The intersection form of production possibility set in DEA and its applications

2006-2007 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Clinical and Imaging Features of Adults with Recurrent Pulmonary Tuberculosis - A Prospective Case-Controlled Study

BACKGROUND: Recurrent pulmonary tuberculosis (RPTB) is a growing, important and neglected problem affecting treated TB patients and TB health services across the world, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Analyses and identification of differences in clinical features between recurrent PTB and newly diagnosed PTB may lead to improved management recommendations. METHODS: Between September 1st 2019 and January 31st 2020, we performed a prospective case controlled study of clinical and imaging features of patients with recurrent pulmonary tuberculosis and compared them with those of newly diagnosed PTB cases. Recurrent PTB was defined as a patient with bacteriologically confirmed active PTB who was previously successfully treated for PTB and was cured. A control was defined as a patient who presents for the first time with bacteriologically confirmed PTB. Clinical and radiological features were assessed and documented. Chi-square and t-test were used to test the difference between proportion and continuous data, respectively. Logistic regression analysis was done to determine factors associated with RPTB using SPSS version 23 software. RESULTS: A total of 312 patients with PTB were enrolled (104 RPTB cases and 208 newly diagnosed controls). Clinically hemoptysis was more common in RPTB compared to controls 28/104 (26.9%) vs 35/208 (16.8%), P = 0.036. Chest pain was significantly less common among patients with RPTB compared to controls 33 (31.7%) vs 92 (44.2%), P = 0.034. A higher proportion of RPTB presented with cavitation 34/104 (32.7%) compared to control 44/208 (21.2%) P = 0.027. The median score for lung pathology was higher among patients with RPTB (50) compared to controls (30); P = 0.001. Lung function of patients with RPTB at diagnosis of index TB were more likely to show mixed restrictive and obstructive pattern 36/104 (34.6%) compared to controls 31/208 (14.9%). p<0.001. Multivariate analysis showed that patients older than 45 years of age (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 3.59, 95% CI: 1.38 - 9.32), those with hemoptysis (aOR 1.96, 95% CI: 1.04 - 3.69) p=0.04) and fibrosis on chest x rays (aOR 2.18, 95% CI: 1.16 - 4.10) were significantly associated with recurrent PTB. CONCLUSIONS: Hemoptysis, lung parenchymal damage, and patients being older than 45 years of age are significant features of RPTB. Management should focus on risk factors for recurrence, and a more holistic model of care to prevent long term lung injury

Synthesis and electromagnetic wave absorption property of amorphous carbon nanotube networks on a 3D graphene aerogel/BaFe12O19 nanocomposite

Homogeneous amorphous carbon nanotube (ACNT) networks have been synthesized using floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition method on a 3D graphene aerogel (GA)/ BaFe12O19 (BF) nanocomposite which was prepared by a self-propagating combustion process. The as-synthesized ACNT/GA/BF nanocomposite with 3D network structures could be directly used as a good absorber material for electromagnetic wave absorption. The experimental results indicated that the minimum reflection loss of ACNT/GA/BF composite with a thickness of 2 mm was -18.35 dB at 10.64 GHz in the frequency range of 2-18 GHz. The frequency bandwidth of the reflection loss below -10 dB was 3.32 GHz and below -5 dB was 6.24 GHz, respectively. The 3D graphene aerogel structures which composed of dense interlined tubes and amorphous structure bearing quantities of dihedral angles could consume the incident waves through multiple reflection and scattering inside the 3D web structures. The interlinked ACNTs have both the virtues of amorphous CNTs (multiple reflection inside the wall) and crystalline CNTs (high conductivity), consuming the electromagnetic wave as resistance heat. ACNT/GA/BF composite has a good electromagnetic wave absorption performance.Institute of Textiles and Clothing2016-2017 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalbcr

Balancing carrots and sticks: incentives for sustainable hilsa fishery management in Bangladesh

Mihir Kanti Majumder, Md Mokammel Hossain, Atiq Rahman, Belayet Hussei

Refractive-index sensing with ultra-thin plasmonic nanotubes

We study the refractive-index sensing properties of plasmonic nanotubes with a dielectric core and ultra-thin metal shell. The few-nm thin metal shell is described by both the usual Drude model and the nonlocal hydrodynamic model to investigate the effects of nonlocality. We derive an analytical expression for the extinction cross section and show how sensing of the refractive index of the surrounding medium and the figure-of-merit are affected by the shape and size of the nanotubes. Comparison with other localized surface plasmon resonance sensors reveals that the nanotube exhibits superior sensitivity and comparable figure-of-merit

Statistical-Mechanical Measure of Stochastic Spiking Coherence in A Population of Inhibitory Subthreshold Neurons

By varying the noise intensity, we study stochastic spiking coherence (i.e., collective coherence between noise-induced neural spikings) in an inhibitory population of subthreshold neurons (which cannot fire spontaneously without noise). This stochastic spiking coherence may be well visualized in the raster plot of neural spikes. For a coherent case, partially-occupied "stripes" (composed of spikes and indicating collective coherence) are formed in the raster plot. This partial occupation occurs due to "stochastic spike skipping" which is well shown in the multi-peaked interspike interval histogram. The main purpose of our work is to quantitatively measure the degree of stochastic spiking coherence seen in the raster plot. We introduce a new spike-based coherence measure $M_s$ by considering the occupation pattern and the pacing pattern of spikes in the stripes. In particular, the pacing degree between spikes is determined in a statistical-mechanical way by quantifying the average contribution of (microscopic) individual spikes to the (macroscopic) ensemble-averaged global potential. This "statistical-mechanical" measure $M_s$ is in contrast to the conventional measures such as the "thermodynamic" order parameter (which concerns the time-averaged fluctuations of the macroscopic global potential), the "microscopic" correlation-based measure (based on the cross-correlation between the microscopic individual potentials), and the measures of precise spike timing (based on the peri-stimulus time histogram). In terms of $M_s$, we quantitatively characterize the stochastic spiking coherence, and find that $M_s$ reflects the degree of collective spiking coherence seen in the raster plot very well. Hence, the "statistical-mechanical" spike-based measure $M_s$ may be used usefully to quantify the degree of stochastic spiking coherence in a statistical-mechanical way.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the J. Comput. Neurosc

Gender-dependent differences in plasma matrix metalloproteinase-8 elevated in pulmonary tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a global health pandemic and greater understanding of underlying pathogenesis is required to develop novel therapeutic and diagnostic approaches. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are emerging as key effectors of tissue destruction in TB but have not been comprehensively studied in plasma, nor have gender differences been investigated. We measured the plasma concentrations of MMPs in a carefully characterised, prospectively recruited clinical cohort of 380 individuals. The collagenases, MMP-1 and MMP-8, were elevated in plasma of patients with pulmonary TB relative to healthy controls, and MMP-7 (matrilysin) and MMP-9 (gelatinase B) were also increased. MMP-8 was TB-specific (p<0.001), not being elevated in symptomatic controls (symptoms suspicious of TB but active disease excluded). Plasma MMP-8 concentrations inversely correlated with body mass index. Plasma MMP-8 concentration was 1.51-fold higher in males than females with TB (p<0.05) and this difference was not due to greater disease severity in men. Gender-specific analysis of MMPs demonstrated consistent increase in MMP-1 and -8 in TB, but MMP-8 was a better discriminator for TB in men. Plasma collagenases are elevated in pulmonary TB and differ between men and women. Gender must be considered in investigation of TB immunopathology and development of novel diagnostic markers

Laterally Orienting C. elegans Using Geometry at Microscale for High-Throughput Visual Screens in Neurodegeneration and Neuronal Development Studies

C. elegans is an excellent model system for studying neuroscience using genetics because of its relatively simple nervous system, sequenced genome, and the availability of a large number of transgenic and mutant strains. Recently, microfluidic devices have been used for high-throughput genetic screens, replacing traditional methods of manually handling C. elegans. However, the orientation of nematodes within microfluidic devices is random and often not conducive to inspection, hindering visual analysis and overall throughput. In addition, while previous studies have utilized methods to bias head and tail orientation, none of the existing techniques allow for orientation along the dorso-ventral body axis. Here, we present the design of a simple and robust method for passively orienting worms into lateral body positions in microfluidic devices to facilitate inspection of morphological features with specific dorso-ventral alignments. Using this technique, we can position animals into lateral orientations with up to 84% efficiency, compared to 21% using existing methods. We isolated six mutants with neuronal development or neurodegenerative defects, showing that our technology can be used for on-chip analysis and high-throughput visual screens

Ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices: mimicking condensed matter physics and beyond

We review recent developments in the physics of ultracold atomic and molecular gases in optical lattices. Such systems are nearly perfect realisations of various kinds of Hubbard models, and as such may very well serve to mimic condensed matter phenomena. We show how these systems may be employed as quantum simulators to answer some challenging open questions of condensed matter, and even high energy physics. After a short presentation of the models and the methods of treatment of such systems, we discuss in detail, which challenges of condensed matter physics can be addressed with (i) disordered ultracold lattice gases, (ii) frustrated ultracold gases, (iii) spinor lattice gases, (iv) lattice gases in "artificial" magnetic fields, and, last but not least, (v) quantum information processing in lattice gases. For completeness, also some recent progress related to the above topics with trapped cold gases will be discussed.Comment: Review article. v2: published version, 135 pages, 34 figure