Echocardiography Differentiates Lethally Irradiated Whole-Body From Partial-Body Exposed Rats

Background: Acute radiation syndrome (ARS) affects morbidity and mortality dependent on the amount of body exposed. We propose the use of echocardiography (EC) to differentiate between survivors and non-survivors by measuring changes in cardiac function (CF) and pulmonary arterial function (PAF). We also investigate the role of rheology in our observed changes.Methods and Results: Rats were irradiated to the whole body (WB) or partial body with two-legs shielded (2LS) at a lethal dose of 7.5Gy. EC and magnetic resonance imaging were performed, and rheological measurements conducted. Only 2LS survived past 12-days post-exposure and their CF and PAR were not significantly different from baseline. WB was significantly different from both baseline and 2LS in stroke volume (P < 0.05), velocity time integral (VTI; P < 0.05) and pulmonary artery acceleration time (PAAT; P < 0.05). Differences were identified as early as six-days post-exposure, where VTI and PAAT were significantly (P < 0.05) decreased in WB versus baseline but only PAAT was different from 2LS. Blood viscosity was significantly lower in the WB versus baseline and 2LS (P < 0.0001). WB exhibited a significant rise in dense red blood cells versus baseline (P < 0.01) and 2LS (P < 0.01). Cell-free hemoglobin, a contributor to pulmonary artery hypertension and vasculopathy, was significantly elevated in WB vs. sham.Conclusions: Non-invasive and readily available imaging can be used to identify critically affected victims. Our findings point to heart failure as one possible cause of death in WB exposed animals, potentially exacerbated by rheological, hemolytic, and pulmonary factors, and the importance of developing radiomitigators against cardiac ARS mortality

An Empirical Study of Bots in Software Development -- Characteristics and Challenges from a Practitioner's Perspective

Software engineering bots - automated tools that handle tedious tasks - are increasingly used by industrial and open source projects to improve developer productivity. Current research in this area is held back by a lack of consensus of what software engineering bots (DevBots) actually are, what characteristics distinguish them from other tools, and what benefits and challenges are associated with DevBot usage. In this paper we report on a mixed-method empirical study of DevBot usage in industrial practice. We report on findings from interviewing 21 and surveying a total of 111 developers. We identify three different personas among DevBot users (focusing on autonomy, chat interfaces, and "smartness"), each with different definitions of what a DevBot is, why developers use them, and what they struggle with. We conclude that future DevBot research should situate their work within our framework, to clearly identify what type of bot the work targets, and what advantages practitioners can expect. Further, we find that there currently is a lack of general purpose "smart" bots that go beyond simple automation tools or chat interfaces. This is problematic, as we have seen that such bots, if available, can have a transformative effect on the projects that use them.Comment: To be published at the ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (ESEC/FSE

Connected Vehicle Extension and Integration of Traffic and Discrete Event Simulation Systems -- Applied to Evaluations Based on Dedicated Short Range Communication for Safety and Mobility Indices

This study is aimed at developing and modeling a specific extension of Connected Vehicles (CV) system and its applications in the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) through the designated traffic and wireless simulation networks. A typical traffic micro-simulator and a discrete event simulator individually lack the ability of fully capturing the behavior of the CV system. In this research I investigate modeling the CV system, for Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications based on Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) by enabling the two simulators communicate sequentially. PARAMICS is selected as the traffic micro-simulator. OPNET is used as the discrete event simulator. The contributions are: (1) designing the CV system as a Multiagent System (MAS) using MaSE methodology and implementing its outcomes as extensions for the PARAMICS using two distinctive APIs (Application Programming Interface); and (2) developing the integration of PARAMICS and OPNET for implementation and evaluation of DSRC-based vehicular communication protocols and their utilizations in the context of ITS. The results are verified through experiments that demonstrate the overall effectiveness of the CV. Three case studies are presented: impacts of CV on improving (1) traffic safety and (2) mobility on a section of Deerfoot trail, Calgary, Alberta; (3) the optimum selection of DSRC communication range of Road Side Units (RSUs) and a definitive percentage of CVs in the network to have the least data loss and delay in V2V and V2I data transmission for weekdays’ traffic counts

Model-based Planning and Control for Balancing Functionality and Quality in Iterative Software Construction

Software project management is the art and science of planning and controlling software projects. Software project management incorporates activities that ensure software is delivered on time, within budget, and in accordance with the requirements. Regarding challenges such as growing size, complexity, and continuous change, projects must be managed effectively; otherwise the results can be destructive for the organization. The focus of this thesis is on a decision support system for planning and controlling an iterative software development process as a novel and evolutionary method. The main contribution lies in the design, application, and validation of a decision support system through modeling the process while integrating static defect prediction model and dynamic SD simulation models. On the other end of capabilities, this decision support system conducts the analysis to cope with balanced functionality and quality during the iterative development process. In this thesis effort was made to model certain aspects of the development processes and to integrate all available data, knowledge, and experience with a sound methodology to provide the foundation for making effective project decisions. To reach the defined objectives the major key contributions are: (i) Modeling a real-world iterative software development process with the system dynamics modelling approach to support project management decision scenarios to control the balanced functionality and quality during the construction phase. (ii) Designing and evaluating an attribute weighting technique using sensitivity analysis based on a neural network and employing it in an analogy-based defect prediction model. (iii) Providing customization support for developing a CBR-based defect prediction model with a rule set defined by the source code and project information. (iv) Refining the models through process progression, in addition to employing results from the prediction model, iteratively, to update built-in predicted parameters of the SD model. (v) Employing a bi-criteria decision support method during planning to provide trade-off scenarios for balanced functionality and quality, considering the risk and value of features, according to the premise of providing a target quality level. (vi) Prototype DSS development, incorporating a knowledge base and dashboard, and initial evaluation for the case study project.2 year

"p16" immunohistochemistric marker in normal and tumoral myometrium: a study on 136 cases

"n Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE AR-SA MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Background: Uterine smooth muscle tumors classified as leiomyoma, leiomyosarcoma and tumors with uncertain malignant potential. The leiomyoma and leiomyosarcoma are separated tumors biologically. Uterine smooth muscle tumors with uncertain malignant potential include a group of tumors which are not specifically placed into two others groups which result in a serious problem in a way of their treatment. In the present study expression of marker "p16" in smooth muscle tumors of uterine and normal myometrium has been investigated."n"nMethods: The entire paraffin blocks related to hysterectomy cases with diagnosis of normal myometrium, leiomyoma and leiomyosarcoma (3768 cases) available in pathology lab. in Shariati Hospital in Tehran, Iran from 1372 to 1387 were investigated. Among them 62 normal myometrium, 62 leiomyoma and 12 leiomyosarcoma had been chosen and after staining for marker "p16" were investigated separately."n"nResults: There were a statistically significant difference in both intensity and percentage of staining for this marker between leiomyoma and leiomiosarcoma (p< 0.001) and between leiomyosarcoma and normal myometrium (p< 0.001) but not between leiomyoma and normal myometrium (p= 3.6)."n"nConclusion: Based on this study if strong and more than focal immunoreactivity for marker "p16" suppose as positive then leiomyosarcoma will be positive for this marker but leiomyoma and normal myometrium will not be and this could be considered as a good guide for categorizing the uterine smooth muscle tumors