446 research outputs found
Chairs' Comments on 2nd Biennial International Research Conference on Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Novel Concepts in the Mechanisms, Monitoring and Treatment of COPD in Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency
No full textEffect of an inhaled glucocorticoid on endothelial function in healthy smokers
No full textMatsuda SM, Wanner A. Effect of an inhaled glucocorticoid on endo-thelial function in healthy smokers. J Appl Physiol 105: 54–57, 2008
Russian-Chinese Trade in Kyakhta — Trade Development and Volume Indicators 1727–1861
No full textThe study looks at the trade quantification, and documents single stages of the Russian-Chinese trade exchange in Kyakhta and May-ma-chen between 1727 and 1861. It is divided into three sections. The first one deals with an appraisal of available volume indicators that relates to the exchange trading. Based on findings and confronting other analysed spheres, the author defines the basic stages of the trade development in the monitored period. What he demonstrates is that the trade was greatly affected by political and geographical factors, and the fact that both countries did not attach equal importance to it. The trade in Kyakhta had never reached extent it could have had, but fell into rapid decline as soon as an alternative, cheaper way to trade exchange between Russia and China had appeared. Yet it influenced the town and the whole region development, including culture and education spheres; in the second quarter of the 19th century it substantially contributed to Siberian economics, and in the early stage also to Russia industrialisation as it allowed Russia in economics terms to penetrate to the Far East. The final part deals with the global factors resulting in the decline, and the end of Russian-Chinese trade in Kyakhta, or replacement by other forms of trade exchange.172
Alpha-1 Antitrypsin as a Therapeutic Agent for Conditions not Associated with Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency
No full textAlpha-1 antitrypsin is a positive acute phase reactant whose serum level rises in response to inflammatory stress, presumably to balance pro-inflammatory processes. In addition to its serine protease inhibitory action, alpha-1 antitrypsin exhibits broader anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activity, and increasing its serum concentration by the administration of exogenous alpha-1 antitrypsin to above-normal levels potentially could be therapeutic in conditions other than alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. In vitro observations, studies in animal models and in some instances early human trials suggest that intravenous or inhaled alpha-1 antitrypsin has beneficial effects in type 1 diabetes, viral infections, graft-versus-host disease, cystic fibrosis, and alpha-1 antitrypsin-replete chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among others. While the results of pivotal clinical trials have not been reported to date, new indications for alpha-1 antitrypsin therapy are likely to emerge in the future based on currently available scientific data
The Ideal Bronchodilator
No full textFrom the clinician's standpoint, an ideal bronchodilator should have (1) selectivity for bronchial smooth muscle, (2) minimal stimulatory effects on the cardiovascular and central nervous system, (3) prolonged action, (4) rapid onset of action, and (5) oral effectiveness for patient convenience. In addition, bronchodilation should occur in both central and peripheral airways without causing worsening of gas exchange due to aggravated ventilation perfusion inequalities. The observations reported by Banner et al in this issue (see p 434) again raise questions regarding the cardiovascular side effects of the different bronchodilator agents that are currently in clinical use. While differences may exist among various bronchodilators with respect to their effects on respiratory mechanics and gas exchange, the search for new compounds has primarily resulted from the need for agents with prolonged duration of action, convenient mode of administration, and fewer cardiovascular side effects. The increase in alveoloarterial oxygen tension difference after administratio
Does the airway circulation influence airflow obstruction in asthma?
No full textThe airway wall is thickened in asthma and the airway microvasculature participates in the remodelling. It has been assumed but not convincingly demonstrated that the remodelled airway vasculature has a mechanical role in asthma-associated airflow obstruction by contributing to the thickening of the airway wall and narrowing of the airway. This review examines the literature providing information in support of and against this assumption and raises questions about therapeutically targeting the airway circulation directly in patients with asthma
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A simplified noninvasive method to measure airway blood flow in humans
No full textOur laboratory has previously developed and validated a noninvasive soluble gas uptake method to measure airway blood flow (Qaw) in humans (Onorato DJ, Demirozu MC, Breitenbücher A, Atkins ND, Chediak AD, and Wanner A. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 149: 1132-1137, 1994; Scuri M, McCaskill V, Chediak AD, Abraham WM, and Wanner A. J Appl Physiol 79: 1386-1390, 1995). The method has the disadvantage of requiring eight breath-hold maneuvers for a single Qaw measurement, a complicated data analysis, and the inhalation of a potentially explosive gas mixture containing dimethylether (DME) and O2. Because of these shortcomings, the method thus far has not been used in other laboratories. We now simplified the method by having the subjects inhale 500 ml of a 10% DME-90% N2 gas mixture to fill the anatomical dead space, followed by a 5- or 15-s breath hold, and measuring the instantaneous DME and N2 concentrations and volume at the airway opening during the subsequent exhalation. From the difference in DME concentration in phase 1 of the expired N2 wash-in curve multiplied by the phase 1 dead space volume and divided by the mean DME concentration and the solubility coefficient for DME in tissue, Qaw can be calculated by using Fick's equation. We compared the new method to the validated old method in 10 healthy subjects and found mean +/- SE Qaw values of 34.6 +/- 2.3 and 34.6 +/- 2.8 microl.min(-1).ml(-1), respectively (r = 0.93; upper and lower 95% confidence limit +2.48 and -2.47). Using the new method, the mean coefficient of variation for two consecutive measurements was 4.4% (range 0-10.4%); inhalation of 1.2 mg albuterol caused a 53 +/- 14% increase in Qaw (P = 0.02) and inhalation of 2.4 mg methoxamine caused a 32 +/- 7% decrease in Qaw (P = 0.07). We conclude that the new method provides reliable values of and detects the expected changes in Qaw with vasoactive drugs. The simplicity and improved safety of the method should improve its acceptability for the noninvasive assessment of Qaw in clinical research
Rosenbrock time integration for unsteady flow simulations
No full textThis contribution compares the efficiency of Rosenbrock time integration schemes with ESDIRK schemes, applicable to unsteady flow and fluid-structure interaction simulations. Compared to non-linear ESDIRK schemes, the linear implicit Rosenbrock-Wanner schemes require subsequent solution of the same linear systems with different right hand sides. By solving the linear systems with the iterative solver GMRES, the preconditioner can be reused for the subsequent stages of the Rosenbrock-Wanner scheme. Unsteady flow simulations show a gain in computational efficiency of approximately factor three to five in comparison with ESDIRK.Aerodynamics, Wind Energy & PropulsionAerospace Engineerin
Feature engineering for author profiling and identification: on the relevance of syntax and discourse
No full textAuthor profiling and identification are two areas of data-driven computational linguistics that have gained a lot of relevance due to their potential applications in, e.g., forensic linguistic studies, marketing analysis, and historic/literary authorship verification. Author profiling aims to identify demographic traits of the authors, while author identification aims to identify the authors themselves by searching for distinctive linguistic patterns that distinguish them. The majority of approaches in the related work tends to focus on the content of the texts. We argue that focusing on structure rather than content can be more effective. The main focus of the thesis is thus on feature engineering, the development, evaluation and application of the feature set in the context of machine learning techniques to author profiling and identification. We prove the profiling potential of syntactic and iscourse features, which achieve state-of-the-art performance in many different scenarios, especially when combined with other features.El perfilament i la identificació d’autors són camps de la lingüística computacional que han guanyat rellevància als últims anys gràcies a les seves potencials aplicacions al camp de la lingüística forense o a la verificació d’autoria de textos històrics. El perfilament d’autors té com a objectiu identificar trets demogràfics dels autors; la identificació d’autors tracta d’identificar l’autor del text. Per fer-ho, es busquen automàticament patrons lingüístics per diferenciar entre autors/trets demogràfics. La majoria de treballs anteriors, es centren en el contingut dels texts. Nosaltres argumentem que analitzar l’estructura del text pot ser una alternativa més efectiva. El focus d’aquesta tesi està per tant, al feature engineering: la extracció avaluació i utilització d’un conjunt de característiques lingüístiques amb algoritmes d’aprenentatge automàtic per a perfilar/identificar autors. Demostrem que les característiques sintàctiques i discursives són rellevants i que combinades amb altres, obtenen resultats a l’altura de l’estat de l’art.Programa de doctorat en Tecnologies de la Informació i les Comunicacion
Feature engineering for author profiling and identification: on the relevance of syntax and discourse
No full textAuthor profiling and identification are two areas of data-driven computational linguistics that have gained a lot of relevance due to their potential applications in, e.g., forensic linguistic studies, marketing analysis, and historic/literary authorship verification. Author profiling aims to identify demographic traits of the authors, while author identification aims to identify the authors themselves by searching for distinctive linguistic patterns that distinguish them. The majority of approaches in the related work tends to focus on the content of the texts. We argue that focusing on structure rather than content can be more effective. The main focus of the thesis is thus on feature engineering, the development, evaluation and application of the feature set in the context of machine learning techniques to author profiling and identification. We prove the profiling potential of syntactic and iscourse features, which achieve state-of-the-art performance in many different scenarios, especially when combined with other features.El perfilament i la identificació d’autors són camps de la lingüística computacional que han guanyat rellevància als últims anys gràcies a les seves potencials aplicacions al camp de la lingüística forense o a la verificació d’autoria de textos històrics. El perfilament d’autors té com a objectiu identificar trets demogràfics dels autors; la identificació d’autors tracta d’identificar l’autor del text. Per fer-ho, es busquen automàticament patrons lingüístics per diferenciar entre autors/trets demogràfics. La majoria de treballs anteriors, es centren en el contingut dels texts. Nosaltres argumentem que analitzar l’estructura del text pot ser una alternativa més efectiva. El focus d’aquesta tesi està per tant, al feature engineering: la extracció avaluació i utilització d’un conjunt de característiques lingüístiques amb algoritmes d’aprenentatge automàtic per a perfilar/identificar autors. Demostrem que les característiques sintàctiques i discursives són rellevants i que combinades amb altres, obtenen resultats a l’altura de l’estat de l’art.Programa de doctorat en Tecnologies de la Informació i les Comunicacion
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