5,197 research outputs found
Future growth pattern projections under shared socioeconomic pathways: a municipal city bottom-up aggregated study based on a localised scenario and population projections for China
Precise multi-scenario projections of future economic outputs based
on localised interpretations of global scenarios and major growth
drivers are important for understanding long-term economic
changes. However, few studies have focussed on localised interpretations, and many assume regional uniformity or use key parameters that are recursive or extrapolated by mathematical methods.
This study provides a more intuitive and robust economic framework for projecting regional economic growth based on a neoclassical economic model and shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs)
scenarios. A non-uniform version of SSP2 (the middle-of-the-road
scenario) was developed, and more detailed population projections
for China were adopted using municipal-level data for 340 districts
and parameter settings based on China’s recent development. The
results show that China’s GDP will vary substantially across SSPs by
2050. Per capita GDP ranges from 19,300 USD under SSP3 (fragmentation) to 41,100 USD under SSP5 (conventional development).
Per capita GDP under SSP1 (sustainability) is slightly higher than
under SSP2, but lower on average than under SSP5. However, SSP1
is a better choice overall because environmental quality and equity
are higher. Per capita GDP growth will generally be higher in relatively low-income regions by 2050, and the upper-middle-income
provinces will become China’s new engine for economic growth
IMP3 signatures of fallopian tube: a risk for pelvic serous cancers
BACKGROUND:Recent advances suggest fallopian tube as the main cellular source for women's pelvic serous carcinoma (PSC). In addition to TP53 mutations, many other genetic changes are involved in pelvic serous carcinogenesis. IMP3 is an oncofetal protein which has recently been observed to be overexpressed in benign-looking tubal epithelia. Such findings prompted us to examine the relationship between IMP3 over-expression, patient age and the likelihood of development of PSC.METHODS:Fallopian tubes from three groups (low-risk, high-risk, and PSC) of patients with matched ages were studied. Age was recorded in 10years intervals ranging from age 20 to older than 80. The number of IMP3 signatures (defined by 10 or more tubal secretory cells stained positively and continuously in benign appearing tubal mucosa) from both tubal fimbria and ampulla segments was measured. The data was analyzed by standard contingency table and Poisson distribution methods after age adjustment. IMP3 overexpression was also examined in serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma and PSC.RESULTS:The positive IMP3-stained cells are mainly tubal secretory cells. The absolute number of tubal IMP3 signatures increased significantly within each age group. Age remained a significant risk factor for serous neoplasia after age adjustment. IMP3 signatures were more frequent in the patients of both high-risk and PSC groups. The presence of IMP3 signatures in tubal mucosa was significantly associated with tubal or pelvic serous carcinogenesis (p<0.001).CONCLUSIONS:The findings suggest that tubal secretory cells with IMP3 signatures showing growth advantage could potentially serve as a latent precancer biomarker for tubal or pelvic serous carcinomas in women.This item is part of the UA Faculty Publications collection. For more information this item or other items in the UA Campus Repository, contact the University of Arizona Libraries at [email protected]
Aerosolised surfactant generated by a novel noninvasive apparatus reduced acute lung injury in rats
Abstract
Introduction
Exogenous surfactant has been explored as a potential therapy for acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). In the present study, a nebuliser driven by oxygen lines found in the hospital was developed to deliver aerosolised porcine pulmonary surfactant (PPS). We hypothesised that aerosolised surfactant inhaled through spontaneous breathing may effectively reduce severe lung injury.
Methods
Rats were intravenously injected with oleic acid (OA) to induce ALI and 30 minutes later they were divided into five groups: model (injury only), PPS aerosol (PPS-aer), saline aerosol (saline-aer), PPS instillation (PPS-inst), and saline instillation (Saline-Inst). Blood gases, lung histology, and protein and TNF-α concentrations in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were examined.
Results
The PPS aerosol particles were less than 2.0 μm in size as determined by a laser aerosol particle counter. Treatment of animals with a PPS aerosol significantly increased the phospholipid content in the BALF, improved lung function, reduced pulmonary oedema, decreased total protein and TNF-α concentrations in BALF, ameliorated lung injury and improved animal survival. These therapeutic effects are similar to those seen in the PPS-inst group.
Conclusions
This new method of PPS aerosolisation combines the therapeutic effects of a surfactant with partial oxygen inhalation under spontaneous breathing. It is an effective, simple and safe method of administering an exogenous surfactant
China Promotes Sanming’s Model: A National Template for Integrated Medicare Payment Methods
Introduction: China is promoting integrated care. However, incomplete payment methods led to medical insurance overspending and intensified service fragmentation. Sanming implemented Integrated Medicare Payment Methods (IMPM) in October 2017, which integrates multi-level payment policies. Sanming’s IMPM works well and has been promoted by the Chinese government. Therefore, in this paper, we aim to systematically analyze Sanming’s IMPM, and conduct preliminary evaluations of Sanming’s IMPM. Policy Description: IMPM integrates two levels of policy that are implemented simultaneously: (1) The payment policy for healthcare providers refers to how to calculate the global budget (GB) of the medical insurance fund paid to the healthcare providers and the policy guidance for the healthcare providers on how to use GB. (2) The payment policy for medical personnel refers to the adjustment of the evaluation index of the annual salary system (ASS) according to the IMPM’s purpose and the payment policy that adjust pay levels based on performance. Discussion and lessons learned: After the IMPM reform, county hospitals (CHs) may reduce over-providing dispensable healthcare, and cooperation between hospitals may increase. The policy guidance (Determining GB according to population; Medical insurance balance can be used for doctors’ salary, cooperation between hospitals, and promotion of residents’ health; Adjusting ASS assessment indicators according to IMPM purposes) increases CHs’ motivation to promote balances of medical insurance fund by cooperating with primary healthcare and increasing health promotion actions. Conclusion: As a model promoted by the Chinese government, the specific policies of Sanming’s IMPM are better matched with policy goals, which may be more conducive to promoting medical and health service providers to pay more attention to cooperation among medical institutions and population health
Semi-supervised Cardiac Image Segmentation via Label Propagation and Style Transfer
Accurate segmentation of cardiac structures can assist doctors to diagnose
diseases, and to improve treatment planning, which is highly demanded in the
clinical practice. However, the shortage of annotation and the variance of the
data among different vendors and medical centers restrict the performance of
advanced deep learning methods. In this work, we present a fully automatic
method to segment cardiac structures including the left (LV) and right
ventricle (RV) blood pools, as well as for the left ventricular myocardium
(MYO) in MRI volumes. Specifically, we design a semi-supervised learning method
to leverage unlabelled MRI sequence timeframes by label propagation. Then we
exploit style transfer to reduce the variance among different centers and
vendors for more robust cardiac image segmentation. We evaluate our method in
the M&Ms challenge 7 , ranking 2nd place among 14 competitive teams
The Effects of a Non-Ferroelectric Slab on the Polarization and the Susceptibility of the Ferroelectric Multilayer
The polarization and the susceptibility of a ferroelectric multilayer with a
non-ferroelectric slab are investigated within the framework of transverse
Ising model with a four-spin interaction term. The effect of the thickness and
the position of the non-ferroelectric slab are investigated in this paper. We
find that the increase of the thickness of the non-ferroelectric will decrease
the polarization and the susceptibility of the film. If the position of the
non-ferroelcetric slab shifts from the center of the film to the surface, the
number of the peaks of the susceptibility will change. And a step-like
polarization curve is found.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure
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