182 research outputs found
Uticaj izveštaja Arčibalda Rajsa na zapadnoevropsko javno mnjenje o Srbiji tokom Prvog svetskog rata
U uvodnom delu članka analizirana je medijska slika o Srbiji uoči Prvog svetskog rata, a zatim sledi analiza okolnosti koje su prethodile dolasku Arčibalda Rajsa u Srbiju 1914. godine. Njegovo izveštavanje o Srbiji tokom Prvog svetskog rata podeljeno je na tri perioda: prvi – 1914. godina, drugi – 1915. godina i treći – od 1916. do 1918. godine. Istraživanjem se došlo do zaključka da je Arčibald Rajs svojim izveštajima objektivno informisao zapadnoevropsku javnost o zločinima koji su počinjeni nad Srbima, uticao na poboljšanje medijske slike o Srbiji, podstakao organizovanje humanitarne pomoći srpskom narodu i doprineo objašnjavanju srpskih ratnih ciljeva, što je veoma značajno kada se ima u vidu nizak ugled Srbije i srpskog naroda u štampi i javnom mnjenju Zapadne Evrope pre njegovog dolaska u Srbiju 1914. godine
NSCAT high-resolution surface wind measurements in Typhoon Violet
NASA scatterometer (NSCAT) measurements of the western Pacific Supertyphoon Violet are presented for revolutions 478 and 485 that occurred in September 1996. A tropical cyclone planetary boundary layer numerical, model, which uses conventional meteorological and geostationary cloud data, is used to estimate the winds at 10-m elevation in the cyclone. These model winds are then compared with the winds inferred from the NSCAT backscatter data by means of a novel approach that allows a wind speed to be recovered from each individual backscatter cell. This spatial adaptive (wind vector) retrieval algorithm employs several unique steps. The backscatter values are first regrouped in terms of closest neighbors in sets of four. The maximum likelihood estimates of speed and direction are then used to obtain speeds and directions for each group. Since the cyclonic flow around the tropical cyclone is known, NSCAT wind direction alias selection is easily accomplished. The selected wind directions are then used to convert each individual backscatter value to a wind speed. The results are compared to the winds obtained from the tropical cyclone boundary layer model. The NSCAT project baseline geophysical model function, NSCAT 1, was found to yield wind speeds that were systematically too low, even after editing for suspected rain areas of the cyclone. A new geophysical model function was developed using conventional NSCAT data and airborne Ku band scatterometer measurements in an Atlantic hurricane. This new model uses the neural network method and yields substantially better agreement with the winds obtained from the boundary layer model according to the statistical tests that were used
Effects of glucomannan-enriched, aronia juice-based supplement on cellular antioxidant enzymes and membrane lipid status in subjects with abdominal obesity
The aim of this study was to analyze the effects of a 4-week-long consumption of glucomannan-enriched, aronia juice-based supplement on anthropometric parameters, membrane fatty acid profile, and status of antioxidant enzymes in erythrocytes obtained from postmenopausal women with abdominal obesity. Twenty women aged 45-65 with a mean body mass index (BMI) of 36.1 ± 4.4 kg/m2 and waist circumference of 104.8 ± 10.1 cm were enrolled. Participants were instructed to consume 100 mL of supplement per day as part of their regular diet. A significant increase in the content of n-3 (P<0.05) polyunsaturated fatty acids in membrane phospholipids was observed, with a marked increase in the level of docosahexaenoic fatty acid (P<0.05). Accordingly, a decrease in the n-6 and n-3 fatty acids ratio was observed (P<0.05). The observed effects were accompanied with an increase in glutathione peroxidase activity (P<0.05). Values for BMI (P<0.001), waist circumference (P<0.001), and systolic blood pressure (P<0.05) were significantly lower after the intervention. The obtained results indicate a positive impact of tested supplement on cellular oxidative damage, blood pressure, and anthropometric indices of obesity. © 2014 Nevena Kardum et al
Vitamin D Status and Its Correlation With Anthropometric and Biochemical Indicators of Cardiometabolic Risk in Serbian Underground Coal Miners in 2016
The status of vitamin D in underground working coal miners and its association with their cardiometabolic health is rarely studied. This study aimed to examine vitamin D (VitD) status in Serbian underground coal miners and to correlate it with anthropometric and laboratory indicators of cardiometabolic risk. Nutritional data (food frequency questionnaire, FFQ, and two times repeated 24 h recall), anthropometric data (including segmental analysis by bio-impedance analyzer TANITA BC-545N), arterial tension, and biochemical and hematological data of 103 coal miners (aged 22–63 years) were correlated with their late summer (early September) serum 25 (OH)D levels (measured by HPLC). 68.9% of the studied coal miners were overweight/obese, and 48.5% had metabolic syndrome. Their mean VitD nutritional intakes were low: 5.3 ± 3.8 μg/day (FFQ) and 4.9 ± 8 μg/day (24 h recalls), but their mean serum 25 (OH)D levels were surprisingly high (143.7 ± 41.4 nmol/L). Only 2.9% of the coal miners had 25(OH)D levels lower than 75 nmol/L (indicating an insufficient/deficient status), while 63.2% had values above 125 nmol/L (upper optimal limit), and even 10.7% had values above 200 nmol/L. There were no statistical differences in 25 (OH)D levels in the coal miners with or without metabolic syndrome (or overweight/obesity). Interestingly, 25(OH)D levels had significant positive correlations with body mass index (BMI), fat mass (FM), fat mass percentage (FM%), limbs FM%, serum triglycerides, GGT, AST, ALT, and ALT/AST ratio, and had significant negative correlations with serum HDL-cholesterol and age. All these correlations were lost after corrections for age, FM, FM%, and legs FM%. In Serbian coal miners, high levels of early September VitD levels were observed, indicating sufficient non-working-hour sun exposure during the summer period. Furthermore, the unexpected positive correlations of VitD levels with anthropometric and biochemical parameters indicative of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and fatty liver disease were found. More research is needed on the VitD status of coal miners (particularly in the winter period) and its relationship with their cardiometabolic status
Vitamin D and cardio-metabolic biomarkers: small-scale comparative study between Libyan migrants and resident women in Serbia
Libyan women are at high risk of vitamin D deficiency, mostly due to their lifestyle and low exposure to sun. In the last decades, Libyan residents have been forced to seek refuge in countries such as Serbia, a country with high incidence of cardio-metabolic diseases. Serbian residents tend to be deficient in vitamin D, mostly due to the lack of vitamin D fortification policy. The aim of this study was to evaluate vitamin D status in Libyan adult women migrating to Serbia, with the assessment of cardio-metabolic and nutritional biomarkers, including erythrocytes fatty acid composition, magnesium concentration, and dietary intake. The same markers were measured in Serbian women, and comparisons between the groups were made. Despite low vitamin D dietary intake in both study groups, we observed lower plasma vitamin D status in Libyan women. This was accompanied by a significantly lower concentration of magnesium in Libyan women. Libyan women had significantly higher omega-3 index and lower n-6/n-3 ratio in erythrocytes' phospholipids. We observed significant negative correlation between vitamin D and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) concentrations in both study groups. Despite lower vitamin D status in the Libyan group, erythrocyte fatty acid composition, along with blood lipids' concentrations, indicated a lower cardiovascular risk. Based on our results, the discrepancy in the vitamin D status could not be ascribed to the participants' dietary intake of the micronutrient, rather is potentially associated with ethnic-specific cardio-metabolic profile, which should be confirmed in larger cohorts
Evaluation of CSF neurotransmitters and folate in 25 patients with Rett disorder and effects of treatment
Background: Rett disorder (RD) is a progressive neurodevelopmental entity caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene. It has been
postulated that there are alterations in the levels of certain neurotransmitters and folate in the pathogenesis of this disease. Here we
re-evaluated this hypothesis. Patients and methods: We evaluated CSF folate, biogenic amines and pterines in 25 RD patients. Treatment with oral folinic acid was started in those cases with low folate. Patients were clinically evaluated and videotaped up to 6
months after therapy. Results: CSF folate was below the reference values in 32% of the patients. Six months after treatment no clinical improvement was observed. Three of the four patients with the R294X mutation had increased levels of a dopamine metabolite
associated to a particular phenotype. Three patients had low levels of a serotonin metabolite. Two of them were treated with fluoxetine and one showed clinical improvement. No association was observed between CSF folate and these metabolites, after adjusting for the patients age and neopterin levels. Conclusion: Our results support that folinic acid supplementation has no significant
effects on the course of the disease. We report discrete and novel neurotransmitter abnormalities that may contribute to the pathogenesis of RD highlighting the need for further studies on CSF neurotransmitters in clinically and genetically well characterized
patients.Research in Rett syndrome is supported by FSE/FEDER and Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal), Grant No. POCTI 41416/2001
Results from the first use of low radioactivity argon in a dark matter search
Liquid argon is a bright scintillator with potent particle identification
properties, making it an attractive target for direct-detection dark matter
searches. The DarkSide-50 dark matter search here reports the first WIMP search
results obtained using a target of low-radioactivity argon. DarkSide-50 is a
dark matter detector, using two-phase liquid argon time projection chamber,
located at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. The underground argon is
shown to contain Ar-39 at a level reduced by a factor (1.4 +- 0.2) x 10^3
relative to atmospheric argon. We report a background-free null result from
(2616 +- 43) kg d of data, accumulated over 70.9 live-days. When combined with
our previous search using an atmospheric argon, the 90 % C.L. upper limit on
the WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross section based on zero events found in
the WIMP search regions, is 2.0 x 10^-44 cm^2 (8.6 x 10^-44 cm^2, 8.0 x 10^-43
cm^2) for a WIMP mass of 100 GeV/c^2 (1 TeV/c^2 , 10 TeV/c^2).Comment: Accepted by Phys. Rev.
The Hawthorne Effect: a randomised, controlled trial
Background: The 'Hawthorne Effect' may be an important factor affecting the generalisability of clinical research to routine practice, but has been little studied. Hawthorne Effects have been reported in previous clinical trials in dementia but to our knowledge, no attempt has been made to quantify them. Our aim was to compare minimal follow- up to intensive follow-up in participants in a placebo controlled trial of Ginkgo biloba for treating mild-moderate dementia.Methods: Participants in a dementia trial were randomised to intensive follow- up (with comprehensive assessment visits at baseline and two, four and six months post randomisation) or minimal follow-up (with an abbreviated assessment at baseline and a full assessment at six months). Our primary outcomes were cognitive functioning (ADAS-Cog) and participant and carer-rated quality of life (QOL-AD).Results: We recruited 176 participants, mainly through general practices. The main analysis was based on Intention to treat (ITT), with available data. In the ANCOVA model with baseline score as a co- variate, follow-up group had a significant effect on outcome at six months on the ADAS-Cog score (n = 140; mean difference = -2.018; 95% Cl -3.914, -0.121; p = 0.037 favouring the intensive follow-up group), and on participant- rated quality of life score (n = 142; mean difference = -1.382; 95% Cl -2.642, -0.122; p = 0.032 favouring minimal follow-up group). There was no significant difference on carer quality of life.Conclusion: We found that more intensive follow-up of individuals in a placebo-controlled clinical trial of Ginkgo biloba for treating mild-moderate dementia resulted in a better outcome than minimal follow-up, as measured by their cognitive functioning
Measurement of the Generalized Polarizabilities of the Proton in Virtual Compton Scattering
We propose to conduct a measurement of the Virtual Compton Scattering
reaction in Hall C that will allow the precise extraction of the two scalar
Generalized Polarizabilities (GPs) of the proton in the region of
to . The Generalized Polarizabilities
are fundamental properties of the proton, that characterize the system's
response to an external electromagnetic (EM) field. They describe how easily
the charge and magnetization distributions inside the system are distorted by
the EM field, mapping out the resulting deformation of the densities in the
proton. As such, they reveal unique information regarding the underlying system
dynamics and provide a key for decoding the proton structure in terms of the
theory of the strong interaction that binds its elementary quark and gluon
constituents together. Recent measurements of the proton GPs have challenged
the theoretical predictions, particularly in regard to the electric
polarizability. The magnetic GP, on the other hand, can provide valuable
insight to the competing paramagnetic and diamagnetic contributions in the
proton, but it is poorly known within the region where the interplay of these
processes is very dynamic and rapidly changing.The unique capabilities of Hall
C, namely the high resolution of the spectrometers combined with the ability to
place the spectrometers in small angles, will allow to pin down the dynamic
signature of the GPs through high precision measurements combined with a fine
mapping as a function of . The experimental setup utilizes standard Hall C
equipment, as was previously employed in the VCS-I (E12-15-001) experiment,
namely the HMS and SHMS spectrometers and a 10 cm liquid hydrogen target. A
total of 59 days of unpolarized 75 electron beam with energy of 1100
MeV (6 days) and 2200 MeV (53 days) is requested for this experiment
Using GANs for Sharing Networked Time Series Data: Challenges, Initial Promise, and Open Questions
Limited data access is a longstanding barrier to data-driven research and
development in the networked systems community. In this work, we explore if and
how generative adversarial networks (GANs) can be used to incentivize data
sharing by enabling a generic framework for sharing synthetic datasets with
minimal expert knowledge. As a specific target, our focus in this paper is on
time series datasets with metadata (e.g., packet loss rate measurements with
corresponding ISPs). We identify key challenges of existing GAN approaches for
such workloads with respect to fidelity (e.g., long-term dependencies, complex
multidimensional relationships, mode collapse) and privacy (i.e., existing
guarantees are poorly understood and can sacrifice fidelity). To improve
fidelity, we design a custom workflow called DoppelGANger (DG) and demonstrate
that across diverse real-world datasets (e.g., bandwidth measurements, cluster
requests, web sessions) and use cases (e.g., structural characterization,
predictive modeling, algorithm comparison), DG achieves up to 43% better
fidelity than baseline models. Although we do not resolve the privacy problem
in this work, we identify fundamental challenges with both classical notions of
privacy and recent advances to improve the privacy properties of GANs, and
suggest a potential roadmap for addressing these challenges. By shedding light
on the promise and challenges, we hope our work can rekindle the conversation
on workflows for data sharing.Comment: Published in IMC 2020. 20 pages, 26 figure
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