219 research outputs found

    Особенности обогащения углей с большим содержанием легкоразмокаемой породы

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    Наведені результати дослідження технологічних процесів при збагаченні вугілля з великим вмістом породи, яка легко розмокає, умовах ЦЗФ "Павлоградська". Визначенні особливості ведення технологічних процесів підготовки машинних класів важкосередовищної сепарації. відсадки, флотації. обробки шламових продуктів та сушіння дрібного концентрату, які відрізняються від загальноприйнятих.Приведены результаты исследований технологический процессов при обогащении углей с большим содержанием легкоразмокаемой породы в условиях ЦОФ "Павлоградская". Определены особенности ведения технологических процессов подготовки машинных классов, тяжелосредной сепарации, отсадки, флотации, обработки шламовых продуктов и сушки мелкого концентрата, которые отличаются от общепринятых

    CFH Loss in Human RPE Cells Leads to Inflammation and Complement System Dysregulation via the NF-ƙB Pathway

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    Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of vision loss in the elderly, is a degenerative disease of the macula, where retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells are damaged in the early stages of the disease, and chronic inflammatory processes may be involved. Besides aging and lifestyle factors as drivers of AMD, a strong genetic association to AMD is found in genes of the complement system, with a single polymorphism in the complement factor H gene (CFH), accounting for the majority of AMD risk. However, the exact mechanism of CFH dysregulation confers such a great risk for AMD and its role in RPE cell homeostasis is unclear. To explore the role of endogenous CFH locally in RPE cells, we silenced CFH in human hTERT-RPE1 cells. We demonstrate that endogenously expressed CFH in RPE cells modulates inflammatory cytokine production and complement regulation, independent of external complement sources, or stressors. We show that loss of the factor H protein (FH) results in increased levels of inflammatory mediators (e.g., IL-6, IL-8, GM-CSF) and altered levels of complement proteins (e.g., C3, CFB upregulation, and C5 downregulation) that are known to play a role in AMD. Moreover, our results identify the NF-κB pathway as the major pathway involved in regulating these inflammatory and complement factors. Our findings suggest that in RPE cells, FH and the NF-κB pathway work in synergy to maintain inflammatory and complement balance, and in case either one of them is dysregulated, the RPE microenvironment changes towards a proinflammatory AMD-like phenotype

    German EstSmoke : Estimating adult smoking-related costs and consequences of smoking cessation for Germany

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    AIMS: We compared predicted lifetime health care costs for current, never and ex-smokers in Germany under the current set of tobacco control polices. We compared these economic consequences of the current situation with an alternative in which Germany were to implement more comprehensive tobacco control policies consistent with the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) guidelines. DESIGN: German EstSmoke, an adapted version of the UK EstSmoke simulation model, applies the Markov modelling approach. Transition probabilities for (re-)currence of smoking-related disease were calculated from large German disease-specific registries and the German Health Update (GEDA 2010). Estimations of both health care costs and effect sizes of smoking cessation policies were taken from recent German studies and discounted at 3.5%/year. SETTING: Germany PARTICIPANTS: German population of prevalent current, never and ex-smokers in 2009: 81 million MEASUREMENT: Lifetime cost and outcomes in current, never and ex-smokers FINDINGS: If tobacco control policies are not strengthened, the German smoking population will incur €41.56 billion lifetime excess costs compared with never smokers. Implementing tobacco control policies consistent with WHO FCTC guidelines would reduce the difference of lifetime costs between current smokers and ex-smokers by at least €1.7 billion. CONCLUSIONS: Modelling suggests that the lifetime healthcare costs of people in Germany who smoke are substantially greater than those of people who have never smoked. However, more comprehensive tobacco control policies could reduce healthcare expenditure for current smokers by at least 4%

    A genome-wide library of MADM mice for single-cell genetic mosaic analysis

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    Mosaic analysis with double markers (MADM) offers one approach to visualize and concomitantly manipulate genetically defined cells in mice with single-cell resolution. MADM applications include the analysis of lineage, single-cell morphology and physiology, genomic imprinting phenotypes, and dissection of cell-autonomous gene functions in vivo in health and disease. Yet, MADM can only be applied to 96% of the entire mouse genome can now be subjected to single-cell genetic mosaic analysis. Beyond a proof of principle, we apply our MADM library to systematically trace sister chromatid segregation in distinct mitotic cell lineages. We find striking chromosome-specific biases in segregation patterns, reflecting a putative mechanism for the asymmetric segregation of genetic determinants in somatic stem cell division

    Search costs and adaptive consumers: short time delays do not affect choice quality

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    Using online price comparison and shopping platforms makes experiencing slow connections, lags and waiting times for information an unfortunate reality. However, little attention has been paid to analyzing the effects of such delayed display of information on product choice behavior. This article explores the effect of time delays in a multi-attribute choice laboratory experiment by not providing information immediately when requested but after short time delays. Increasing these waiting times reduced the amount of information looked-up but did not affect choice quality. Higher time delays made decision-makers use more deliberate search processes, whereas low time delays induced inefficient over-searching

    Computational fluid dynamics modelling in cardiovascular medicine

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    This paper reviews the methods, benefits and challenges associated with the adoption and translation of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling within cardiovascular medicine. CFD, a specialist area of mathematics and a branch of fluid mechanics, is used routinely in a diverse range of safety-critical engineering systems, which increasingly is being applied to the cardiovascular system. By facilitating rapid, economical, low-risk prototyping, CFD modelling has already revolutionised research and development of devices such as stents, valve prostheses, and ventricular assist devices. Combined with cardiovascular imaging, CFD simulation enables detailed characterisation of complex physiological pressure and flow fields and the computation of metrics which cannot be directly measured, for example, wall shear stress. CFD models are now being translated into clinical tools for physicians to use across the spectrum of coronary, valvular, congenital, myocardial and peripheral vascular diseases. CFD modelling is apposite for minimally-invasive patient assessment. Patient-specific (incorporating data unique to the individual) and multi-scale (combining models of different length-And time-scales) modelling enables individualised risk prediction and virtual treatment planning. This represents a significant departure from traditional dependence upon registry-based, populationaveraged data. Model integration is progressively moving towards 'digital patient' or 'virtual physiological human' representations. When combined with population-scale numerical models, these models have the potential to reduce the cost, time and risk associated with clinical trials. The adoption of CFD modelling signals a new era in cardiovascular medicine. While potentially highly beneficial, a number of academic and commercial groups are addressing the associated methodological, regulatory, education-And service-related challenges
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