800 research outputs found
Propagating Torsion in 3D-Gravity and Dynamical Mass Generation
In this paper, fermions are minimally coupled to 3D-gravity where a dynamical
torsion is introduced. A Kalb-Ramond field is non-minimally coupled to these
fermions in a gauge-invariant way. We show that a 1-loop mass generation
mechanism takes place for both the 2-form gauge field and the torsion. As for
the fermions, no mass is dynamically generated: at 1-loop, there is only a mass
shift proportional to the Yukawa coupling whenever the fermions have a
non-vanishing tree-level mass.Comment: 13 pages, latex file, no figures, some corrections adde
Coronary-artery bypass surgery in patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy
BACKGROUND
The survival benefit of a strategy of coronary-artery bypass grafting (CABG) added to
guideline-directed medical therapy, as compared with medical therapy alone, in patients
with coronary artery disease, heart failure, and severe left ventricular systolic
dysfunction remains unclear.
METHODS
From July 2002 to May 2007, a total of 1212 patients with an ejection fraction of 35%
or less and coronary artery disease amenable to CABG were randomly assigned to
undergo CABG plus medical therapy (CABG group, 610 patients) or medical therapy
alone (medical-therapy group, 602 patients). The primary outcome was death from any
cause. Major secondary outcomes included death from cardiovascular causes and death
from any cause or hospitalization for cardiovascular causes. The median duration of
follow-up, including the current extended-follow-up study, was 9.8 years.
RESULTS
A primary outcome event occurred in 359 patients (58.9%) in the CABG group and in
398 patients (66.1%) in the medical-therapy group (hazard ratio with CABG vs. medical
therapy, 0.84; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.73 to 0.97; P=0.02 by log-rank test). A
total of 247 patients (40.5%) in the CABG group and 297 patients (49.3%) in the
medical-therapy group died from cardiovascular causes (hazard ratio, 0.79; 95% CI,
0.66 to 0.93; P=0.006 by log-rank test). Death from any cause or hospitalization for
cardiovascular causes occurred in 467 patients (76.6%) in the CABG group and in 524
patients (87.0%) in the medical-therapy group (hazard ratio, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.64 to 0.82;
P<0.001 by log-rank test).
CONCLUSIONS
In a cohort of patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy, the rates of death from any
cause, death from cardiovascular causes, and death from any cause or hospitalization
for cardiovascular causes were significantly lower over 10 years among patients who
underwent CABG in addition to receiving medical therapy than among those who received
medical therapy alone. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health; STICH [and
STICHES] ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00023595.
Enteric Neurospheres Are Not Specific to Neural Crest Cultures: Implications for Neural Stem Cell Therapies
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited
Production of biogas - a manner of manufacturing
Advertising is commonly criticised for being pervasive, offensive, manipulative, harmful
and irresponsible. This thesis focuses on the subjective criticisms and complex issues
related to taste, decency, morality and offence, particularly as applied to, and
understood within, the public and non-profit contexts. It is positioned at the intersection
of marketing communications, marketing ethics, and social and non-profit marketing
and explores how shocking, offensive and/or controversial (SOC) advertising appeals
are interpreted, regulated and contested, by divergent groups of people. The approach
taken is inspired by stakeholder theory and its focus on ethical decision-making for the
betterment of all stakeholders. A mixed methods research design was adopted, resulting
in three studies and these are presented as three discrete articles.
Article I maps the field of existing research into SOC advertising and identifies gaps in
our knowledge by means of a systematic literature review. It offers a critical appraisal
of the field by highlighting definitional tensions, limited interdisciplinary work and an
overdependence on student samples, on quantitative analysis and on non-longitudinal
methodologies. It then proposes a series of remedies to these shortcomings. The second
and third papers continue this reparative work by conceptualising and analysing actual
SOC advertising interpretations and contestations.
Article II explores the interpretations and experiences of SOC advertising within the
regulatory context by analysing evidence from complainants, advertisers and regulatory
bodies. It then proposes and develops an interpretation of the implicit power dynamics
through which their contradictory interests overlap. The methodology underpinning
this chapter combines a thematic content analysis of a substantial archive of complaints
submitted to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) with an interpretation of case
adjudication reports influenced by the work of Michel Foucault. The findings suggest
that the regulation of SOC advertising prioritises the interests of firms and advertisers
by relegating the role of complainant to that of merely registering complaints.
The focus of Article III moves from the regulatory framework to the complained-about
advertisements themselves. It provides an innovative theoretical and methodological
approach to analysing SOC advertisements, rooted in the classic Aristotelian notion of
rhetorical appeals and figuration, by developing and analysing a carefully selected
example in detail. The analysis reveals an implicit NFP sector-specific appeal to ethos
and the importance of a complex appeal to pathos.
Each of the papers offers a different level of analysis of the often-contradictory
viewpoints represented by stakeholder groups involved in, or affected by, the use of
SOC advertising tactics. These viewpoints include academics, general consumers, the
vocal minority of complainants, the advertisers including the non-profit and public
organisations and the advertising creatives, and the advertising regulator. Taken
together, the papers amount to a thesis that makes an important contribution to debates
about the appropriateness, ethics, and application of SOC themes, formats and imagery
in social and non-profit advertising. By exploring the regulatory processes of the ASA,
an exemplary advertising self-regulatory body, it further contributes to the discourse
on self-regulatory practices and highlights an NFP sector-specific consequentialist
approach that appears to stifle the voice of the offended complainant. On a practical
level, this work has implications for advertising practitioners and advertising regulators
who are involved in producing and regulating advertising that uses SOC tactics
Physical activity to improve cognition in older adults: can physical activity programs enriched with cognitive challenges enhance the effects? A systematic review and meta-analysis
: EPHPP quality rating scores (DOCX 38 kb
Molecular Interactions between Prions as Seeds and Recombinant Prion Proteins as Substrates Resemble the Biological Interspecies Barrier In Vitro
Prion diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, Scrapie in sheep or bovine spongiform encephalopathy are fatal neurodegenerative diseases, which can be of sporadic, genetic, or infectious origin. Prion diseases are transmissible between different species, however, with a variable species barrier. The key event of prion amplification is the conversion of the cellular isoform of the prion protein (PrPC) into the pathogenic isoform (PrPSc). We developed a sodiumdodecylsulfate-based PrP conversion system that induces amyloid fibril formation from soluble α-helical structured recombinant PrP (recPrP). This approach was extended applying pre-purified PrPSc as seeds which accelerate fibrillization of recPrP. In the present study we investigated the interspecies coherence of prion disease. Therefore we used PrPSc from different species like Syrian hamster, cattle, mouse and sheep and seeded fibrillization of recPrP from the same or other species to mimic in vitro the natural species barrier. We could show that the in vitro system of seeded fibrillization is in accordance with what is known from the naturally occurring species barriers
Severity of Remodeling, Myocardial Viability, and Survival in Ischemic LV Dysfunction After Surgical Revascularization
AbstractObjectivesThis study sought to test the hypothesis that end-systolic volume (ESV), as a marker of severity of left ventricular (LV) remodeling, influences the relationship between myocardial viability and survival in patients with coronary artery disease and LV systolic dysfunction.BackgroundRetrospective studies of ischemic LV dysfunction suggest that the severity of LV remodeling determines whether myocardial viability predicts improved survival with surgical compared with medical therapy, with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) only benefitting patients with viable myocardium who have smaller ESV. However, this has not been tested prospectively.MethodsInteractions of end-systolic volume index (ESVI), myocardial viability, and treatment with respect to survival were assessed in patients in the prospective randomized STICH (Comparison of Surgical and Medical Treatment for Congestive Heart Failure and Coronary Artery Disease) trial of CABG versus medical therapy who underwent viability assessment (n = 601; age 61 ± 9 years; ejection fraction ≤35%), with a median follow-up of 5.1 years. Median ESVI was 84 ml/m2. Viability was assessed by single-photon emission computed tomography or dobutamine echocardiography using pre-specified criteria.ResultsMortality was highest among patients with larger ESVI and nonviability (p < 0.001), but no interaction was observed between ESVI, viability status, and treatment assignment (p = 0.491). Specifically, the effect of CABG versus medical therapy in patients with viable myocardium and ESVI ≤84 ml/m2 (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.85; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.56 to 1.29) was no different than in patients with viability and ESVI >84 ml/m2 (HR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.57 to 1.31). Other ESVI thresholds yielded similar results, including ESVI ≤60 ml/m2 (HR: 0.87; 95% CI: 0.44 to 1.74). ESVI and viability assessed as continuous rather than dichotomous variables yielded similar results (p = 0.562).ConclusionsAmong patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy, those with greater LV ESVI and no substantial viability had worse prognosis. However, the effect of CABG relative to medical therapy was not differentially influenced by the combination of these 2 factors. Lower ESVI did not identify patients in whom myocardial viability predicted better outcome with CABG relative to medical therapy. (Comparison of Surgical and Medical Treatment for Congestive Heart Failure and Coronary Artery Disease [STICH]; NCT00023595
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