1,056 research outputs found
The Pacific Basin: Dilemmas and Choices for American Security
We have all heard the rhetoric in recent years-Administration officials, economists and trend forecasters are developing the perspective that America\u27s dealings with the Pacific Basin are overtaking our traditional relationships across the Atlantic. Some disparage this notion. They point to our high levels of political commitment, investment and trade in Europe. Foreign affairs analyst William Pfaff, for example, wrote an article some time ago in the International Herald Tribune expressing skepticism about America\u27s new infatuation with the countries of the Pacific
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Rice seed quality development and temperature during late development and maturation
The potential longevity of japonica rice (Oryza sativa L.
subsp. japonica) seed is particularly sensitive to high
temperature – and thus climate change – during
development and maturation. Cultivar Taipei 309 was
grown at 28/208C (12 h/12 h) and then from 19 DAA
(days after 50% anthesis), when seeds were just over
half filled, at 28/208C, 30/228C, 32/248C or 34/268C
(12 h/12 h). Whereas ability to germinate ex planta had
been achieved in almost all seeds by 24 DAA, only half
the population were desiccation tolerant. Desiccation
tolerance continued to increase over the subsequent
28 d, similarly at all four temperatures. Subsequent
longevity, assessed by p50 (period in days to reduce
viability to 50% in hermetic storage at 408C with c. 15%
moisture content), increased progressively at 28/208C
until 38 DAA, and remained constant until the final
harvest (52 DAA). The three warmer temperature
regimes provided similar longevity to 28/208C at any
one harvest, except at 38 DAA where the warmest
(34/268C) was poorer. That temperature regime also
provided greater seed-to-seed variability within each
survival curve. The results confirm that appreciable
improvement in seed quality occurs during seed
development and also subsequent maturation in
japonica rice, but that increase in temperature from
28/208C to 34/268C during late seed filling onwards has
comparatively little effect thereon. Comparison with
previous investigations suggests that seed quality
development may be less sensitive to high temperatures
during late development and maturation than
during the early seed development that precedes it
Development of a health care utilisation data-based index for rheumatoid arthritis severity: a preliminary study
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Using Automated Health Plan Data to Assess Infection Risk from Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery
We determined if infection indicators were sufficiently consistent across health plans to allow comparison of hospitals’ risks of infection after coronary artery bypass surgery. Three managed care organizations accounted for 90% of managed care in eastern Massachusetts, from October 1996 through March 1999. We searched automated inpatient and outpatient claims and outpatient pharmacy dispensing files for indicator codes suggestive of postoperative surgical site infection. We reviewed full text medical records of patients with indicator codes to confirm infection status. We compared the hospital-specific proportions of cases with an indicator code, adjusting for health plan, age, sex, and chronic disease score. A total of 536 (27%) of 1,953 patients had infection indicators. Infection was confirmed in 79 (53%) of 149 reviewed records with adequate documentation. The proportion of patients with an indicator of infection varied significantly (p<0.001) between hospitals (19% to 36%) and health plans (22% to 33%). The difference between hospitals persisted after adjustment for health plan and patients’ age and sex. Similar relationships were observed when postoperative antibiotic information was ignored. Automated claims and pharmacy data from different health plans can be used together to allow inexpensive, routine monitoring of indicators of postoperative infection, with the goal of identifying institutions that can be further evaluated to determine if risks for infection can be reduced
Active Trachoma Cases in the Solomon Islands Have Varied Polymicrobial Community Structures but Do Not Associate with Individual Non-Chlamydial Pathogens of the Eye.
BACKGROUND: Several non-chlamydial microbial pathogens are associated with clinical signs of active trachoma in trachoma-endemic communities with a low prevalence of ocular Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) infection. In the Solomon Islands, the prevalence of Ct among children is low despite the prevalence of active trachoma being moderate. Therefore, we set out to investigate whether active trachoma was associated with a common non-chlamydial infection or with a dominant polymicrobial community dysbiosis in the Solomon Islands. METHODS: We studied DNA from conjunctival swabs collected from 257 Solomon Islanders with active trachoma and matched controls. Droplet digital PCR was used to test for pathogens suspected to be able to induce follicular conjunctivitis. Polymicrobial community diversity and composition were studied by sequencing of hypervariable regions of the 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid gene in a subset of 54 cases and 53 controls. RESULTS: Although Ct was associated with active trachoma, the number of infections was low (cases, 3.9%; controls, 0.4%). Estimated prevalence (cases and controls, respectively) of each non-chlamydial infection was as follows: Staphylococcus aureus: 1.9 and 1.9%, Adenoviridae: 1.2 and 1.2%, coagulase-negative Staphylococcus: 5.8 and 4.3%, Haemophilus influenzae: 7.4 and 11.7%, Moraxella catarrhalis: 2.3 and 4.7%, and Streptococcus pneumoniae: 7.0 and 6.2%. There was no statistically significant association between the clinical signs of trachoma and the presence or load of any of the non-Ct infections that were assayed. Interindividual variations in the conjunctival microbiome were characterized by differences in the levels of Corynebacterium, Propionibacterium, Helicobacter, and Paracoccus, but diversity and relative abundance of these specific genera did not differ significantly between cases and controls. DISCUSSION: It is unlikely that the prevalent trachoma-like follicular conjunctivitis in this region of the Solomon Islands has a dominant bacterial etiology. Before implementing community-wide azithromycin distribution for trachoma, policy makers should consider that clinical signs of trachoma can be observed in the absence of any detectable azithromycin-susceptible organism
Therapy-related leukaemias with balanced translocations can arise from pre-existing clonal haematopoiesis
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Symmetric 3dB filtering power divider with equal output power ratio for communication systems
This paper presents a two-way filtering power divider (FPD) with an equal output power ratio of 1:1. This implies that each of the FPD output port would receive 50% of the power at the input port. To achieve miniaturisation, a common square open-loop resonator is used to distribute energy between the two integrated Chebyshev bandpass filters. In addition to distributing energy, the common resonator also contributes one pole to each integrated bandpass filter (BPF), hence, reducing the number of individual resonating elements used in achieving the integrated FPD. To demonstrate the proposed design technique, a prototype FPD centred at 2.6 GHz with a 3 dB fractional bandwidth of 3% is designed, simulated and presented. The circuit model and microstrip layout results of the FPD show good agreement. The microstrip layout simulation responses show that a less than 1.1dB insertion loss and a greater than 16.5dB in-band return loss were achieved. The overall footprint of the integrated FPD is 37mm by 13mm (i.e. 0.32λg x 0.11λg, for λg = guided-wavelength of the 50Ω microstrip line at 2.6 GHz). The integrated FPD reported in this paper shows some promising merits when compared to similar devices recently reported in literature
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