430 research outputs found
Rethinking the Common Intention Constructive Trusts in Stack v Dowden and Jones v Kernott – should the Resulting Trusts be preferred?
No full textYee Ching Leung takes the two landmark cases, Stack v Dowden [2007] UKHL 17 and Jones v Kernott [2011] UKSC 53, as starting points to consider the new Common Intention Constructive Trust approach in dealing with the issue of how the beneficial interest of a property is to be shared between two separating cohabitants. The article analyses whether this new approach should be preferred over the traditional Resulting Trust approach. The author explains the two approaches and gives three arguments in support of the Resulting Trust approach. First, it provides a greater degree of certainty, which is crucial in property law. Secondly, the traditional approach is more coherent in principle when comparing to the Common Intention Constructive Trust approach. Thirdly, the author argues that the Resulting Trust approach would not leave the discretion of judges unconfined. Toward the end of the article, the author gives two brief replies to the critics of the Resulting Trust approach. However, the Common Intention Constructive Trust approach is now the law of England and whether the Resulting Trust approach will return remains to be seen
Optimization under uncertainty in radiation therapy
No full textThesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Operations Research Center, 2007.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-182).In the context of patient care for life-threatening illnesses, the presence of uncertainty may compromise the quality of a treatment. In this thesis, we investigate robust approaches to managing uncertainty in radiation therapy treatments for cancer. In the first part of the thesis, we study the effect of breathing motion uncertainty on intensity-modulated radiation therapy treatments of a lung tumor. We construct a robust framework that generalizes current mathematical programming formulations that account for motion. This framework gives insight into the trade-off between sparing the healthy tissues and ensuring that the tumor receives sufficient dose. With this trade-off in mind, we show that our robust solution outperforms a nominal (no uncertainty) solution and a margin (worst-case) solution on a clinical case. Next, we perform an in-depth study into the structure of different intensity maps that were witnessed in the first part of the thesis. We consider parameterized intensity maps and investigate their ability to deliver a sufficient dose to the tumor in the presence of motion that follows a Gaussian distribution. We characterize the structure of optimal intensity maps in terms of certain conditions on the problem parameters.(cont.) Finally, in the last part of the thesis, we study intensity-modulated proton therapy under uncertainty in the location of maximum dose deposited by the beamlets of radiation. We provide a robust formulation for the optimization of proton-based treatments and show that it outperforms traditional formulations in the face of uncertainty. In our computational experiments, we see evidence that optimal robust solutions use the physical characteristics of the proton beam to create dose distributions that are far less sensitive to the underlying uncertainty.by Timothy Ching-Yee Chan.Ph.D
The spatial and temporal distribution of heavy metals in sediments of Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
No full textAuthor name used in this publication: Chloe Wing-yee TangAuthor name used in this publication: Carman Ching-man Ip2007-2008 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalAccepted ManuscriptPublishedGreen (AAM
Polymorphism of the N-Acetyltransferase 2 Gene, Red Meat Intake, and the Susceptibility of Hepatocellular Carcinoma
No full textOBJECTIVE: Carcinogenic aromatic amines, derived from cooked meat, are activated or inactivated by hepatic N- acetyltransferase (NAT). The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship of NAT2 genetic polymorphisms with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), with special reference to the interaction of dietary habits. METHODS: Peripheral white blood cell DNA from 185 HCC patients and 185 matched controls were genotyped for NAT2 by a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method. All the subjects studied were chronic viral hepatitis B or C carriers with liver cirrhosis. Dietary habits of the subjects were assessed using a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. RESULTS: There was no association between the susceptibility of HCC and the overall NAT2 genotypes. However, in rapid acetylators (with two wild type NAT2*4 alleles), there was a trend of increased HCC risk from low to intermediate and high red meat intake (OR = 1, 2 .66, 3.89; P-trend = 0.016), even when adjusted for family history of HCC and habitual alcohol drinking. The interaction between red meat intake and the NAT2*4 acetylator status for an increased risk of HCC was significant (p = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS: Polymorphisms of the NAT2 gene may confer different susceptibilities to the effect of red meat intake on HCC. In rapid acetylators with chronic viral hepatitis-related cirrhosis, red meat intake may play a role in hepatocarcinogenesis
Early empirical glycopeptide therapy for patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia: impact on the outcome
No full textPhotoluminescence characteristics of ZnO doped with Eu3+ powders
No full textIn this work, we have investigated the photoluminescence spectra of europium-doped zinc oxide crystallites prepared by a vibrating milled solid-state reaction method. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, luminescence spectra and time-resolved spectra analysis were used to characterize the synthetic ZnO:Eu3+ powders. XRD results of the powders showed a typical wurtzite hexagonal crystal structure. A second phase occurred at 5 mol% Eu2O3-doped ZnO. The 5D0–7F1 (590 nm) and 5D0–7F2 (609 nm) emission characteristics of Eu3+ appeared after quenching with more than 1.5 mol% Eu2O3 doping. The Commission Internationale d’Eclairage (CIE) chromaticity coordinates of a ZnO:Eu3+ host excited at ?ex=467 nm revealed a red-shift phenomenon with increase in Eu3+ ion doping. The lifetime of the Eu3+ ion decreased as the doping concentration was increased from 1.5 to 10 mol%, and the time-resolved 5D0?7F2 transition presents a single-exponential decay behavio
Comparison of Clinical and Biological Features Between Myeloid and Lymphoid Transformation of Philadelphia Chromosome Positive Chronic Myeloid Leukemia
No full textTreatment of Refractory or Relapsed Adult Acute Leukemia by Using Mitoxantrone-Containing Regimens
No full textSeasonal and Interannual Ocean-Atmosphere Variability in the Tropical Atlantic: Observed Structure and Model Representation
No full textTropical Atlantic is clamped by the South America (the Amazon) in the west and Africa (the Sahel) in the east. These two regions have been undergoing significant climate/environment changes for decades. In order to use climate models to study the impacts of these changes, climate models need to be able to well simulate the seasonal climate of the tropical Atlantic sector.
The first part of this dissertation focuses on the representation of the seasonal cycle in the CCSM3 coupled atmosphere-ocean model. CCSM3 SST has a north-south dipole pattern of bias centered at the latitude of the thermal equator, resembling the observed pattern of interannual climate variability in boreal spring. Along the equator in boreal spring CCSM3 exhibits striking westerly winds at the surface, reminiscent of the pattern of climate variability in boreal summer. The westerly winds cause deepening of the eastern thermocline that keeps the east warm despite enhanced coastal upwelling. Next, a comparison is made with a simulation using historical SST to force the atmospheric model (CAM3) in order to deduce information about the origin of bias in CCSM3. The patterns of bias in CAM3 resemble that in CCSM3, indicating that the source of the bias in CCSM3 may be traced to difficulties in the atmospheric model.
The next chapter presents a modeling study of the origin of the westerly wind bias CAM3 by using a steady-state linearized atmospheric model. The results indicate that underestimation of rainfall over the eastern Amazon region can lead to the westerly bias in equatorial Atlantic surface winds. They suggest that efforts to reduce coupled model biases, especially seasonal ones, must target continental biases, even in the deep Tropics where ocean-atmosphere interaction generally rules.
The fourth chapter investigates the relationship between the two predominate modes of Tropical Atlantic interannual variability. The leading modes of Tropical Atlantic SST variability in boreal spring and summer are shown to be related, with the spring meridional mode leading into summer equatorial mode. The presence of a meridional mode with warm SST anomalies in the southern tropics in spring leads to a warm phase equatorial mode in summer, and vice-versa. This modal linkage occurs independently of climate variability in other ocean basins (e.g., ENSO). Atmospheric diabatic heating associated with a meridional shift of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone plays an important role in this relationship. The identification of this relationship enhances the prospects for prediction of boreal summer rainfall over the Guinea Coast of equatorial Africa
Multiplex PCR System for Rapid Detection of Pathogens in Patients with Presumed Sepsis - A Systemic Review and Meta-Analysis
No full textBackground: Blood culture is viewed as the golden standard for the diagnosis of sepsis but suffers from low sensitivity and long turnaround time. LightCycler SeptiFast (LC-SF) is a real-time multiplex polymerase chain reaction test able to detect 25 common pathogens responsible for bloodstream infections within hours. We aim to assess the accuracy of LC-SF by systematically reviewing the published studies.
Method: Related literature on Medline, Embase, and Cochrane databases was searched up to October 2012 for studies utilizing LC-SF to diagnose suspected sepsis and that provided sufficient data to construct two-by-two tables.
Results: A total of 34 studies enrolling 6012 patients of suspected sepsis were included. The overall sensitivity and specificity for LC-SF to detect bacteremia or fungemia was 0.75 (95% CI: 0.65-0.83) and 0.92 (95% CI: 0.90-0.95), respectively. LC-SF had a high positive likelihood ratio (10.10) and a moderate negative likelihood ratio (0.27). Specifically, LC-SF had a sensitivity of 0.80 (95% CI: 0.70-0.88) and a specificity of 0.95(95% CI: 0.93-0.97) for the bacteremia outcome, and a sensitivity of 0.61 (95% CI: 0.48-0.72) and a specificity of 0.99 (95% CI: 0.99-0.99) for the fungemia outcome. High heterogeneity was found in the bacteremia outcome subgroup but not in the fungemia outcome subgroup.
Conclusion: LC-SF is of high rule-in value for early detection of septic patients. In a population with low pretest probability, LC-SF test can still provide valuable information for ruling out bacteremia or fungemia
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