4,690 research outputs found

    Carcinogenic response and other histopathological alterations in mice exposed to cigarette smoke for varying time periods after birth

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    In spite of the outstanding role of tobacco smoking in human carcinogenesis, it is difficult to reproduce its effects in experimental animals. Based on the knowledge that a variety of mechanisms account for a higher susceptibility to carcinogens early in life, we have developed a murine model in which mainstream cigarette smoke becomes convincingly carcinogenic. The standard model involves exposure to smoke for 4 months, starting after birth, followed by an additional 3-4 months in filtered air. We evaluated herein the time- and dose-dependent response, at 7.5 months of life, of Swiss H mice that had been exposed to smoke for either 1, 2, or 4 months after birth. A one-month exposure, corresponding to a period of intense alveolarization, was sufficient to induce most inflammatory, degenerative, and preneoplastic pulmonary lesions, including emphysema and alveolar epithelial hyperplasia, blood vessel proliferation and hemangiomas, reflecting an early proangiogenic role of smoking, and microadenomas bearing ki-67-positive proliferating cells as well as urinary bladder epithelial hyperplasia. Two months of exposure were needed to induce pulmonary adenomas and urinary bladder papillomas in males only, which highlights a protective role of estrogens in urinary bladder carcinogenesis. Four months, which in humans would correspond to the postnatal period, puberty, adolescence, and early adulthood, were needed to induce other lesions, including tubular epithelial hyperplasia of kidney, bronchial epithelial hyperplasia, and especially pulmonary malignant tumors. These findings highlight the concept that preneoplastic and neoplastic lesions occurring in adulthood can be induced by exposure to smoke early in life

    Radioactive reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) analysis of strain SSB318 complemented with wt or C238/C239

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    <p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from " and investigation of bacterial type B RNase P interaction with tRNA 3′-CCA"</p><p></p><p>Nucleic Acids Research 2007;35(6):2060-2073.</p><p>Published online 13 Mar 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC1874595.</p><p>© 2007 The Author(s)</p> PCR products were analyzed on a 10% polyacrylamide/8 M urea gel. Lanes 1–30: total RNA from SSB318 complemented with wt (lanes 1–4 and 13-16), C238 (lanes 5–8, 17–20 and 25–30) or C239 (lanes 9–12 and 21–24) grown at 37°C in the absence of IPTG and in the presence of 2% xylose (w/v); amounts of total RNA were 200 ng in lanes 1–24, 26 and 29, 100 ng in lanes 25 and 28, and 400 ng in lanes 27 and 30. P : presence (+) or absence (−) of a xylose-inducible plasmid-encoded gene. Lanes 1–12 and 25–27: primers specific for ; lanes 13–24 and 28–30: primers specific for the mRNA encoding ribosomal protein S18 (S18). AMV: presence (+) or absence (−) of reverse transcriptase. For details on RT-PCR, see the Material and Methods section. Lanes 25–30 document that the amount of RT-PCR product was sensitive to RNA template concentration. The figure illustrates a representative experiment, but the results shown here were reproduced in five individual experiments using three independent total RNA preparations

    Prescribing by mental health nurses: the UK perspective

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    PURPOSE. This article aims to discuss the growth of mental health nurse (MHN) prescribing in the United Kingdom as an exemplar for readers to compare progress in their own countries and context. This study also aims to provide a historical overview of this process in the United Kingdom where MHNs prescribe safely and competently. CONCLUSIONS. Finally, evidence has shown that MHNs with prescriptive authority are competent when prescribing when compared to psychiatrists. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS. Despite organizational barriers and educational concerns, MHN prescribing is becoming embedded in the healthcare context in the United Kingdo

    Modular RT-Motion USB Software Framework

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    Philips Applied Technologies has developed the RT-Motion USB platform as a compact distributed real-time motion control platform, but the platform can still be improved by developing a more advanced software framework. The goal of this thesis project is to design a modular software framework to complement the RT-Motion USB platform with extendability, flexibility, and configurability. The design focuses on the extendability of the platform by developing foundation building blocks to integrate software extension modules and device drivers easily. The design emphasizes the principle of simplicity to ensure the lowest possible overhead and highest reliability. The firmware is modular, which allows each module to concentrate on its own area. The implementation of the design has been tested and is proved to provide extendability, flexibility, and configurability while incurring low overhead. The improvement to the RT-Motion USB platform is expected to extend the applicability of the RT-Motion USB platform to a broader application range.Microelectronics & Computer EngineeringElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

    Improving Stabilization or Mass Reduction Effect for an Existing MBT Plant

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    The aerobic stabilization process performed in the Biological Treatment (BT) section of an existing Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) facility, operating since 1994, has been analyzed. It consists of an aerobic continuous flow basin, in which the waste is straddled by screws moved by a crane bridge, with an aerated floor through which process air is supplied by electrical fans. The experimental investigation performed on several samples withdrawn from the continuous flow BT basin at different Retention Time (RT) periods shows a strong Humidity (H) loss of the Waste Organic Fraction (WOF) from the inlet to the outlet section. This strong H reduction produces positive effect on the WOF weight loss, more than 40%, but inhibits stabilization process. The Dynamic Respirometer Index Potential (DRIP) shows that the main stabilization effect occurs in the first half part of BT basin length. Further Volatile Solids (VS) reduction results negligible showing that the BT operates mainly a bio drying of the WOF. For removing the stabilization inhibition effects it is necessary to add water to the WOF under treatment for maintaining the H > than 40-45% w/w. On the basis of a simulation model developed by the aid of the experimental analysis results, the increase in H content is able to increase significantly the DRIP reduction increasing the stability of the WOF at BT section outlet. On the other hand, even if the VS concentration results also reduced, the increase in the H content of the WOF at BT outlet causes a reduction of the weight loss that results about of 20%

    Exploring the effects od a rigid body on the evolution of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability

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    This talk discusses the effects of a rigid solid boundary impeding the evolution of the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability. The introduction of an obstacle completely alters the evolution of RT growth, instead of mixing the domain rapidly, a quasi-steady flow, rich in dynamics is established for long periods of time. Using a combination of low Atwood number experiments and ILES simulations, this talk will present a non-dimensional analytical model for a multi-stage mixing process, discussing the effects of the opening size and topology on the density change of each layer, buoyancy driven flux through the opening and mixing efficiency

    Small-Scale Properties of Two-Dimensional Rayleigh-Taylor Turbulence

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    We report a high-resolution numerical study of small-scale properties of two-dimensional (2D) miscible Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) incompressible turbulence with the Boussinesq approximation at small Atwood number and unit Prandtl number. Our results show that the buoyancy force balances the inertial force at all scales below the integral length scale and thus validate the basic force-balance assumption of the Bolgiano-Obukhov scenario in 2D RT turbulence. We further examine other small-scale properties of 2D RT turbulence, such as temporal evolution of energy and thermal dissipation rates, the emergence of intermittency and anomalous scaling for high order moments of velocity and temperature differences, distributions of local dissipation scales, and so on

    Comparison of Agitators Performance for Particle Suspension in Top-Covered Unbaffled Vessels

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    Power savings is a problem of crucial importance nowadays. In process industry, suspension of solid particles into liquids is usually obtained by employing stirred tanks, which often are very power demanding. Notwithstanding tanks provided with baffles are traditionally adopted for this task, recent studies have shown that power reductions can be obtained in top-covered unbaffled vessels. In the present work experiments were carried out in a top-covered unbaffled vessel with a diameter T=0.19m and filled with distilled water and silica particles. Two different turbines were tested: a standard six-bladed Rushton Turbine (RT) and a 45° four bladed Pitched Blade Turbine (PBT). For the case of the PBT both the up-pumping (PBT-Up) and the downpumping (PBT-Down) operation mode were tested. Two different impeller sizes D (T/3 and T/2) and clearances C (T/3 and T/10) were investigated. The effects of particle size and concentration were also assessed. Investigations concern the assessment of the minimum impeller speed for complete suspension (Njs) along with the measurement of the relevant power consumption (Pjs) aiming at identifying the most efficient tank-turbine configuration among those investigated here. Results were also compared with corresponding ones pertaining to baffled tanks (obtained via correlations available in the literature). Results have shown that the RT with D=T/3 and C=T/3 and the PBT-Up with D=T/2 and C=T/10 appear to be the most convenient (least power demanding) options. Finally, a significant power saving with respect to the most efficient baffled configurations was observed thus confirming the convenience of operating solid-liquid suspensions in an unbaffled system for all those processes where the mixing time is not a limiting factor

    ナイジェリア南東部および中南部におけるラッサウイルス検出のためのRT-LAMPアッセイの開発

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    Lassa virus (LASV) causes Lassa fever (LF), a viral hemorrhagic fever endemic in West Africa. LASV strains are clustered into six lineages according to their geographic location. To confirm a diagnosis of LF, a laboratory test is required. Here, a reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) assay using a portable device for the detection of LASV in southeast and south-central Nigeria using three primer sets specific for strains clustered in lineage II was developed. The assay detected in vitro transcribed LASV RNAs within 23 min and was further evaluated for detection in 73 plasma collected from suspected LF patients admitted into two health settings in southern Nigeria. The clinical evaluation using the conventional RT-PCR as the reference test revealed a sensitivity of 50% in general with 100% for samples with a viral titer of 9500 genome equivalent copies (geq)/mL and higher. The detection limit was estimated to be 4214 geq/mL. The assay showed 98% specificity with no cross-reactivity to other viruses which cause similar symptoms. These results suggest that this RT-LAMP assay is a useful molecular diagnostic test for LF during the acute phase, contributing to early patient management, while using a convenient device for field deployment and in resource-poor settings.長崎大学学位論文 学位記番号:博(医歯薬)甲第1265号 学位授与年月日:令和2年9月18日Author: Christelle M. Pemba, Yohei Kurosaki, Rokusuke Yoshikawa, Olamide K. Oloniniyi, Shuzo Urata, Maki Sueyoshi, Vahid R. Zadeh, Ifeanyi Nwafor, Michael O. Iroezindu, Nnenna A. Ajayi, Chinedu M. Chukwubike, Nneka M. Chika-Igwenyi, Anne C. Ndu, Damian U. Nwidi, Yuki Maehira, Uche S. Unigwe, Chiedozie K. Ojide, Emeka O. Onwe, Jiro YasudaCitation: Journal of Virological Methods, 269, pp.30-37; 201

    The relationship between co-authorship, currency of references and author self-citations

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    This paper attempts to identify the relationship between co-authorship and the currency of the references and author self-citations in the key journals of environmental engineering. The results show that the self-citation rate of co-authored articles is higher than in single-authored articles. A statistically significant correlation is identified between the numbers of co-authors, the rate of author self-citing and the author self-cited; though it was a low correlation. The value of coefficient correlation between the number of co-authors and the author self-citing rate is slightly higher than that between the number of co-authors and the author self-cited rate, which indicates that the number of co-authors hold a stronger correlation with the self-citing rate than the self-cited rate. Meanwhile, self-citing references are found to be more up-to-date than references to others. The range of publication years of self-citing references is smaller than that of references to others, indicating that researchers tend to preferentially cite their own recent works. There is no significant difference in the latest references between self-citing references and the references to others. It might result from electronic journals that provide an easy access to the most current publications.補正完畢國外SSCIY紙本電子版HU
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