1,770 research outputs found
Peer Networking and Community Change: Improving Foundation Practice
No full text· This article brings together the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 15 years of experience with peer networking— examining through two research studies the process of peer networking and its impact, both with community-based and funder groups.
· Peer networking helps people with common interests to exchange information, disseminate good practices, and build a leadership structure for work they do together, such as a community change initiative.
· Casey’s research identified 10 good practices for effective peer networking, as well as 10 challenges that can affect its success; a four-level model was created to provide context for these findings.
· The research indicates that peer networking can have significant impact for communities and in meeting philanthropic goals, but it is costly and must be carefully structured if it is to be successful.
· Casey is working to synthesize its peer networking practices into a more strategic framework, and other foundations might use some of its lessons learned to enhance their own practices in this area
A short history of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC)
No full textDe Backer G, Perk J, Wood D, et al. A short history of the European Association of Preventive Cardiology (EAPC). European Journal of Preventive Cardiology . 2022: zwac027.The history of the EAPC is closely related to the history of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). The ESC decided at the turn of the century to overcome the splitting into 27 topic related Working Groups with great differences in size and activities and to create a new organizational concept based on Associations, each having an official ESC scientific journal and an annual ESC connected congress. The European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation was built on the fundaments of epidemiology and prevention, exercise physiology, cardiac rehabilitation and sports cardiology. The official journal of the Association was launched in 2003 and the first EuroPRevent Congress was held in Athens in 2006. During the following years, the different interests of the founding working groups came closer together, which resulted in a name change of the Association into "European Association of Preventive Cardiology" and of the journal into "European Journal of Preventive Cardiology". The name change marked the migration of Preventive Cardiology to centre stage in the ESC. This document summarizes how and from where the EAPC started and where it stands now. Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author(s) 2022. For permissions, please email: [email protected]
Involvement of two Ets binding sites in the transcriptional activation of the MAGE1 gene
No full textThe MAGE1 gene codes for an antigen recognized on melanoma cell line MZ2-MEL by autologous cytolytic T lymphocytes. It is expressed in a number of tumors of different histological origins, but not in normal tissues except in testis. The MAGE1 promoter region was analyzed by performing transient transfections in MZ2-MEL cells with luciferase reporter plasmids. A fragment extending from nucleotide -792 to +118 exhibited high transcriptional activity. By deletional analysis of this fragment, we identified five activating regions designated C, A, B', B, and D. The activity of region A depends on the presence of region B' and vice versa. Two inverted Ets motifs contained in regions B' and B were found to drive 90% of the activity of the MAGE1 promoter in MZ2-MEL cells. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays performed with a nuclear extract from MZ2-MEL cells and with competitor oligonucleotides containing an Ets consensus site showed that nuclear proteins bind to the Ets motif of regions B' and B. Similar experiments suggested that region A binds transcription factors of the Sp1 family. The MAGE1 promoter was found to exert transcriptional activity in tumor cells where the MAGE1 gene is not expressed, suggesting that other mechanisms, such as demethylation, may contribute to the tumor-specific expression of the gene
Can changes in arterial pressure be used to detect changes in cardiac index during fluid challenge in patients with septic shock?
No full textResponse to fluid challenge is often defined as an increase in cardiac index (CI) of more than 10-15%. However, in clinical practice CI values are often not available. We evaluated whether changes in mean arterial pressure (MAP) correlate with changes in CI after fluid challenge in patients with septic shock.
METHODS:
This was an observational study in which we reviewed prospectively collected data from 51 septic shock patients in whom complete hemodynamic measurements had been obtained before and after a fluid challenge with 1,000 ml crystalloid (Hartman's solution) or 500 ml colloid (hydroxyethyl starch 6%). CI was measured using thermodilution. Patients were divided into two groups (responders and non-responders) according to their change in CI (responders: %CI >10%) after the fluid challenge. Statistical analysis was performed using a two-way analysis of variance test followed by a Student's t test with adjustment for multiple comparisons. Pearson's correlation and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis were also used.
RESULTS:
Mean patient age was 67 ± 17 years and mean Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) upon admittance to the intensive care unit was 10 ± 3. In the 25 responders, MAP increased from 69 ± 9 to 77 ± 9 mmHg, pulse pressure (PP) increased from 59 ± 15 to 67 ± 16, and CI increased from 2.8 ± 0.8 to 3.4 ± 0.9 L/min/m(2) (all p < 0.001). There were no significant correlations between the changes in MAP, PP, and CI.
CONCLUSIONS:
Changes in MAP do not reliably track changes in CI after fluid challenge in patients with septic shock and, consequently, should be interpreted carefully when evaluating the response to fluid challenge in such patients
Consensus on circulatory shock and hemodynamic monitoring. Task force of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine.
No full textOBJECTIVE: Circulatory shock is a life-threatening syndrome resulting in multiorgan failure and a high mortality rate. The aim of this consensus is to provide support to the bedside clinician regarding the diagnosis, management and monitoring of shock.
METHODS: The European Society of Intensive Care Medicine invited 12 experts to form a Task Force to update a previous consensus (Antonelli et al.: Intensive Care Med 33:575-590, 2007). The same five questions addressed in the earlier consensus were used as the outline for the literature search and review, with the aim of the Task Force to produce statements based on the available literature and evidence. These questions were: (1) What are the epidemiologic and pathophysiologic features of shock in the intensive care unit ? (2) Should we monitor preload and fluid responsiveness in shock ? (3) How and when should we monitor stroke volume or cardiac output in shock ? (4) What markers of the regional and microcirculation can be monitored, and how can cellular function be assessed in shock ? (5) What is the evidence for using hemodynamic monitoring to direct therapy in shock ? Four types of statements were used: definition, recommendation, best practice and statement of fact.
RESULTS: Forty-four statements were made. The main new statements include: (1) statements on individualizing blood pressure targets; (2) statements on the assessment and prediction of fluid responsiveness; (3) statements on the use of echocardiography and hemodynamic monitoring.
CONCLUSIONS: This consensus provides 44 statements that can be used at the bedside to diagnose, treat and monitor patients with shock
Credit rating prediction using Ant Colony Optimization
No full textThe introduction of the Basel II Capital Accord has encouraged financial institutions to build internal rating systems assessing the credit risk of their various credit portfolios. One of the key outputs of an internal rating system is the probability of default (PD), which reflects the likelihood that a counterparty will default on his/her financial obligation. Since the PD modelling problem basically boils down to a discrimination problem (defaulter or not), one may rely on the myriad of classification techniques that have been suggested in the literature. However, since the credit risk models will be subject to supervisory review and evaluation, they must be easy to understand and transparent. Hence, techniques such as neural networks or support vector machines are less suitable due to their black box nature. Building upon previous research, we will use AntMiner+ to build internal rating systems for credit risk. AntMiner+ allows to infer a propositional rule set from a given data set, hereby using the principles from Ant Colony Optimization. Experiments will be conducted using various types of credit data sets (retail, small-and medium-sized enterprises and banks). It will be shown that the extracted rule sets are both powerful in terms of discriminatory power and comprehensibility. Furthermore, a framework will be presented describing how AntMiner+ fits into a global Basel II credit risk management system
Heavy neutrino balls and the supermassive dark object at the Galactic center
No full textIncludes bibliographical references.Massive neutrinos were the first proposed, and still remain the most natural, particle candidate for the dark matter. We investigate here the properties and astrophysical implications of self-gravitating degenerate heavy neutrino matter. Neutrinos of 10 to 25 keV/c² might cluster around the sun forming a halo of a few solar masses and a few light years radius. We calculate the perihelion shifts of planetary and asteroidal orbits that are expected due to the presence of a conjectured degenerate heavy neutrino halo around the sun. While the General Relativistic perihelion shifts are positive, those due to a possible dark matter halo are in general negative. A neutrino mass around ~16 keV is consistent with the observed mass excesses within the orbits of various outer planets, as obtailled from astrometrical data and Voyager 1 and 2 and Pioneer 10 and 11 ranging data. We then study the general relativistic effects on degenerate neutrino balls using the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Yolkoff (TOV ) equations of hydrostatic equilibrium. An extension of the TOV equations is made to describe the detailed properties of supermassive neutrino balls around compact objects such as white dwarfs and neutron stars. We further show that the supermassive compact dark object near Sgr A* at the Galactic center could be an extended object rather than a black hole. In fact these two scenarios can be distinguished by tracking the orbit of one of the fast moving stars near the Galactic center. VVe finally calculate the emission spectrum of the supermassive compact dark object using the standard accretion theory and show that the calculated radio wave to infrared emission spectrum between λ = 0.3 cm and λ = 10-³ cm is consistent with the observations
Analysis of electron microscope images. 3-D localization of immuno-markers
No full textElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Effect of vitamin D supplementation on N‐glycan branching and cellular immunophenotypes in MS
No full textOBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) supplementation on peripheral immune cell frequency and N-glycan branching in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS). METHODS: Exploratory analysis of high-dose (20 400 IU) and low-dose (400 IU) vitamin D3 supplementation taken every other day of an 18-month randomized controlled clinical trial including 38 RRMS patients on stable immunomodulatory therapy (NCT01440062). We investigated cholecalciferol treatment effects on N-glycan branching using L-PHA stain (phaseolus vulgaris leukoagglutinin) at 6 months and frequencies of T-, B-, and NK-cell subpopulations at 12 months with flow cytometry. RESULTS: High-dose supplementation did not change CD3+ T cell subsets, CD19+ B cells subsets, and NK cells frequencies, except for CD8+ T regulatory cells, which were reduced in the low-dose arm compared to the high-dose arm at 12 months. High-dose supplementation decreased N-glycan branching on T and NK cells, measured as L-PHA mean fluorescence intensity (MFI). A reduction of N-glycan branching in B cells was not significant. In contrast, low-dose supplementation did not affect N-glycan branching. Changes in N-glycan branching did not correlate with cell frequencies. INTERPRETATION: Immunomodulatory effect of vitamin D may involve regulation of N-glycan branching in vivo. Vitamin D3 supplementation did at large not affect the frequencies of peripheral immune cells
Incidence and outcome of peri-procedural transcatheter heart valve embolization and migration: The TRAVEL registry (TranscatheteR HeArt Valve EmboLization and Migration)
No full textKim, WK; Schafer, U; Tchetche, D; Nef, H; Arnold, M; Avanzas, P; Rudolph, T; Scholtz, S; Barbanti, M; Kempfert, J; Mangieri, A; Lauten, A; Frerker, C; Yoon, SH; Holzamer, A; Praz, F; De Backer, O; Toggweiler, S; Blumenstein, J; Purita, P; Tarantini, G; Thilo, C; Wolf, A; Husser, O; Pellegrini, C; Burgdorf, C; Antolin, RAH; Diaz, VAJ; Liebetrau, C; Schofer, N; Mollmann, H; Eggebrecht, H; Sondergaard, L; Walther, T; Pilgrim, T; Hilker, M; Makkar, R; Unbehaun, A; Borgermann, J; Moris, C; Achenbach, S; Dorr, O; Brochado, B; Conradi, L; Hamm, CW
- …
