4,379 research outputs found
Should Radiology IT be Owned by the Chief Information Officer?
Considerable debate within the medical community has focused on the optimal location of information technology (IT) support groups on the organizational chart. The challenge has been to marry local accountability and physician acceptance of IT with the benefits gained by the economies of scale achieved by centralized knowledge and system best practices. In the picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) industry, a slight shift has recently occurred toward centralized control. Radiology departments, however, have begun to realize that no physicians in any other discipline are as dependent on IT as radiologists are on their PACS. The potential strengths and weaknesses of centralized control of the PACS is the topic of discussion for this month’s Point/Counterpoint
Nonconservative Lagrangian mechanics II: purely causal equations of motion
This work builds on the Volterra series formalism presented in [D. W.
Dreisigmeyer and P. M. Young, J. Phys. A \textbf{36}, 8297, (2003)] to model
nonconservative systems. Here we treat Lagrangians and actions as `time
dependent' Volterra series. We present a new family of kernels to be used in
these Volterra series that allow us to derive a single retarded equation of
motion using a variational principle
Analysis of the Brinkman-Forchheimer equations with slip boundary conditions
In this work, we study the Brinkman-Forchheimer equations driven under slip
boundary conditions of friction type. We prove the existence and uniqueness of
weak solutions by means of regularization combined with the Faedo-Galerkin
approach. Next we discuss the continuity of the solution with respect to
Brinkman's and Forchheimer's coefficients. Finally, we show that the weak
solution of the corresponding stationary problem is stable
Homological Localisation of Model Categories
One of the most useful methods for studying the stable homotopy category is localising at some spectrum E. For an arbitrary stable model category we introduce a candidate
for the E–localisation of this model category. We study the properties of this new construction and relate it to some well–known categories
Striatal dopamine D₂/₃ receptors in medication-naïve schizophrenia: an [¹²³I] IBZM SPECT study
BACKGROUND: The hyper-function of the striatal dopamine system has been suggested to underlie key pathophysiological mechanisms in schizophrenia. Moreover, patients have been observed to present a significant elevation of dopamine receptor availability compared to healthy controls. Although it is difficult to measure dopamine levels directly in humans, neurochemical imaging techniques such as single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) provide indirect indices of in vivo dopamine synthesis and release, and putative synaptic levels. METHODS: We focused on the role of dopamine postsynaptic regulation using [123I] iodobenzamide (IBZM) SPECT. We compared D2/3 receptor availability between 53 healthy controls and 21 medication-naive patients with recent-onset schizophrenia. RESULT: The mean specific striatal binding showed no significant difference between patients and controls (estimated difference = 0.001; 95% CI -0.11 to 0.11; F = 0.00, df = 1, 69; p = 0.99). There was a highly significant effect of age whereby IBZM binding declined with advancing age [estimated change per decade of age = -0.01(binding ratio); 95% CI -0.01 to -0.004; F = 11.5, df = 1, 69; p = 0.001]. No significant correlations were found between the mean specific striatal binding and psychopathological or cognitive rating scores. CONCLUSIONS: Medication-naïve patients with recent-onset schizophrenia have similar D2/3 receptor availability to healthy controls. We suggest that, rather than focusing exclusively on postsynaptic receptors, future treatments should target the presynaptic control of dopamine synthesis and release
Discrete Information from CHL Black Holes
AdS_2/CFT_1 correspondence predicts that the logarithm of a Z_N twisted index
over states carrying a fixed set of charges grows as 1/N times the entropy of
the black hole carrying the same set of charges. In this paper we verify this
explicitly by calculating the microscopic Z_N twisted index for a class of
states in the CHL models. This demonstrates that black holes carry more
information about the microstates than just the total degeneracy.Comment: LaTeX file, 24 pages; v2: references adde
Determinants of Bone and Blood Lead Levels among Minorities Living in the Boston Area
We measured blood and bone lead levels among minority individuals who live in some of Boston’s neighborhoods with high minority representation. Compared with samples of predominantly white subjects we had studied before, the 84 volunteers in this study (33:67 male:female ratio; 31–72 years of age) had similar educational, occupational, and smoking profiles and mean blood, tibia, and patella lead levels (3 μg/dL, 11.9 μg/g, and 14.2 μg/g, respectively) that were also similar. The slopes of the univariate regressions of blood, tibia, and patella lead versus age were 0.10 μg/dL/year (p < 0.001), 0.45 μg/g/year (p < 0.001), and 0.73 μg/g/year (p < 0.001), respectively. Analyses of smoothing curves and regression lines for tibia and patella lead suggested an inflection point at 55 years of age, with slopes for subjects ≥ 55 years of age that were not only steeper than those of younger subjects but also substantially steeper than those observed for individuals > 55 years of age in studies of predominantly white participants. This apparent racial disparity at older ages may be related to differences in historic occupational and/or environmental exposures, or possibly the lower rates of bone turnover that are known to occur in postmenopausal black women. The higher levels of lead accumulation seen in this age group are of concern because such levels have been shown in other studies to predict elevated risks of chronic disease such as hypertension and cognitive dysfunction. Additional research on bone lead levels in minorities and their socioeconomic and racial determinants is needed
Stem cell delivery to kidney via minimally invasive ultrasound-guided renal artery injection in mice
Cell-based therapies are promising treatments for various kidney diseases. However, the major hurdle in initiating therapeutic responses is the inefficiency of injection routes to deliver cells to the kidney parenchyma. Systemic injection, such as intravenous injection only delivers a small proportion of cells to the kidney. Whereas direct delivery, such as renal artery injection requires surgical procedures. A minimally invasive renal artery injection was therefore developed to enhance cell delivery to kidney. In this study, luciferase expressing human adipocyte derived stem cells (ADSC) were labelled with gold nanorods (GNR) and injected into the renal artery using ultrasound guidance. The ADSCs were tracked using bioluminescence and photoacoustic imaging serially over 7 days. Imaging confirmed that the majority of signal was within the kidney, indicative of successful injection and that the cells remained viable for 3 days. Histology showed co-localization of GNRs with ADSC staining throughout the kidney with no indication of injury caused by injection. These findings demonstrate that ultrasound-guided renal artery injection is feasible in mice and can successfully deliver a large proportion of cells which are retained within the kidney for 3 days. Therefore, the techniques developed here will be useful for optimising cell therapy in kidney diseases
Zigzag-shaped nickel nanowires via organometallic template-free route
In this manuscript, the formation of nickel nanowires (average size: several tens to hundreds of μm long
and 1.0-1.5 μm wide) at low temperature is found to be driven by dewetting of liquid organometallic
precursors during spin coating process and by self-assembly of Ni clusters. Elaboration of metallic thin
films by low temperature deposition technique makes the preparation process compatible with most of the
substrates. The use of iron and cobalt precursor shows that the process could be extended to other metallic
systems. In this work, AFM and SEM are used to follow the assembly of Ni clusters into straight or
zigzag lines. The formation of zigzag structure is specific to the Ni precursor at appropriate preparation
parameters. This template free process allows a control of anisotropic structures with homogeneous sizes
and angles on standard Si/SiO2 surface
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