4,383 research outputs found

    3,5-Dinitro­pyridin-4(1H)-one monohydrate

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    The three independent organic mol­ecules of 3,5-dinitro­pyridin-4(1H)-one monohydrate, C5H3N3O5·H2O, each feature an N—H⋯Owater hydrogen bond. Each water mol­ecule serves as hydrogen-bond donor to two carbonyl O atoms; these hydrogen bonds give rise to a layer motif. Two of the three formula units lie on special positions of site symmetry 2

    Linear and nonlinear adaptive digital filters and their applications.

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    Adaptive digital signal processing has matured to the point where it now constitutes an important part of statistical signal processing. However, high speed adaptive digital filtering and nonlinear adaptive digital filtering are yet to be developed. In this dissertation, a family of high speed linear adaptive digital filters, which are suitable for parallel realization, are first presented. They are (1) Delayed N-path adaptive finite impulse response (DNA-FIR) digital filters; (2) Delayed N-path adaptive linear phase finite impulse response (DNALP-FIR) digital filters; (3) Delayed N-path equation-error based adaptive infinite impulse response (DNEEBA-IIR) digital filters. By using multiple digital signal processors in parallel, the processing speed of this type of filters can be increased compared with the conventional realizations. They are contrived to be useful for general applications in adaptive digital signal processing. Comparison studies have been conducted among the proposed DNA-FIR digital filter, the block implementation of adaptive finite impulse response (BIA-FIR) digital filter, and the conventional adaptive finite impulse response (CA-FIR) digital filter. It has been shown that the processing speed of the proposed DNA-FIR digital filter is N times that of the BIA-FIR digital filter (given block length N and time domain realization). Then a nonlinear delayed N-path adaptive finite impulse response (NDNA-FIR) digital filter is developed, the parallel structure of which lends itself to high speed implementation. This NDNA-FIR digital filter compares favorably with the CA-FIR digital filter and the nonlinear median filter when applied to broadband noise cancellation. The last part of this dissertation describes the structure and its adaptive algorithm of a nonlinear adaptive infinite impulse response (IIR) digital filter. This IIR digital filter is bounded input bounded output (BIBO) stable. Based on this structure, an individual adaptation scheme is incorporated into the adaptive algorithm to improve the convergence speed.Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1994 .L515. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-01, Section: B, page: 0427. Adviser: Hon Keung Kwan. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1994

    Acupuncture Treatment for Plantar Fasciitis: A Randomized Controlled Trial with Six Months Follow-Up

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    Plantar fasciitis is a common cause of heel pain. It has been suggested that some acupoints have a specific effect on heel pain. The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy and specificity of acupuncture treatment for plantar fasciitis. Subjects were randomly assigned to the treatment group (n = 28) or control group (n = 25). The treatment group received needling at the acupoint PC 7, which is purported to have a specific effect for heel pain. The control group received needling at the acupoint Hegu (LI 4), which has analgesic properties. Treatment was administered five times a week for 2 weeks, with an identical method of manual needling applied to the two acupoints. The primary outcome measure was morning pain on a 100-point visual analog scale (VAS) at one month post-treatment. Secondary outcome measures included a VAS for activity pain, overall pain rating as well as pressure pain threshold using algometry. Significant differences in reduction in pain scores, favoring the treatment group, were seen at one month for morning pain (22.6 ± 4.0 versus 12.0 ± 3.0, mean ± SEM), overall pain (20.3 ± 3.7 versus 9.5 ± 3.6) and pressure pain threshold (145.5 ± 32.9 versus −15.5 ± 39.4). No serious adverse event was observed in either group. The results indicate that acupuncture can provide pain relief to patient with plantar fasciitis, and that PC 7 is a relatively specific acupoint for heel pain

    Self-organization and phase transition in financial markets with multiple choices

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    Market confidence is essential for successful investing. By incorporating multi-market into the evolutionary minority game, we investigate the effects of investor beliefs on the evolution of collective behaviors and asset prices. When there exists another investment opportunity, market confidence, including overconfidence and under-confidence, is not always good or bad for investment. The roles of market confidence is closely related to market impact. For low market impact, overconfidence in a particular asset makes an investor become insensitive to losses and a delayed strategy adjustment leads to a decline in wealth, and thereafter, one's runaway from the market. For high market impact, under-confidence in a particular asset makes an investor over-sensitive to losses and one's too frequent strategy adjustment leads to a large fluctuation in asset prices, and thereafter, a decrease in the number of agents. At an intermediate market impact, the phase transition occurs. No matter what the market impact is, an equilibrium between different markets exists, which is reflected in the occurrence of similar price fluctuations in different markets. A theoretical analysis indicates that such an equilibrium results from the coupled effects of strategy updating and shift in investment. The runaway of the agents trading a specific asset will lead to a decline in the asset price volatility and such a decline will be inhibited by the clustering of the strategies. A uniform strategy distribution will lead to a large fluctuation in asset prices and such a fluctuation will be suppressed by the decrease in the number of agents in the market. A functional relationship between the price fluctuations and the numbers of agents is found

    Clinical study Carbomer eye gel and rhEGF in treating dry eye after cataract surgery in diabetics

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    AIM: To investigate the effect of Carbomer eye gel and recombinant human epidermal growth factor(rhEGF)on dry eye after cataract surgery in diabetics.<p>METHODS:A total of 160 patients(160 eyes)with diabetes undergone phacoemulsification with a diagnosis of dry eyes were randomized divided into two groups, treatment group(80 cases, 80 eyes)and control group(80 cases, 80 eyes). In treatment group, the patients were treated by Carbomer eye gel and rhEGF. In control group, the patients were treated by Carbomer eye gel. The subjective dry eye symptoms, tear break-up time(BUT), Schirmer I test(SⅠt)and cornea fluorescein staining(FL)were observed before treatment, 1, 4wk after treatment.<p>RESULTS: There was no significant difference between groups before treatment(<i>P</i>>0.05). After treatment at 1, 4wk, the subjective dry eye symptoms and the results of three examination(BUT, SⅠt and FL)in two groups better than those before treatment(<i>P</i><0.01). And there was significant difference between experimental group and control group(<i>P</i><0.05; <i>P</i><0.01), the results of BUT, SIt and FL were improved in treatment group better than that in control group(<i>P</i><0.01). All patients showed good tolerance to Carbomer eye gel and recombinant human epidermal growth factor.<p>CONCLUSION: Carbomer eye gel can relieve the dry eye symptoms of diabetes after phacoemulsification effectively, and it can be more effective to combine Carbomer eye gel with rhEGF at early stage after phacoemulsification

    p38α MAPK regulates proliferation and differentiation of osteoclast progenitors and bone remodeling in an aging-dependent manner.

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    Bone mass is determined by the balance between bone formation, carried out by mesenchymal stem cell-derived osteoblasts, and bone resorption, carried out by monocyte-derived osteoclasts. Here we investigated the potential roles of p38 MAPKs, which are activated by growth factors and cytokines including RANKL and BMPs, in osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption by ablating p38α MAPK in LysM+monocytes. p38α deficiency promoted monocyte proliferation but regulated monocyte osteoclastic differentiation in a cell-density dependent manner, with proliferating p38α-/- cultures showing increased differentiation. While young mutant mice showed minor increase in bone mass, 6-month-old mutant mice developed osteoporosis, associated with an increase in osteoclastogenesis and bone resorption and an increase in the pool of monocytes. Moreover, monocyte-specific p38α ablation resulted in a decrease in bone formation and the number of bone marrow mesenchymal stem/stromal cells, likely due to decreased expression of PDGF-AA and BMP2. The expression of PDGF-AA and BMP2 was positively regulated by the p38 MAPK-Creb axis in osteoclasts, with the promoters of PDGF-AA and BMP2 having Creb binding sites. These findings uncovered the molecular mechanisms by which p38α MAPK regulates osteoclastogenesis and coordinates osteoclastogenesis and osteoblastogenesis

    Impact of premature rupture of membranes on clinical outcomes of extremely premature infants: A propensity score matching study

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    BackgroundPremature rupture of membranes (PROM) is a common cause of extremely premature infants (EPIs) and also leads to adverse preterm complications. However, the effect of PROM on EPIs remains contradictory. This study used propensity score matching (PSM) to adjust the baseline characteristics to explore the impact of PROM on clinical outcomes of extremely premature infants (EPIs).MethodsMedical data of 470 EPIs at gestational age &lt; 28weeks who received prenatal examination in our hospital between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2020 were analyzed retrospectively. According to the presence or absence of PROM, they were divided into a PROM group and a non-PROM group. Ten covariates including birth weight, male sex, artificial conception, cesarean delivery, 5-min Apgar score ≤ 7, oligohydramnios, gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, antenatal steroid use, and complete steroid treatment were matched 1:1 by PSM. The major complication occurrence and mortality during hospitalization were compared between the two groups by t-test, nonparametric test or x2 test.ResultsAmong the 470 infants enrolled, 157 (33.4%) were in the PROM group and 313 in the no-PROM group. After matching the ten confounding factors,276 cases were successfully enrolled. The incidence of early pulmonary hypertension (EPH) and severe retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in the PROM group were higher than those in the no-PROM group [44.2% (61/138) vs. 29.0% (40/138); 34.8% (48/138) vs. 21.7% (30/138), x2 = 6.886 and 5.790, both P &lt; 0.05]. However, there was no significant difference in the in-hospital mortality and the incidence of other major complications between the two groups (all P &gt; 0.05).ConclusionsPROM increased the incidence of EPH and severe ROP in EPI, but had no significant impact on in-hospital mortality, length of hospital stay, and the incidence of other complications

    Field and Laboratory Studies on Pathological and Biochemical Characterization of Microcystin-Induced Liver and Kidney Damage in the Phytoplanktivorous Bighead Carp

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    Field and experimental studies were conducted to investigate pathological characterizations and biochemical responses in the liver and kidney of the phytoplanktivorous bighead carp after intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration of microcystins (MCs) and exposure to natural cyanobacterial blooms in Meiliang Bay, Lake Taihu. Bighead carp in field and laboratory studies showed a progressive recovery of structure and function in terms of histological, cellular, and biochemical features. In laboratory study, when fish were i.p. injected with extracted MCs at the doses of 200 and 500 μg MC-LReq/kg body weight, respectively, liver pathology in bighead carp was observed in a time dose-dependent manner within 24 h postinjection and characterized by disruption of liver structure, condensed cytoplasm, and the appearance of massive hepatocytes with karyopyknosis, karyorrhexis, and karyolysis. In comparison with previous studies on other fish, bighead carp in field study endured higher MC doses and longer-term exposure, but displayed less damage in the liver and kidney. Ultrastructural examination in the liver revealed the presence of lysosome proliferation, suggesting that bighead carp might eliminate or lessen cell damage caused by MCs through lysosome activation. Biochemically, sensitive responses in the antioxidant enzymes and higher basal glutathione concentrations might be responsible for their powerful resistance to MCs, suggesting that bighead carp can be used as biomanipulation fish to counteract cyanotoxin contamination
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