1,020 research outputs found
Remodeling After Myocardial Infarction in Humans Is Not Associated With Interstitial Fibrosis of Noninfarcted Myocardium
AbstractObjectives. This study was specifically designed to evaluate whether noninfarcted hypertrophic myocardium in patients with end-stage heart failure after myocardial infarction (MI) is associated with an increase in interstitial fibrous tissue.Background. Postinfarction remodeling consists of complex alterations that involve both infarcted and noninfarcted myocardium. The question arises whether ventricular dysfunction is due to physical events, such as inadequate myocardial hypertrophy to compensate for increased tangential wall stress, or is caused by the development of progressive interstitial fibrosis in noninfarcted myocardium.Methods. Fifteen hearts were obtained as cardiac explants (n = 13) or at autopsy (n = 2) from patients with end-stage coronary artery disease. Sixteen normal hearts served as reference hearts. Samples were taken from the left ventricular (LV) wall that contained the infarcted area, the border area and noninfarcted myocardium remote from scar areas. Collagen was quantified biochemically and microdensitophotometrically. Collagen type I and III ratios were analyzed by using the cyanogen bromide method and immunohistochemical staining, followed by microdensitophotometric quantification.Results. In noninfarcted myocardium remote from the scar areas, total collagen levels and collagen type I/III ratios did not differ statistically from those in reference hearts. These observations contrasted with high total collagen content and high collagen type I/III ratios in scar and border areas.Conclusions. Remodeling of LV myocardium after MI in patients with end-stage heart failure is not necessarily associated with interstitial fibrosis in noninfarcted hypertrophic myocardium remote from scar areas. This finding raises questions regarding therapeutic interventions designed to prevent or retard the development of interstitial fibrosis.(J Am Coll Cardiol 1997;30:76â82
The Vaccine and Cervical Cancer Screen project 2 (VACCS 2): Linking cervical cancer screening to a two-dose HPV vaccination schedule in the South-West District of Tshwane, Gauteng, South Africa
BACKGROUND : Cervical cancer is preventable, but still highly prevalent in South Africa (SA). Screening strategies in the country have been
ineffective, and new ways to prevent the disease are needed.
OBJECTIVES : To investigate the feasibility of linking cervical cancer screening in adult women to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination
in schoolgirls.
METHODS : Ten primary schools in the South-West District of Tshwane, Gauteng Province, SA, took part in the study. Cervical cancer and
HPV vaccine information was provided to schoolgirls and their parents. Consented schoolgirls were vaccinated and their female parents
were invited to participate in self-screening.
RESULTS : Among 1 654 girls invited for vaccination, the consented and invited uptake rates were 99.4% and 64.0%, respectively. Vaccine
completion rates were higher in schools where the vaccination programme was completed in the same calendar year than in those where
it was administered over two calendar years. Of 569 adult females invited, 253 (44.5%) returned screen tests; 169 (66.8%) tested negative
and 75 (29.6%) positive for any high-risk HPV (hrHPV). There were no differences in level of education, employment status or access to
healthcare between women with positive and those with negative screen results.
CONCLUSIONS : Implementation of HPV vaccination in a primary school-based programme was successful, with high vaccine uptake and completion
rates. Self-screening reached the ideal target group, and it is possible to link cervical cancer screening to the cervical cancer vaccine by giving
women the opportunity of self-sampling for hrHPV testing. This is a novel and feasible approach that would require some adaptive strategies.http://www.samj.org.zahb201
Magnetic field and pressure effects on charge density wave, superconducting, and magnetic states in LuIrSi and ErIrSi
We have studied the charge-density-wave (CDW) state for the superconducting
LuIrSi and the antiferromagnetic ErIrSi as
variables of temperature, magnetic field, and hydrostatic pressure. For
LuIrSi, the application of pressure strongly suppresses the CDW
phase but weakly enhances the superconducting phase. For ErIrSi,
the incommensurate CDW state is pressure independent and the commensurate CDW
state strongly depends on the pressure, whereas the antiferromagnetic ordering
is slightly depressed by applying pressure. In addition, ErIrSi
shows negative magnetoresistance at low temperatures, compared with the
positive magnetoresistance of LuIrSi.Comment: 12 pages, including 6 figure
A new displacement-based approach to calculate stress intensity factors with the boundary element method
The analysis of cracked brittle mechanical components considering linear elastic fracture mechanics is usually reduced to the evaluation of stress intensity factors (SIFs). The SIF calculation can be carried out experimentally, theoretically or numerically. Each methodology has its own advantages but the use of numerical methods has be-come very popular. Several schemes for numerical SIF calculations have been developed, the J-integral method being one of the most widely used because of its energy-like formulation. Additionally, some variations of the J-integral method, such as displacement-based methods, are also becoming popular due to their simplicity. In this work, a simple displacement-based scheme is proposed to calculate SIFs, and its performance is compared with contour integrals. These schemes are all implemented with the Boundary Element Method (BEM) in order to exploit its advantages in crack growth modelling. Some simple examples are solved with the BEM and the calculated SIF values are compared against available solutions, showing good agreement between the different schemes
The Vaccine and Cervical Cancer Screen (VACCS) project : linking cervical cancer screening to HPV vaccination in the South-West District of Tshwane, Gauteng, South Africa
BACKGROUND : Cervical cancer is preventable, but still highly prevalent in South Africa (SA). Screening strategies in the country have been
ineffective, and new ways to prevent the disease are needed.
OBJECTIVES : To investigate the feasibility of linking cervical cancer screening in adult women to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination
in schoolgirls.
METHODS : Ten primary schools in the South-West District of Tshwane, Gauteng Province, SA, took part in the study. Cervical cancer and
HPV vaccine information was provided to schoolgirls and their parents. Consented schoolgirls were vaccinated and their female parents
were invited to participate in self-screening.
RESULTS : Among 1 654 girls invited for vaccination, the consented and invited uptake rates were 99.4% and 64.0%, respectively. Vaccine
completion rates were higher in schools where the vaccination programme was completed in the same calendar year than in those where
it was administered over two calendar years. Of 569 adult females invited, 253 (44.5%) returned screen tests; 169 (66.8%) tested negative
and 75 (29.6%) positive for any high-risk HPV (hrHPV). There were no differences in level of education, employment status or access to
healthcare between women with positive and those with negative screen results.
CONCLUSIONS : Implementation of HPV vaccination in a primary school-based programme was successful, with high vaccine uptake and completion
rates. Self-screening reached the ideal target group, and it is possible to link cervical cancer screening to the cervical cancer vaccine by giving
women the opportunity of self-sampling for hrHPV testing. This is a novel and feasible approach that would require some adaptive strategies.http://www.samj.org.zahb201
Chern-Simons Vortices in Supergravity
We study supersymmetric vortex solutions in three-dimensional abelian gauged
supergravity. First, we construct the general U(1)-gauged D=3, N=2 supergravity
whose scalar sector is an arbitrary Kahler manifold with U(1) isometry. This
construction clarifies the connection between local supersymmetry and the
specific forms of some scalar potentials previously found in the literature --
in particular, it provides the locally supersymmetric embedding of the abelian
Chern-Simons Higgs model. We show that the Killing spinor equations admit
rotationally symmetric vortex solutions with asymptotically conical geometry
which preserve half of the supersymmetry.Comment: 26 pages, LaTeX2
Quantum Gravitational Corrections to the Nonrelativistic Scattering Potential of Two Masses
We treat general relativity as an effective field theory, obtaining the full
nonanalytic component of the scattering matrix potential to one-loop order. The
lowest order vertex rules for the resulting effective field theory are
presented and the one-loop diagrams which yield the leading nonrelativistic
post-Newtonian and quantum corrections to the gravitational scattering
amplitude to second order in G are calculated in detail. The Fourier
transformed amplitudes yield a nonrelativistic potential and our result is
discussed in relation to previous calculations. The definition of a potential
is discussed as well and we show how the ambiguity of the potential under
coordinate changes is resolved.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figure
BPR best practices for the healthcare domain
Healthcare providers are under pressure to work more efficiently and in a more patient-focused way. One possible way to achieve this is to launch Business Process Redesign (BPR) initiatives, which focus on changing the structure of the involved processes and using IT as an enabler for such changes. In this paper, we argue that a list of historically successful improvement tactics, the BPR best practices, are a highly suitable ingredient for such efforts in the healthcare domain. Our assessment is based on the analysis of 14 case studies. The insights obtained by the analysis also led to an extension of the original set of best practices
Manageable creativity
This article notes a perception in mainstream management theory and practice that creativity has shifted from being disruptive or destructive to 'manageable'. This concept of manageable creativity in business is reflected in a similar rhetoric in cultural policy, especially towards the creative industries. The article argues that the idea of 'manageable creativity' can be traced back to a 'heroic' and a 'structural' model of creativity. It is argued that the 'heroic' model of creativity is being subsumed within a 'structural' model which emphasises the systems and infrastructure around individual creativity rather than focusing on raw talent and pure content. Yet this structured approach carries problems of its own, in particular a tendency to overlook the unpredictability of creative processes, people and products. Ironically, it may be that some confusion in our policies towards creativity is inevitable, reflecting the paradoxes and transitions which characterise the creative process
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