimental insoles on body posture, mandibular kinematics and masticatory muscles activity. A pilot study in healthy volunteers
BACKGROUND:
It has been hypothesized that different plantar sensory inputs could influence the whole body posture and dental occlusion but there is a lack of evidence on this possible association.
OBJECTIVES:
To investigate the effects of experimental insoles redistributing plantar pressure on body posture, mandibular kinematics and electromyographic (EMG) activity of masticatory muscles on healthy subjects.
METHODS:
A pilot study was conducted on 19 healthy volunteers that wore custom-made insoles normalizing the plantar pressure distribution for 2 weeks. Body posture parameters were measured by means of an optoelectronic stereophotogrammetric analysis; mandibular kinematics was analyzed by means of gothic arch tracings; superficial EMG activity of head and neck muscles was performed. Measurements were carried out 10 days before the insertion of the insoles, immediately before the insertion, the day after, 7 and 14 days after, in four different exteroceptive conditions.
RESULTS:
The outcomes of the present study show that insoles do not modify significantly over time the parameters of body posture, SEMG activity of head and neck muscles and mandibular kinematics.
CONCLUSIONS:
In this pilot study the experimental insoles did not significantly influence the body posture, the mandibular kinematics and the activity of masticatory muscles during a 14-day follow up perio
Fractional branes, warped compactifications and backreacted orientifold planes
The standard extremal p-brane solutions in supergravity are known to allow
for a generalisation which consists of adding a linear dependence on the
world-volume coordinates to the usual harmonic function. In this note we
demonstrate that remarkably this generalisation goes through in exactly the
same way for p-branes with fluxes added to it that correspond to fractional
p-branes. We relate this to warped orientifold compactifications by trading the
Dp-branes for Op-planes that solve the RR tadpole condition. This allows us to
interpret the worldvolume dependence as due to lower-dimensional scalars that
flow along the massless directions in the no-scale potential. Depending on the
details of the fluxes these flows can be supersymmetric domain wall flows. Our
solutions provide explicit examples of backreacted orientifold planes in
compactifications with non-constant moduli.Comment: 20 pages, incl. references. v2: small changes required for JHEP
publication. v3: few equation typos correcte
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