215 research outputs found
Academics perception towards various water reuse options: University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro - UTAD Campus (Portugal) as a case study
Any strategy of water reuse has to achieve social acceptance to be successful. This paper presents the results of a multiple choice survey that attempted to establish the general attitude toward water reuse by asking academics in UTAD (Portugal) a wide range of questions. The survey included 20 reuse options, which were clustered into three reuse categories, specifically: low, medium and high contact levels. Correlation analysis between the level of support of low, medium and high contact options and demographic characteristics, personal and environmental beliefs was performed. Results show that a high proportion of the participants supported low and medium contact reuse options. Correlation was found to exist between the income classes and to the level of support of medium and high reuse options and between education level and the support for high contact reuse options. The responses to the survey suggested that some beliefs influence the level of support
Prognostic Role of Serum Chloride Levels in Acute Decompensated Heart Failure
BACKGROUND: Acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) can be complicated by electrolyte abnormalities, but the major focus has been concentrated on the clinical significance of serum sodium levels
Anomalous metamagnetism in the low carrier density Kondo lattice YbRh3Si7
We report complex metamagnetic transitions in single crystals of the new low
carrier Kondo antiferromagnet YbRh3Si7. Electrical transport, magnetization,
and specific heat measurements reveal antiferromagnetic order at T_N = 7.5 K.
Neutron diffraction measurements show that the magnetic ground state of
YbRh3Si7 is a collinear antiferromagnet where the moments are aligned in the ab
plane. With such an ordered state, no metamagnetic transitions are expected
when a magnetic field is applied along the c axis. It is therefore surprising
that high field magnetization, torque, and resistivity measurements with H||c
reveal two metamagnetic transitions at mu_0H_1 = 6.7 T and mu_0H_2 = 21 T. When
the field is tilted away from the c axis, towards the ab plane, both
metamagnetic transitions are shifted to higher fields. The first metamagnetic
transition leads to an abrupt increase in the electrical resistivity, while the
second transition is accompanied by a dramatic reduction in the electrical
resistivity. Thus, the magnetic and electronic degrees of freedom in YbRh3Si7
are strongly coupled. We discuss the origin of the anomalous metamagnetism and
conclude that it is related to competition between crystal electric field
anisotropy and anisotropic exchange interactions.Comment: 23 pages and 4 figures in the main text. 7 pages and 5 figures in the
supplementary materia
Theory and Applications of Non-Relativistic and Relativistic Turbulent Reconnection
Realistic astrophysical environments are turbulent due to the extremely high
Reynolds numbers. Therefore, the theories of reconnection intended for
describing astrophysical reconnection should not ignore the effects of
turbulence on magnetic reconnection. Turbulence is known to change the nature
of many physical processes dramatically and in this review we claim that
magnetic reconnection is not an exception. We stress that not only
astrophysical turbulence is ubiquitous, but also magnetic reconnection itself
induces turbulence. Thus turbulence must be accounted for in any realistic
astrophysical reconnection setup. We argue that due to the similarities of MHD
turbulence in relativistic and non-relativistic cases the theory of magnetic
reconnection developed for the non-relativistic case can be extended to the
relativistic case and we provide numerical simulations that support this
conjecture. We also provide quantitative comparisons of the theoretical
predictions and results of numerical experiments, including the situations when
turbulent reconnection is self-driven, i.e. the turbulence in the system is
generated by the reconnection process itself. We show how turbulent
reconnection entails the violation of magnetic flux freezing, the conclusion
that has really far reaching consequences for many realistically turbulent
astrophysical environments. In addition, we consider observational testing of
turbulent reconnection as well as numerous implications of the theory. The
former includes the Sun and solar wind reconnection, while the latter include
the process of reconnection diffusion induced by turbulent reconnection, the
acceleration of energetic particles, bursts of turbulent reconnection related
to black hole sources as well as gamma ray bursts. Finally, we explain why
turbulent reconnection cannot be explained by turbulent resistivity or derived
through the mean field approach.Comment: 66 pages, 24 figures, a chapter of the book "Magnetic Reconnection -
Concepts and Applications", editors W. Gonzalez, E. N. Parke
Cytosolic phospholipase A2α–deficient mice are resistant to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis
Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a Th1-mediated inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS), is a model of human multiple sclerosis. Cytosolic phospholipase A2α (cPLA2α), which initiates production of prostaglandins, leukotrienes, and platelet-activating factor, is present in EAE lesions. Using myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) immunization, as well as an adoptive transfer model, we showed that cPLA2α−/− mice are resistant to EAE. Histologic examination of the CNS from MOG-immunized mice revealed extensive inflammatory lesions in the cPLA2α+/− mice, whereas the lesions in cPLA2α−/− mice were reduced greatly or completely absent. MOG-specific T cells generated from WT mice induced less severe EAE in cPLA2α−/− mice compared with cPLA2α+/− mice, which indicates that cPLA2α plays a role in the effector phase of EAE. Additionally, MOG-specific T cells from cPLA2α−/− mice, transferred into WT mice, induced EAE with delayed onset and lower severity compared with EAE that was induced by control cells; this indicates that cPLA2α also plays a role in the induction phase of EAE. MOG-specific T cells from cPLA2α−/− mice were deficient in production of Th1-type cytokines. Consistent with this deficiency, in vivo administration of IL-12 rendered cPLA2α−/− mice susceptible to EAE. Our data indicate that cPLA2α plays an important role in EAE development and facilitates differentiation of T cells toward the Th1 phenotype
Towards evidence-based marketing: The case of childhood obesity
Contentious commodities such as tobacco, alcohol and fatty foods are bringing marketing under scrutiny from consumers and policymakers. Yet there is little agreement on whether marketing is harmful to society. Systematic review (SR), a methodology derived from clinical medicine, offers marketers a tool for providing resolution and allowing policymakers to proceed with greater confidence. This article describes how SR methods were applied for the first time to a marketing problem -- the effects of food promotion to children. The review withstood scrutiny and its findings were formally ratified by government bodies and policymakers, demonstrating that SR methods can transfer from clinical research to marketing
Integration of genome-wide association studies with biological knowledge identifies six novel genes related to kidney function
In conducting genome-wide association studies (GWAS), analytical approaches leveraging biological information may further understanding of the pathophysiology of clinical traits. To discover novel associations with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), a measure of kidney function, we developed a strategy for integrating prior biological knowledge into the existing GWAS data for eGFR from the CKDGen Consortium. Our strategy focuses on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) in genes that are connected by functional evidence, determined by literature mining and gene ontology (GO) hierarchies, to genes near previously validated eGFR associations. It then requires association thresholds consistent with multiple testing, and finally evaluates novel candidates by independent replication. Among the samples of European ancestry, we identified a genome-wide significant SNP in FBXL20 (P = 5.6 × 10−9) in meta-analysis of all available data, and additional SNPs at the INHBC, LRP2, PLEKHA1, SLC3A2 and SLC7A6 genes meeting multiple-testing corrected significance for replication and overall P-values of 4.5 × 10−4-2.2 × 10−7. Neither the novel PLEKHA1 nor FBXL20 associations, both further supported by association with eGFR among African Americans and with transcript abundance, would have been implicated by eGFR candidate gene approaches. LRP2, encoding the megalin receptor, was identified through connection with the previously known eGFR gene DAB2 and extends understanding of the megalin system in kidney function. These findings highlight integration of existing genome-wide association data with independent biological knowledge to uncover novel candidate eGFR associations, including candidates lacking known connections to kidney-specific pathways. The strategy may also be applicable to other clinical phenotypes, although more testing will be needed to assess its potential for discovery in genera
Classification of current anticancer immunotherapies
During the past decades, anticancer immunotherapy has evolved from a promising
therapeutic option to a robust clinical reality. Many immunotherapeutic regimens are
now approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines
Agency for use in cancer patients, and many others are being investigated as standalone
therapeutic interventions or combined with conventional treatments in clinical
studies. Immunotherapies may be subdivided into “passive” and “active” based on
their ability to engage the host immune system against cancer. Since the anticancer
activity of most passive immunotherapeutics (including tumor-targeting monoclonal
antibodies) also relies on the host immune system, this classification does not properly
reflect the complexity of the drug-host-tumor interaction. Alternatively, anticancer
immunotherapeutics can be classified according to their antigen specificity. While some
immunotherapies specifically target one (or a few) defined tumor-associated antigen(s),
others operate in a relatively non-specific manner and boost natural or therapy-elicited
anticancer immune responses of unknown and often broad specificity. Here, we propose
a critical, integrated classification of anticancer immunotherapies and discuss the clinical
relevance of these approaches
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