8,545 research outputs found
The effect of vascular graft and human umbilical cord blood-derived CD34+ stem cell on peripheral nerve healing
AIM: There are many trials concerning peripheral nerve damage causes and treatment options. Unfortunately, nerve damage is still a major problem regarding health, social and economic issues. On this study, we used vascular graft and human cord blood derived stem cells to find an alternative treatment solution to this problem. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We used 21 female Wistar rats on our study. They were anesthetized with ketamine and we studied right hind limbs. On Group 1, we did a full layer cut on the right sciatic nerve. On Group 2, we did a full layer cut on the right sciatic nerve, and we covered synthetic vascular graft on cut area. On Group 3, we did a full layer cut on right sciatic nerve, and we covered the area with stem cell applied vascular graft. RESULTS: At the end of postoperative 8. weeks, we performed EMG on the rats. When we compared healthy and degenerated areas as a result of EMG, we found significant amplitude differences between the groups on healthy areas whereas there was no significant difference on degenerated areas between the groups. Then we re-opened the operated area again to reveal the sciatic nerve cut area, and we performed electron microscope evaluation. On the stem cell group, we observed that both the axon and the myelin sheet prevented degeneration. CONCLUSION: This study is a first on using synthetic vascular graft and cord blood derived CD34+ cells in peripheral nerve degeneration. On the tissues that were examined with electron microscope, we observed that CD34+ cells prevented both axonal and myelin sheath degeneration. Nerve tissue showed similar results to the control group, and the damage was minimal. © 2018 Ali Yilmaz, Abdullah Topcu, Cagdas Erdogan, Levent Sinan Bir, Barbaros Sahin, Gulcin Abban, Erdal Coskun, Ayca Ozkul
How to Go Green? A General Equilibrium Investigation of Environmental policies for Sustained Growth with an Application to Turkey
Cataloged from PDF version of article.Green growth is a relatively new concept aimed at focusing attention on achieving sustainable development through the efficient use of environmental assets without slowing economic growth. This paper presents a real-world application of the concept, and identifies viable policy options for achieving a complementary environmental regulatory framework that minimizes output and employment losses. The analysis utilizes macro level data from the Turkish economy, and develops an applied general equilibrium model to assess the impact of a selected number of green policy instruments and public policy intervention mechanisms, including market-based incentives designed to accelerate technology adoption and achieve higher employment and sustainable growth patterns. Overall, our results indicate that an integrated employment and urban greening policy strategy that combines a green jobs programme with a set of earmarked tax-cum-innovation policies towards R&D-driven growth, mainly targeted to strategic industrial sectors and agriculture, developing market economies can achieve significant reductions in gaseous emissions and urban waste while maintaining significant gains in productivity and employment. © 2014, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
Resistant protein. Forms and functions
Several global health risks are related to our dietary lifestyle. As a consequence of the overconsumption of ultra-processed and highly digestible protein (150–200% of the recommended value), excess dietary proteins reach the colon, are hydrolysed to peptides and amino acids by bacterial proteases and fermented to various potentially toxic end products. A diet reformulation strategy with reduced protein content in food products appears to be the most effective approach. A potential approach to this challenge is to reduce food digestibility by introducing resistant protein into the diet that could positively influence human health and gut microbiome functionality. Resistant protein is a dietary constituent not hydrolysed by digestive enzymes or absorbed in the human small intestine. The chemical conformation and the amino acid composition strictly influence its structural stability and resistance to in vivo proteolysis and denaturation. Responding to the important gap in our knowledge regarding the digestibility performance of alternative proteins, we hypothesise that resistant proteins can beneficially alter food functionality via their role in improving metabolic properties and health benefits in human nutrition, similar to fibres and resistant starches. A multidisciplinary investigation of resistant protein will generate tremendous scientific impact for other interlinked societal, economic, technological and health and wellbeing aspects of human life
A Partition-Based Random Search Method for Multimodal Optimization
Practical optimization problems are often too complex to be formulated exactly. Knowing multiple good alternatives can help decision-makers easily switch solutions when needed, such as when faced with unforeseen constraints. A multimodal optimization task aims to find multiple global optima as well as high-quality local optima of an optimization problem. Evolutionary algorithms with niching techniques are commonly used for such problems, where a rough estimate of the optima number is required to determine the population size. In this paper, a partition-based random search method is proposed, in which the entire feasible domain is partitioned into smaller and smaller subregions iteratively. Promising regions are partitioned faster than unpromising regions, thus, promising areas will be exploited earlier than unpromising areas. All promising areas are exploited in parallel, which allows multiple good solutions to be found in a single run. The proposed method does not require prior knowledge about the optima number and it is not sensitive to the distance parameter. By cooperating with local search to refine the obtained solutions, the proposed method demonstrates good performance in many benchmark functions with multiple global optima. In addition, in problems with numerous local optima, high-quality local optima are captured earlier than low-quality local optima
Variational approach for electrolyte solutions: from dielectric interfaces to charged nanopores
A variational theory is developed to study electrolyte solutions, composed of
interacting point-like ions in a solvent, in the presence of dielectric
discontinuities and charges at the boundaries. Three important and non-linear
electrostatic effects induced by these interfaces are taken into account:
surface charge induced electrostatic field, solvation energies due to the ionic
cloud, and image charge repulsion. Our variational equations thus go beyond the
mean-field theory. The influence of salt concentration, ion valency, dielectric
jumps, and surface charge is studied in two geometries. i) A single neutral
air-water interface with an asymmetric electrolyte. A charge separation and
thus an electrostatic field gets established due to the different image charge
repulsions for coions and counterions. Both charge distributions and surface
tension are computed and compared to previous approximate calculations. For
symmetric electrolyte solutions close to a charged surface, two zones are
characterized. In the first one, with size proportional to the logarithm of the
coupling parameter, strong image forces impose a total ion exclusion, while in
the second zone the mean-field approach applies. ii) A symmetric electrolyte
confined between two dielectric interfaces as a simple model of ion rejection
from nanopores. The competition between image charge repulsion and attraction
of counterions by the membrane charge is studied. For small surface charge, the
counterion partition coefficient decreases with increasing pore size up to a
critical pore size, contrary to neutral membranes. For larger pore sizes, the
whole system behaves like a neutral pore. The prediction of the variational
method is also compared with MC simulations and a good agreement is observed.Comment: This version is accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. E
Probe of extra dimensions in gamma q->gamma q at the LHC
We have examined TeV scale effects of extra spatial dimensions through the
processes gamma q-> gamma q where q=u,d,c,s,b, anti-u, anti-d, anti-c, anti-s,
anti-b. These processes have been treated in a photon-proton collision via the
main reaction pp-> p gamma p-> p gamma qX at the LHC. We have employed
equivalent photon approximation for incoming photon beams and performed
statistical analysis for various forward detector acceptances.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure
Self-consistent computation of electronic and optical properties of a single exciton in a spherical quantum dot via matrix diagonalization method
Cataloged from PDF version of article.In this study, we develop and demonstrate an efficient self-consistent calculation schema that computes the electronic structure and optical properties of a single exciton in a spherical quantum dot (QD) with an interacting pair of electron and hole wave functions. To observe modifications on bands, wave functions, and energies due to the attractive Coulomb potential, the full numeric matrix diagonalization technique is employed to determine sublevel energy eigenvalues and their wave functions in effective mass approximation. This treatment allows to observe that the conduction and valance band edges bend, that the electron and hole wave functions strongly localize in the QD, and that the excitonic energy level exhibits redshift. In our approach for the Coulomb term between electron and hole, the Poisson-Schrodinger equations are solved self-consistently in the Hartree approximation. Subsequently, exciton binding energies and associated optical properties are computed. The results are presented as a function of QD radii and photon energies. We conclude that all of these numerical results are in agreement with the experimental studies. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics
Short-Term Outcome of Combined Corticosteriod and Local Anaestetic Therapy with Home-Based Exercıse Programme in Painful Shoulder Conditions
Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of combined local corticosteroid and anaestethic therapy with home exercise programme in the treatment of painful shoulder conditions. Methods: 40 mg Depomedrol® (methylprednisolone acetate) + 120 mg Citanest® (procaine hydrochloride) were parenterally administered into the subacromial region of 28 patients (17 female, mean age: 48 years; 11 male, mean age: 52 years) from a group of patients who have been suffering from shoulder pain for a period of at least two months and had received no benefit from previous treatments. Simultaneously, they were placed on a home-based shoulder exercise programme. The patients were seen two months later and questioned about their conditions. The data were evaluated together with clinical findings based on the range of motion (ROM) of the shoulder. Results: Twenty of 28 patients (71.42%) reported complete relief from pain, 5 patients or 17.85% stated that they had only partial relief of pain, and 3 patients (10.71%) said that the level of pain remained essentially the same. Nineteen of 28 patients (67.85%) had good to excellent ROM while 3 (10.71%) still manifested poor ROM. Conclusion: Local corticosteroid plus local anaestethic therapy together with home exercise programme was found to be an economic, effective and safe short-term treatment in the management of painful shoulder conditions arising from certain disorders. Keywords: Painful shoulder, Local corticosteroid, Local anaesthetic, Home exercise programe, Range of motion.Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research Vol. 7(4) 2008: pp. 1123-112
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