23 research outputs found
Sound perception of different materials for the footpaths of urban parks
No full textOver the years the environmental potential of urban parks has attracted increasingly attention. In order to preserve their positive influence for communities, the sonic environment perception (soundscape) must be considered too. Urban parks' sonic environment is influenced by attenders moving around; indeed, walking sounds have very high occurrence in such contexts. However, studies investigating both walking sounds and soundscape are limited. This study investigates the influence of different footpath materials on the sonic perception. A laboratory listening experiment was carried out with four walked-on materials: grass, wood, stone and gravel. Preliminary results show a significant material effect on soundscape perception
The effect of walking sounds from different walked-on materials on the soundscape of urban parks
No full textUrban parks are essential environmental resources in contemporary cities, for the substantial social and psychological relief they provide for local communities. In recent years, the potential of the soundscape approach for enhancing the ecological contribution of such environmental assets has been intensely investigated. Although, researchers tended to focus on the perception of people “staying” in the park, whilst it is important to consider how the sonic environment would be dynamically perceived by users walking across the park. Within this framework, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of different footpath materials on soundscape quality and walking quality perception for people walking in an urban park, considering that the experience of such users is affected by both the background acoustic environment of the park and their walking sound. To this purpose, a laboratory experiment was carried out with 25 participants. Four different walked-on materials that are likely to be used in urban parks were tested: grass, wood, stone and gravel. Results show that the material factor has a significant effect on both auditory and haptic perception. Furthermore, positive correlations can be observed between auditory and haptic variables, confirming that the soundscape appreciation for people walking in urban parks is likely to be affected also by other but aural sensory modalities. The paper ultimately points out that it is possible to re-think the approach to urban parks design and more specifically to the footpaths and the walking sounds that their materials are likely to produce
Differences in soundscape appreciation of walking sounds from different footpath materials in urban parks
No full textThe perception of the acoustic environment, namely the soundscape, in urban parks has attracted increasing attention. There is a growing belief that the management of the acoustic environment of urban parks should be addressed within a broader soundscape methodology rather than a merely noise control one. One of the most frequent sound sources in urban parks is walking sound; however walking sound perception so far has mainly been investigated for indoor environments. This paper aims to investigate the overall effect of walking sounds from different walked-on materials on people's soundscape, combined with other non-acoustical factors. Moreover, this research investigates how perception varies when the walking sound is self-produced or simply listened. To this purpose, two laboratory experiments in Italy and UK were carried out with four walked-on materials that were considered to be possible design solutions for the footpaths of urban parks: grass, wood, stone and gravel. Results showed a significant effect of materials on perceived noise annoyance and soundscape quality, as well as a partial influence of other nonacoustical factor. Considering the individual responses for the four selected materials, gravel was associated to the worst soundscape quality (M = 38.42) while grass to the best one (M = 65.05). While a group effect (Italian and UK samples) was observed for perceived noise annoyance corresponding to the materials, no significant group effect was found for soundscape evaluation. Eventually, people simply listening to the walking sounds resulted to be less tolerant towards them, with respect to people who self-produced the sounds by walking
Impact of age and gender on glioblastoma onset, progression, and management
No full textGlioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary malignant brain tumor in adults, while its frequency in pe-diatric patients is 10-15%. For this reason, age is considered one of the major risk factors for the development of GBM, as it correlates with cellular aging phenomena involving glial cells and favoring the process of tumor transformation. Gender differences have been also identified, as the incidence of GBM is higher in males than in females, coupled with a worse outcome. In this review, we analyze age-and gender-dependent differences in GBM onset, mutational landscape, clinical manifestations, and survival, according to the literature of the last 20 years, focusing on the major risk factors involved in tumor development and on the mutations and gene alter-ations most frequently found in adult vs young patients and in males vs females. We then highlight the impact of age and gender on clinical manifestations and tumor localization and their involvement in the time of diagnosis and in determining the tumor prognostic value
Manutenção da crista óssea alveolar a longo prazo em implantes cone-morse e hexagonal externo : revisão sistemática
No full textIntrodução: A manutenção óssea peri-implantar representa hoje em dia um tema de debate
interessante enquanto esta intimamente ligado ao prognostico das reabilitações protéticas
implanto-suportadas. A estrutura implantar bem como o tipo de conexão implante-pilar, são
fatores que podem contribuir a perda óssea peri-implantar e afetar negativamente o
prognostico do tratamento. Os dois desenhos de implante-pilar mais utilizados atualmente
são a ligação hexagonal externa e a ligação morse.
Objetivo: avaliar o nível de evidência científica sobre a manutenção da crista óssea
alveolar e os parâmetros clínicos associados, após a colocação de implantes cone-morse
e hexagonal externo, de modo a alcançar a previsibilidade clínica sobre o tema abordado.
Materiais e métodos: A literatura considerada para esta revisão sistemática é baseada
nas diretrizes PRISMA e visou responder a seguinte questão específica construída no
formato PICO: “Para pacientes tratados com implantes dentários (P), seja conexão externo
(I) ou cone-morse (C), existem diferenças na manutenção da crista óssea após pelo menos
seis meses em função (O)? Foi realizada uma pesquisa eletrónica nas bases de dados
MEDLINE®/Pubmed, Embase e Wiley a fim de identificar estudos clínicos comparando a
perda óssea em torno de implantes hexágono esterno e cone-morse com um período de
acompanhamento mínimo de seis meses. Os dados obtidos a partir dos estudos incluídos
foram extraídos e analisados através de uma meta-análise de modelo de efeitos aleatórios
contínuos. A variável primária utilizada foi a perda óssea marginal.
Resultados: A pesquisa inicial identificou 110 artigos. No entanto, 6 artigos foram
considerados adequados após a leitura do texto completo e foram incluídos no estudo. A
literatura analisada revelou uma diferença na perda óssea peri-implantar nos dois tipos de
conexões analisados (p< .001). Os parâmetros clínicos secundários e a sobrevivência
implantar associada aos dois tipos de ligação não revelaram diferencias significativas.
Conclusão: Os resultados da presente revisão sistemática sugerem que a manutenção
óssea marginal é maior em implantes com uma conexão morse. Contudo, devido ao número
limitado de estudos clínicos incluídos nesta revisão, os dados devem ser analisados com
cuidado. Portanto, necessárias mais investigações, incluindo um maior número de
pacientes, um tempo de seguimento mais longo e um controlo adequado dos fatores de
confusão.Introduction: Peri-implant bone maintenance represents an interesting topic of debate as
it is closely linked to the prognosis of implant-supported prosthetic rehabilitations. The
implant structure as well as the type of implant-abutment connection are factors that can
contribute to peri-implant bone loss and negatively affect treatment prognosis. The two most
used implant-abutment designs today are the external hexagon connection and the morsetaper connection.
Objective: Evaluate the level of scientific evidence on alveolar crestal bone maintenance
and associated clinical parameters after placement of morse taper and external hexagon
implants, to achieve clinical predictability on the topic addressed.
Materials and methods: The literature considered for this systematic review is based on
PRISMA guidelines and aims to answer the following specific question constructed in PICO
(Population, Intervention, Control, Outcomes) format: "For patients treated with dental
implants (P), either external connection (I) or morse taper (C), are there differences in bone
crest maintenance after at least six months in function (O)? An electronic search in
MEDLINE®/Pubmed, Embase and Wiley databases was performed to identify clinical
studies comparing bone loss around external hexagon and morse taper implants with a
minimum follow-up period of six months. The data obtained from the included studies were
extracted and analyzed using a continuous random effects model meta-analysis. The
variable used was marginal bone loss.
Results: The initial search identified 110 articles. However, 6 articles were considered
adequate after reading the full text and were included in the study. The literature reviewed
revealed a difference in peri-implant bone loss in the two types of connections analyzed
(p< .001). The secondary clinical parameters and implant survival associated with the two
connection types revealed no significant differences.
Conclusion: The results of the present systematic review suggest that bone maintenance
is higher for implants with a cone-morse connection. However, due to the limited number of
clinical studies included in this review, it is suggested to take care with the interpretation of
the results. Further investigations are therefore needed, including a larger number of
patients, a longer follow-up time and adequate control for confounding factors
2003-2013, a valuable study: Autologous tumor lysate-pulsed dendritic cell immunotherapy with cytokine-induced killer cells improves survival in stage IV breast cancer
No full textDendritic cells (DCs) and cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells have both shown activity as immunotherapy in some malignancies. Our aim was to prospective assess the effect of this immunotherapy in patients with stage IV breast cancer. Between Aug 2003 and Dec 2013, we collected 368 patients who met inclusion criteria and divided into immunotherapy group (treatment group: 188 patients) and chemotherapy group (control group: 180 patients). DCs were prepared from the mononuclear cells isolated from patients in the treatment group using IL-2/GM-CSF and were loaded with tumour antigens; CIK cells were prepared by incubating peripheral blood lymphocytes with IL-2, IFN-gamma, and CD3 antibodies. After the patients had received low-dose chemotherapy, those in the treatment group also received the DC-CIK therapy, which was repeated four times in a fortnight to form one cycle. At least three cycles of DC-CIK therapy were given. Immune function was measured in treatment group patients' sera. Disease-free survival (DFS) and Overall survival (OS) after the diagnosis of stage IV breast cancer was assessed after a 10-year follow-up. The result demonstrated that immune function is obviously enhanced after DC-CIK therapy. By Cox regression analysis, DC-CIK therapy reduced the risk of disease progression (p < 0.01) with an increased OS (p < 0.01). After low-dose chemotherapy, active immunization with DC-CIK immunotherapy is a potentially effective approach for the control of tumour growth in stage IV breast cancer patients. (C) 2017 European Federation of Immunological Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.International Scientific Fund of Fuda Cancer Hospital, Guangzhou [Y2016-ZD-006]SCI(E)ARTICLE37-4318
Adaptive Control for Evolutionary Robotics: And its effect on learning directed locomotion
No full textThis thesis is motivated by evolutionary robot systems where robot bodies and brains evolve simultaneously. In such a robot system, `birth' must be followed by `infant learning' by a learning method that works for various morphologies evolution may produce. Here we address the task of directed locomotion in modular robots with controllers based on Central Pattern Generators. We present a bio-inspired adaptive feedback mechanism that uses a forward model and an inverse model that can be learned on-the-fly. We compare two versions (a simple and a sophisticated one) of this concept to a traditional (open-loop) controller using Bayesian Optimization as a learning algorithm. The experimental results show that the sophisticated version outperforms the simple one and the traditional controller. It leads to improvement in performance and more robust controllers that cope better with noise
WHY HAS THE PAPER ENTITLED "GREATWALL-PHOSPHORYLATED Α-ENDOSULFINE IS BOTH AN INHIBITOR AND A SUBSTRATE OF PP2A-B55 HETEROTRIMERS" BY WILLIAMS, M.C. ET AL. THAT WAS PUBLISHED IN ELIFE [WILLIAMS, B.C., FILTER, J.J., BLAKE-HODEK, K.A., FUDA, N.J., SHALLOWAY, D. AND GOLDBERG, M.L. (2014) ELIFE, DOI: 10.7554/ELIFE.01695 ] NOT BEEN RETRACTED?
No full textThe paper entitled "Greatwall-phosphorylated α-Endosulfine is both an inhibitor and a substrate of PP2A-B55 heterotrimers" authored by Williams, B.C. et al. [Williams, B.C., Filter, J.J., Blake-Hodek, K.A., Fuda, N.J., Shalloway, D. and Goldberg, M.L. and Published in the Journal eLife [eLife (2014) e01695, doi: 10.7554/elife.01695] was the subject of an investigative critique [Tung, H.Y.L. (2020) J. Invest. Cri. Pub. Sci. Articles, Vol. 1, pp193-200, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5115188]. It was previously reported that the paper by Williams, et al. was riddled with Dishonest Scientific Reported, Data Falsification and possibly Data Fabrication. After, contacting the Editor in Chief of eLife, Drs Michael B. Eisen, the author of this report was referred to the Managing Editor of eLife, Dr Wei Mun Chan who is not an expert in Enzymology by any stretch of imagination. The Managing Editor of eLife apparently obtained some response from Williams, et al. which was not only unsatisfactory scientifically but aggravated the seriousness of this case as it was revealed that Williams et al. obtained conclusions of their paper based on some experiments in which they were counting ~3 cpm of radioactivity above background. When the author of this report pointed the fantastical results that Williams et al. claimed they were able to obtain, the author of this Report received no sign of life from the Managing editor and the Editor in Chief of eLife. This Report provides further evidence that Williams, B.C. et al. committed Dishonest Scientific Reporting, Data Falsification and Data Fabrication in their paper
Some Mathematical Aspects of Quantum Zeno Effect
No full textMathematical investigations on quantum Zeno effect (QZE) are presented, including the following aspects: (i) QZE by frequent measurements made by an arbitrary partition of a time interval [0, t] (t > 0); (ii) non-occurrence of QZE for vector states which are not in the domain of the Hamiltonian of the quantum system under consideration; and (iii) asymptotic behavior of the survival probability characterizing QZE in the number N of divisions of [0, t]; and (iv) QZE along a curve in the Hilbert space of state vectors
Brudno's theorem for Z(d) (or Z(+)(d)) subshifts
No full textWe generalize Brudno's theorem of 1-dimensional shift dynamical system to Z(d) (or Z(+)(d)) subshifts. That is to say, in Zd (or Z(+)(d) subshift, the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy is equivalent to the Kolmogorov complexity density almost everywhere for an ergodic shift-invariant measure. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
