Analysis of a Shock-Associated Noise Prediction Model Using Measured Jet Far-Field Noise Data

A code for predicting supersonic jet broadband shock-associated noise was assessed using a database containing noise measurements of a jet issuing from a convergent nozzle. The jet was operated at 24 conditions covering six fully expanded Mach numbers with four total temperature ratios. To enable comparisons of the predicted shock-associated noise component spectra with data, the measured total jet noise spectra were separated into mixing noise and shock-associated noise component spectra. Comparisons between predicted and measured shock-associated noise component spectra were used to identify deficiencies in the prediction model. Proposed revisions to the model, based on a study of the overall sound pressure levels for the shock-associated noise component of the measured data, a sensitivity analysis of the model parameters with emphasis on the definition of the convection velocity parameter, and a least-squares fit of the predicted to the measured shock-associated noise component spectra, resulted in a new definition for the source strength spectrum in the model. An error analysis showed that the average error in the predicted spectra was reduced by as much as 3.5 dB for the revised model relative to the average error for the original model

Neonatal exposure to xenobiotic estrogen alters the adult immune response and exacerbates endometriosis in mice [abstract]

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Susan C. Nagel, Obstetrics/Gynecology, and Women's HealthAbstract only availableEndometriosis is a common medical condition affecting 5-10% of women worldwide, and results in severe cramps, pelvic pain, and infertility. The cause of the disease is still unknown. Endometriosis occurs when endometrial tissue, which escapes into the peritoneal cavity via retrograde menstruation, adheres to other tissues in the cavity and causes irritated, inflamed lesions. Studies have suggested that the risk of developing endometriosis increases in women who have been exposed to xenobiotic (foreign to the body) estrogens during developmental stages of life. Thus, it is our hypothesis that programming of the immune system by xenoestrogens during development could potentially exacerbate endometriosis. This could occur by altering the peritoneal environment and/or the invading endometrial tissue. Therefore, it is our goal to study the effects of neonatal xenoestrogen exposure on the immune system; and ultimately, on the establishment of endometriosis in adulthood. In order to study this response, we dosed two strains of mice (CD1 and C57) with xenobiotic estrogens on postnatal days 2-14. In experiment A, CD1 mice were dosed with vehicle control (corn oil), 20 µg/kg/day, or 200 µg/kg/day bisphenol A. In experiment B, C57 mice were dosed with a vehicle control (corn oil) or 0.1 µg/kg/day diethylstilbestrol. At 8 weeks of age, endometriosis was induced in each strain via both a surgical induction and an injection technique. At 12 weeks, the endometriotic implants were counted and weighed to determine which mice had a greater susceptibility to the condition. Our next objective will be to analyze peritoneal fluid from the treated mice to identify key immune functions (for example, the release of certain cytokines) that may have been programmed by developmental xenoestrogen exposure.Endometriosis is a common medical condition affecting 5-10% of women worldwide, and results in severe cramps, pelvic pain, and infertility.  The cause of the disease is still unknown.  Endometriosis occurs when endometrial tissue, which escapes into the peritoneal cavity via retrograde menstruation, adheres to other tissues in the cavity and causes irritated, inflamed lesions.  Studies have suggested that the risk of developing endometriosis increases in women who have been exposed to xenobiotic (foreign to the body) estrogens during developmental stages of life.  Thus, it is our hypothesis that programming of the immune system by xenoestrogens during development could potentially exacerbate endometriosis.  This could occur by altering the peritoneal environment and/or the invading endometrial tissue.  Therefore, it is our goal to study the effects of neonatal xenoestrogen exposure on the immune system; and ultimately, on the establishment of endometriosis in adulthood.  In order to study this response, we dosed two strains of mice (CD1 and C57) with xenobiotic estrogens on postnatal days 2-14.  In experiment A, CD1 mice were dosed with vehicle control (corn oil), 20 µg/kg/day, or 200 µg/kg/day bisphenol A.  In experiment B, C57 mice were dosed with a vehicle control (corn oil) or 0.1 µg/kg/day diethylstilbestrol.  At 8 weeks of age, endometriosis was induced in each strain via both a surgical induction and an injection technique.  At 12 weeks, the endometriotic implants were counted and weighed to determine which mice had a greater susceptibility to the condition.  Our next objective will be to analyze peritoneal fluid from the treated mice to identify key immune functions (for example, the release of certain cytokines) that may have been programmed by developmental xenoestrogen exposure

Імуногістохімічне виявлення судинного епітеліального ростового фактору в корі великих півкуль головного мозку при порушеннях кровообігу

Порушення кровопостачання мозку – одне з актуальних питань сучасної медицини, що обумовлено, як тяжкістю наслідків кожного конкретного випадку хвороби, так і рівнем показників захворюваності, що сягають пандемії, а смертність від цієї патології становить понад 20% і займає друге місце після серцево-судинних захворювань. Сьогодні зміни при ішемії мозку розглядаються як складний багатовекторний процес зі специфічною кінетикою на перебіг якого можна впливати, а не як одноманітну подію, як вважалось ще 20 років тому

Emerging media and press freedoms as determinants of nonviolent and violent political conflicts, 1990–2006

© 2016, © The Author(s) 2016. Using aggregate-level data, this study compares instances of intrastate political conflict that occurred in both nonviolent and violent forms. Specifically, analyses presented in this study examine the relationships that exist between diffusion rates of emerging media and enhanced press freedoms in countries that experienced differing types of conflicts from 1990 through 2006. Through a series of analytic models, the results observed here indicate that higher levels of emerging media and press freedoms are better predictors of nonviolent—as opposed to violent—conflict. Findings from this study thus bridge an important gap in the literature between communication and political science research in establishing linkages between emerging media technologies and press freedoms and their interconnections with nonviolent and violent political conflict. Implications for related interdisciplinary fields are discussed

Six weeks of home enteral nutrition versus standard care after esophagectomy or total gastrectomy for cancer: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Each year approximately 3000 patients in the United Kingdom undergo surgery for esophagogastric cancer. Jejunostomy feeding tubes, placed at the time of surgery for early postoperative nutrition, have been shown to have a positive impact on clinical outcomes in the short term. Whether feeding out of hospital is of benefit is unknown. Local experience has identified that between 15 and 20% of patients required ‘rescue’ jejunostomy feeding for nutritional problems and weight loss while at home. This weight loss and poor nutrition may contribute to the detrimental effect on the overall quality of life (QoL) reported in these patients. Methods/Design: This randomized pilot and feasibility study will provide preliminary information on the routine use of jejunostomy feeding after hospital discharge in terms of clinical benefits and QoL. Sixty participants undergoing esophagectomy or total gastrectomy will be randomized to receive either a planned program of six weeks of home jejunostomy feeding after discharge from hospital (intervention) or treatment-as-usual (control). The intention of this study is to inform a multi-centre randomized controlled trial. The primary outcome measures will be recruitment and retention rates at six weeks and six months. Secondary outcome measures will include disease specific and general QoL measures, nutritional parameters, total and oral nutritional intake, hospital readmission rates, and estimates of healthcare costs. Up to 20 participants will also be enrolled in a qualitative sub-study that will explore participants’ and carers’ experiences of home tube feeding. The results will be disseminated by presentation at surgical, gastroenterological and dietetic meetings and publication in appropriate peer review journals. A patient-friendly lay summary will be made available on the University of Leicester and the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust websites. The study has full ethical and institutional approval and started recruitment in July 2012. Trial registration: UKClinical Research Network ID #12447 (Main study); UKCRN ID#13361 (Qualitative sub study); ClinicalTrials.gov #NCT01870817 (First registered 28 May 2013

Estimating the NIH Efficient Frontier

Background: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is among the world’s largest investors in biomedical research, with a mandate to: “…lengthen life, and reduce the burdens of illness and disability.” Its funding decisions have been criticized as insufficiently focused on disease burden. We hypothesize that modern portfolio theory can create a closer link between basic research and outcome, and offer insight into basic-science related improvements in public health. We propose portfolio theory as a systematic framework for making biomedical funding allocation decisions–one that is directly tied to the risk/reward trade-off of burden-of-disease outcomes. Methods and Findings: Using data from 1965 to 2007, we provide estimates of the NIH “efficient frontier”, the set of funding allocations across 7 groups of disease-oriented NIH institutes that yield the greatest expected return on investment for a given level of risk, where return on investment is measured by subsequent impact on U.S. years of life lost (YLL). The results suggest that NIH may be actively managing its research risk, given that the volatility of its current allocation is 17% less than that of an equal-allocation portfolio with similar expected returns. The estimated efficient frontier suggests that further improvements in expected return (89% to 119% vs. current) or reduction in risk (22% to 35% vs. current) are available holding risk or expected return, respectively, constant, and that 28% to 89% greater decrease in average years-of-life-lost per unit risk may be achievable. However, these results also reflect the imprecision of YLL as a measure of disease burden, the noisy statistical link between basic research and YLL, and other known limitations of portfolio theory itself. Conclusions: Our analysis is intended to serve as a proof-of-concept and starting point for applying quantitative methods to allocating biomedical research funding that are objective, systematic, transparent, repeatable, and expressly designed to reduce the burden of disease. By approaching funding decisions in a more analytical fashion, it may be possible to improve their ultimate outcomes while reducing unintended consequences

Personalized Respiratory Medicine: Exploring the Horizon, Addressing the Issues. Summary of a BRN-AJRCCM Workshop Held in Barcelona on June 12, 2014.

This Pulmonary Perspective summarizes the content and main conclusions of an international workshop on personalized respiratory medicine coorganized by the Barcelona Respiratory Network (www.brn.cat)and the AJRCCM in June 2014. It discusses (1) its definition and historical, social, legal, and ethical aspects; (2) the view from different disciplines, including basic science, epidemiology, bioinformatics,and network/systems medicine; (3) the bottlenecks and opportunities identified by some currently ongoing projects; and (4) the implications for the individual, the healthcare system and the pharmaceutical industry. The authors hope that, although it is not a systematic review on the subject,this document can be a useful reference for researchers, clinicians, healthcare managers, policy-makers,and industry parties interested in personalized respiratory medicine

Genome of the marsupial Monodelphis domestica reveals innovation in non-coding sequences

We report a high-quality draft of the genome sequence of the grey, short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica). As the first metatherian (\u27marsupial\u27) species to be sequenced, the opossum provides a unique perspective on the organization and evolution of mammalian genomes. Distinctive features of the opossum chromosomes provide support for recent theories about genome evolution and function, including a strong influence of biased gene conversion on nucleotide sequence composition, and a relationship between chromosomal characteristics and X chromosome inactivation. Comparison of opossum and eutherian genomes also reveals a sharp difference in evolutionary innovation between protein-coding and non-coding functional elements. True innovation in protein-coding genes seems to be relatively rare, with lineage-specific differences being largely due to diversification and rapid turnover in gene families involved in environmental interactions. In contrast, about 20% of eutherian conserved non-coding elements (CNEs) are recent inventions that postdate the divergence of Eutheria and Metatheria. A substantial proportion of these eutherian-specific CNEs arose from sequence inserted by transposable elements, pointing to transposons as a major creative force in the evolution of mammalian gene regulation. ©2007 Nature Publishing Group

Index Cohesive Force Analysis Reveals That the US Market Became Prone to Systemic Collapses Since 2002

BACKGROUND: The 2007-2009 financial crisis, and its fallout, has strongly emphasized the need to define new ways and measures to study and assess the stock market dynamics. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The S&P500 dynamics during 4/1999-4/2010 is investigated in terms of the index cohesive force (ICF--the balance between the stock correlations and the partial correlations after subtraction of the index contribution), and the Eigenvalue entropy of the stock correlation matrices. We found a rapid market transition at the end of 2001 from a flexible state of low ICF into a stiff (nonflexible) state of high ICF that is prone to market systemic collapses. The stiff state is also marked by strong effect of the market index on the stock-stock correlations as well as bursts of high stock correlations reminiscence of epileptic brain activity. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The market dynamical states, stability and transition between economic states was studies using new quantitative measures. Doing so shed new light on the origin and nature of the current crisis. The new approach is likely to be applicable to other classes of complex systems from gene networks to the human brain

Cost-effectiveness of integrated collaborative care for comorbid major depression in patients with cancer

OBJECTIVES: Comorbid major depression is associated with reduced quality of life and greater use of healthcare resources. A recent randomised trial (SMaRT, Symptom Management Research Trials, Oncology-2) found that a collaborative care treatment programme (Depression Care for People with Cancer, DCPC) was highly effective in treating depression in patients with cancer. This study aims to estimate the cost-effectiveness of DCPC compared with usual care from a health service perspective. METHODS: Costs were estimated using UK national unit cost estimates and health outcomes measured using quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs). Incremental cost-effectiveness of DCPC compared with usual care was calculated and scenario analyses performed to test alternative assumptions on costs and missing data. Uncertainty was characterised using cost-effectiveness acceptability curves. The probability of DCPC being cost-effective was determined using the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's (NICE) cost-effectiveness threshold range of £ 20,000 to £ 30,000 per QALY gained. RESULTS: DCPC cost on average £ 631 more than usual care per patient, and resulted in a mean gain of 0.066 QALYs, yielding an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of £ 9549 per QALY. The probability of DCPC being cost-effective was 0.9 or greater at cost-effectiveness thresholds above £ 20,000 per QALY for the base case and scenario analyses. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with usual care, DCPC is likely to be cost-effective at the current thresholds used by NICE. This study adds to the weight of evidence that collaborative care treatment models are cost-effective for depression, and provides new evidence regarding their use in specialist medical settings