604 research outputs found
Federal Aid Project No. W-29-R-25 Coastal Waterfowl Project Job No. 20 Inventory of Aquatic Vegetation
Vegetative type mapping of Cedar Lakes, Christmas, Bastrop, and Galveston Bays was completed. Christmas Bay and portions of the southern shore of West Galveston Bay proved to be most productive of aquatic vegetation. Long-term vegetation trend transects in Laguna Madre, Aransas, Port, Copano, and St. Charles Bays indicated little significant change in species composition or density. Seasonal hydrographic and phenology stations were checked to monitor saline aquatic plant growth. No significant change from previously reported information was found
Chemotherapy versus supportive care in advanced non-small cell lung cancer: improved survival without detriment to quality of life
BACKGROUND: In 1995 a meta-analysis of randomised trials investigating the value of adding chemotherapy to primary treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) suggested a small survival benefit for cisplatin-based chemotherapy in each of the primary treatment settings. However, the metaanalysis included many small trials and trials with differing eligibility criteria and chemotherapy regimens. METHODS: The aim of the Big Lung Trial was to confirm the survival benefits seen in the meta-analysis and to assess quality of life and cost in the supportive care setting. A total of 725 patients were randomised to receive supportive care alone (n = 361) or supportive care plus cisplatin-based chemotherapy (n = 364). RESULTS: 65% of patients allocated chemotherapy (C) received all three cycles of treatment and a further 27% received one or two cycles. 74% of patients allocated no chemotherapy (NoC) received thoracic radiotherapy compared with 47% of the C group. Patients allocated C had a significantly better survival than those allocated NoC: HR 0.77 (95% CI 0.66 to 0.89, p = 0.0006), median survival 8.0 months for the C group v 5.7 months for the NoC group, a difference of 9 weeks. There were 19 (5%) treatment related deaths in the C group. There was no evidence that any subgroup benefited more or less fromchemotherapy. No significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of the pre-defined primary and secondary quality of life end points, although large negative effects of chemotherapy were ruled out. The regimens used proved to be cost effective, the extra cost of chemotherapy being offset by longer survival. CONCLUSIONS: The survival benefit seen in this trial was entirely consistent with the NSCLC meta-analysis and subsequent similarly designed large trials. The information on quality of life and cost should enablepatients and their clinicians to make more informed treatment choices
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Low heat rejection diesel ceramic coupon tests
Results are reported from studies in which several monolithic ceramic materials in the form of modulus-of-rupture bars were exposed for 100 h to the combustion conditions found in either a small single- or two-cylinder diesel engine. Fuels included a standard Phillips D-2 diesel or synthetic mixture of the Phillips D-2 and an aromatic blend. The ceramics included two commercial grades of partially stabilized zirconia (PSZ-TS and PSZ-MS), silicon nitride (GTE WESGO SNW-1000 and Norton NT-154), and (Hexoloy SA) silicon carbide. Significant reductions in postexposure four-point bend fracture strength occurred in the PSZ-TS material irrespective of whether it was exposed in the single- or two-cylinder engine. Only a small decrease in fracture strength occurred in the PSZ-MS material, and essentially no decrease in fracture strength occurred in the silicon nitride (GTE WESGO SNW-1000) when tested at room temperature. The Norton NT-154 silicon nitride was tested at both room temperature and at 700{degree}C over several strain rates ranging from 1 {times} 10{sup {minus}4} to 1 {times} 10{sup {minus}7}s{sup {minus}1}. Room temperature tests indicated that the engine exposed bars actually showed a slight increase in average strength, 830 MPa, versus 771 MPa for the unexposed material. Elevated temperature strength comparisons showed no reduction in strength due to previous engine exposure. Hexoloy SA silicon carbide showed no reduction in fracture strength when tested at 700{degree}C. 4 refs., 12 figs., 1 tab
Confinement and scaling in deep inelastic scattering
We show that parton confinement in the final state generates large
corrections to Bjorken scaling, thus leaving less room for the logarithmic
corrections. In particular, the -scaling violations at large are
entirely described in terms of power corrections. For treatment of these
non-perturbative effects, we derive a new expansion in powers of for
the structure function that is free of infra-red singularities and which
reduces corrections to the leading term. The leading term represents scattering
from an off-mass-shell parton, which keeps the same virtual mass in the final
state. It is found that this quasi-free term is a function of a new variable
, which coincides with the Bjorken variable for . The
two variables are very different, however, at finite . In particular, the
variable depends on the invariant mass of the spectator particles.
Analysis of the data at large shows excellent scaling in the variable , and determines the value of the diquark mass to be close to zero. -scaling allows us to extract the structure function near the elastic
threshold. It is found to behave as . Predictions for the
structure functions based on -scaling are made.Comment: Discussion of target mass corrections is added. Accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev.
Immunogenicity negatively influences the outcome of adalimumab treatment in Crohn's disease
Background: Adalimumab is an effective treatment in patients with Crohn's disease; as it is a humanized anti-tumour necrosis factor monoclonal antibody, immunogenicity is thought not to be of any significance. Aim: To assess whether antibodies to adalimumab (ATAs) affect adalimumab treatment outcome in patients with Crohn's disease previously treated with infliximab. Methods: A retrospective study was p
Perturbative QCD and factorization of coherent pion photoproduction on the deuteron
We analyze the predictions of perturbative QCD for pion photoproduction on
the deuteron, gamma D -> pi^0 D, at large momentum transfer using the reduced
amplitude formalism. The cluster decomposition of the deuteron wave function at
small binding only allows the nuclear coherent process to proceed if each
nucleon absorbs an equal fraction of the overall momentum transfer.
Furthermore, each nucleon must scatter while remaining close to its mass shell.
Thus the nuclear photoproduction amplitude, M_{gamma D -> pi^0 D}(u,t),
factorizes as a product of three factors: (1) the nucleon photoproduction
amplitude, M_{gamma N_1 -> pi^0 N_1}(u/4,t/4), at half of the overall momentum
transfer, (2) a nucleon form factor, F_{N_2}(t/4), at half the overall momentum
transfer, and (3) the reduced deuteron form factor, f_d(t), which according to
perturbative QCD, has the same monopole falloff as a meson form factor. A
comparison with the recent JLAB data for gamma D -> pi^0 D of Meekins et al.
[Phys. Rev. C 60, 052201 (1999)] and the available gamma p -> pi^0 p data shows
good agreement between the perturbative QCD prediction and experiment over a
large range of momentum transfers and center of mass angles. The reduced
amplitude prediction is consistent with the constituent counting rule, p^11_T
M_{gamma D -> pi^0 D} -> F(theta_cm), at large momentum transfer. This is found
to be consistent with measurements for photon lab energies E_gamma > 3 GeV at
theta_cm=90 degrees and \elab > 10 GeV at 136 degrees.Comment: RevTeX 3.1, 17 pages, 6 figures; v2: incorporates minor changes as
version accepted by Phys Rev
A purely algebraic construction of a gauge and renormalization group invariant scalar glueball operator
This paper presents a complete algebraic proof of the renormalizability of
the gauge invariant operator to all orders of
perturbation theory in pure Yang-Mills gauge theory, whereby working in the
Landau gauge. This renormalization is far from being trivial as mixing occurs
with other gauge variant operators, which we identify explicitly. We
determine the mixing matrix to all orders in perturbation theory by using
only algebraic arguments and consequently we can uncover a renormalization
group invariant by using the anomalous dimension matrix derived from
. We also present a future plan for calculating the mass of the lightest
scalar glueball with the help of the framework we have set up.Comment: 17 page
Limited added value of laboratory monitoring in thiopurine maintenance monotherapy in inflammatory bowel disease patients
Background: To timely detect myelotoxicity and hepatotoxicity, laboratory monitoring at 3-month intervals is advised throughout thiopurine maintenance treatment for IBD. However, reported incidence rates of myelotoxicity and hepatotoxicity in maintenance treatment are low. Aim: To assess incidence rates and clinical consequences of myelotoxicity and hepatotoxicity in thiopurine maintenance therapy after at least 1 year of thiopurine treatment. Methods: Retrospective analysis of therapy adjustment for laboratory toxicity in adult IBD patients after 12 consecutive months of azathioprine (AZA) or mercaptopurine monotherapy (ie baseline) between 2000 and 2016. Incidence rates of laboratory toxicity (ie myelotoxicity [leucocyte count <4.0 × 10e9/L, and/or platelet count <150 × 10e9/L] and/or hepatotoxicity (gamma-glutamyltransferase [GGT], alkaline phosphatase [AP], ALT and/or AST above ULN, excluding isolated increased AST/AP]) and associated diagnostic procedures and complications were assessed. Results: In total, 12.391 laboratory assessments were performed on 1132 patients (56% female, AZA 74%) during 3.3 years of median follow-up. Median monitoring frequency was 3.1 assessments/treatment year. Only 83/12.391 (0.7%) assessments resulted in therapy adjustment, dose reduction in 46 patients, cessation in 28 and allopurinol initiation in nine; risk of therapy adjustment was 1.9% per treatment year. Incidence rates of myelotoxicity were 7.1% (5.1% mild/1.8% moderate/0.1% severe) and hepatotoxicity 5.1% (3.8% mild/1.1% moderate/0.2% severe) per treatment year. Treatment-related complications with concurrent laboratory toxicity occurred in 12 patients (1.1%) and would not have been prevented by monitoring. Conclusion: Severe laboratory toxicity is uncommon after 1 year of thiopurine monotherapy at 4-month monitoring intervals. Therapy adjustments are rare after detection of laboratory toxicity. After 1 year of thiopurine monotherapy, laboratory monitoring may be lowered to less than a 4-month interval
Neutron structure function and inclusive DIS from H-3 and He-3 at large Bjorken-x
A detailed study of inclusive deep inelastic scattering (DIS) from mirror A =
3 nuclei at large values of the Bjorken variable x is presented. The main
purpose is to estimate the theoretical uncertainties on the extraction of the
neutron DIS structure function from such nuclear measurements. On one hand,
within models in which no modification of the bound nucleon structure functions
is taken into account, we have investigated the possible uncertainties arising
from: i) charge symmetry breaking terms in the nucleon-nucleon interaction, ii)
finite Q**2 effects neglected in the Bjorken limit, iii) the role of different
prescriptions for the nucleon Spectral Function normalization providing baryon
number conservation, and iv) the differences between the virtual nucleon and
light cone formalisms. Although these effects have been not yet considered in
existing analyses, our conclusion is that all these effects cancel at the level
of ~ 1% for x < 0.75 in overall agreement with previous findings. On the other
hand we have considered several models in which the modification of the bound
nucleon structure functions is accounted for to describe the EMC effect in DIS
scattering from nuclei. It turns out that within these models the cancellation
of nuclear effects is expected to occur only at a level of ~ 3%, leading to an
accuracy of ~ 12 % in the extraction of the neutron to proton structure
function ratio at x ~ 0.7 -0.8$. Another consequence of considering a broad
range of models of the EMC effect is that the previously suggested iteration
procedure does not improve the accuracy of the extraction of the neutron to
proton structure function ratio.Comment: revised version to appear in Phys. Rev. C; main modifications in
Section 4; no change in the conclusion
A two-component pre-seeded dermal-epidermal scaffold
We have developed a bilayered dermal-epidermal scaffold for application in the treatment of full-thickness skin defects. The dermal component gels in situ and adapts to the lesion shape, delivering human dermal fibroblasts in a matrix of fibrin and cross-linked hyaluronic acid modified with a cell adhesion-promoting peptide. Fibroblasts were able to form a tridimensional matrix due to material features such as tailored mechanical properties, presence of protease-degradable elements and cell-binding ligands. The epidermal component is a robust membrane containing cross-linked hyaluronic acid and poly-l-lysine, on which keratinocytes were able to attach and to form a monolayer. Amine-aldehyde bonding at the interface between the two components allows the formation of a tightly bound composite scaffold. Both parts of the scaffold were designed to provide cell-type-specific cues to allow for cell proliferation and form a construct that mimics the skin environment.D.S.K. acknowledges funding from the Biotechnology Research Endowment from the Department of Anesthesiology at Boston Children's Hospital. I.P.M. acknowledges the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology for the grant BD/39396/2007 and the MIT-Portugal Program. D.G. acknowledges the Swiss National Science Foundation for a post-doctoral fellowship (PBGEP3-129111). B.P.T. acknowledges an NIR Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (F32GM096546)
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