1,904 research outputs found
RIC-HSCT for MF/SS
No full textAdvanced-stage mycosis fungoides and Sezary syndrome (MF/SS) have a poor prognosis. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), particularly using a reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) regimen, is a promising treatment for advanced-stage MF/SS. We performed RIC-HSCT in nine patients with advanced MF/SS. With a median follow-up period of 954days after HSCT, the estimated 3-year overall survival was 85.7% (95% confidence interval, 33.4-97.9%) with no non-relapse mortality. Five patients relapsed after RIC-HSCT; however, in four patients whose relapse was detected only from the skin, persistent complete response was achieved in one patient, and the disease was manageable in other three patients by the tapering of immunosuppressants and donor lymphocyte infusion, suggesting that graft-versus-lymphoma effect and "down-staging" effect from advanced stage to early stage by HSCT improve the prognosis of advanced-stage MF/SS. These results suggest that RIC-HSCT is an effective treatment for advanced MF/SS
Foraging enrichment for individually housed horses: practicality and effects on behaviour
No full textThe stabled (UK) or stalled (USA) horse is commonly fed a restricted-forage diet in contrast to the varied ad libitum high-fibre diet it evolved to consume. A low-forage diet has been linked to the performance of stereotypical behaviour and health problems including gastric ulceration and impaction colic (in cases where horses are bedded on straw). Provision of a diet closer to that which the horse is adapted to and which enables more natural feeding behaviour warrants investigation.This trial aimed to establish whether the behavioural effects observed in short-term trials when stabled horses were provided with a multiple forage diet persist over longer periods. It also aimed to develop a practical methodology for maintaining stabled horses under forage-enriched conditions.Nine horses (aged 5–20 years, various breeds), acting as their own controls, participated in an 18-day, cross-over, Latin Square designed trial, in which they received comparable weights of two dietary treatments: a Single Forage (SF, hay) diet and a Multiple Forage (MF) diet (three long-chop and three short-chop commercially available forages). Following a 2-day acclimatisation, horses were maintained on the forage treatments for 7 days. Horses were observed on alternate days, morning and afternoon, during the 25 min following forage presentation. Horses then crossed over onto their second treatment and, following a further 2 days’ acclimatisation, the same protocol was followed for a further 7 days. Observations from video were made using The Observer 3.0® and SPPS (version 11).Horses on the MF treatment performed foraging behaviour significantly more frequently and for significantly longer periods than horses on the SF treatment. On the MF treatment horses sampled all forages during observations. However, there were significant differences in the frequency and duration of foraging on individual forages, indicating that horses demonstrated individual preferences for particular forages. Stereotypic weaving behaviour only occurred on the SF treatment.The results indicate that the potentially beneficial behavioural effects of short-term multiple forage provision do persist when horses are managed on a MF diet for a 7-day period. They suggest that a MF diet provides a means of enriching the stabled horse's environment, by offering variety and enabling patch foraging behaviour. The methodology proved practical for maintaining horses under forage-enriched conditions and could easily be adopted by horse owners to facilitate foraging behaviour.<br/
The practicality of foraging enrichment for stabled horses and its effect on behaviour.
No full textThis trial aimed to establish whether the behavioural effects observed when stabled horses were provided with multiple forages (Equine Vet. J. 34:7, 686-691, 2002) persist over longer time periods. Nine horses (aged 5–20 years; mixed breeding) acting as their own controls participated in an 18-day cross-over Latin Square trial. They were provided with comparable weights of either a single forage (SF) diet (hay) or a multiple forage (MF) diet (three short-chop and three long-chop commercially available forages), in two daily feeds. Following a two-day acclimatisation, the horses were maintained on their treatments for seven days. Horses were observed on alternate days, morning and afternoon, during the 25 minutes following forage delivery. Horses then crossed over onto the other treatment and, after another two-day acclimatisation, the same protocol was followed for a further seven days. Observations from video were analysed using The Observer 3.0® and SPSS (version 11). Horses on the MF diet performed foraging behaviour significantly more frequently (T=0, P<0.01, Wilcoxon’s test for matched pairs) and for longer periods (T=2, P<0.05) than horses on the SF diet. Horses on the SF diet spent significantly longer performing behaviour thought to be indicative of a search for alternative resources, such as moving or looking out of the stable (T=2, P<0.05). On the MF diet, foraging on the six forages differed significantly in frequency (X2=37.435, v=5, P<0.001, Friedman test), latency (X2=21.643, v=5, P<0.01) and duration (X2=31.174, v=5, P<0.001). Horses demonstrated preferences for particular forages but sampled all forages during observations. It is concluded that the previously published short-term behavioural effects of MF provision do persist over longer periods of time (nine days). The methodology described also proved to be an efficient means of managing horses under forage enriched conditions and could easily be adopted by horse owners to facilitate foraging behaviour
Preparation of mono-sized epoxy/MF microcapsulesin the appearance of polyvinyl alcohol as co-emulsifier
No full textFor epoxy microcapsules embedded in concrete as mechanic-triggered self-healing adhesive, globular shape with uniform size is the basic requirement to ensure the solid shell broken and the liquid core released at a designed stress. In this paper, monodispersed melamine\u96formaldehyde (MF) resin-walled epoxy E-51 microcapsules were successfully fabricated in an in situ polycondensation process, in which a certain amount of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution was added as coemulsifier to control the microcapsules\u92 shape and size. Detail investigation shows, with the cooperation of PVA, the microcapsule morphologies and size distribution were ease to be adjusted by the parameters such as emulsifying agents, agitation rate, pH value and acidification time
ACT Family Violence Intervention Program review
No full textThis paper reports on a review of the Australian Capital Territory’s Family Violence Intervention Program, which provides an interagency response to family violence matters.
The scope of the review was to analyse the program’s activities and outcomes using 2007–08 data provided by participating agencies, supported by in-depth interviews with key stakeholders including victims whose matters had been finalised in court. After the completion of this report, additional data from 2008–09 and 2009–10 was made available by some Family Violence Intervention Program (FVIP) participating agencies. Although not within the scope of this evaluation, these data pointed to some preliminary improvements in the FVIP
NF membrane fouling by aluminum and iron coagulant residuals after coagulation-MF pretreatment
No full textThe effects of coagulant residuals on fouling of a nanofiltration (NF) membrane were investigated. Experiments were carried out with a laboratory-scale microfiltration (MF)-NF setup and a pilot MF-NF plant. In the laboratory-scale experiments, NF feed water was pretreated with poly-aluminum chloride (PACl) or alum followed by MF. NF membrane permeability declined when the feed water contained residual aluminum at 18 μg/L or more, but not when it was lower than 9 μg/L. When pretreated with ferric chloride, no substantial decline of NF membrane permeability was observed: residual iron did not affect the permeability. When SiO2 was added to the water before the pretreatment with PACl, the NF membrane permeability declined at about double the speed. Thermodynamic calculations and elemental analysis of foulants recovered from the membranes indicated that the majority of inorganic foulants were compounds composed of aluminum, silicate, and possibly potassium. In the pilot plant, NF feed was pretreated by PACl. Transmembrane pressure for NF doubled over 4.5 months of operation. Although the aluminum concentration in the NF feed was not high (30 μg/L), analysis of membrane foulants revealed excessive accumulation of aluminum and silicate, also suggesting that aluminum residuals caused the membrane fouling by alumino-silicates or aluminum hydroxide
Cross-Amplification and Validation of SNPs Conserved over 44 Million Years between Seals and Dogs
No full textHoffman J, Thorne MAS, McEwing R, Forcada J, Ogden R. Cross-Amplification and Validation of SNPs Conserved over 44 Million Years between Seals and Dogs. PLoS ONE. 2013;8(7): e68365.High-density SNP arrays developed for humans and their companion species provide a rapid and convenient tool for generating SNP data in closely-related non-model organisms, but have not yet been widely applied to phylogenetically divergent taxa. Consequently, we used the CanineHD BeadChip to genotype 24 Antarctic fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella) individuals. Despite seals and dogs having diverged around 44 million years ago, 33,324 out of 173,662 loci (19.2%) could be genotyped, of which 173 were polymorphic and clearly interpretable. Two SNPs were validated using KASP genotyping assays, with the resulting genotypes being 100% concordant with those obtained from the high-density array. Two loci were also confirmed through in silico visualisation after mapping them to the fur seal transcriptome. Polymorphic SNPs were distributed broadly throughout the dog genome and did not differ significantly in proximity to genes from either monomorphic SNPs or those that failed to cross-amplify in seals. However, the nearest genes to polymorphic SNPs were significantly enriched for functional annotations relating to energy metabolism, suggesting a possible bias towards conserved regions of the genome
Correction Factor on Dynamic Force in a Marsh Funnel Test for Tunneling
No full textThis paper presents an improvement on a previous model for predicting the Marsh funnel (MF) test that is used in slurry shield tunneling for evaluating the rheological properties of bentonite slurries. The improvement focuses on the prediction of the dynamic part for fluids with small MF times. The velocity profile of the Herschel-Bulkley fluid in a laminar pipe flow condition is first investigated and a correction factor is introduced in the improved model. Comparisons of results from experiments and calculations with the previous model confirm the improved performance over the existing model. The rheological parameters obtained from the improved model show good resemblance to those obtained from a laboratory viscometer. The work also provides a reference to similar applications such as fluid transportation through pipelines where dynamic pressure dominates and therefore should be correctly predicted considering its velocity profile in a laminar condition.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Offshore and Dredging Engineerin
Thermal analysis of a miniature magnetic fluid seal installed in an implantable rotary pump
No full textThe capacity of a magnetic fluid (MF) seal is decreased by increased MF temperature. A cooling system for MF is limited in a miniature MF seal installed in an implantable rotary pump. MF temperature in an MF seal installed in an implantable rotary pump was studied. The temperature of MF in a rotary pump was measured in vitro. Also, steady-state thermal analyses were conducted for an implantable rotary pump model. The results showed that (1) the decrease in magnetization of an MF due to increased temperature is negligible when the heat transfer coefficient of the seal housing is greater than 500 W/(m2·K) and (2) the increased temperature is mainly due to heat flux from the motor, and the magnitude of temperature increase due to viscous friction in the MF is low. In conclusion, an MF seal can be used in an implantable rotary pump from the standpoint of heat characteristics
Magnetic fluid seals working in liquid environments: Factors limiting their life and solution methods
No full textA magnetic fluid (MF) seal enables mechanical contact-free rotation of a shaft and hence has excellent durability. The performance of an MF seal, however, decreases in liquids. Factors limiting seal life are MF flowing away and mixing of MF with liquids. We developed an MF seal that had a "shield'' mechanism. Two types of shield were placed in MF seals installed in rotary pumps. Long-term durability tests were conducted. The MF seal with a shield having a small cavity space showed a longer life (207+ days), while the MF seal with a shield having a large cavity space failed after 28, 32 and 31 days. When a rotary pump is connected to an afterload, water flows into the cavity space of the shield through a concentric annulus and compresses air in the cavity. The water flow stops once the air pressure equilibrates the afterload pressure. Water remained in the entrance annulus and did not make contact with the MF in the case of the shield having a small cavity space, while water entered the cavity space and made contact with the MF in the case of the shield having a large cavity space. Less water in contact with the MF prolonged the seal life. In conclusion, the use of an optimally designed shield prolongs an MF seal life by preventing the MF from flowing away and mixing with liquids
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