1,145 research outputs found

    Ergometrine maleate as a causative factor in postpartum eclampsia

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    Preparation of Au Nanostructure Arrays for Fluorometry and Biosensors Applications

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    The paper describes the fabrication of random and ordered gold nanostructure arrays (NSA) of different morphology using island film thermal annealing and nanoimprint lithography techniques. Structural parameters of obtained NSA were investigated using atomic force microscopy method. Spectral characteristics of obtained NSA were studied in air atmosphere, and NSA light extinction spectra exhibited an expressed plasmon peak. Spectral position of localized surface plasmon resonance can be tuned depending on geometrical parameters of nanostructures, which is an important factor for resonant investigation methods of various types of molecular structures. Proposed technological approaches can be used to implement the resonance fluorometry in electromagnetic field of nanostructures (surface-enhanced fluorescence) method and in chemical and biosensors based on localized surface plasmon resonance. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3496

    The WaveDriving Course

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    In the last ten years our knowledge about the formation of traffic jams has changed substantially, so that the idea of »phantom traffic jam» could soon seem naive to us. But transforming traffic flows and eliminating traffic jams requires that each individual driver (human or non-human) understands their role in traffic flows, the genesis of traffic jams, and how to behave to avoid them. Based on previous studies we have termed this adaptive, anti-jam behavior Wavedriving. This paper presents the design and structure of an online WaveDriving course (WDC) conceived to teach to avoid traffic jams, as well as its first pilot tests. Although some improvements have been identified after the pilots, the preliminary results confirm that the WDC manages to transform car-following behavior of participants, from ordinary drivers to WaveDrivers

    SpectraNet–53: A deep residual learning architecture for predicting soluble solids content with VIS–NIR spectroscopy

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    This work presents a new deep learning architecture, SpectraNet-53, for quantitative analysis of fruit spectra, optimized for predicting Soluble Solids Content (SSC, in Brix). The novelty of this approach resides in being an architecture trainable on a very small dataset, while keeping a performance level on-par or above Partial Least Squares (PLS), a time-proven machine learning method in the field of spectroscopy. SpectraNet-53 performance is assessed by determining the SSC of 616 Citrus sinensi L. Osbeck 'Newhall' oranges, from two Algarve (Portugal) orchards, spanning two consecutive years, and under different edaphoclimatic conditions. This dataset consists of short-wave near-infrared spectroscopic (SW-NIRS) data, and was acquired with a portable spectrometer, in the visible to near infrared region, on-tree and without temperature equalization. SpectraNet-53 results are compared to a similar state-of-the-art architecture, DeepSpectra, as well as PLS, and thoroughly assessed on 15 internal validation sets (where the training and test data were sampled from the same orchard or year) and on 28 external validation sets (training/test data sampled from different orchards/years). SpectraNet-53 was able to achieve better performance than DeepSpectra and PLS in several metrics, and is especially robust to training overfit. For external validation results, on average, SpectraNet-53 was 3.1% better than PLS on RMSEP (1.16 vs. 1.20 Brix), 11.6% better in SDR (1.22 vs. 1.10), and 28.0% better in R2 (0.40 vs. 0.31).project NIBAP ALG-01-0247-FEDER-037303, project OtiCalFrut ALG-010247-FEDER-033652info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Aerosol direct radiative effects of a transatlantic biomass burning plume over Granada, Spain

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    This work presents the assessment of the aerosol direct radiative effects for a special episode of transatlantic transport of a biomass burning plume, performed over Granada, south-eastern Iberian Peninsula, on 20th August 2007. The knowledge of aerosol radiative impact requires an accurate determination of their optical and microphysical properties, which are obtained here using ground-based remote sensing instrumentation by means of a combination of lidar and sun-photometer. Our data highlight the presence of a multilayered structure with a well-defined planetary boundary layer and biomass-particles in elevated layers, extending up to 9 km asl, at the south-eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula. The aerosol direct shortwave radiative effects, evaluated from simulations with SBDART code, show that the biomass burning plume increases the heating rate up to 0.5 K/day in spite of the small contribution of these particles to the total aerosol optical depth (10-20%). In addition, our results indicate that the biomass burning plume strengths the negative radiative forcing about -5 down to -8 W/m2 at the surface, between noon and evening. At the TOA, radiative forcing appeared slightly positive but very close to zero at noon, and negative in the evening with a decrease of 1.5 W/m2 caused by the presence of the biomass burning plume.Postprint (published version

    Cilastatin Attenuates Cisplatin-Induced Proximal Tubular Cell Damage

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    A major area in cancer therapy is the search for protective strategies against cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity. We investigated the protective effect of cilastatin on cisplatininduced injury to renal proximal tubular cells. Cilastatin is a specific inhibitor of renal dehydrodipeptidase I (DHP-I), which prevents hydrolysis of imipenem and its accumulation in the proximal tubule. Primary cultures of proximal cells were treated with cisplatin (1–30 M) in the presence or absence of cilastatin (200 g/ml). Apoptosis and mitochondrial injury were assessed by different techniques. Cisplatin uptake and DNA binding were measured by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry. HeLa cells were used to control the effect of cilastatin on the tumoricidal activity of cisplatin. Cisplatin increased cell death, apoptotic-like morphology, caspase activation, and mitochondrial injury in proximal tubular cells in a dose- and time-dependent way. Concomitant treatment with cilastatin reduced cisplatin-induced changes. Cilastatin also reduced the DNA-bound platinum but did not modify cisplatin-dependent up-regulation of death receptors (Fas) or ligands (tumor necrosis factor , Fas ligand). In contrast, cilastatin did not show any effects on cisplatintreated HeLa cells. Renal DHP-I was virtually absent in HeLa cells. Cilastatin attenuates cisplatin-induced cell death in proximal tubular cells without reducing the cytotoxic activity of cisplatin in tumor cells. Our findings suggest that the affinity of cilastatin for renal dipeptidase makes this effect specific for proximal tubular cells and may be related to a reduction in intracellular drug accumulation. Therefore, cilastatin administration might represent a novel strategy in the prevention of cisplatin-induced acute renal injury

    Assessing pollen extreme events over a Mediterranean site: Role of local surface meteorology

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    The presence of very high pollen levels in the atmosphere is associated with a strong impact on health and a worsening of symptoms in people who already have a respiratory disease. However, there is no specification on the aerobiological, environmental and meteorological factors that allow for characterizing a pollen event as of great magnitude due to the significant impact it can cause on the population and the environment. This work proposes criteria to typify the levels of atmospheric pollen as an extreme pollen event (EPE), and aims to determine the meteorological variables that can affect the presence and permanence of high pollen concentrations over a period of time. To address this goal, the quasi-climatological pollen dataset recorded in Granada (Southeastern Spain) during the period 1992-2019, has been used. On the daily accumulated pollen concentrations, the 95th, 97th and 99th percentiles were calculated. Spearman's correlation between the pollen concentration exceeding the proposed thresholds (C>P95, C>P97, C>P99) and surface meteorological variables recorded during up to five days before the event were established in order to identify the meteorological conditions that might affect the EPEs. As for the number of days with values higher than the established percentiles, it has been seen that in the case of total pollen and Olea, Cupressaceae and Pinus, there is a robust monotonically ascending trend throughout the study period. Regarding meteorological variables, relative humidity and 24-h accumulated precipitation are shown as the two most influential variables up to three days before the event, although temperatures, visibility and wind direction also show a correlation with some pollen types. The criteria proposed in this work allow us for classifying high levels of pollen as an EPE, and lay the foundations of these extreme events in a context of climate change in which they will become more frequent.the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) for support through project BIOCLOUD (RTI2018-101154-A-100) and INTEGRATYON3 (PID2020.117825GB.C21)Regional Government of Andalusia through project AEROPRE (P18-RT-3820) and ADAPNE (P20-00136)INPARK (B-RNM-474-UGR18)DEM3TRIOS (A-RNM-430-UGR20)Earth System Excellence Units Progra

    EVALUATION OF RETRIEVED AEROSOL EXTINCTION PROFILES USING AS REFERENCE THE AEROSOL OPTICAL DEPTH DIFFERENCES BETWEEN VARIOUS HEIGHTS

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    Aerosol extinction vertical profiles at Granada (Spain) are calculated with the GRASP (Generalized Retrieval of Aerosol and Surface Properties) code using as input Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and sky radiance measurements from AERONET (AEerosol RObotic NETwork) and ceilometer RCS (Range Corrected Signal) profiles, both corresponding to the Granada (Spain) station. This methodology is so called GRASPpac due to the combination of sun/sky photometer and ceilometer on GRASP. In order to evaluate the accuracy of these retrieved extinction profiles at Granada, two more nearby AERONET stations, located at different altitudes, are used. The AOD difference of the three choosen AERONET sun/sky photometers have been used to calculate the Integrated Aerosol Extinction (IAE) at different height layers. These three AERONET sun/sky photometers are used as a reference and compared against the integrated extinction at the same layers from the extinction profiles retrieved by GRASPpac. The differences between AERONET and GRASPpac retrieved IAE values indicate that GRASPpac aerosol extinction profiles are at least within the uncertainty of the sun/sky photometer measurements, but GRASPpac method overestimates the AERONET extinction at low altitudes and underestimates it at high levels. The most accurate and precise retrieved extinction correspond to the intermediate layer with a mean bias error (MBE ± standard deviation) of 0.00 ± 0.01 (0 ± 59%) for 1020 nm, and the worst integrated extinction results were obtained for the upper layers with a MBE of −0.01 ± 0.02 (28 ± 36%) for 1020 nm. In general these MBE values increases for shorter wavelengths. In order to obtain a complete characterization of this bias, the dependence of the obtained differences on the aerosol size and the solar zenith angle, among others, are analysed in detail. Finally, the behaviour of vertically-resolved aerosol extinction at Granada is evaluated using averages of the retrieved profiles from November of 2012 to December of 2017. The highest IAE values are found in Summer with mean values of 0.09 for the lower layers and 0.07 for the upper ones, both at 440 nm wavelength.Andalusia Regional Government (project P12-RNM-2409)“Consejería de Educación” of “Junta de Castilla y León” (project VA100U14)Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the projects, CMT2015-66742-R, CGL2016-81092-R, “Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación” program (FIJCI-2016-30007) and CGL2017-90884-RED

    Heating rate and electrode charging measurements in a scalable, microfabricated, surface-electrode ion trap

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    We characterise the performance of a surface-electrode ion "chip" trap fabricated using established semiconductor integrated circuit and micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS) microfabrication processes which are in principle scalable to much larger ion trap arrays, as proposed for implementing ion trap quantum information processing. We measure rf ion micromotion parallel and perpendicular to the plane of the trap electrodes, and find that on-package capacitors reduce this to <~ 10 nm in amplitude. We also measure ion trapping lifetime, charging effects due to laser light incident on the trap electrodes, and the heating rate for a single trapped ion. The performance of this trap is found to be comparable with others of the same size scale.Comment: 6 pages, 10 figure

    Characteristics of misclassified ct perfusion ischemic core in patients with acute ischemic stroke

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    Background CT perfusion (CTP) is used to estimate the extent of ischemic core and penumbra in patients with acute ischemic stroke. CTP reliability, however, is limited. This study aims to identify regions misclassified as ischemic core on CTP, using infarct on follow-up noncontrast CT. We aim to assess differences in volumetric and perfusion characteristics in these regions compared to areas that ended up as infarct on follo
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