6,678 research outputs found
State of the States 2009
Highlights state election results and policy developments in 2008 and projects trends for 2009. Considers how the recession and the new administration's policies may affect states on energy, education, Medicaid, the social safety net, and other issues
Thermal oxidation of reactively sputtered amorphous W_(80)N_(20) films
The oxidation behavior of reactively sputtered amorphous tungsten nitride of composition W_(80)N_(20) was investigated in dry and wet oxidizing ambient in the temperature range of 450â°Câ575â°C. A single WO_3 oxide phase is observed. The growth of the oxide follows a parabolic time dependence which is attributed to a process controlled by the diffusivity of the oxidant in the oxide. The oxidation process is thermally activated with an activation energy of 2.5 ± 0.05 eV for dry ambient and 2.35 ± 0.05 eV for wet ambient. The preâexponential factor of the reaction constant for dry ambient is 1.1Ă10^(21) Ă
^2/min; that for wet ambient is only about 10 times less and is equal to 1.3Ă10^(20) Ă
^2/min
Evaluation of the effectiveness of Eladi Keram for the treatment of acne vulgaris: a randomised controlled pilot study
Introduction: Acne is a multifactorial and common skin disease which can significantly affect the quality of life of sufferers. In this study, a topical herbal preparation traditionally used in Ayurvedic medicine was evaluated as a treatment for individuals with acne on their shoulders and backs.
Methods: Study participants were randomly assigned either to treatment (Eladi Keram) or vehicle control (coconut oil) groups under double blind conditions and instructed on its daily home application. Standardised lesion counting and acne grading were conducted in accordance with US Food and Drug Administration guidelines and with reference to the Leeds Acne Grading Technique. Participants were assessed for severity of the condition at commencement and on day 28 of treatment.
Results: The treatment group showed improvements of 42% (p < 0.005) on the Investigators Global Assessment scale, a 60% (p < 0.05) reduction in inflammatory lesions, a 59% (p < 0.05) reduction in non-inflammatory lesions, and a 59% (p < 0.005) reduction in combined lesion count. The control group showed no statistically significant changes for these criteria.
Conclusion: This study is the first reported clinical evaluation of Eladi Keram as a treatment for acne and findings suggest that it could be effective in reducing inflammatory and non-inflammatory lesions, warranting further investigation by means of a larger scale clinical trial
Conditional probabilities of identity of genes at a locus linked to a marker
A method is given for determining the probabilities that genes are identical by descent, at a locus linked to a marker where phenotypic data are available. For tight linkage, such conditional probabilities of identity may differ very much from unconditional ones ; they depend on the dominance relationships between alleles at the marker locus, and on the allelic frequencies. Applications discussed refer to the calculation of general two-locus descent measures, to the validation of pedigrees from polymorphism analysis, and to the statistical detection of an association between a quantitative trait and a marked region of the genome.On donne une mĂ©thode pour calculer les probabilitĂ©s dâidentitĂ© entre des gĂšnes dâun locus, conditionnĂ©es par lâobservation des phĂ©notypes en un locus marqueur liĂ©. La mĂ©thode proposĂ©e rĂ©unit 2 approches : les probabilitĂ©s dâidentitĂ© conditionnelles, au locus marqueur, sont calculĂ©es en construisant les Ă©vĂšnements possibles du processus de la sĂ©grĂ©gation des gĂšnes ; les probabilitĂ©s conditionnelles dâidentitĂ© en un locus voisin sont calculĂ©es ensuite par la mĂ©thode des arbres gĂ©niques, modifiĂ©e pour tenir compte des conditions rĂ©alisĂ©es au locus marqueur. Les rĂ©sultats dĂ©pendent des relations de dominance entre allĂšles et des frĂ©quences allĂ©liques au locus marqueur ; pour une liaison Ă©troite, ils peuvent ĂȘtre trĂšs diffĂ©rents des rĂ©sultats non conditionnĂ©s. Les applications discutĂ©es concernent une mĂ©thode gĂ©nĂ©rale de calcul des coefficients dâidentitĂ© Ă 2 locus, lâĂ©tude de la cohĂ©rence entre des donnĂ©es gĂ©nĂ©alogiques et un polymorphisme gĂ©nĂ©tique, et les mĂ©thodes de dĂ©tection statistique dâune association entre un caractĂšre quantitatif et une rĂ©gion marquĂ©e du gĂ©nome
Measuring gender norms about relationships in early adolescence : results from the global early adolescent study
Introduction: Gender norms are increasingly recognized as drivers of health and wellbeing. While early adolescence constitutes a critical window of development, there is limited understanding about how adolescents perceive gender relations across different cultural settings. This study used a mixed-method approach, grounded in the voices of young people around the world, to construct and test a cross-cultural scale assessing the perceptions of gender norms regulating romantic relationships between boys and girls in early adolescence.
Methods: The study draws on the Global Early Adolescent study (GEAS), a study focusing on gender norms and health related outcomes over the course of adolescence in urban poor settings worldwide. In-depth interviews were first conducted among approximately 200 adolescents between 10-14 years in seven sites across 4 continents to identify common scripts guiding romantic relations in early adolescence. These scripts were then transformed into a multidimensional scale. The scale was tested among 120 adolescents in each of 14 GEAS sites, followed by a second pilot among 75 adolescents in six sites. We evaluated the psychometric criteria of each subscale using principal component analysis, and parallel analysis, followed by exploratory factor analysis to guide the selection of a more parsimonious set of items.
Results: Results suggested a two-factor structure, consisting of an "adolescent romantic expectations" subscale and a "Sexual Double Standard" subscale. Both subscales yielded high internal validity in each site, with polychoric Cronbach alpha values above 0.70 with the exception of Kinshasa for the adolescent romantic expectations scale (0.64) and Hanoi for the sexual double standard scale (0.61).
Conclusion: This study reveals common perceptions of gendered norms about romantic engagement in early adolescence, normative for both sexes, but socially valued for boys while devaluated for girls. The findings illustrate that social hierarchies of power in romantic relationships form early in adolescence, regardless of cultural setting
Doxorubicin selectively induces apoptosis through the inhibition of a novel isoform of Bclâ2 in acute myeloid leukaemia MOLMâ13 cells with reduced Beclin 1 expression
The overexpression of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) may contribute to difficulties in eradicating these cells during chemotherapy. In the present study, doxorubicin (Dox) was evaluated for its potential to induce selective apoptotic cell death in AML MOLM-13 cells and to modulate autophagy through Bcl-2 and Beclin 1 protein expression. Annexin V/propidium iodide and 5(6)-carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester (CFSE) flow cytometric analyses were conducted to determine the effects of Dox on cell death and cell proliferation, respectively, following 48 h of co-incubation with AML MOLM-13 or U-937 monocytic cells. The protein expression levels of Bcl-2 and Beclin 1 in untreated and treated cells were quantified by western blot analysis. Dox reduced the viability of MOLM-13 cells partly by inhibiting cell division and inducing cell apoptosis. Dox demonstrated a level of selectivity in its cytotoxicity against MOLM-13 compared to U-937 cells (P<0.05). Dox induced a significant decrease in Beclin 1 protein levels in MOLM-13 cells without significantly affecting the protein levels in U-937 monocytes. A novel Bcl-2 15-20 kDa (p15-20-Bcl-2) isoform was found to be selectively expressed in AML MOLM-13 cells (but absent in the leukaemic cell lines tested, OCI-AML2, CML K562 and U-937). Dox induced a highly significant inhibition of p15-20-Bcl-2 at concentrations of 0.5, 0.75 and 1 ”M (P<0.01). However, the usual 26 kDa Bcl-2 (p26-Bcl-2-α) isoform protein expression was not affected by the drug in either the MOLM-13 or U-937 cells. It was thus postulated that Dox exhibited some selectivity by targeting the p15-20-Bcl-2 isoform in MOLM-13 cells and activating Beclin 1 to induce cell death
Monolithic Pixel Sensors in Deep-Submicron SOI Technology
Monolithic pixel sensors for charged particle detection and imaging
applications have been designed and fabricated using commercially available,
deep-submicron Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) processes, which insulate a thin
layer of integrated full CMOS electronics from a high-resistivity substrate by
means of a buried oxide. The substrate is contacted from the electronics layer
through vias etched in the buried oxide, allowing pixel implanting and reverse
biasing. This paper summarizes the performances achieved with a first prototype
manufactured in the OKI 0.15 micrometer FD-SOI process, featuring analog and
digital pixels on a 10 micrometer pitch. The design and preliminary results on
the analog section of a second prototype manufactured in the OKI 0.20
micrometer FD-SOI process are briefly discussed.Comment: Proceedings of the PIXEL 2008 International Workshop, FNAL, Batavia,
IL, 23-26 September 2008. Submitted to JINST - Journal of Instrumentatio
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