Magnetic resonance imaging versus Acute Physiology And Chronic Healthy Evaluation II score in predicting the severity of acute pancreatitis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tang Wei; Zhang Xiaoming; Xiao Bo; Zeng Nanlin; Pan Huashan; Feng Zhisong; Xu Xiaoxue

2011-01-01

Objective: To study the correlation between established magnetic resonance (MR) imaging criteria of disease severity in acute pancreatitis and the Acute Physiology And Chronic Healthy Evaluation II (APACHE II) score, and to assess the utility of each prognostic indicators in acute pancreatitis. Materials and methods: In this study there were 94 patients with acute pancreatitis (AP), all had abdominal MR imaging. MR findings were categorized into edematous and necrotizing AP and graded according to the MR severity index (MRSI). The APACHE II score was calculated within 24 h of admission, and local complications, death, duration of hospitalization and ICU were recorded. Statistical analysis was performed to determine their correlation. Results: In patients with pancreatitis, no significant correlation can be found between the APACHE II score and the MRSI score (P = 0.196). The MRSI score correlated well with morbidity (P = 0.006) but not with mortality (P = 0.137). The APACHE II score correlated well with mortality (P = 0.002) but not with the morbidity (P = 0.112). The MRSI score was superior to the APACHE II score as a predictor of the length of hospitalization (r = 0.52 vs. r = 0.35). A high MRSI and APACHE II score correlated with the need for being in the intensive care unit (ICU) (P = 0.000 and P = 0.000, respectively). Conclusion: In patients with pancreatitis, MRSI is superior to APACHE II in assessing local complications from pancreatitis but has a limited role in determining systemic complications in which the APACHE II score excels.

Apache Maven cookbook

CERN Document Server

Bharathan, Raghuram

2015-01-01

If you are a Java developer or a manager who has experience with Apache Maven and want to extend your knowledge, then this is the ideal book for you. Apache Maven Cookbook is for those who want to learn how Apache Maven can be used for build automation. It is also meant for those familiar with Apache Maven, but want to understand the finer nuances of Maven and solve specific problems.

D-dimer as marker for microcirculatory failure: correlation with LOD and APACHE II scores.

Science.gov (United States)

Angstwurm, Matthias W A; Reininger, Armin J; Spannagl, Michael

2004-01-01

The relevance of plasma d-dimer levels as marker for morbidity and organ dysfunction in severely ill patients is largely unknown. In a prospective study we determined d-dimer plasma levels of 800 unselected patients at admission to our intensive care unit. In 91% of the patients' samples d-dimer levels were elevated, in some patients up to several hundredfold as compared to normal values. The highest mean d-dimer values were present in the patient group with thromboembolic diseases, and particularly in non-survivors of pulmonary embolism. In patients with circulatory impairment (r=0.794) and in patients with infections (r=0.487) a statistically significant correlation was present between d-dimer levels and the APACHE II score (P<0.001). The logistic organ dysfunction score (LOD, P<0.001) correlated with d-dimer levels only in patients with circulatory impairment (r=0.474). On the contrary, patients without circulatory impairment demonstrated no correlation of d-dimer levels to the APACHE II or LOD score. Taking all patients together, no correlations of d-dimer levels with single organ failure or with indicators of infection could be detected. In conclusion, d-dimer plasma levels strongly correlated with the severity of the disease and organ dysfunction in patients with circulatory impairment or infections suggesting that elevated d-dimer levels may reflect the extent of microcirculatory failure. Thus, a therapeutic strategy to improve the microcirculation in such patients may be monitored using d-dimer plasma levels.

Uso do escore prognóstico APACHE II e ATN-ISS em insuficiência renal aguda tratada dentro e fora da unidade de terapia intensiva

OpenAIRE

Fernandes,Natáia Maria da Silva; Pinto,Patrícia dos Santos; Lacet,Thiago Bento de Paiva; Rodrigues,Dominique Fonseca; Bastos,Marcus Gomes; Stella,Sérgio Reinaldo; Cendoroglo Neto,Miguel

2009-01-01

INTRODUÇÃO: A insuficiência renal aguda (IRA) mantém alta prevalência, morbidade e mortalidade. OBJETIVO: Comparar o uso do escore prognóstico APACHE II com o ATN-ISS e determinar se o APACHE II pode ser utilizado para pacientes com IRA, fora da UTI. MÉTODOS: Coorte prospectiva, 205 pacientes com IRA. Analisamos dados demográficos, condições pré-existentes, falência de órgãos e características da IRA. Os escores prognósticos foram realizados no dia da avaliação do nefrologista. RESULTADOS: A ...

Learning Apache Kafka

CERN Document Server

Garg, Nishant

2015-01-01

This book is for readers who want to know more about Apache Kafka at a hands-on level; the key audience is those with software development experience but no prior exposure to Apache Kafka or similar technologies. It is also useful for enterprise application developers and big data enthusiasts who have worked with other publisher-subscriber-based systems and want to explore Apache Kafka as a futuristic solution.

APACHE II SCORING SYSTEM AND ITS MODIFICATION FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF DISEASE SEVERITY IN CHILDREN WHO UNDERWENT POLYCHEMOTHERAPY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

А. V. Sotnikov

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Short-term disease prognosis should be considered for the appropriate treatment policy based on the assessment of disease severity in patients with acute disease. The adequate assessment of disease severity and prognosis allows the indications for transferring patients to the resuscitation and intensive care department to be defined more precisely. Disease severity of patients who underwent polychemotherapy was assessed using APACHE II scoring system.

Apache The Definitive Guide

CERN Document Server

Laurie, Ben

2003-01-01

Apache is far and away the most widely used web server platform in the world. This versatile server runs more than half of the world's existing web sites. Apache is both free and rock-solid, running more than 21 million web sites ranging from huge e-commerce operations to corporate intranets and smaller hobby sites. With this new third edition of Apache: The Definitive Guide, web administrators new to Apache will come up to speed quickly, and experienced administrators will find the logically organized, concise reference sections indispensable, and system programmers interested in customizin

The APACHE Project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giacobbe P.

2013-04-01

Full Text Available First, we summarize the four-year long efforts undertaken to build the final setup of the APACHE Project, a photometric transit search for small-size planets orbiting bright, low-mass M dwarfs. Next, we describe the present status of the APACHE survey, officially started in July 2012 at the site of the Astronomical Observatory of the Autonomous Region of the Aosta Valley, in the Western Italian Alps. Finally, we briefly discuss the potentially far-reaching consequences of a multi-technique characterization program of the (potentially planet-bearing APACHE targets.

Prediction of heart disease using apache spark analysing decision trees and gradient boosting algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Chugh, Saryu; Arivu Selvan, K.; Nadesh, RK

2017-11-01

Numerous destructive things influence the working arrangement of human body as hypertension, smoking, obesity, inappropriate medication taking which causes many contrasting diseases as diabetes, thyroid, strokes and coronary diseases. The impermanence and horribleness of the environment situation is also the reason for the coronary disease. The structure of Apache start relies on the evolution which requires gathering of the data. To break down the significance of use programming focused on data structure the Apache stop ought to be utilized and it gives various central focuses as it is fast in light as it uses memory worked in preparing. Apache Spark continues running on dispersed environment and chops down the data in bunches giving a high profitability rate. Utilizing mining procedure as a part of the determination of coronary disease has been exhaustively examined indicating worthy levels of precision. Decision trees, Neural Network, Gradient Boosting Algorithm are the various apache spark proficiencies which help in collecting the information.

Validation of acute physiologic and chronic health evaluation II scoring system software developed at The Aga Khan University, Pakistan.

Science.gov (United States)

Hashmi, M; Asghar, A; Shamim, F; Khan, F H

2016-01-01

To assess the predictive performance of Acute Physiologic and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) software available on the hospital intranet and analyze interrater reliability of calculating the APACHE II score by the gold standard manual method or automatically using the software. An expert scorer not involved in the data collection had calculated APACHE II score of 213 patients admitted to surgical Intensive Care Unit using the gold standard manual method for a previous study performed in the department. The same data were entered into the computer software available on the hospital intranet (http://intranet/apacheii) to recalculate the APACHE II score automatically along with the predicted mortality. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit statistical test and Pearson's correlation coefficient was computed. The 213 patients had an average APACHE II score of 17.20 ± 8.24, the overall mortality rate was 32.8% and standardized mortality ratio was 1.00. The area under the ROC curve of 0.827 was significantly >0.5 (P test showed a good calibration (H = 5.46, P = 0.71). Interrater reliability using Pearson's product moment correlations demonstrated a strong positive relationship between the computer and the manual expert scorer (r = 0.98, P = 0.0005). APACHE II software available on the hospital's intranet has satisfactory calibration and discrimination and interrater reliability is good when compared with the gold standard manual method.

Learning Apache Karaf

CERN Document Server

Edstrom, Johan; Kesler, Heath

2013-01-01

The book is a fast-paced guide full of step-by-step instructions covering all aspects of application development using Apache Karaf.Learning Apache Karaf will benefit all Java developers and system administrators who need to develop for and/or operate Karaf's OSGi-based runtime. Basic knowledge of Java is assumed.

Performance of the score systems Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II and III at an interdisciplinary intensive care unit, after customization

Science.gov (United States)

Markgraf, Rainer; Deutschinoff, Gerd; Pientka, Ludger; Scholten, Theo; Lorenz, Cristoph

2001-01-01

Background: Mortality predictions calculated using scoring scales are often not accurate in populations other than those in which the scales were developed because of differences in case-mix. The present study investigates the effect of first-level customization, using a logistic regression technique, on discrimination and calibration of the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II and III scales. Method: Probabilities of hospital death for patients were estimated by applying APACHE II and III and comparing these with observed outcomes. Using the split sample technique, a customized model to predict outcome was developed by logistic regression. The overall goodness-of-fit of the original and the customized models was assessed. Results: Of 3383 consecutive intensive care unit (ICU) admissions over 3 years, 2795 patients could be analyzed, and were split randomly into development and validation samples. The discriminative powers of APACHE II and III were unchanged by customization (areas under the receiver operating characteristic [ROC] curve 0.82 and 0.85, respectively). Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit tests showed good calibration for APACHE II, but insufficient calibration for APACHE III. Customization improved calibration for both models, with a good fit for APACHE III as well. However, fit was different for various subgroups. Conclusions: The overall goodness-of-fit of APACHE III mortality prediction was improved significantly by customization, but uniformity of fit in different subgroups was not achieved. Therefore, application of the customized model provides no advantage, because differences in case-mix still limit comparisons of quality of care. PMID:11178223

Instant Apache Wicket 6

CERN Document Server

Longo, João Sávio Ceregatti

2013-01-01

Get to grips with a new technology, understand what it is and what it can do for you, and then get to work with the most important features and tasks. This Starter style guide takes the reader through the basic workflow of Apache Wicket in a practical and friendly style.Instant Apache Wicket 6 is for people who want to learn the basics of Apache Wicket 6 and who already have some experience with Java and object-oriented programming. Basic knowledge of web concepts like HTTP and Ajax will be an added advantage.

Assessment of performance and utility of mortality prediction models in a single Indian mixed tertiary intensive care unit.

Science.gov (United States)

Sathe, Prachee M; Bapat, Sharda N

2014-01-01

To assess the performance and utility of two mortality prediction models viz. Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) and Simplified Acute Physiology Score II (SAPS II) in a single Indian mixed tertiary intensive care unit (ICU). Secondary objectives were bench-marking and setting a base line for research. In this observational cohort, data needed for calculation of both scores were prospectively collected for all consecutive admissions to 28-bedded ICU in the year 2011. After excluding readmissions, discharges within 24 h and age <18 years, the records of 1543 patients were analyzed using appropriate statistical methods. Both models overpredicted mortality in this cohort [standardized mortality ratio (SMR) 0.88 ± 0.05 and 0.95 ± 0.06 using APACHE II and SAPS II respectively]. Patterns of predicted mortality had strong association with true mortality (R (2) = 0.98 for APACHE II and R (2) = 0.99 for SAPS II). Both models performed poorly in formal Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit testing (Chi-square = 12.8 (P = 0.03) for APACHE II, Chi-square = 26.6 (P = 0.001) for SAPS II) but showed good discrimination (area under receiver operating characteristic curve 0.86 ± 0.013 SE (P < 0.001) and 0.83 ± 0.013 SE (P < 0.001) for APACHE II and SAPS II, respectively). There were wide variations in SMRs calculated for subgroups based on International Classification of Disease, 10(th) edition (standard deviation ± 0.27 for APACHE II and 0.30 for SAPS II). Lack of fit of data to the models and wide variation in SMRs in subgroups put a limitation on utility of these models as tools for assessing quality of care and comparing performances of different units without customization. Considering comparable performance and simplicity of use, efforts should be made to adapt SAPS II.

Apache Mahout cookbook

CERN Document Server

Giacomelli, Piero

2013-01-01

Apache Mahout Cookbook uses over 35 recipes packed with illustrations and real-world examples to help beginners as well as advanced programmers get acquainted with the features of Mahout.""Apache Mahout Cookbook"" is great for developers who want to have a fresh and fast introduction to Mahout coding. No previous knowledge of Mahout is required, and even skilled developers or system administrators will benefit from the various recipes presented

The APACHE II measured on patients' discharge from the Intensive Care Unit in the prediction of mortality APACHE II medido en la salida de los pacientes de la Unidad de Terapia Intensiva en la previsión de la mortalidad APACHE II medido na saída dos pacientes da Unidade de Terapia Intensiva na previsão da mortalidade

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Luciana Gonzaga dos Santos Cardoso

2013-06-01

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: to analyze the performance of the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II, measured based on the data from the last 24 hours of hospitalization in ICU, for patients transferred to the wards. METHOD: an observational, prospective and quantitative study using the data from 355 patients admitted to the ICU between January and July 2010, who were transferred to the wards. RESULTS: the discriminatory power of the AII-OUT prognostic index showed a statistically significant area beneath the ROC curve. The mortality observed in the sample was slightly greater than that predicted by the AII-OUT, with a Standardized Mortality Ratio of 1.12. In the calibration curve the linear regression analysis showed the R2 value to be statistically significant. CONCLUSION: the AII-OUT could predict mortality after discharge from ICU, with the observed mortality being slightly greater than that predicted, which shows good discrimination and good calibration. This system was shown to be useful for stratifying the patients at greater risk of death after discharge from ICU. This fact deserves special attention from health professionals, particularly nurses, in managing human and technological resources for this group of patients. OBJETIVO: analizar el desempeño del Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II, medido con base en los datos de la últims 24 horas de internación en la UTI, en los pacientes con transferencia para las enfermerías. MÉTODO: estudio observacional, prospectivo y cuantitativo con datos de 355 pacientes admitidos en la UTI entre enero y julio de 2010 que fueron transferidos para las enfermerías. RESULTADOS: el poder discriminatorio del índice pronóstico AII-SALIDA demostró un área debajo de la curva ROC estadísticamente significativa. La mortalidad observada en la muestra fue discretamente mayor que la prevista por el AII-SALIDA, con una Razón de Mortalidad Estandarizada de 1,12. En la curva de

The Jicarilla Apaches. A Study in Survival.

Science.gov (United States)

Gunnerson, Dolores A.

Focusing on the ultimate fate of the Cuartelejo and/or Paloma Apaches known in archaeological terms as the Dismal River people of the Central Plains, this book is divided into 2 parts. The early Apache (1525-1700) and the Jicarilla Apache (1700-1800) tribes are studied in terms of their: persistent cultural survival, social/political adaptability,…

The Apache OODT Project: An Introduction

Science.gov (United States)

Mattmann, C. A.; Crichton, D. J.; Hughes, J. S.; Ramirez, P.; Goodale, C. E.; Hart, A. F.

2012-12-01

Apache OODT is a science data system framework, borne over the past decade, with 100s of FTEs of investment, tens of sponsoring agencies (NASA, NIH/NCI, DoD, NSF, universities, etc.), and hundreds of projects and science missions that it powers everyday to their success. At its core, Apache OODT carries with it two fundamental classes of software services and components: those that deal with information integration from existing science data repositories and archives, that themselves have already-in-use business processes and models for populating those archives. Information integration allows search, retrieval, and dissemination across these heterogeneous systems, and ultimately rapid, interactive data access, and retrieval. The other suite of services and components within Apache OODT handle population and processing of those data repositories and archives. Workflows, resource management, crawling, remote data retrieval, curation and ingestion, along with science data algorithm integration all are part of these Apache OODT software elements. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the use of Apache OODT to unlock and populate information from science data repositories and archives. We'll cover the basics, along with some advanced use cases and success stories.

Random Decision Forests on Apache Spark

CERN Multimedia

CERN. Geneva

2016-01-01

About the speaker Tom White has been an Apache Hadoop committer since February 2007, and is a member of the Apache Software Foundation. He works for Cloudera, a company set up to offer Hadoop support and training. Previously he was as an independent Hadoop consultant, work...

Apache Tomcat 7 Essentials

CERN Document Server

Khare, Tanuj

2012-01-01

This book is a step-by-step tutorial for anyone wanting to learn Apache Tomcat 7 from scratch. There are plenty of illustrations and examples to escalate you from a novice to an expert with minimal strain. If you are a J2EE administrator, migration administrator, technical architect, or a project manager for a web hosting domain, and are interested in Apache Tomcat 7, then this book is for you. If you are someone responsible for installation, configuration, and management of Tomcat 7, then too, this book will be of help to you.

The use of perioperative serial blood lactate levels, the APACHE II and the postoperative MELD as predictors of early mortality after liver transplantation O uso da dosagem seriada do lactato sérico no perioperatório, do APACHE II e do MELD pós-operatório como preditores de mortalidade precoce após transplante hepático

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anibal Basile-Filho

2011-12-01

Full Text Available PURPOSE: To evaluate the accuracy of different parameters in predicting early (one-month mortality of patients submitted to orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT. METHODS: This is a retrospective study of forty-four patients (38 males and 10 females, mean age of 52.2 ± 8.9 years admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of a tertiary hospital. Serial lactate blood levels, APACHE II, MELD post-OLT, creatinine, bilirubin and INR parameters were analyzed by receiver-operator characteristic (ROC curves as evidenced by the area under the curve (AUC. The level of significance was set at 0.05. RESULTS: The mortality of OLT patients within one month was 17.3%. Differences in blood lactate levels became statistically significant between survivors and nonsurvivors at the end of the surgery (pOBJETIVO: Avaliar qual parâmetro é o mais eficiente na predição de mortalidade precoce (um mês de pacientes submetidos a transplante ortotópico de fígado (OLT. MÉTODOS: Estudo retrospectivo em cinqüenta e oito pacientes adultos (44 homens e 14 mulheres, com uma idade média de 51,7 ± 10,1 anos admitidos na Unidade de Terapia Intensiva de um hospital terciário. Os parâmetros como a dosagem seriada de lactato no sangue, APACHE II, MELD pós-OLT, creatinina, bilirrubina e INR foram analisados por curvas ROC (Receiver-operator characteristic, evidenciado pela área abaixo da curva (AUC. O nível de significância foi definido em 0,05. RESULTADOS: A mortalidade dos pacientes OLT em até um mês foi de 17,3%. As diferenças no nível de lactato no sangue tornaram-se estatisticamente significantes entre sobreviventes e não sobreviventes no final da cirurgia (p < 0,05. A AUC foi de 0,726 (95%CI = 0,593-0,835 para APACHE II (p = 0,02; 0,770 (95%CI = 0,596-0,849 para o lactato sérico (L7-L8 (p = 0,03; 0,814 (95%CI = 0,690-0,904 para MELD post-OLT (p < 0,01; 0,550 (95%CI = 0,414-0,651 de creatinina (p = 0,64; 0,705 (95%CI = 0,571-0,818 de bilirrubina (p = 0,05 e 0

Evaluation of the Apache II and the oncologic history, as indicative predictions of mortality in the unit of intensive care of the INC September 1996 -December 1997

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Camargo, David O; Gomez, Clara; Martinez, Teresa

1999-01-01

They are multiple the indexes of severity that have been carried out to value the predict and the quality of a patient's life, especially when this it enters to the unit of intensive care (UIC); however, the oncologic patient presents particularities in their mobility, that it supposes a different behavior in the results of the Indexes. Presently work is compared the Apache scale and the oncologic history like morbid mortality as predictors in the UCI. 207 patients were included that entered the UCI between September of 1996 and December of 1997. It was a mortality of 29%, the stay of most of this group of patient smaller than 24 hours or bigger than 8 days. To the entrance, 50% of the patients presented superior averages at 15 in the Apache Scale and at the 48 hours, alone 30.4% continued with this value. The patients with hematologic neoplasia presented superior average at 15 in 87%, with a mortality of 63.3% with average between 15 and 24 to the entrance, the risk of dying was 9.8 times but that with inferior average. In the hematologic patient, the risk of dying was 5.7 times but regarding the solid tumors. The system but altered it was the breathing one, with an increase in the risk of dying from 2,8 times for each increment utility in the scale. Contrary to described in the literature, the oncologic diagnoses and the neoplasia statistic they didn't influence in the mortality of the patients

Apache Flume distributed log collection for Hadoop

CERN Document Server

D'Souza, Subas

2013-01-01

A starter guide that covers Apache Flume in detail.Apache Flume: Distributed Log Collection for Hadoop is intended for people who are responsible for moving datasets into Hadoop in a timely and reliable manner like software engineers, database administrators, and data warehouse administrators

Instant Apache Maven starter

CERN Document Server

Turatti, Maurizio

2013-01-01

Get to grips with a new technology, understand what it is and what it can do for you, and then get to work with the most important features and tasks.The book follows a starter approach for using Maven to create and build a new Java application or Web project from scratch.Instant Apache Maven Starter is great for Java developers new to Apache Maven, but also for experts looking for immediate information. Moreover, only 20% of the necessary information about Maven is used in 80% of the activities. This book aims to focus on the most important information, those pragmatic parts you actually use

Apache Solr essentials

CERN Document Server

Gazzarini, Andrea

2015-01-01

If you are a competent developer with experience of working with technologies similar to Apache Solr and want to develop efficient search applications, then this book is for you. Familiarity with the Java programming language is required.

Identification of enhanced cytokine generation following sepsis. Dream of magic bullet for mortality prediction and therapeutic evaluation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H Hamishehkar

2010-09-01

Full Text Available "n  "nBackground and the purpose of the study: sepsis is one of the most widespread and lethal disease in Intensive Care Units (ICU. Based on pathophisyology of sepsis, it seems that routine laboratory tests combined with analysis of pro-inflammatory cytokines plasma levels, help clinicians to have more information about disease progress and its correct management. "nMethods:This was a prospective observational study to determine the predictive role of Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNF-α, Interleukin (IL-1β and IL-6 as three main pro-inflammatory cytokines and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA as two scoring systems in mortality of critically ill patients with severe sepsis. Fifty and five patients with criteria of severe sepsis were included in this study. An exclusion criterion was post Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR status. Cytokines (TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6 were assayed in the first, third and seventh days in blood of patients. Results and major conclusion:Among three measured cytokines, sequential levels of TNF-α and IL-6 showed significant differences between survivors and nonsurvivors. IL-6 had a good correlation with outcome and scoring systems during the period of this study. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC curve indicated that APACHE II (0.858, 0.848, 0.861 and IL-6 (0.797, 0.799, 0.899 had discriminative power in prediction of mortality during sequental measured days. Multiple logestic regression analysis identified that evaluation of APACHE II and TNF-α in the first day and APACHE II and IL-6 in the third and seventh days of severe septic patients are independent outcome predictors. Results of this study suggest that IL-6 and APACHE II are useful cytokine and scoring systems respectively in prediction of mortality and clinical evaluation of severe septic patients.

Apache Mahout essentials

CERN Document Server

Withanawasam, Jayani

2015-01-01

If you are a Java developer or data scientist, haven't worked with Apache Mahout before, and want to get up to speed on implementing machine learning on big data, then this is the perfect guide for you.

Efficacy of Various Scoring Systems for Predicting the 28-Day Survival Rate among Patients with Acute Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Requiring Emergency Intensive Care

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhihong Feng

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We aimed to investigate the efficacy of four severity-of-disease scoring systems in predicting the 28-day survival rate among patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD requiring emergency care. Clinical data of patients with AECOPD who required emergency care were recorded over 2 years. APACHE II, SAPS II, SOFA, and MEDS scores were calculated from severity-of-disease indicators recorded at admission and compared between patients who died within 28 days of admission (death group; 46 patients and those who did not (survival group; 336 patients. Compared to the survival group, the death group had a significantly higher GCS score, frequency of comorbidities including hypertension and heart failure, and age (P<0.05 for all. With all four systems, scores of age, gender, renal inadequacy, hypertension, coronary heart disease, heart failure, arrhythmia, anemia, fracture leading to bedridden status, tumor, and the GCS were significantly higher in the death group than the survival group. The prediction efficacy of the APACHE II and SAPS II scores was 88.4%. The survival rates did not differ significantly between APACHE II and SAPS II (P=1.519. Our results may guide triage for early identification of critically ill patients with AECOPD in the emergency department.

Performance of three prognostic models in patients with cancer in need of intensive care in a medical center in China.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

XueZhong Xing

Full Text Available The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II, Simplified Acute Physiology Score 3 (SAPS 3, and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation IV (APACHE IV in patients with cancer admitted to intensive care unit (ICU in a single medical center in China.This is a retrospective observational cohort study including nine hundred and eighty one consecutive patients over a 2-year period.The hospital mortality rate was 4.5%. When all 981 patients were evaluated, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC, 95% Confidential Intervals of the three models in predicting hospital mortality were 0.948 (0.914-0.982, 0.863 (0.804-0.923, and 0.873 (0.813-0.934 for SAPS 3, APACHE II and APACHE IV respectively. The p values of Hosmer-Lemeshow statistics for the models were 0.759, 0.900 and 0.878 for SAPS 3, APACHE II and APACHE IV respectively. However, SAPS 3 and APACHE IV underestimated the in-hospital mortality with standardized mortality ratio (SMR of 1.5 and 1.17 respectively, while APACHE II overestimated the in-hospital mortality with SMR of 0.72. Further analysis showed that discrimination power was better with SAPS 3 than with APACHE II and APACHE IV whether for emergency surgical and medical patients (AUROC of 0.912 vs 0.866 and 0.857 or for scheduled surgical patients (AUROC of 0.945 vs 0.834 and 0.851. Calibration was good for all models (all p > 0.05 whether for scheduled surgical patients or emergency surgical and medical patients. However, in terms of SMR, SAPS 3 was both accurate in predicting the in-hospital mortality for emergency surgical and medical patients and for scheduled surgical patients, while APACHE IV and APACHE II were not.In this cohort, we found that APACHE II, APACHE IV and SAPS 3 models had good discrimination and calibration ability in predicting in-hospital mortality of critically ill patients with cancer in need of intensive care. Of

Apaches push privatization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Daniels, S.

1994-01-01

Trying to drum up business for what would be the first private temporary storage facility for spent nuclear fuel rods, the Mescalero Apaches are inviting officials of 30 utilities to convene March 10 at the tribe's New Mexico reservation. The state public utilities commission will also attend the meeting, which grew from an agreement the tribe signed last month with Minneapolis-based Northern States Power Co

Perl and Apache Your visual blueprint for developing dynamic Web content

CERN Document Server

McDaniel, Adam

2010-01-01

Visually explore the range of built-in and third-party libraries of Perl and Apache. Perl and Apache have been providing Common Gateway Interface (CGI) access to Web sites for 20 years and are constantly evolving to support the ever-changing demands of Internet users. With this book, you will heighten your knowledge and see how to usePerl and Apache to develop dynamic Web sites. Beginning with a clear, step-by-step explanation of how to install Perl and Apache on both Windows and Linux servers, you then move on to configuring each to securely provide CGI Services. CGI developer and author Adam

Performance of Simplified Acute Physiology Score 3 In Predicting Hospital Mortality In Emergency Intensive Care Unit

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qing-Bian Ma

2017-01-01

Conclusions: The SAPS 3 score system exhibited satisfactory performance even superior to APACHE II in discrimination. In predicting hospital mortality, SAPS 3 did not exhibit good calibration and overestimated hospital mortality, which demonstrated that SAPS 3 needs improvement in the future.

Mastering Apache Cassandra

CERN Document Server

Neeraj, Nishant

2013-01-01

Mastering Apache Cassandra is a practical, hands-on guide with step-by-step instructions. The smooth and easy tutorial approach focuses on showing people how to utilize Cassandra to its full potential.This book is aimed at intermediate Cassandra users. It is best suited for startups where developers have to wear multiple hats: programmer, DevOps, release manager, convincing clients, and handling failures. No prior knowledge of Cassandra is required.

Apache Cordova 3 programming

CERN Document Server

Wargo, John M

2013-01-01

Written for experienced mobile developers, Apache Cordova 3 Programming is a complete introduction to Apache Cordova 3 and Adobe PhoneGap 3. It describes what makes Cordova important and shows how to install and use the tools, the new Cordova CLI, the native SDKs, and more. If you’re brand new to Cordova, this book will be just what you need to get started. If you’re familiar with an older version of Cordova, this book will show you in detail how to use all of the new stuff that’s in Cordova 3 plus stuff that has been around for a while (like the Cordova core APIs). After walking you through the process of downloading and setting up the framework, mobile expert John M. Wargo shows you how to install and use the command line tools to manage the Cordova application lifecycle and how to set up and use development environments for several of the more popular Cordova supported mobile device platforms. Of special interest to new developers are the chapters on the anatomy of a Cordova application, as well ...

Apache ZooKeeper essentials

CERN Document Server

Haloi, Saurav

2015-01-01

Whether you are a novice to ZooKeeper or already have some experience, you will be able to master the concepts of ZooKeeper and its usage with ease. This book assumes you to have some prior knowledge of distributed systems and high-level programming knowledge of C, Java, or Python, but no experience with Apache ZooKeeper is required.

Serial evaluation of the MODS, SOFA and LOD scores to predict ICU mortality in mixed critically ill patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Khwannimit, Bodin

2008-09-01

To perform a serial assessment and compare ability in predicting the intensive care unit (ICU) mortality of the multiple organ dysfunction score (MODS), sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) and logistic organ dysfunction (LOD) score. The data were collected prospectively on consecutive ICU admissions over a 24-month period at a tertiary referral university hospital. The MODS, SOFA, and LOD scores were calculated on initial and repeated every 24 hrs. Two thousand fifty four patients were enrolled in the present study. The maximum and delta-scores of all the organ dysfunction scores correlated with ICU mortality. The maximum score of all models had better ability for predicting ICU mortality than initial or delta score. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for maximum scores was 0.892 for the MODS, 0.907 for the SOFA, and 0.92for the LOD. No statistical difference existed between all maximum scores and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score. Serial assessment of organ dysfunction during the ICU stay is reliable with ICU mortality. The maximum scores is the best discrimination comparable with APACHE II score in predicting ICU mortality.

Endocan Levels in Peripheral Blood Predict Outcomes of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ling Tang

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Purpose. To investigate the prognostic significance of endocan, compared with procalcitonin (PCT, C-reactive protein (CRP,white blood cells (WBC, neutrophils (N, and clinical severity scores in patients with ARDS. Methods. A total of 42 patients with ARDS were initially enrolled, and there were 20 nonsurvivors and 22 survivors based on hospital mortality. Plasma levels of biomarkers were measured and the acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II was calculated on day 1 after the patient met the defining criteria of ARDS. Results. Endocan levels significantly correlated with the APACHE II score in the ARDS group (r=0.676, P=0.000, n=42. Of 42 individuals with ARDS, 20 were dead, and endocan was significantly higher in nonsurvivors than in survivors (median (IQR 5.01 (2.98–8.44 versus 3.01 (2.36–4.36 ng/mL, P=0.017. According to the results of the ROC-curve analysis and COX proportional hazards models, endocan can predict mortality of ARDS independently with a hazard ratio of 1.374 (95% CI, 1.150–1.641 and an area of receiver operator characteristic curve (AUROC of 0.715 (P=0.017. Moreover, endocan can predict the multiple-organ dysfunction of ARDS. Conclusion. Endocan is a promising biomarker to predict the disease severity and mortality in patients with ARDS.

Instant Apache Camel message routing

CERN Document Server

Ibryam, Bilgin

2013-01-01

Filled with practical, step-by-step instructions and clear explanations for the most important and useful tasks. This short, instruction-based guide shows you how to perform application integration using the industry standard Enterprise Integration Patterns.This book is intended for Java developers who are new to Apache Camel and message- oriented applications.

Biology and distribution of Lutzomyia apache as it relates to VSV

Science.gov (United States)

Phlebotomine sand flies are vectors of bacteria, parasites, and viruses. Lutzomyia apache was incriminated as a vector of vesicular stomatitis viruses(VSV)due to overlapping ranges of the sand fly and outbreaks of VSV. I report on newly discovered populations of L. apache in Wyoming from Albany and ...

77 FR 51475 - Safety Zone; Apache Pier Labor Day Fireworks; Myrtle Beach, SC

Science.gov (United States)

2012-08-24

...-AA00 Safety Zone; Apache Pier Labor Day Fireworks; Myrtle Beach, SC AGENCY: Coast Guard, DHS. ACTION... Atlantic Ocean in the vicinity of Apache Pier in Myrtle Beach, SC, during the Labor Day fireworks... [[Page 51476

Growth and survival of Apache Trout under static and fluctuating temperature regimes

Science.gov (United States)

Recsetar, Matthew S.; Bonar, Scott A.; Feuerbacher, Olin

2014-01-01

Increasing stream temperatures have important implications for arid-region fishes. Little is known about effects of high water temperatures that fluctuate over extended periods on Apache Trout Oncorhynchus gilae apache, a federally threatened species of southwestern USA streams. We compared survival and growth of juvenile Apache Trout held for 30 d in static temperatures (16, 19, 22, 25, and 28°C) and fluctuating diel temperatures (±3°C from 16, 19, 22 and 25°C midpoints and ±6°C from 19°C and 22°C midpoints). Lethal temperature for 50% (LT50) of the Apache Trout under static temperatures (mean [SD] = 22.8 [0.6]°C) was similar to that of ±3°C diel temperature fluctuations (23.1 [0.1]°C). Mean LT50 for the midpoint of the ±6°C fluctuations could not be calculated because survival in the two treatments (19 ± 6°C and 22 ± 6°C) was not below 50%; however, it probably was also between 22°C and 25°C because the upper limb of a ±6°C fluctuation on a 25°C midpoint is above critical thermal maximum for Apache Trout (28.5–30.4°C). Growth decreased as temperatures approached the LT50. Apache Trout can survive short-term exposure to water temperatures with daily maxima that remain below 25°C and midpoint diel temperatures below 22°C. However, median summer stream temperatures must remain below 19°C for best growth and even lower if daily fluctuations are high (≥12°C).

Fluid balance and chloride load in the first 24h of ICU admission and its relation with renal replacement therapies through a multicentre, retrospective, case-control study paired by APACHE-II.

Science.gov (United States)

González-Castro, A; Ortiz-Lasa, M; Leizaola, O; Salgado, E; Irriguible, T; Sánchez-Satorra, M; Lomas-Fernández, C; Barral-Segade, P; Cordero-Vallejo, M; Rodrigo-Calabia, E; Dierssen-Sotos, T

2017-05-01

To analyse the association between water balance during the first 24h of admission to ICU and the variables related to chloride levels (chloride loading, type of fluid administered, hyperchloraemia), with the development of acute kidney injury renal replacement therapy (AKI-RRT) during patients' admission to ICU. Multicentre case-control study. Hospital-based, national, carried out in 6 ICUs. Cases were patients older than 18 years who developed an AKI-RRT. Controls were patients older than 18 years admitted to the same institutions during the study period, who did not develop AKI-RRT during ICU admission. Pairing was done by APACHE-II. An analysis of unconditional logistic regression adjusted for age, sex, APACHE-II and water balance (in evaluating the type of fluid). We analysed the variables of 430 patients: 215 cases and 215 controls. An increase of 10% of the possibility of developing AKI-RRT per 500ml of positive water balance was evident (OR: 1.09 [95% CI: 1.05 to 1.14]; P<.001). The study of mean values of chloride load administered did not show differences between the group of cases and controls (299.35±254.91 vs. 301.67±234.63; P=.92). The water balance in the first 24h of ICU admission relates to the development of IRA-TRR, regardless of chloraemia. Copyright © 2017 Sociedad Española de Anestesiología, Reanimación y Terapéutica del Dolor. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

MHC Class II epitope predictive algorithms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Morten; Lund, Ole; Buus, S

2010-01-01

Major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC-II) molecules sample peptides from the extracellular space, allowing the immune system to detect the presence of foreign microbes from this compartment. To be able to predict the immune response to given pathogens, a number of methods have been...... developed to predict peptide-MHC binding. However, few methods other than the pioneering TEPITOPE/ProPred method have been developed for MHC-II. Despite recent progress in method development, the predictive performance for MHC-II remains significantly lower than what can be obtained for MHC-I. One reason...

Solar Feasibility Study May 2013 - San Carlos Apache Tribe

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rapp, Jim [Parametrix; Duncan, Ken [San Carlos Apache Tribe; Albert, Steve [Parametrix

2013-05-01

The San Carlos Apache Tribe (Tribe) in the interests of strengthening tribal sovereignty, becoming more energy self-sufficient, and providing improved services and economic opportunities to tribal members and San Carlos Apache Reservation (Reservation) residents and businesses, has explored a variety of options for renewable energy development. The development of renewable energy technologies and generation is consistent with the Tribe’s 2011 Strategic Plan. This Study assessed the possibilities for both commercial-scale and community-scale solar development within the southwestern portions of the Reservation around the communities of San Carlos, Peridot, and Cutter, and in the southeastern Reservation around the community of Bylas. Based on the lack of any commercial-scale electric power transmission between the Reservation and the regional transmission grid, Phase 2 of this Study greatly expanded consideration of community-scale options. Three smaller sites (Point of Pines, Dudleyville/Winkleman, and Seneca Lake) were also evaluated for community-scale solar potential. Three building complexes were identified within the Reservation where the development of site-specific facility-scale solar power would be the most beneficial and cost-effective: Apache Gold Casino/Resort, Tribal College/Skill Center, and the Dudleyville (Winkleman) Casino.

Apache, Santa Fe energy units awarded two Myanmar blocks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1992-01-01

This paper reports that Myanmar's state oil company has awarded production sharing contracts (PSCs) on two blocks to units of Apache Corp. and Santa Fe Energy Resources Inc., both of Houston. That comes on the heels of a report by County NatWest Woodmac that notes Myanmar's oil production, currently meeting less than half the country's demand, is set to fall further this year. 150 line km of new seismic data could be acquired and one well drilled. During the initial 2 year exploration period on Block EP-3, Apache will conduct geological studies and conduct at least 200 line km of seismic data

Satellite Imagery Production and Processing Using Apache Hadoop

Science.gov (United States)

Hill, D. V.; Werpy, J.

2011-12-01

The United States Geological Survey's (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center Land Science Research and Development (LSRD) project has devised a method to fulfill its processing needs for Essential Climate Variable (ECV) production from the Landsat archive using Apache Hadoop. Apache Hadoop is the distributed processing technology at the heart of many large-scale, processing solutions implemented at well-known companies such as Yahoo, Amazon, and Facebook. It is a proven framework and can be used to process petabytes of data on thousands of processors concurrently. It is a natural fit for producing satellite imagery and requires only a few simple modifications to serve the needs of science data processing. This presentation provides an invaluable learning opportunity and should be heard by anyone doing large scale image processing today. The session will cover a description of the problem space, evaluation of alternatives, feature set overview, configuration of Hadoop for satellite image processing, real-world performance results, tuning recommendations and finally challenges and ongoing activities. It will also present how the LSRD project built a 102 core processing cluster with no financial hardware investment and achieved ten times the initial daily throughput requirements with a full time staff of only one engineer. Satellite Imagery Production and Processing Using Apache Hadoop is presented by David V. Hill, Principal Software Architect for USGS LSRD.

Various scoring systems for predicting mortality in Intensive Care Unit

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Age, gender, body weight, initial diagnosis, clinic of referral, intubation, comorbidities, APACHE II, APACHE IV, Glasgow coma scale, SAPS III scores, length of hospitalization before referral to ICU, length of stay in ICU, mechanical ventilation were recorded. Results: Most of the patients (54.6%) were consulted from ...

[Predictive value of early phrase echocardiography and cardiac biological markers in patients with severe sepsis: a five-year single-center retrospective study].

Science.gov (United States)

Zang, Xuefeng; Chen, Wei; Sheng, Bo; Zhao, Lei; Gu, Xuyun; Zhen, Jie; Liu, Ping

2018-04-01

To assess the predictive value of early phrase echocardiography and cardiac biomarkers in patients with severe sepsis. A retrospective analysis of severe septic patients (patients with acute coronary syndrome and end stage renal disease were excluded) in department of intensive care unit of Capital Medical University Affiliated Beijing Shijitan Hospital from January 2013 to December 2017 was conducted. The acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) score, N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), cardiac troponin I (cTnI), myoglobin (MYO), creatine kinase (CK), MB isoenzyme of creatine kinase (CK-MB) within 6 hours after admission, and bedside echocardiography indexes [left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), the ratio of the peak blood flow velocity in the early stage of the mitral valve and the peak blood flow rate of the mitral valve (E/A ratio)] within 6 hours after diagnosis were recorded. The differences of indexes between patients with decreased contractile function (LVEF value in severe sepsis patients. (1) A total of 316 patients were enrolled in the survey period. Decreased cardiac systolic function (LVEF value for prognosis in severe sepsis patient, among which NT-proBNP and cTnI had higher predictive value [the area under ROC curve (AUC) were 0.920 and 0.901 respectively, both P values measured by echocardiography in early phrase were unrelated to 28-day prognosis. APACHE II score, E/A ratio, NT-proBNP, cTnI, MYO, CK and CK-MB were related to 28-day prognosis. APACHE II scores and NT-proBNP were independent prognostic factors in severe sepsis patient.

An External Independent Validation of APACHE IV in a Malaysian Intensive Care Unit.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Rowena S Y; Ismail, Noor Azina; Tan, Cheng Cheng

2015-04-01

Intensive care unit (ICU) prognostic models are predominantly used in more developed nations such as the United States, Europe and Australia. These are not that popular in Southeast Asian countries due to costs and technology considerations. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the suitability of the acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (APACHE) IV model in a single centre Malaysian ICU. A prospective study was conducted at the single centre ICU in Hospital Sultanah Aminah (HSA) Malaysia. External validation of APACHE IV involved a cohort of 916 patients who were admitted in 2009. Model performance was assessed through its calibration and discrimination abilities. A first-level customisation using logistic regression approach was also applied to improve model calibration. APACHE IV exhibited good discrimination, with an area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of 0.78. However, the model's overall fit was observed to be poor, as indicated by the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test (Ĉ = 113, P discrimination was not affected. APACHE IV is not suitable for application in HSA ICU, without further customisation. The model's lack of fit in the Malaysian study is attributed to differences in the baseline characteristics between HSA ICU and APACHE IV datasets. Other possible factors could be due to differences in clinical practice, quality and services of health care systems between Malaysia and the United States.

Network Intrusion Detection System using Apache Storm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Asif Manzoor

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Network security implements various strategies for the identification and prevention of security breaches. Network intrusion detection is a critical component of network management for security, quality of service and other purposes. These systems allow early detection of network intrusion and malicious activities; so that the Network Security infrastructure can react to mitigate these threats. Various systems are proposed to enhance the network security. We are proposing to use anomaly based network intrusion detection system in this work. Anomaly based intrusion detection system can identify the new network threats. We also propose to use Real-time Big Data Stream Processing Framework, Apache Storm, for the implementation of network intrusion detection system. Apache Storm can help to manage the network traffic which is generated at enormous speed and size and the network traffic speed and size is constantly increasing. We have used Support Vector Machine in this work. We use Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining 1999 (KDD’99 dataset to test and evaluate our proposed solution.

Optimizing CMS build infrastructure via Apache Mesos

CERN Document Server

Abduracmanov, David; Degano, Alessandro; Elmer, Peter; Eulisse, Giulio; Mendez, David; Muzaffar, Shahzad

2015-12-23

The Offline Software of the CMS Experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN consists of 6M lines of in-house code, developed over a decade by nearly 1000 physicists, as well as a comparable amount of general use open-source code. A critical ingredient to the success of the construction and early operation of the WLCG was the convergence, around the year 2000, on the use of a homogeneous environment of commodity x86-64 processors and Linux. Apache Mesos is a cluster manager that provides efficient resource isolation and sharing across distributed applications, or frameworks. It can run Hadoop, Jenkins, Spark, Aurora, and other applications on a dynamically shared pool of nodes. We present how we migrated our continuos integration system to schedule jobs on a relatively small Apache Mesos enabled cluster and how this resulted in better resource usage, higher peak performance and lower latency thanks to the dynamic scheduling capabilities of Mesos.

Managing Variant Calling Files the Big Data Way: Using HDFS and Apache Parquet

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Boufea, Aikaterini; Finkers, H.J.; Kaauwen, van M.P.W.; Kramer, M.R.; Athanasiadis, I.N.

2017-01-01

Big Data has been seen as a remedy for the efficient management of the ever-increasing genomic data. In this paper, we investigate the use of Apache Spark to store and process Variant Calling Files (VCF) on a Hadoop cluster. We demonstrate Tomatula, a software tool for converting VCF files to Apache

Jicarilla Apache Utility Authority Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Strategic Planning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rabago, K.R.

2008-06-28

The purpose of this Strategic Plan Report is to provide an introduction and in-depth analysis of the issues and opportunities, resources, and technologies of energy efficiency and renewable energy that have potential beneficial application for the people of the Jicarilla Apache Nation and surrounding communities. The Report seeks to draw on the best available information that existed at the time of writing, and where necessary, draws on new research to assess this potential. This study provides a strategic assessment of opportunities for maximizing the potential for electrical energy efficiency and renewable energy development by the Jicarilla Apache Nation. The report analyzes electricity use on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation in buildings. The report also assesses particular resources and technologies in detail, including energy efficiency, solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and small hydropower. The closing sections set out the elements of a multi-year, multi-phase strategy for development of resources to the maximum benefit of the Nation.

Significance of blood pressure variability in patients with sepsis.

Science.gov (United States)

Pandey, Nishant Raj; Bian, Yu-Yao; Shou, Song-Tao

2014-01-01

This study was undertaken to observe the characteristics of blood pressure variability (BPV) and sepsis and to investigate changes in blood pressure and its value on the severity of illness in patients with sepsis. Blood parameters, APACHE II score, and 24-hour ambulatory BP were analyzed in 89 patients with sepsis. In patients with APACHE II score>19, the values of systolic blood pressure (SBPV), diasystolic blood pressure (DBPV), non-dipper percentage, cortisol (COR), lactate (LAC), platelet count (PLT) and glucose (GLU) were significantly higher than in those with APACHE II score ≤19 (Pblood cell (WBC), creatinine (Cr), PaO2, C-reactive protein (CRP), adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) were not statistically significant (P>0.05). Correlation analysis showed that APACHE II scores correlated significantly with SBPV and DBPV (P0.05). Logistic regression analysis of SBPV, DBPV, APACHE II score, and LAC was used to predict prognosis in terms of survival and non-survival rates. Receiver operating characteristics curve (ROC) showed that DBPV was a better predictor of survival rate with an AUC value of 0.890. However, AUC of SBPV, APACHE II score, and LAC was 0.746, 0.831 and 0.915, respectively. The values of SBPV, DBPV and non-dipper percentage are higher in patients with sepsis. DBPV and SBPV can be used to predict the survival rate of patients with sepsis.

75 FR 68607 - BP Canada Energy Marketing Corp. Apache Corporation; Notice for Temporary Waivers

Science.gov (United States)

2010-11-08

... Energy Marketing Corp. Apache Corporation; Notice for Temporary Waivers November 1, 2010. Take notice that on October 29, 2010, BP Canada Energy Marketing Corp. and Apache Corporation filed with the... assistance with any FERC Online service, please e-mail [email protected] , or call (866) 208-3676...

Learning Apache Solr high performance

CERN Document Server

Mohan, Surendra

2014-01-01

This book is an easy-to-follow guide, full of hands-on, real-world examples. Each topic is explained and demonstrated in a specific and user-friendly flow, from search optimization using Solr to Deployment of Zookeeper applications. This book is ideal for Apache Solr developers and want to learn different techniques to optimize Solr performance with utmost efficiency, along with effectively troubleshooting the problems that usually occur while trying to boost performance. Familiarity with search servers and database querying is expected.

The outcome of critical illness in decompensated alcoholic liver cirrhosis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kavli, M; Strøm, T; Carlsson, M

2012-01-01

physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) and simplified organ failure assessment (SOFA) in predicting outcome. We hypothesized that in a Scandinavian cohort of ICU patients, APACHE II, SOFA, and simplified acute physiology score (SAPS II) were superior to predict outcome compared...... with the Child-Pugh score. METHODS: A single-centre retrospective cohort analysis was conducted in a university-affiliated ICU. Eighty-seven adult patients with decompensated liver alcoholic cirrhosis were admitted from January 2007 to January 2010. RESULTS: The patients were severely ill with median scores...... alcoholic liver disease should be revised....

Conservation priorities in the Apache Highlands ecoregion

Science.gov (United States)

Dale Turner; Rob Marshall; Carolyn A. F. Enquist; Anne Gondor; David F. Gori; Eduardo Lopez; Gonzalo Luna; Rafaela Paredes Aguilar; Chris Watts; Sabra Schwartz

2005-01-01

The Apache Highlands ecoregion incorporates the entire Madrean Archipelago/Sky Island region. We analyzed the current distribution of 223 target species and 26 terrestrial ecological systems there, and compared them with constraints on ecosystem integrity (e.g., road density) to determine the most efficient set of areas needed to maintain current biodiversity. The...

Apache Flume distributed log collection for Hadoop

CERN Document Server

Hoffman, Steve

2015-01-01

If you are a Hadoop programmer who wants to learn about Flume to be able to move datasets into Hadoop in a timely and replicable manner, then this book is ideal for you. No prior knowledge about Apache Flume is necessary, but a basic knowledge of Hadoop and the Hadoop File System (HDFS) is assumed.

Preadmission quality of life can predict mortality in intensive care unit—A prospective cohort study

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bukan, Ramin I; Møller, Ann M; Henning, Mattias A S

2014-01-01

quality of life, assessed by SF-36 and SF-12, is as good at predicting ICU, 30-, and 90-day mortality as APACHE II in patients admitted to the ICU for longer than 24 hours. This indicates that estimated preadmission quality of life, potentially available in the pre-ICU setting, could aid decision making...... regarding ICU admission and deserves more attention by those caring for critically ill patients....

The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Majewski, Steven R.; Schiavon, Ricardo P.; Frinchaboy, Peter M.

2017-01-01

The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), one of the programs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III), has now completed its systematic, homogeneous spectroscopic survey sampling all major populations of the Milky Way. After a three-year observing campaign on the...

Instant Apache Camel messaging system

CERN Document Server

Sharapov, Evgeniy

2013-01-01

Get to grips with a new technology, understand what it is and what it can do for you, and then get to work with the most important features and tasks. A beginner's guide to Apache Camel that walks you through basic operations like installation and setup right through to developing simple applications.This book is a good starting point for Java developers who have to work on an application dealing with various systems and interfaces but who haven't yet started using Enterprise System Buses or Java Business Integration frameworks.

Spinal Pain and Occupational Disability: A Cohort Study of British Apache AH Mk1 Pilots

Science.gov (United States)

2013-09-01

British RW community. 33 References Apache AH Mk1. 2012. Agusta Westland. http://www.agustawestland.com/ product /apache-ah- mk1-0. Ang, B., and...muscles Physical ex and stretching Continued pt and stretching exercises Use pt session included pumpkin bobs to stretch the neck. No effects noticed

Early onset of organ failure is the best predictor of mortality in acute pancreatitis El fracaso orgánico precoz como mejor factor predictivo de mortalidad en la pancreatitis aguda

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. Poves Prim

2004-10-01

Full Text Available Background: APACHE II is a multifactorial scoring system for predicting severity in acute pancreatitis (AP. Organ failure (OF has been correlated with mortality in AP. Objectives: to evaluate the usefulness of APACHE II as an early predictor of severity in AP, its correlation with OF, and the relevance of an early establishment of OF during the course of AP. Patients and methods: from January 1999 to November 2001, 447 consecutive cases of AP were studied. APACHE II scores and Atlanta criteria were used for defining severity and OF. Results: twenty-five percent of patients had severe acute pancreatitis (SAP. APACHE II at 24 h after admission showed a sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive value of 52, 77, 46, and 84%, respectively, for predicting severity. Mortality for SAP was 20.5%. Seventy percent of patients who developed OF did so within the first 24 hours of admission, and their mortality was 52%. Mortality was statistically significant (p Introducción: el APACHE II se ha utilizado como factor predictivo de gravedad en la pancratitis aguda (PA. La instauración de fracaso orgánico (FO en la PA se correlaciona con una mayor mortalidad. Objetivos: evaluar la utilidad del APACHE II como factor predictivo precoz de gravedad en la PA, su correlación con el FO y la relevancia del establecimiento precoz del FO en la PA. Pacientes y métodos: desde enero de 1999 hasta noviembre de 2001 se estudiaron 447 pacientes ingresados consecutivamente por PA. Se utilizó el sistema APACHE II y los criterios de Atlanta para evaluar la gravedad. Resultados: el 25% de los pacientes presentaron una pancreatitis aguda grave (PAG. El APACHE II a las 24 horas del ingreso mostró una sensibilidad, especificidad, valor predictivo positivo y negativo del 52, 77, 46 y 84%, respectivamente, como marcador de gravedad. La mortalidad global de la PAG fue del 20,5%. El 70% de los pacientes que presentaron FO lo hicieron en las primeras 24 horas

Analyzing large data sets from XGC1 magnetic fusion simulations using apache spark

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Churchill, R. Michael [Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)

2016-11-21

Apache Spark is explored as a tool for analyzing large data sets from the magnetic fusion simulation code XGCI. Implementation details of Apache Spark on the NERSC Edison supercomputer are discussed, including binary file reading, and parameter setup. Here, an unsupervised machine learning algorithm, k-means clustering, is applied to XGCI particle distribution function data, showing that highly turbulent spatial regions do not have common coherent structures, but rather broad, ring-like structures in velocity space.

Mechanical characterization of densely welded Apache Leap tuff

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fuenkajorn, K.; Daemen, J.J.K.

1991-06-01

An empirical criterion is formulated to describe the compressive strength of the densely welded Apache Leap tuff. The criterion incorporates the effects of size, L/D ratio, loading rate and density variations. The criterion improves the correlation between the test results and the failure envelope. Uniaxial and triaxial compressive strengths, Brazilian tensile strength and elastic properties of the densely welded brown unit of the Apache Leap tuff have been determined using the ASTM standard test methods. All tuff samples are tested dry at room temperature (22 ± 2 degrees C), and have the core axis normal to the flow layers. The uniaxial compressive strength is 73.2 ± 16.5 MPa. The Brazilian tensile strength is 5.12 ± 1.2 MPa. The Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio are 22.6 ± 5.7 GPa and 0.20 ± 0.03. Smoothness and perpendicularity do not fully meet the ASTM requirements for all samples, due to the presence of voids and inclusions on the sample surfaces and the sample preparation methods. The investigations of loading rate, L/D radio and cyclic loading effects on the compressive strength and of the size effect on the tensile strength are not conclusive. The Coulomb strength criterion adequately represents the failure envelope of the tuff under confining pressures from 0 to 62 MPa. Cohesion and internal friction angle are 16 MPa and 43 degrees. The brown unit of the Apache Leap tuff is highly heterogeneous as suggested by large variations of the test results. The high intrinsic variability of the tuff is probably caused by the presence of flow layers and by nonuniform distributions of inclusions, voids and degree of welding. Similar variability of the properties has been found in publications on the Topopah Spring tuff at Yucca Mountain. 57 refs., 32 figs., 29 tabs

Factors among patients receiving prone positioning for the acute respiratory distress syndrome found useful for predicting mortality in the intensive care unit.

Science.gov (United States)

Modrykamien, Ariel M; Daoud, Yahya

2018-01-01

Optimal mechanical ventilation management in patients with the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) involves the use of low tidal volumes and limited plateau pressure. Refractory hypoxemia may not respond to this strategy, requiring other interventions. The use of prone positioning in severe ARDS resulted in improvement in 28-day survival. To determine whether mechanical ventilation strategies or other parameters affected survival in patients undergoing prone positioning, a retrospective analysis was conducted of a consecutive series of patients with severe ARDS treated with prone positioning. Demographic and clinical information involving mechanical ventilation strategies, as well as other variables associated with prone positioning, was collected. The rate of in-hospital mortality was obtained, and previously described parameters were compared between survivors and nonsurvivors. Forty-three patients with severe ARDS were treated with prone positioning, and 27 (63%) died in the intensive care unit. Only three parameters were significant predictors of survival: APACHE II score ( P = 0.03), plateau pressure ( P = 0.02), and driving pressure ( P = 0.04). The ability of each of these parameters to predict mortality was assessed with receiver operating characteristic curves. The area under the curve values for APACHE II, plateau pressure, and driving pressure were 0.74, 0.69, and 0.67, respectively. In conclusion, in a group of patients with severe ARDS treated with prone positioning, only APACHE II, plateau pressure, and driving pressure were associated with mortality in the intensive care unit.

Jicarilla Apache Utility Authority. Strategic Plan for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rabago, K.R.

2008-01-01

The purpose of this Strategic Plan Report is to provide an introduction and in-depth analysis of the issues and opportunities, resources, and technologies of energy efficiency and renewable energy that have potential beneficial application for the people of the Jicarilla Apache Nation and surrounding communities. The Report seeks to draw on the best available information that existed at the time of writing, and where necessary, draws on new research to assess this potential. This study provides a strategic assessment of opportunities for maximizing the potential for electrical energy efficiency and renewable energy development by the Jicarilla Apache Nation. The report analyzes electricity use on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation in buildings. The report also assesses particular resources and technologies in detail, including energy efficiency, solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and small hydropower. The closing sections set out the elements of a multi-year, multi-phase strategy for development of resources to the maximum benefit of the Nation

Structural properties of MHC class II ligands, implications for the prediction of MHC class II epitopes.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kasper Winther Jørgensen

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Major Histocompatibility class II (MHC-II molecules sample peptides from the extracellular space allowing the immune system to detect the presence of foreign microbes from this compartment. Prediction of MHC class II ligands is complicated by the open binding cleft of the MHC class II molecule, allowing binding of peptides extending out of the binding groove. Furthermore, only a few HLA-DR alleles have been characterized with a sufficient number of peptides (100-200 peptides per allele to derive accurate description of their binding motif. Little work has been performed characterizing structural properties of MHC class II ligands. Here, we perform one such large-scale analysis. A large set of SYFPEITHI MHC class II ligands covering more than 20 different HLA-DR molecules was analyzed in terms of their secondary structure and surface exposure characteristics in the context of the native structure of the corresponding source protein. We demonstrated that MHC class II ligands are significantly more exposed and have significantly more coil content than other peptides in the same protein with similar predicted binding affinity. We next exploited this observation to derive an improved prediction method for MHC class II ligands by integrating prediction of MHC- peptide binding with prediction of surface exposure and protein secondary structure. This combined prediction method was shown to significantly outperform the state-of-the-art MHC class II peptide binding prediction method when used to identify MHC class II ligands. We also tried to integrate N- and O-glycosylation in our prediction methods but this additional information was found not to improve prediction performance. In summary, these findings strongly suggest that local structural properties influence antigen processing and/or the accessibility of peptides to the MHC class II molecule.

Preliminary Assessment of Apache Hopefulness: Relationships with Hopelessness and with Collective as well as Personal Self-Esteem

Science.gov (United States)

Hammond, Vanessa Lea; Watson, P. J.; O'Leary, Brian J.; Cothran, D. Lisa

2009-01-01

Hopelessness is central to prominent mental health problems within American Indian (AI) communities. Apaches living on a reservation in Arizona responded to diverse expressions of hope along with Hopelessness, Personal Self-Esteem, and Collective Self-Esteem scales. An Apache Hopefulness Scale expressed five themes of hope and correlated…

Prediction of the survival and functional ability of severe stroke patients after ICU therapeutic intervention

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aoun-Bacha Zeina

2008-06-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background This study evaluated the benefits and impact of ICU therapeutic interventions on the survival and functional ability of severe cerebrovascular accident (CVA patients. Methods Sixty-two ICU patients suffering from severe ischemic/haemorrhagic stroke were evaluated for CVA severity using APACHE II and the Glasgow coma scale (GCS. Survival was determined using Kaplan-Meier survival tables and survival prediction factors were determined by Cox multivariate analysis. Functional ability was assessed using the stroke impact scale (SIS-16 and Karnofsky score. Risk factors, life support techniques and neurosurgical interventions were recorded. One year post-CVA dependency was investigated using multivariate analysis based on linear regression. Results The study cohort constituted 6% of all CVA (37.8% haemorrhagic/62.2% ischemic admissions. Patient mean(SD age was 65.8(12.3 years with a 1:1 male: female ratio. During the study period 16 patients had died within the ICU and seven in the year following hospital release. The mean(SD APACHE II score at hospital admission was 14.9(6.0 and ICU mean duration of stay was 11.2(15.4 days. Mechanical ventilation was required in 37.1% of cases. Risk ratios were; GCS at admission 0.8(0.14, (p = 0.024, APACHE II 1.11(0.11, (p = 0.05 and duration of mechanical ventilation 1.07(0.07, (p = 0.046. Linear coefficients were: type of CVA – haemorrhagic versus ischemic: -18.95(4.58 (p = 0.007, GCS at hospital admission: -6.83(1.08, (p = 0.001, and duration of hospital stay -0.38(0.14, (p = 0.40. Conclusion To ensure a better prognosis CVA patients require ICU therapeutic interventions. However, as we have shown, where tests can determine the worst affected patients with a poor vital and functional outcome should treatment be withheld?

Large-Scale Graph Processing Using Apache Giraph

KAUST Repository

Sakr, Sherif

2017-01-07

This book takes its reader on a journey through Apache Giraph, a popular distributed graph processing platform designed to bring the power of big data processing to graph data. Designed as a step-by-step self-study guide for everyone interested in large-scale graph processing, it describes the fundamental abstractions of the system, its programming models and various techniques for using the system to process graph data at scale, including the implementation of several popular and advanced graph analytics algorithms.

Large-Scale Graph Processing Using Apache Giraph

KAUST Repository

Sakr, Sherif; Orakzai, Faisal Moeen; Abdelaziz, Ibrahim; Khayyat, Zuhair

2017-01-01

This book takes its reader on a journey through Apache Giraph, a popular distributed graph processing platform designed to bring the power of big data processing to graph data. Designed as a step-by-step self-study guide for everyone interested in large-scale graph processing, it describes the fundamental abstractions of the system, its programming models and various techniques for using the system to process graph data at scale, including the implementation of several popular and advanced graph analytics algorithms.

Ergonomic and anthropometric issues of the forward Apache crew station

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oudenhuijzen, A.J.K.

1999-01-01

This paper describes the anthropometric accommodation in the Apache crew systems. These activities are part of a comprehensive project, in a cooperative effort from the Armstrong Laboratory at Wright Patterson Air Force Base (Dayton, Ohio, USA) and TNO Human Factors Research Institute (TNO HFRI) in

[Prediction of mortality in patients with acute hepatic failure].

Science.gov (United States)

Eremeeva, L F; Berdnikov, A P; Musaeva, T S; Zabolotskikh, I B

2013-01-01

The article deals with a study of 243 patients (from 18 to 65 years old) with acute hepatic failure. Purpose of the study was to evaluate the predictive capability of severity scales APACHE III, SOFA, MODS, Child-Pugh and to identify mortality predictors in patients with acute hepatic failure. Results; The best predictive ability in patients with acute hepatic failure and multiple organ failure had APACHE III and SOFA scales. The strongest mortality predictors were: serum creatinine > 132 mmol/L, fibrinogen < 1.4 g/L, Na < 129 mmol/L.

Factors Predicting Ventilator Dependence in Patients with Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chia-Cheng Tseng

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Objectives. To determine risk factors associated with ventilator dependence in patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP. Study Design. A retrospective study was conducted at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung, from January 1, 2007 to January 31, 2008. Methods. This study evaluated 163 adult patients (aged ≥18 years. Eligibility was evaluated according to the criterion for VAP, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA score, Acute Physiological Assessment and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II score. Oxygenation index, underlying comorbidities, septic shock status, previous tracheostomy status, and factors related to pneumonia were collected for analysis. Results. Of the 163 VAP patients in the study, 90 patients survived, yielding a mortality rate of 44.8%. Among the 90 surviving patients, only 36 (40% had been weaned off ventilators at the time of discharge. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify underlying factors such as congestive cardiac failure (P=0.009, initial high oxygenation index value (P=0.04, increased SOFA scores (P=0.01, and increased APACHE II scores (P=0.02 as independent predictors of ventilator dependence. Results from the Kaplan-Meier method indicate that initial therapy with antibiotics could increase the ventilator weaning rate (log Rank test, P<0.001. Conclusions. Preexisting cardiopulmonary function, high APACHE II and SOFA scores, and high oxygenation index were the strongest predictors of ventilator dependence. Initial empiric antibiotic treatment can improve ventilator weaning rates at the time of discharge.

Uncomfortable Experience: Lessons Lost in the Apache War

Science.gov (United States)

2015-03-01

the Apache War gripped the focus of American and Mexican citizens throughout Arizona, New Mexico, Chihuahua , and Sonora for a period greater than...Arizona and portions of New Mexico, and Northern Sonora and Chihuahua .5 Although confusion exists as to their true subdivisions, the Chokonen led by...contributed directly to the Victorio War, the Loco and Geronimo campaigns, and the Nana and Chatto- Chihuahua raids that followed.38 Once again, failure to

Fallugia paradoxa (D. Don) Endl. ex Torr.: Apache-plume

Science.gov (United States)

Susan E. Meyer

2008-01-01

The genus Fallugia contains a single species - Apache-plume, F. paradoxa (D. Don) Endl. ex Torr. - found throughout the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It occurs mostly on coarse soils on benches and especially along washes and canyons in both warm and cool desert shrub communities and up into the pinyon-juniper vegetation type. It is a sprawling, much-...

Phosphate is a potential biomarker of disease severity and predicts adverse outcomes in acute kidney injury patients undergoing continuous renal replacement therapy.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Su-Young Jung

Full Text Available Hyperphosphatemia is associated with mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease, and is common in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury (AKI; however, its clinical implication in these patients is unknown. We conducted an observational study in 1144 patients (mean age, 63.2 years; male, 705 [61.6%] with AKI who received continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT between January 2009 and September 2016. Phosphate levels were measured before (0 h and 24 h after CRRT initiation. We assessed disease severity using various clinical parameters. Phosphate at 0 h positively correlated with the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II; P < 0.001 and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA; P < 0.001 scores, and inversely with mean arterial pressure (MAP; P = 0.02 and urine output (UO; P = 0.01. In a fully adjusted linear regression analysis for age, sex, Charlson comorbidity index (CCI, MAP, and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR, higher 0 h phosphate level was significantly associated with high APACHE II (P < 0.001 and SOFA (P = 0.04 scores, suggesting that phosphate represents disease severity. A multivariable Cox model also showed that hyperphosphatemia was significantly associated with increased 28-day (HR 1.05, 95% CI 1.02-1.08, P = 0.001 and 90-day (HR 1.05, 95% CI 1.02-1.08, P = 0.001 mortality. Furthermore, patients with increased phosphate level during 24 h were at higher risk of death than those with stable or decreased phosphate levels. Finally, c-statistics significantly increased when phosphate was added to a model that included age, sex, CCI, body mass index, eGFR, MAP, hemoglobin, serum albumin, C-reactive protein, and APACHE II score. This study shows that phosphate is a potential biomarker that can reflect disease severity and predict mortality in critically ill patients receiving CRRT.

Development and validation of a multivariate prediction model for patients with acute pancreatitis in Intensive Care Medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Zubia-Olaskoaga, Felix; Maraví-Poma, Enrique; Urreta-Barallobre, Iratxe; Ramírez-Puerta, María-Rosario; Mourelo-Fariña, Mónica; Marcos-Neira, María-Pilar; García-García, Miguel Ángel

2018-03-01

Development and validation of a multivariate prediction model for patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) admitted in Intensive Care Units (ICU). A prospective multicenter observational study, in 1 year period, in 46 international ICUs (EPAMI study). adults admitted to an ICU with AP and at least one organ failure. Development of a multivariate prediction model, using the worst data of the stay in ICU, based in multivariate analysis, simple imputation in a development cohort. The model was validated in another cohort. 374 patients were included (mortality of 28.9%). Variables with statistical significance in multivariate analysis were age, no alcoholic and no biliary etiology, development of shock, development of respiratory failure, need of continuous renal replacement therapy, and intra-abdominal pressure. The model created with these variables presented an AUC of ROC curve of 0.90 (CI 95% 0.81-0.94) in the validation cohort. We developed a multivariable prediction model, and AP cases could be classified as low mortality risk (between 2 and 9.5 points, mortality of 1.35%), moderate mortality risk (between 10 and 12.5 points, 28.92% of mortality), and high mortality risk (13 points of more, mortality of 88.37%). Our model presented better AUC of ROC curve than APACHE II (0.91 vs 0.80) and SOFA in the first 24 h (0.91 vs 0.79). We developed and validated a multivariate prediction model, which can be applied in any moment of the stay in ICU, with better discriminatory power than APACHE II and SOFA in the first 24 h. Copyright © 2018 IAP and EPC. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Are cicadas (Diceroprocta apache) both a "keystone" and a "critical-link" species in lower Colorado River riparian communities?

Science.gov (United States)

Andersen, Douglas C.

1994-01-01

Apache cicada (Homoptera: Cicadidae: Diceroprocta apache Davis) densities were estimated to be 10 individuals/m2 within a closed-canopy stand of Fremont cottonwood (Populus fremontii) and Goodding willow (Salix gooddingii) in a revegetated site adjacent to the Colorado River near Parker, Arizona. Coupled with data drawn from the literature, I estimate that up to 1.3 cm (13 1/m2) of water may be added to the upper soil layers annually through the feeding activities of cicada nymphs. This is equivalent to 12% of the annual precipitation received in the study area. Apache cicadas may have significant effects on ecosystem functioning via effects on water transport and thus act as a critical-link species in this southwest desert riverine ecosystem. Cicadas emerged later within the cottonwood-willow stand than in relatively open saltcedar-mesquite stands; this difference in temporal dynamics would affect their availability to several insectivorous bird species and may help explain the birds' recent declines. Resource managers in this region should be sensitive to the multiple and strong effects that Apache cicadas may have on ecosystem structure and functioning.

Kelayakan Raspberry Pi sebagai Web Server: Perbandingan Kinerja Nginx, Apache, dan Lighttpd pada Platform Raspberry Pi

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rahmad Dawood

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Raspberry Pi is a small-sized computer, but it can function like an ordinary computer. Because it can function like a regular PC then it is also possible to run a web server application on the Raspberry Pi. This paper will report results from testing the feasibility and performance of running a web server on the Raspberry Pi. The test was conducted on the current top three most popular web servers, which are: Apache, Nginx, and Lighttpd. The parameters used to evaluate the feasibility and performance of these web servers were: maximum request and reply time. The results from the test showed that it is feasible to run all three web servers on the Raspberry Pi but Nginx gave the best performance followed by Lighttpd and Apache.Keywords: Raspberry Pi, web server, Apache, Lighttpd, Nginx, web server performance

Lutzomyia (Helcocyrtomyia) Apache Young and Perkins (Diptera: Psychodidae) feeds on reptiles

Science.gov (United States)

Phlebotomine sand flies are vectors of bacteria, parasites, and viruses. In the western USA a sand fly, Lutzomyia apache Young and Perkins, was initially associated with epizootics of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), because sand flies were trapped at sites of an outbreak. Additional studies indica...

Seguridad en la configuración del servidor web Apache

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Carlos Eduardo Gómez Montoya

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Apache es el servidor Web con mayor presencia en el mercado mundial. Aunque su configuración es relativamente sencilla, fortalecer sus condiciones de seguridad implica entender y aplicar un conjunto de reglas generales conocidas, aceptadas y disponibles. Por otra parte, a pesar de ser un tema aparentemente resuelto, la seguridad en los servidores HTTP constituye un problema en aumento, y no todas las compañías lo toman en serio. Este artículo identifica y verifica un conjunto de buenas prácticas de seguridad informática aplicadas a la configuración de Apache. Para alcanzar los objetivos, y con el fin de garantizar un proceso adecuado, se eligió una metodología basada en el Círculo de Calidad de Deming, el cual comprende cuatro fases: planear, hacer, verificar y actuar, y su aplicación condujo el desarrollo del proyecto. Este artículo consta de cinco secciones: Introducción, Marco de referencia, Metodología, Resultados y discusión, y Conclusiones.

The White Mountain Recreational Enterprise: Bio-Political Foundations for White Mountain Apache Natural Resource Control, 1945–1960

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David C. Tomblin

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Among American Indian nations, the White Mountain Apache Tribe has been at the forefront of a struggle to control natural resource management within reservation boundaries. In 1952, they developed the first comprehensive tribal natural resource management program, the White Mountain Recreational Enterprise (WMRE, which became a cornerstone for fighting legal battles over the tribe’s right to manage cultural and natural resources on the reservation for the benefit of the tribal community rather than outside interests. This article examines how White Mountain Apaches used the WMRE, while embracing both Euro-American and Apache traditions, as an institutional foundation for resistance and exchange with Euro-American society so as to reassert control over tribal eco-cultural resources in east-central Arizona.

Beginning PHP, Apache, MySQL web development

CERN Document Server

Glass, Michael K; Naramore, Elizabeth; Mailer, Gary; Stolz, Jeremy; Gerner, Jason

2004-01-01

An ideal introduction to the entire process of setting up a Web site using PHP (a scripting language), MySQL (a database management system), and Apache (a Web server)* Programmers will be up and running in no time, whether they're using Linux or Windows servers* Shows readers step by step how to create several Web sites that share common themes, enabling readers to use these examples in real-world projects* Invaluable reading for even the experienced programmer whose current site has outgrown the traditional static structure and who is looking for a way to upgrade to a more efficient, user-f

Risk prediction models for mortality in patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsson, Johan E; Itenov, Theis Skovsgaard; Bestle, Morten Heiberg

2017-01-01

the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC). RESULTS: We identified 19 articles studying 7 different models' ability to predict mortality in VAP patients. The models were Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II (9 studies, n = 1398); Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score (4 studies, n...... = 303); "Immunodeficiency, Blood pressure, Multilobular infiltrates on chest radiograph, Platelets and hospitalization 10 days before onset of VAP" (3 studies, n = 406); "VAP Predisposition, Insult Response and Organ dysfunction" (2 studies, n = 589); Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (7 studies, n......: The PubMed and EMBASE were searched in February 2016. We included studies in English that evaluated models' ability to predict the risk of mortality in patients with VAP. The reported mortality with the longest follow-up was used in the meta-analysis. Prognostic accuracy was measured with the area under...

Integration of event streaming and microservices with Apache Kafka

OpenAIRE

Kljun, Matija

2017-01-01

Over the last decade, the microservice architecture has become a standard for big and successful internet companies, like Netflix, Amazon and LinkedIn. The importance of stream processing, aggregation and exchange of data is growing, as it allows companies to compete better and move faster. In this diploma, we have analyzed the interactions between microservices, described the streaming platform and ordinary message queues. We have described the Apache Kafka platform and how...

[Predictive factors for failure of non-invasive positive pressure ventilation in immunosuppressed patients with acute respiratory failure].

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, Xiangli; Yan, Ci; Xu, Sicheng; Gu, Xingli; Wan, Qiufeng; Hu, Xinying; Li, Jingwen; Liu, Guangming; Caikai, Shareli; Guo, Zhijin

2018-02-01

To evaluate the predictive factors for failure of non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (NIPPV) in immunosuppressed patients with acute respiratory failure (ARF). The clinical data of 118 immuno-deficient patients treated with NIPPV in the respiratory and intensive care unit (RICU) of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University from January 2012 to August 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into a non-endotracheal intubation (ETI) group (n = 62) and ETI group (n = 56) according to whether ETI was performed during the hospitalization period or not. Each observed indicator was analyzed by univariate analysis, and factors leading to failure of NIPPV were further analyzed by Logistic regression. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to evaluate the predictive value of risk factors for failure of NIPPV in immunosuppressed patients with ARF. The non-intubation rate for NIPPV in immunosuppressed patients was 50.8% (60/118). Compared with the non-ETI group, the body temperature, pH value in the ETI group were significantly increased, the partial pressure of arterial carbon dioxide (PaCO 2 ) was significantly decreased, the ratio of oxygenation index (PaO 2 /FiO 2 ) failure of NIPPV. ROC curve analysis showed that the APACHE II score ≥ 20 and PaO 2 /FiO 2 failure of NIPPV, the area under ROC curve (AUC) of the APACHE II score ≥ 20 was 0.787, the sensitivity was 83.93%, the specificity was 69.35%, the positive predict value (PPV) was 71.21%, the negative predict value (NPV) was 82.69%, the positive likelihood ratio (PLR) was 2.74, the negative likelihood ratio (NLR) was 0.23, and Youden index was 0.53; the AUC of PaO 2 /FiO 2 failure of NIPPV in immunocompromised patients.

AI based HealthCare Platform for Real Time, Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics using Reactive Programming

Science.gov (United States)

Kaur, Jagreet; Singh Mann, Kulwinder, Dr.

2018-01-01

AI in Healthcare needed to bring real, actionable insights and Individualized insights in real time for patients and Doctors to support treatment decisions., We need a Patient Centred Platform for integrating EHR Data, Patient Data, Prescriptions, Monitoring, Clinical research and Data. This paper proposes a generic architecture for enabling AI based healthcare analytics Platform by using open sources Technologies Apache beam, Apache Flink Apache Spark, Apache NiFi, Kafka, Tachyon, Gluster FS, NoSQL- Elasticsearch, Cassandra. This paper will show the importance of applying AI based predictive and prescriptive analytics techniques in Health sector. The system will be able to extract useful knowledge that helps in decision making and medical monitoring in real-time through an intelligent process analysis and big data processing.

Validation of acute physiologic and chronic health evaluation II scoring system software developed at The Aga Khan University, Pakistan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M Hashmi

2016-01-01

Conclusion: APACHE II software available on the hospital′s intranet has satisfactory calibration and discrimination and interrater reliability is good when compared with the gold standard manual method.

Assessment of PANC3 score in predicting severity of acute pancreatitis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Avreen Singh Shah

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Acute pancreatitis is inflammatory process of the pancreas associated with local and systemic complications. At present, there are lots of scores (such as Ransons, APACHE II, bedside index for severity in acute pancreatitis that help us in predicting severity at the time of admission but these are time consuming or require complex calculation and are costly. Material and Methods: PANC3 Scoring System is one of the better systems because the three criteria used (hematocrit, body mass index, and pleural effusion are simple, easy to assess, readily available, and economic. In this prospective study, 100 cases were evaluated to see the prospects of PANC3 scoring in predicting the severity of acute pancreatitis as decided by modified Marshals score. Results: The results showed that PANC3 score had a 96.43% specificity, 75% sensitivity, 80% positive predictive value, and 95.29% negative predictive value. Conclusion: Hence, the PANC3 score is a cost-effective, promising score that helps in predicting the severity of acute pancreatitis leading to prompt treatment and early referral to higher center.

Comparison and relationship of thyroid hormones, IL-6, IL-10 and albumin as mortality predictors in case-mix critically ill patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Quispe E, Álvaro; Li, Xiang-Min; Yi, Hong

2016-05-01

To compare the ability of thyroid hormones, IL-6, IL-10, and albumin to predict mortality, and to assess their relationship in case-mix acute critically ill patients. APACHE II scores and serum thyroid hormones (FT3, FT4, and TSH), IL-6, IL-10, and albumin were obtained at EICU admission for 79 cases of mix acute critically ill patients without previous history of thyroid disease. Patients were followed for 28 days with patient's death as the primary outcome. All mean values were compared, correlations assessed with Pearson' test, and mortality prediction assessed by multivariate logistic regression and ROC. Non survivors were older, with higher APACHE II score (p=0.000), IL-6 (p<0.05), IL-10 (p=0.000) levels, and lower albumin (p=0.000) levels compared to survivors at 28 days. IL-6 and IL-10 had significant negative correlation with albumin (p=0.001) and FT3 (p ⩽ 0.05) respectively, while low albumin had a direct correlation with FT3 (p<0.05). In the mortality prediction assessment, IL-10, albumin and APACHE II were independent morality predictors and showed to have a good (0.70-0.79) AUC-ROC (p<0.05). Despite that the entire cohort showed low FT3 serum levels (p=0.000), there was not statistical difference between survivors and non-survivors; neither showed any significance as mortality predictor. IL-6 and IL-10 are correlated with Low FT3 and hypoalbuminemia. Thyroid hormones assessed at EICU admission did not have any predictive value in our study. And finally, high levels of IL-6 and IL-10 in conjunction with albumin could improve our ability to evaluate disease's severity and predict mortality in the critically ill patients. When use in combination with APACHE II scores, our model showed improved mortality prediction. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide and cardiac troponin I for the prognostic utility in elderly patients with severe sepsis or septic shock in intensive care unit: A retrospective study.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, Hui; Fan, Wei-Ze; Wang, Sheng-Chi; Liu, Zhao-Hui; Zang, Hui-Ling; Wang, Li-Zhong; Liu, Hong-Juan; Shen, Xiao-Hui; Liang, Shao-Qing

2015-06-01

Using biomarkers to predict mortality in patient with severe sepsis or septic shock is of importance, as these patients frequently have high mortality and unsatisfied outcome. N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and cardiac troponin I (cTnI) play extremely important roles in prognostic value in the mortality of severe sepsis and septic shock. The present study was retrospectively designed to evaluate the predicting mortality of NT-proBNP and cTnI in elderly patients with severe sepsis or septic shock administered in the intensive care unit (ICU) and also to evaluate whether the predicting ability of Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE-II) score or C-reactive protein (CRP) was increased in combination with the biomarkers. A cohort of 430 patients (aged ≥65 years) with severe sepsis or septic shock admitted to our ICU between October 2011 and December 2013 was included in the study. Patient data including clinical, laboratory, and survival and mortality were collected. All patients were examined with NT-proBNP, cTnI, CRP, and APACHE-II score and were categorized as the survived and deceased groups according to the outcome 30 days after ICU treatment. The levels of NT-proBNP and cTnI (P pro-brain natriuretic peptide and cTnI were superior to CRP in predicting mortality. The predicting ability of APACHE-II score was improved only when combined with NT-proBNP and cTnI. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Microalbuminuria in the intensive care unit: Clinical correlates and association with outcomes in 431 patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Gosling, Peter; Czyz, John; Nightingale, Peter; Manji, Mav

2006-08-01

Comparison of urine albumin within 6 hrs of intensive care unit (ICU) admission with demography, clinical classification, outcome, inotrope/vasopressor requirement, clinical assessment of mortality risk, and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II scores. Urine albumin-creatinine ratio (ACR) was measured on ICU admission (ACR 1) and after 4-6 hrs (ACR 2). A 17-bed general ICU in a university teaching hospital. Unselected medical (206) and surgical (225) patients recruited prospectively. None. Bedside urine ACR was measured by nurses using a Bayer DCA 2000 analyzer and expressed in mg/mmol (reference range Po2/Fio2 ratio 48 hrs after ICU admission and positively correlated with duration of mechanical ventilation and ACR 1 with ICU stay. ACR 2 predicted mortality and ACR 1 inotrope requirement independent of clinical mortality risk assessment and APACHE II and SOFA scores. Urine albumin changes rapidly within the first 6 hrs following ICU admission and predicts ICU mortality and inotrope requirement as well as or better than APACHE II and SOFA scores. Serial urine albumin measurement may provide a means of monitoring the microvascular effects of systemic inflammation.

Validation of CRIB II for prediction of mortality in premature babies.

Science.gov (United States)

Rastogi, Pallav Kumar; Sreenivas, V; Kumar, Nirmal

2010-02-01

Validation of Clinical Risk Index for Babies (CRIB II) score in predicting the neonatal mortality in preterm neonates < or = 32 weeks gestational age. Prospective cohort study. Tertiary care neonatal unit. 86 consecutively born preterm neonates with gestational age < or = 32 weeks. The five variables related to CRIB II were recorded within the first hour of admission for data analysis. The receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was used to check the accuracy of the mortality prediction. HL Goodness of fit test was used to see the discrepancy between observed and expected outcomes. A total of 86 neonates (males 59.6% mean birthweight: 1228 +/- 398 grams; mean gestational age: 28.3 +/- 2.4 weeks) were enrolled in the study, of which 17 (19.8%) left hospital against medical advice (LAMA) before reaching the study end point. Among 69 neonates completing the study, 24 (34.8%) had adverse outcome during hospital stay and 45 (65.2%) had favorable outcome. CRIB II correctly predicted adverse outcome in 90.3% (Hosmer Lemeshow goodness of fit test P=0.6). Area under curve (AUC) for CRIB II was 0.9032. In intention to treat analysis with LAMA cases included as survivors, the mortality prediction was 87%. If these were included as having died then mortality prediction was 83.1%. The CRIB II score was found to be a good predictive instrument for mortality in preterm infants < or = 32 weeks gestation.

Advances in criticality predictions for EBR-II

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schaefer, R.W.; Imel, G.R.

1994-01-01

Improvements to startup criticality predictions for the EBR-II reactor have been made. More exact calculational models, methods and data are now used, and better procedures for obtaining experimental data that enter into the prediction are in place. Accuracy improved by more than a factor of two and the largest ECP error observed since the changes is only 18 cents. An experimental method using subcritical counts is also being implemented

San Carlos Apache Tribe - Energy Organizational Analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Rapp, James; Albert, Steve

2012-04-01

The San Carlos Apache Tribe (SCAT) was awarded $164,000 in late-2011 by the U.S. Department of Energy (U.S. DOE) Tribal Energy Program's "First Steps Toward Developing Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency on Tribal Lands" Grant Program. This grant funded:  The analysis and selection of preferred form(s) of tribal energy organization (this Energy Organization Analysis, hereinafter referred to as "EOA").  Start-up staffing and other costs associated with the Phase 1 SCAT energy organization.  An intern program.  Staff training.  Tribal outreach and workshops regarding the new organization and SCAT energy programs and projects, including two annual tribal energy summits (2011 and 2012). This report documents the analysis and selection of preferred form(s) of a tribal energy organization.

CMS Analysis and Data Reduction with Apache Spark

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gutsche, Oliver [Fermilab; Canali, Luca [CERN; Cremer, Illia [Magnetic Corp., Waltham; Cremonesi, Matteo [Fermilab; Elmer, Peter [Princeton U.; Fisk, Ian [Flatiron Inst., New York; Girone, Maria [CERN; Jayatilaka, Bo [Fermilab; Kowalkowski, Jim [Fermilab; Khristenko, Viktor [CERN; Motesnitsalis, Evangelos [CERN; Pivarski, Jim [Princeton U.; Sehrish, Saba [Fermilab; Surdy, Kacper [CERN; Svyatkovskiy, Alexey [Princeton U.

2017-10-31

Experimental Particle Physics has been at the forefront of analyzing the world's largest datasets for decades. The HEP community was among the first to develop suitable software and computing tools for this task. In recent times, new toolkits and systems for distributed data processing, collectively called "Big Data" technologies have emerged from industry and open source projects to support the analysis of Petabyte and Exabyte datasets in industry. While the principles of data analysis in HEP have not changed (filtering and transforming experiment-specific data formats), these new technologies use different approaches and tools, promising a fresh look at analysis of very large datasets that could potentially reduce the time-to-physics with increased interactivity. Moreover these new tools are typically actively developed by large communities, often profiting of industry resources, and under open source licensing. These factors result in a boost for adoption and maturity of the tools and for the communities supporting them, at the same time helping in reducing the cost of ownership for the end-users. In this talk, we are presenting studies of using Apache Spark for end user data analysis. We are studying the HEP analysis workflow separated into two thrusts: the reduction of centrally produced experiment datasets and the end-analysis up to the publication plot. Studying the first thrust, CMS is working together with CERN openlab and Intel on the CMS Big Data Reduction Facility. The goal is to reduce 1 PB of official CMS data to 1 TB of ntuple output for analysis. We are presenting the progress of this 2-year project with first results of scaling up Spark-based HEP analysis. Studying the second thrust, we are presenting studies on using Apache Spark for a CMS Dark Matter physics search, comparing Spark's feasibility, usability and performance to the ROOT-based analysis.

LHCbDIRAC as Apache Mesos microservices

CERN Multimedia

Couturier, Ben

2016-01-01

The LHCb experiment relies on LHCbDIRAC, an extension of DIRAC, to drive its offline computing. This middleware provides a development framework and a complete set of components for building distributed computing systems. These components are currently installed and ran on virtual machines (VM) or bare metal hardware. Due to the increased load of work, high availability is becoming more and more important for the LHCbDIRAC services, and the current installation model is showing its limitations. Apache Mesos is a cluster manager which aims at abstracting heterogeneous physical resources on which various tasks can be distributed thanks to so called "framework". The Marathon framework is suitable for long running tasks such as the DIRAC services, while the Chronos framework meets the needs of cron-like tasks like the DIRAC agents. A combination of the service discovery tool Consul together with HAProxy allows to expose the running containers to the outside world while hiding their dynamic placements. Such an arc...

Spatial correlations of Diceroprocta apache and its host plants: Evidence for a negative impact from Tamarix invasion

Science.gov (United States)

Ellingson, A.R.; Andersen, D.C.

2002-01-01

1. The hypothesis that the habitat-scale spatial distribution of the Apache cicada Diceroprocta apache Davis is unaffected by the presence of the invasive exotic saltcedar Tamarix ramosissima was tested using data from 205 1-m2 quadrats placed within the flood-plain of the Bill Williams River, Arizona, U.S.A. Spatial dependencies within and between cicada density and habitat variables were estimated using Moran's I and its bivariate analogue to discern patterns and associations at spatial scales from 1 to 30 m.2. Apache cicadas were spatially aggregated in high-density clusters averaging 3 m in diameter. A positive association between cicada density, estimated by exuvial density, and the per cent canopy cover of a native tree, Goodding's willow Salix gooddingii, was detected in a non-spatial correlation analysis. No non-spatial association between cicada density and saltcedar canopy cover was detected.3. Tests for spatial cross-correlation using the bivariate IYZ indicated the presence of a broad-scale negative association between cicada density and saltcedar canopy cover. This result suggests that large continuous stands of saltcedar are associated with reduced cicada density. In contrast, positive associations detected at spatial scales larger than individual quadrats suggested a spill-over of high cicada density from areas featuring Goodding's willow canopy into surrounding saltcedar monoculture.4. Taken together and considered in light of the Apache cicada's polyphagous habits, the observed spatial patterns suggest that broad-scale factors such as canopy heterogeneity affect cicada habitat use more than host plant selection. This has implications for management of lower Colorado River riparian woodlands to promote cicada presence and density through maintenance or creation of stands of native trees as well as manipulation of the characteristically dense and homogeneous saltcedar canopies.

Efficient Streaming Mass Spatio-Temporal Vehicle Data Access in Urban Sensor Networks Based on Apache Storm.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Lianjie; Chen, Nengcheng; Chen, Zeqiang

2017-04-10

The efficient data access of streaming vehicle data is the foundation of analyzing, using and mining vehicle data in smart cities, which is an approach to understand traffic environments. However, the number of vehicles in urban cities has grown rapidly, reaching hundreds of thousands in number. Accessing the mass streaming data of vehicles is hard and takes a long time due to limited computation capability and backward modes. We propose an efficient streaming spatio-temporal data access based on Apache Storm (ESDAS) to achieve real-time streaming data access and data cleaning. As a popular streaming data processing tool, Apache Storm can be applied to streaming mass data access and real time data cleaning. By designing the Spout/bolt workflow of topology in ESDAS and by developing the speeding bolt and other bolts, Apache Storm can achieve the prospective aim. In our experiments, Taiyuan BeiDou bus location data is selected as the mass spatio-temporal data source. In the experiments, the data access results with different bolts are shown in map form, and the filtered buses' aggregation forms are different. In terms of performance evaluation, the consumption time in ESDAS for ten thousand records per second for a speeding bolt is approximately 300 milliseconds, and that for MongoDB is approximately 1300 milliseconds. The efficiency of ESDAS is approximately three times higher than that of MongoDB.

Efficient Streaming Mass Spatio-Temporal Vehicle Data Access in Urban Sensor Networks Based on Apache Storm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lianjie Zhou

2017-04-01

Full Text Available The efficient data access of streaming vehicle data is the foundation of analyzing, using and mining vehicle data in smart cities, which is an approach to understand traffic environments. However, the number of vehicles in urban cities has grown rapidly, reaching hundreds of thousands in number. Accessing the mass streaming data of vehicles is hard and takes a long time due to limited computation capability and backward modes. We propose an efficient streaming spatio-temporal data access based on Apache Storm (ESDAS to achieve real-time streaming data access and data cleaning. As a popular streaming data processing tool, Apache Storm can be applied to streaming mass data access and real time data cleaning. By designing the Spout/bolt workflow of topology in ESDAS and by developing the speeding bolt and other bolts, Apache Storm can achieve the prospective aim. In our experiments, Taiyuan BeiDou bus location data is selected as the mass spatio-temporal data source. In the experiments, the data access results with different bolts are shown in map form, and the filtered buses’ aggregation forms are different. In terms of performance evaluation, the consumption time in ESDAS for ten thousand records per second for a speeding bolt is approximately 300 milliseconds, and that for MongoDB is approximately 1300 milliseconds. The efficiency of ESDAS is approximately three times higher than that of MongoDB.

Evaluation of Apache Hadoop for parallel data analysis with ROOT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lehrack, S; Duckeck, G; Ebke, J

2014-01-01

The Apache Hadoop software is a Java based framework for distributed processing of large data sets across clusters of computers, using the Hadoop file system (HDFS) for data storage and backup and MapReduce as a processing platform. Hadoop is primarily designed for processing large textual data sets which can be processed in arbitrary chunks, and must be adapted to the use case of processing binary data files which cannot be split automatically. However, Hadoop offers attractive features in terms of fault tolerance, task supervision and control, multi-user functionality and job management. For this reason, we evaluated Apache Hadoop as an alternative approach to PROOF for ROOT data analysis. Two alternatives in distributing analysis data were discussed: either the data was stored in HDFS and processed with MapReduce, or the data was accessed via a standard Grid storage system (dCache Tier-2) and MapReduce was used only as execution back-end. The focus in the measurements were on the one hand to safely store analysis data on HDFS with reasonable data rates and on the other hand to process data fast and reliably with MapReduce. In the evaluation of the HDFS, read/write data rates from local Hadoop cluster have been measured and compared to standard data rates from the local NFS installation. In the evaluation of MapReduce, realistic ROOT analyses have been used and event rates have been compared to PROOF.

Evaluation of Apache Hadoop for parallel data analysis with ROOT

Science.gov (United States)

Lehrack, S.; Duckeck, G.; Ebke, J.

2014-06-01

The Apache Hadoop software is a Java based framework for distributed processing of large data sets across clusters of computers, using the Hadoop file system (HDFS) for data storage and backup and MapReduce as a processing platform. Hadoop is primarily designed for processing large textual data sets which can be processed in arbitrary chunks, and must be adapted to the use case of processing binary data files which cannot be split automatically. However, Hadoop offers attractive features in terms of fault tolerance, task supervision and control, multi-user functionality and job management. For this reason, we evaluated Apache Hadoop as an alternative approach to PROOF for ROOT data analysis. Two alternatives in distributing analysis data were discussed: either the data was stored in HDFS and processed with MapReduce, or the data was accessed via a standard Grid storage system (dCache Tier-2) and MapReduce was used only as execution back-end. The focus in the measurements were on the one hand to safely store analysis data on HDFS with reasonable data rates and on the other hand to process data fast and reliably with MapReduce. In the evaluation of the HDFS, read/write data rates from local Hadoop cluster have been measured and compared to standard data rates from the local NFS installation. In the evaluation of MapReduce, realistic ROOT analyses have been used and event rates have been compared to PROOF.

Intra-abdominal pressure and procalcitonin are valid prognostic markers of acute pancreatitis severity (intra-abdominal pressure and procalcitonin

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stojanović Maja

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction. Early assessment of the severity and etiology of acute pancreatitis is very important for further treatment procedures. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between intra-abdominal pressure (IAP and procalcitonin as an indicator of severity of acute pancreatitis. Method. The IAP is measured every 12 hours through the urinary catheter placed in the bladder, in 65 patients with acute pancreatitis. Procalcitonin is measured within 24 hours of receipt of the patient, after 48 hours and after 78 hours. These values of procalcitonin and IAP were compared to each other and in relation to the Acute Physiology, Age and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II scoring system. Patients with APACHE II score > 8 are defined with moderate and severe acute pancreatitis. Results. The values of IAP (18,1 ± 4,5 mmHg vs 8,9 ± 2,67 mmHg; p = 0,01 , procalcitonin (15,43 + 2,25 ng/ml vs 3,14 + 1,12 ng/ml; p =0,031 and APACHE II scoring system (17,3 ± 6,24 vs 6,5 ± 1,0; p = 0,013 were significantly higher in patients with moderate and severe acute pancreatitis. The increase in the value of IAP was accompanied by an increase in the value of procalcitonin (r = 0,581, p = 0,01. The sensitivity in the prediction of severe acute pancreatitis after 24 hours of receiving the patient is 91,7% for the IAP, 87,8% for procalcitonin and 84,9% for APACHE II scoring system. Conclusion. The increase in the value of the IAP is accompanied by an increase in the values of procalcitonin, also patients with higher values of APACHE II scoring sys­tem have higher values of IAP and procalcitonin. The values of IAP and procalcitonin can be used as markers of acute pancreatitis severity.

77 FR 18997 - Rim Lakes Forest Restoration Project; Apache-Sitgreavese National Forest, Black Mesa Ranger...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-03-29

... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service Rim Lakes Forest Restoration Project; Apache-Sitgreavese National Forest, Black Mesa Ranger District, Coconino County, AZ AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement. SUMMARY: The U.S. Forest Service (FS) will...

75 FR 14419 - Camp Tatiyee Land Exchange on the Lakeside Ranger District of the Apache-Sitgreaves National...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-03-25

... Ranger, Lakeside Ranger District, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, c/o TEC Inc., 514 Via de la Valle... to other papers serving areas affected by this proposal: Tucson Citizen, Sierra Vista Herald, Nogales...

Negative pressure wound treatment improves Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score in mediastinitis allowing a successful elective pectoralis muscle flap closure: six-year experience of a single protocol.

Science.gov (United States)

Salica, Andrea; Weltert, Luca; Scaffa, Raffaele; Guerrieri Wolf, Lorenzo; Nardella, Saverio; Bellisario, Alessandro; De Paulis, Ruggero

2014-11-01

Optimal management of poststernotomy mediastinitis is controversial. Negative pressure wound treatment improves wound environment and sternal stability with low surgical invasiveness. Our protocol was based on negative pressure followed by delayed surgical closure. The aim of this study was to provide the results at early follow-up and to identify the risk factors for adverse outcome. In 5400 cardiac procedures, 44 consecutive patients with mediastinitis were enrolled in the study. Mediastinitis treatment was based on urgent debridement and negative pressure as the first-line approach. After wound sterilization, chest closure was achieved by elective pectoralis muscle advancement flap. Each patient's hospital data were collected prospectively. Variables included patient demographics and clinical and biological data. Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score was calculated at the time of diagnosis and 48 hours after debridement. Focus outcome measures were mediastinitis-related death and need for reintervention after pectoralis muscle closure. El Oakley type I and type IIIA mediastinitis were the most frequent types (63.6%). Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was present in 25 patients (56.8%). Mean APACHE II score was 19.4±4 at the time of diagnosis, and 30 patients (68.2%) required intensive care unit transfer before surgical debridement. APACHE II score improved 48 hours after wound debridement and negative pressure application (mean value, 19.4±4 vs 7.2±2; P=.005) independently of any other variables included in the study. One patient in septic shock at the time of diagnosis died (2.2%). Negative pressure promotes a significant improvement in clinical status according to APACHE II score and allows a successful elective surgical closure. Copyright © 2014 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Overview of the SDSS-IV MaNGA Survey: Mapping nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bundy, Kevin; Bershady, Matthew A.; Law, David R.; Yan, Renbin; Drory, Niv; MacDonald, Nicholas; Wake, David A.; Cherinka, Brian; Sánchez-Gallego, José R.; Weijmans, Anne-Marie; Thomas, Daniel; Tremonti, Christy; Masters, Karen; Coccato, Lodovico; Diamond-Stanic, Aleksandar M.; Aragón-Salamanca, Alfonso; Avila-Reese, Vladimir; Badenes, Carles; Falcón-Barroso, Jésus; Belfiore, Francesco; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Blanc, Guillermo A.; Bland-Hawthorn, Joss; Blanton, Michael R.; Brownstein, Joel R.; Byler, Nell; Cappellari, Michele; Conroy, Charlie; Dutton, Aaron A.; Emsellem, Eric; Etherington, James; Frinchaboy, Peter M.; Fu, Hai; Gunn, James E.; Harding, Paul; Johnston, Evelyn J.; Kauffmann, Guinevere; Kinemuchi, Karen; Klaene, Mark A.; Knapen, Johan H.; Leauthaud, Alexie; Li, Cheng; Lin, Lihwai; Maiolino, Roberto; Malanushenko, Viktor; Malanushenko, Elena; Mao, Shude; Maraston, Claudia; McDermid, Richard M.; Merrifield, Michael R.; Nichol, Robert C.; Oravetz, Daniel; Pan, Kaike; Parejko, John K.; Sanchez, Sebastian F.; Schlegel, David; Simmons, Audrey; Steele, Oliver; Steinmetz, Matthias; Thanjavur, Karun; Thompson, Benjamin A.; Tinker, Jeremy L.; van den Bosch, Remco C. E.; Westfall, Kyle B.; Wilkinson, David; Wright, Shelley; Xiao, Ting; Zhang, Kai

We present an overview of a new integral field spectroscopic survey called MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory), one of three core programs in the fourth-generation Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) that began on 2014 July 1. MaNGA will investigate the internal kinematic

Analysis of oil-bearing Cretaceous sandstone hydrocarbon reservoirs, exclusive of the Dakota Sandstone, on the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation, New Mexico; TOPICAL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ridgley, Jennie; Wright Dunbar, Robyn

2000-01-01

This is the Phase One contract report to the United States Department of Energy, United State Geological Survey and the Jicarilla Apache Indian Tribe on the project entitled''Outcrop Analysis of the Cretaceous Mesaverde Group: Jicarilla Apache Reservation, New Mexico.'' Field work for this project was conducted during July and August 1998, at which time fourteen measured sections were described and correlated on or adjacent to Jicarilla Apache Reservation lands. A fifteen section, described east of the main field area, is included in this report, although its distant location precluded use in the correlation's and cross-sections presented herein. Ground-based photo mosaics were shot for much of the exposed Mesaverde outcrop belt and were used to assist in correlation. Outcrop gamma-ray surveys at six of the fifteen measured sections using a GAD-6 scintillometer was conducted. The raw gamma-ray data are included in this report, however, analysis of those data is part of the ongoing Phase Two of this project

The evaluation of CRIB II scoring system in predicting mortality in preterm newborns

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Homa Babaei

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Background: The survival rate of premature newborns depends on gestational age, birth weight and condition when they are hospitalized. Different scoring systems to predict mortality in newborns has been designed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate value of CRIB II scoring system in predicting mortality rate of infants with birth weights less than 1500 grams. Material and Methods: In this 8 month cross - sectional study (September 2010 to April 2010 which was conducted in the NICU of Imam Reza hospital in Kermanshah, preterm newborns with birth weight less than 1500 gr and gestational age less than 32 weeks who were admitted within 12 hours after birth in the NICU ,were evaluated based on CRIB II scoring system . Results: 50 neonates out of 1360 (36.8% survived and 86 neonates(63.2% died. Average CRIB II score in newborn survived was 5.8±2.9 and in infants died was 9.8±2.9 (p <0.0001. Based on the AUC, the CRIB II score could predict about 0.85 (CI: 0.77-0.92 of mortality. Also based on the ROC curve cut-off point for scoring CRIB II, was 6.5. Conclusion: Our study showed that CRIB II has a high value( about %85 in predicting mortality in newborns with birth weights less than 1500 grams.

Prognostic value of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide in hospitalised patients with community-acquired pneumonia.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeong, Ki Young; Kim, Kyuseok; Kim, Tae Yun; Lee, Christopher C; Jo, Si On; Rhee, Joong Eui; Jo, You Hwan; Suh, Gil Joon; Singer, Adam J

2011-02-01

The prognostic role of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) has not been evaluated. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether NT-proBNP level could predict mortality in hospitalised CAP patients. We performed a structured medical record review of all hospitalised CAP patients from May 2003 to October 2006, and classified patients into the 30-day survival and non-survival group. Data included demographic and clinical characteristics, and laboratory findings including NT-proBNP levels. The APACHE II scores, PSI (pneumonia severity index) and CURB65 (confusion, urea, respiratory rate, blood pressure and aged 65 or more) scores were calculated. Comparisons between survivors and non-survivors were made with χ(2), non-parametric tests and logistic regression and ROC analysis were used to compare the ability of NT-proBNP (adjusted for age, heart failure and creatinine), APACHE II, PSI and CURB65 to predict mortality. Of 502 patients, 61 (12.2%) died within 30 days. NT-proBNP levels were measured in 167 patients and were significantly higher in non-survivors compared to survivors (median 841.7 (IQR 267.1-3137.3) pg/ml vs 3658.0 (1863.0-7025.0) pg/ml, p=0.019). NT-proBNP was an independent predictor of mortality (adjusted OR 1.53; 95% CI 1.16 to 2.02, p=0.002). The AUC for NT-proBNP was 0.712 (95% CI, 0.613 to 0.812), which was comparable to those of PSI (0.749, p=0.531) and CURB65 (0.698, p=0.693), but inferior to that of APACHE II (0.831, p=0.037). Adding NT-proBNP to APACHE II, PSI and CURB65 did not significantly increase the AUCs, respectively. NT-proBNP level is an independent predictor of mortality in hospitalised CAP patients. The performance of NT-proBNP level is comparable to those of PSI and CURB65 in predicting mortality.

The APACHE survey hardware and software design: Tools for an automatic search of small-size transiting exoplanets

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lattanzi M.G.

2013-04-01

Full Text Available Small-size ground-based telescopes can effectively be used to look for transiting rocky planets around nearby low-mass M stars using the photometric transit method, as recently demonstrated for example by the MEarth project. Since 2008 at the Astronomical Observatory of the Autonomous Region of Aosta Valley (OAVdA, we have been preparing for the long-term photometric survey APACHE, aimed at finding transiting small-size planets around thousands of nearby early and mid-M dwarfs. APACHE (A PAthway toward the Characterization of Habitable Earths is designed to use an array of five dedicated and identical 40-cm Ritchey-Chretien telescopes and its observations started at the beginning of summer 2012. The main characteristics of the survey final set up and the preliminary results from the first weeks of observations will be discussed.

Sideloading - Ingestion of Large Point Clouds Into the Apache Spark Big Data Engine

Science.gov (United States)

Boehm, J.; Liu, K.; Alis, C.

2016-06-01

In the geospatial domain we have now reached the point where data volumes we handle have clearly grown beyond the capacity of most desktop computers. This is particularly true in the area of point cloud processing. It is therefore naturally lucrative to explore established big data frameworks for big geospatial data. The very first hurdle is the import of geospatial data into big data frameworks, commonly referred to as data ingestion. Geospatial data is typically encoded in specialised binary file formats, which are not naturally supported by the existing big data frameworks. Instead such file formats are supported by software libraries that are restricted to single CPU execution. We present an approach that allows the use of existing point cloud file format libraries on the Apache Spark big data framework. We demonstrate the ingestion of large volumes of point cloud data into a compute cluster. The approach uses a map function to distribute the data ingestion across the nodes of a cluster. We test the capabilities of the proposed method to load billions of points into a commodity hardware compute cluster and we discuss the implications on scalability and performance. The performance is benchmarked against an existing native Apache Spark data import implementation.

SOX9 Expression Predicts Relapse of Stage II Colon Cancer Patients

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Espersen, Maiken Lise Marcker; Linnemann, Dorte; Christensen, Ib Jarle

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to investigate if the protein expression of Sex-determining region y-box 9 (SOX9) in primary tumors could predict relapse of stage II colon cancer patients.144 patients with stage II primary colon cancer were retrospectively enrolledin the study. SOX9 expression...

Microproteinuria Predicts Organ Failure in Patients Presenting with Acute Pancreatitis

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bertilsson, Sara; Swärd, Per; Håkansson, Anders

2016-01-01

patients were included (14 % with organ failure; 6 % with severe AP). The α1-microglobulin-, albumin-, and IgG/creatinine ratios correlated with high-sensitivity C-reactive protein 48 h after admission (r = 0.47–0.61, p .... Urine samples were collected upon admission, 12–24 h after admission, and 3 months post-discharge for calculation of urine α1-microglobulin-, albumin-, IgG-, and IgM/creatinine ratios. Data regarding AP etiology, severity, and development of organ failure were registered. Results: Overall, 92 AP...... organ failure (p creatinine ratio upon admission predicted organ failure [adjusted odds ratio 1.286, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.024–1.614] with similar accuracy (AUROC 0.81, 95 % CI 0.69–0.94) as the more complex APACHE II score (AUROC 0.86, 95 % CI 0...

Prediction about severity and outcome of sepsis by pro-atrial natriuretic peptide and pro-adrenomedullin.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Rui-lan; Kang, Fu-xin

2010-06-01

Measurement of biomarkers is a potential approach to early prediction of the risk of mortality in patients with sepsis. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic value of pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (pro-ANP) and pro-adrenomedullin (pro-ADM) levels in a cohort of medical intensive care patients and to compare it with that of other known biomarkers and physiological scores. Blood samples of 51 consecutive critically ill patients admitted to the intensive care unit and 53 age-matched healthy control people were evaluated in this prospective study. The prognostic value of pro-ANP and pro-ADM levels was compared with that of acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (APACHE) II scores and various biomarkers such as C-reactive protein, interleukin-6 and procalcitonin. Pro-ANP and pro-ADM were detected by a new sandwich immunoassay. On admission, 25 patients had systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), 12 sepsis, 9 severe sepsis and 5 septic shock. At that time, the median levels (ng/ml) of pro-ANP and pro-ADM were 87.22 and 0.34 respectively in patients with SIRS, 1533.30 and 2.23 in those with sepsis, 1098.73 and 4.57 in those with severe sepsis, and 1933.94 and 8.21 in those with septic shock. With the increasing severity of disease, the levels of pro-ANP and pro-ADM were gradually increased. On admission, the circulating levels of pro-ANP and pro-ADM in patients with sepsis, severe sepsis, or septic shock were significantly higher in non-survivors than in survivors (P less than 0.05). In a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis for the survival of patients with sepsis, the areas under the curve (AUCs) for pro-ANP and pro-ADM were 0.89 and 0.87 respectively, which was similar to the AUCs for procalcitonin and APACHE II scores. Pro-ANP and pro-ADM are valuable biomarkers for prediction of severity of septic patients.

[Predictive values of different critical scoring systems for mortality in patients with severe acute respiratory failure supported by extracorporeal membrane oxygenation].

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, R; Sun, B; Li, X Y; He, H Y; Tang, X; Zhan, Q Y; Tong, Z H

2016-09-01

To investigate the predictive values of different critical scoring systems for mortality in patients with severe acute respiratory failure (ARF) supported by venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO). Forty-two patients with severe ARF supported by VV-ECMO were enrolled from November 2009 to July 2015.There were 25 males and 17 females. The mean age was (44±18) years (rang 18-69 years). Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) Ⅱ, Ⅲ, Ⅳ, Simplified Acute Physiology Score Ⅱ (SAPS) Ⅱ, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA), ECMO net, PRedicting dEath for SEvere ARDS on VVECMO (PRESERVE), and Respiratory ECMO Survival Prediction (RESP) scores were collected within 6 hours before VV-ECMO support. The patients were divided into the survivors group (n=17) and the nonsurvivors group (n=25) by survival at 180 d after receiving VV-ECMO. The patient clinical characteristics and aforementioned scoring systems were compared between groups. Scoring systems for predicting prognosis were assessed using the area under the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to draw the surviving curve, and the survival of the patients was analyzed by the Log-rank test. The risk factors were assessed for prognosis by multiple logistic regression analysis. (1) Positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP) 6 hours prior to VV-ECMO support in the survivors group [(9.7±5.0)cmH2O, (1 cmH2O=0.098 kPa)] was lower than that in the nonsurvivors group [(13.2±5.4)cmH2O, t=-2.134, P=0.039]. VV-ECMO combination with continuous renal replacement therapy(CRRT) in the nonsurvivors group (32%) was used more than in the survivors group (6%, χ(2)=4.100, P=0.043). Duration of VV-ECMO support in the nonsurvivors group [(15±13) d] was longer than that in the survivors group [(12±11)d, t=-2.123, P=0.041]. APACHE Ⅱ, APACHE Ⅲ, APACHE Ⅳ, ECMO net, PRESERVE, and RESP scores in the survivors group were superior to the nonsurvivors

In silico prediction of ROCK II inhibitors by different classification approaches.

Science.gov (United States)

Cai, Chuipu; Wu, Qihui; Luo, Yunxia; Ma, Huili; Shen, Jiangang; Zhang, Yongbin; Yang, Lei; Chen, Yunbo; Wen, Zehuai; Wang, Qi

2017-11-01

ROCK II is an important pharmacological target linked to central nervous system disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. The purpose of this research is to generate ROCK II inhibitor prediction models by machine learning approaches. Firstly, four sets of descriptors were calculated with MOE 2010 and PaDEL-Descriptor, and optimized by F-score and linear forward selection methods. In addition, four classification algorithms were used to initially build 16 classifiers with k-nearest neighbors [Formula: see text], naïve Bayes, Random forest, and support vector machine. Furthermore, three sets of structural fingerprint descriptors were introduced to enhance the predictive capacity of classifiers, which were assessed with fivefold cross-validation, test set validation and external test set validation. The best two models, MFK + MACCS and MLR + SubFP, have both MCC values of 0.925 for external test set. After that, a privileged substructure analysis was performed to reveal common chemical features of ROCK II inhibitors. Finally, binding modes were analyzed to identify relationships between molecular descriptors and activity, while main interactions were revealed by comparing the docking interaction of the most potent and the weakest ROCK II inhibitors. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on ROCK II inhibitors utilizing machine learning approaches that provides a new method for discovering novel ROCK II inhibitors.

Increased Resistin Levels in Intra-abdominal Sepsis: Correlation with proinflammatory cytokines & Acute Physiology & Chronic Health Evaluation II scores

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tonguç U. Yilmaz

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Objectives: Resistin, a hormone secreted from adipocytes and considered to be a likely cause of insulin resistance, has recently been accepted as a proinflammatory cytokine. This study aimed to determine the correlation between resistin levels in patients with intra-abdominal sepsis and mortality. Methods: Of 45 patients with intraabdominal sepsis, a total of 35 adult patients were included in the study. This study was undertaken from December 2011 to December 2012 and included patients who had no history of diabetes mellitus and who were admitted to the general surgery intensive care units of Gazi University and Bülent Ecevit University School of Medicine, Turkey. Evaluations were performed on 12 patients with sepsis, 10 patients with severe sepsis, 13 patients with septic shock and 15 healthy controls. The patients’ plasma resistin, interleukin-6 (IL-6, tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α, interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β, procalcitonin, lactate and glucose levels and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II scores were studied daily for the first five days after admission. A correlation analysis of serum resistin levels with cytokine levels and APACHE II scores was performed. Results: Serum resistin levels in patients with sepsis were significantly higher than in the healthy controls (P <0.001. A significant correlation was found between serum resistin levels and APACHE II scores, serum IL-6, IL-1β, TNF-α, procalcitonin, lactate and glucose levels. Furthermore, a significant correlation was found between serum resistin levels and all-cause mortality (P = 0.02. Conclusion: The levels of resistin were significantly positively correlated with the severity of disease and were a possible mediator of a prolonged inflammatory state in patients with intra-abdominal sepsis.

External validation of the Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre (ICNARC) risk prediction model in critical care units in Scotland.

Science.gov (United States)

Harrison, David A; Lone, Nazir I; Haddow, Catriona; MacGillivray, Moranne; Khan, Angela; Cook, Brian; Rowan, Kathryn M

2014-01-01

Risk prediction models are used in critical care for risk stratification, summarising and communicating risk, supporting clinical decision-making and benchmarking performance. However, they require validation before they can be used with confidence, ideally using independently collected data from a different source to that used to develop the model. The aim of this study was to validate the Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre (ICNARC) model using independently collected data from critical care units in Scotland. Data were extracted from the Scottish Intensive Care Society Audit Group (SICSAG) database for the years 2007 to 2009. Recoding and mapping of variables was performed, as required, to apply the ICNARC model (2009 recalibration) to the SICSAG data using standard computer algorithms. The performance of the ICNARC model was assessed for discrimination, calibration and overall fit and compared with that of the Acute Physiology And Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II model. There were 29,626 admissions to 24 adult, general critical care units in Scotland between 1 January 2007 and 31 December 2009. After exclusions, 23,269 admissions were included in the analysis. The ICNARC model outperformed APACHE II on measures of discrimination (c index 0.848 versus 0.806), calibration (Hosmer-Lemeshow chi-squared statistic 18.8 versus 214) and overall fit (Brier's score 0.140 versus 0.157; Shapiro's R 0.652 versus 0.621). Model performance was consistent across the three years studied. The ICNARC model performed well when validated in an external population to that in which it was developed, using independently collected data.

SIDELOADING – INGESTION OF LARGE POINT CLOUDS INTO THE APACHE SPARK BIG DATA ENGINE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Boehm

2016-06-01

Full Text Available In the geospatial domain we have now reached the point where data volumes we handle have clearly grown beyond the capacity of most desktop computers. This is particularly true in the area of point cloud processing. It is therefore naturally lucrative to explore established big data frameworks for big geospatial data. The very first hurdle is the import of geospatial data into big data frameworks, commonly referred to as data ingestion. Geospatial data is typically encoded in specialised binary file formats, which are not naturally supported by the existing big data frameworks. Instead such file formats are supported by software libraries that are restricted to single CPU execution. We present an approach that allows the use of existing point cloud file format libraries on the Apache Spark big data framework. We demonstrate the ingestion of large volumes of point cloud data into a compute cluster. The approach uses a map function to distribute the data ingestion across the nodes of a cluster. We test the capabilities of the proposed method to load billions of points into a commodity hardware compute cluster and we discuss the implications on scalability and performance. The performance is benchmarked against an existing native Apache Spark data import implementation.

East and Central African Journal of Surgery Volume 10 Number 2 ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

user

generalized septic peritonitis were analyzed in which the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health. Evaluation (APACHE) II score was over 16. This score computates predicted mortality according to temperature, mean blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate, pO2 or PH, Na+, K+,. Creatinine, Haematocrit, WBC, Glasgow Coma.

Pretest Predictions for Phase II Ventilation Tests

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yiming Sun

2001-01-01

The objective of this calculation is to predict the temperatures of the ventilating air, waste package surface, and concrete pipe walls that will be developed during the Phase II ventilation tests involving various test conditions. The results will be used as inputs to validating numerical approach for modeling continuous ventilation, and be used to support the repository subsurface design. The scope of the calculation is to identify the physical mechanisms and parameters related to thermal response in the Phase II ventilation tests, and describe numerical methods that are used to calculate the effects of continuous ventilation. The calculation is limited to thermal effect only. This engineering work activity is conducted in accordance with the ''Technical Work Plan for: Subsurface Performance Testing for License Application (LA) for Fiscal Year 2001'' (CRWMS M and O 2000d). This technical work plan (TWP) includes an AP-2.21Q, ''Quality Determinations and Planning for Scientific, Engineering, and Regulatory Compliance Activities'', activity evaluation (CRWMS M and O 2000d, Addendum A) that has determined this activity is subject to the YMP quality assurance (QA) program. The calculation is developed in accordance with the AP-3.12Q procedure, ''Calculations''. Additional background information regarding this activity is contained in the ''Development Plan for Ventilation Pretest Predictive Calculation'' (DP) (CRWMS M and O 2000a)

A new method for prediction of the hospitalization period in ICU using neural networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adel Alinezhad Kolaei

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Introduction:APACHE (Acute Physiologic and Chronic Health Evaluation score is a medical tool designed to measure the severity of disease for adult patients admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICU. However, it is designed based on the American patients’ data and is not well suited to be used for Iranian people. In addition, Iranian hospitals are not equipped with High Dependency Units which is required for original APACHE. Method: We aimed to design an intelligent version of APACHE system for recognition of patients’ hospitalization period in ICUs. The new system can be designed based on Iranian local data and updated locally. Intelligence means that the system has the ability to learn from its previous results and doesn’t need manual update. Results: In this study, this new system is introduced and the technical specifications are presented. It is based on neural networks. It can be trained and is capable of auto-learning. The results obtained from final implemented software show better performance than those obtained from non-local version. Conclusion: Using this method, the efficiency of the prediction has increased from 80% to 90%. Such results were compared with the APACHE outputs to show the superiority of the proposed method.

A Tool for Predicting Regulatory Approval After Phase II Testing of New Oncology Compounds.

Science.gov (United States)

DiMasi, J A; Hermann, J C; Twyman, K; Kondru, R K; Stergiopoulos, S; Getz, K A; Rackoff, W

2015-11-01

We developed an algorithm (ANDI) for predicting regulatory marketing approval for new cancer drugs after phase II testing has been conducted, with the objective of providing a tool to improve drug portfolio decision-making. We examined 98 oncology drugs from the top 50 pharmaceutical companies (2006 sales) that first entered clinical development from 1999 to 2007, had been taken to at least phase II development, and had a known final outcome (research abandonment or regulatory marketing approval). Data on safety, efficacy, operational, market, and company characteristics were obtained from public sources. Logistic regression and machine-learning methods were used to provide an unbiased approach to assess overall predictability and to identify the most important individual predictors. We found that a simple four-factor model (activity, number of patients in the pivotal phase II trial, phase II duration, and a prevalence-related measure) had high sensitivity and specificity for predicting regulatory marketing approval. © 2015 American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

Improved methods for predicting peptide binding affinity to MHC class II molecules.

Science.gov (United States)

Jensen, Kamilla Kjaergaard; Andreatta, Massimo; Marcatili, Paolo; Buus, Søren; Greenbaum, Jason A; Yan, Zhen; Sette, Alessandro; Peters, Bjoern; Nielsen, Morten

2018-01-06

Major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC-II) molecules are expressed on the surface of professional antigen-presenting cells where they display peptides to T helper cells, which orchestrate the onset and outcome of many host immune responses. Understanding which peptides will be presented by the MHC-II molecule is therefore important for understanding the activation of T helper cells and can be used to identify T-cell epitopes. We here present updated versions of two MHC-II-peptide binding affinity prediction methods, NetMHCII and NetMHCIIpan. These were constructed using an extended data set of quantitative MHC-peptide binding affinity data obtained from the Immune Epitope Database covering HLA-DR, HLA-DQ, HLA-DP and H-2 mouse molecules. We show that training with this extended data set improved the performance for peptide binding predictions for both methods. Both methods are publicly available at www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetMHCII-2.3 and www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetMHCIIpan-3.2. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Mortality indicators and risk factors for intra-abdominal hypertension in severe acute pancreatitis.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, J G; Liao, Q; Zhao, Y P; Hu, Y

2014-01-01

This study assessed the risk factors associated with mortality and the development of intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) in patients with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). To identify significant risk factors, we assessed the following variables in 102 patients with SAP: age, gender, etiology, serum amylase level, white blood cell (WBC) count, serum calcium level, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE-II) score, computed tomography severity index (CTSI) score, pancreatic necrosis, surgical interventions, and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). Statistically significant differences were identified using the Student t test and the χ (2) test. Independent risk factors for survival were analyzed by Cox proportional hazards regression. The following variables were significantly related to both mortality and IAH: WBC count, serum calcium level, serum amylase level, APACHE-II score, CTSI score, pancreatic necrosis, pancreatic necrosis >50%, and MODS. However, it was found that surgical intervention had no significant association with mortality. MODS and pancreatic necrosis >50% were found to be independent risk factors for survival in patients with SAP. Mortality and IAH from SAP were significantly related to WBC count, serum calcium level, serum amylase level, APACHE-II score, CTSI score, pancreatic necrosis, and MODS. However, Surgical intervention did not result in higher mortality. Moreover, MODS and pancreatic necrosis >50% predicted a worse prognosis in SAP patients.

Prediction of MHC class II binding affinity using SMM-align, a novel stabilization matrix alignment method.

Science.gov (United States)

Nielsen, Morten; Lundegaard, Claus; Lund, Ole

2007-07-04

Antigen presenting cells (APCs) sample the extra cellular space and present peptides from here to T helper cells, which can be activated if the peptides are of foreign origin. The peptides are presented on the surface of the cells in complex with major histocompatibility class II (MHC II) molecules. Identification of peptides that bind MHC II molecules is thus a key step in rational vaccine design and developing methods for accurate prediction of the peptide:MHC interactions play a central role in epitope discovery. The MHC class II binding groove is open at both ends making the correct alignment of a peptide in the binding groove a crucial part of identifying the core of an MHC class II binding motif. Here, we present a novel stabilization matrix alignment method, SMM-align, that allows for direct prediction of peptide:MHC binding affinities. The predictive performance of the method is validated on a large MHC class II benchmark data set covering 14 HLA-DR (human MHC) and three mouse H2-IA alleles. The predictive performance of the SMM-align method was demonstrated to be superior to that of the Gibbs sampler, TEPITOPE, SVRMHC, and MHCpred methods. Cross validation between peptide data set obtained from different sources demonstrated that direct incorporation of peptide length potentially results in over-fitting of the binding prediction method. Focusing on amino terminal peptide flanking residues (PFR), we demonstrate a consistent gain in predictive performance by favoring binding registers with a minimum PFR length of two amino acids. Visualizing the binding motif as obtained by the SMM-align and TEPITOPE methods highlights a series of fundamental discrepancies between the two predicted motifs. For the DRB1*1302 allele for instance, the TEPITOPE method favors basic amino acids at most anchor positions, whereas the SMM-align method identifies a preference for hydrophobic or neutral amino acids at the anchors. The SMM-align method was shown to outperform other

Prediction of MHC class II binding affinity using SMM-align, a novel stabilization matrix alignment method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lund Ole

2007-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Antigen presenting cells (APCs sample the extra cellular space and present peptides from here to T helper cells, which can be activated if the peptides are of foreign origin. The peptides are presented on the surface of the cells in complex with major histocompatibility class II (MHC II molecules. Identification of peptides that bind MHC II molecules is thus a key step in rational vaccine design and developing methods for accurate prediction of the peptide:MHC interactions play a central role in epitope discovery. The MHC class II binding groove is open at both ends making the correct alignment of a peptide in the binding groove a crucial part of identifying the core of an MHC class II binding motif. Here, we present a novel stabilization matrix alignment method, SMM-align, that allows for direct prediction of peptide:MHC binding affinities. The predictive performance of the method is validated on a large MHC class II benchmark data set covering 14 HLA-DR (human MHC and three mouse H2-IA alleles. Results The predictive performance of the SMM-align method was demonstrated to be superior to that of the Gibbs sampler, TEPITOPE, SVRMHC, and MHCpred methods. Cross validation between peptide data set obtained from different sources demonstrated that direct incorporation of peptide length potentially results in over-fitting of the binding prediction method. Focusing on amino terminal peptide flanking residues (PFR, we demonstrate a consistent gain in predictive performance by favoring binding registers with a minimum PFR length of two amino acids. Visualizing the binding motif as obtained by the SMM-align and TEPITOPE methods highlights a series of fundamental discrepancies between the two predicted motifs. For the DRB1*1302 allele for instance, the TEPITOPE method favors basic amino acids at most anchor positions, whereas the SMM-align method identifies a preference for hydrophobic or neutral amino acids at the anchors. Conclusion

Early hospital mortality prediction of intensive care unit patients using an ensemble learning approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Awad, Aya; Bader-El-Den, Mohamed; McNicholas, James; Briggs, Jim

2017-12-01

Mortality prediction of hospitalized patients is an important problem. Over the past few decades, several severity scoring systems and machine learning mortality prediction models have been developed for predicting hospital mortality. By contrast, early mortality prediction for intensive care unit patients remains an open challenge. Most research has focused on severity of illness scoring systems or data mining (DM) models designed for risk estimation at least 24 or 48h after ICU admission. This study highlights the main data challenges in early mortality prediction in ICU patients and introduces a new machine learning based framework for Early Mortality Prediction for Intensive Care Unit patients (EMPICU). The proposed method is evaluated on the Multiparameter Intelligent Monitoring in Intensive Care II (MIMIC-II) database. Mortality prediction models are developed for patients at the age of 16 or above in Medical ICU (MICU), Surgical ICU (SICU) or Cardiac Surgery Recovery Unit (CSRU). We employ the ensemble learning Random Forest (RF), the predictive Decision Trees (DT), the probabilistic Naive Bayes (NB) and the rule-based Projective Adaptive Resonance Theory (PART) models. The primary outcome was hospital mortality. The explanatory variables included demographic, physiological, vital signs and laboratory test variables. Performance measures were calculated using cross-validated area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) to minimize bias. 11,722 patients with single ICU stays are considered. Only patients at the age of 16 years old and above in Medical ICU (MICU), Surgical ICU (SICU) or Cardiac Surgery Recovery Unit (CSRU) are considered in this study. The proposed EMPICU framework outperformed standard scoring systems (SOFA, SAPS-I, APACHE-II, NEWS and qSOFA) in terms of AUROC and time (i.e. at 6h compared to 48h or more after admission). The results show that although there are many values missing in the first few hour of ICU admission

An evaluation of multigroup flux predictions in the EBR-II core

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hill, R.N.; Fanning, T.H.; Finck, P.J.

1991-01-01

The unique physics characteristics of EBR-II which are difficult to model with conventional neutronic methodologies are identified; the high neutron leakage fraction and importance of neutron reflection cause errors when conventional calculational approximations are utilized. In this paper, various conventional and higher-order group constant evaluations and flux computation methods are compared for a simplified R-Z model of the EBR-II system. Although conventional methods do provide adequate predictions of the flux in the core region, significant mispredictions are observed in the reflector and radial blanket regions. Calculational comparisons indicate that a fine energy group structure is required for accurate predictions of the eigenvalue and flux distribution; greater detail is needed in the iron resonance scattering treatment. Calculational comparisons also indicate that transport theory with detailed anisotropic scattering treatment is required

An evaluation of multigroup flux predictions in the EBR-II core

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hill, R.N.; Fanning, T.H.; Finck, P.J.

1991-12-31

The unique physics characteristics of EBR-II which are difficult to model with conventional neutronic methodologies are identified; the high neutron leakage fraction and importance of neutron reflection cause errors when conventional calculational approximations are utilized. In this paper, various conventional and higher-order group constant evaluations and flux computation methods are compared for a simplified R-Z model of the EBR-II system. Although conventional methods do provide adequate predictions of the flux in the core region, significant mispredictions are observed in the reflector and radial blanket regions. Calculational comparisons indicate that a fine energy group structure is required for accurate predictions of the eigenvalue and flux distribution; greater detail is needed in the iron resonance scattering treatment. Calculational comparisons also indicate that transport theory with detailed anisotropic scattering treatment is required.

An evaluation of multigroup flux predictions in the EBR-II core

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hill, R.N.; Fanning, T.H.; Finck, P.J.

1991-01-01

The unique physics characteristics of EBR-II which are difficult to model with conventional neutronic methodologies are identified; the high neutron leakage fraction and importance of neutron reflection cause errors when conventional calculational approximations are utilized. In this paper, various conventional and higher-order group constant evaluations and flux computation methods are compared for a simplified R-Z model of the EBR-II system. Although conventional methods do provide adequate predictions of the flux in the core region, significant mispredictions are observed in the reflector and radial blanket regions. Calculational comparisons indicate that a fine energy group structure is required for accurate predictions of the eigenvalue and flux distribution; greater detail is needed in the iron resonance scattering treatment. Calculational comparisons also indicate that transport theory with detailed anisotropic scattering treatment is required.

LHCbDIRAC as Apache Mesos microservices

Science.gov (United States)

Haen, Christophe; Couturier, Benjamin

2017-10-01

The LHCb experiment relies on LHCbDIRAC, an extension of DIRAC, to drive its offline computing. This middleware provides a development framework and a complete set of components for building distributed computing systems. These components are currently installed and run on virtual machines (VM) or bare metal hardware. Due to the increased workload, high availability is becoming more and more important for the LHCbDIRAC services, and the current installation model is showing its limitations. Apache Mesos is a cluster manager which aims at abstracting heterogeneous physical resources on which various tasks can be distributed thanks to so called “frameworks” The Marathon framework is suitable for long running tasks such as the DIRAC services, while the Chronos framework meets the needs of cron-like tasks like the DIRAC agents. A combination of the service discovery tool Consul together with HAProxy allows to expose the running containers to the outside world while hiding their dynamic placements. Such an architecture brings a greater flexibility in the deployment of LHCbDirac services, allowing for easier deployment maintenance and scaling of services on demand (e..g LHCbDirac relies on 138 services and 116 agents). Higher reliability is also easier, as clustering is part of the toolset, which allows constraints on the location of the services. This paper describes the investigations carried out to package the LHCbDIRAC and DIRAC components into Docker containers and orchestrate them using the previously described set of tools.

Lot 4 AH-64E Apache Attack Helicopter Follow-on Operational Test and Evaluation Report

Science.gov (United States)

2014-12-01

engine is tested to determine its Engine Torque Factor ( ETF ) rating.6 To meet contract specifications, a new engine must have an ETF of 1.0. The...published AH-64E operator’s manual estimates performance based on engines with an ETF of 1.0, and pilots normally plan missions anticipating the 717...pound shortfall in hover performance at KPP conditions. The Apache Program Manager reports that new engines are delivered with an average ETF of

Developer Initiation and Social Interactions in OSS: A Case Study of the Apache Software Foundation

Science.gov (United States)

2014-08-01

pp. 201–215, 2003. 2. K. Crowston, K. Wei, J. Howison, and A. Wiggins, “Free/ libre open-source software devel- opment: What we know and what we do not...Understanding the process of participating in open source communities,” in International Workshop on Emerging Trends in Free/ Libre /Open Source Software ...Noname manuscript No. (will be inserted by the editor) Developer Initiation and Social Interactions in OSS: A Case Study of the Apache Software

Constructing Flexible, Configurable, ETL Pipelines for the Analysis of "Big Data" with Apache OODT

Science.gov (United States)

Hart, A. F.; Mattmann, C. A.; Ramirez, P.; Verma, R.; Zimdars, P. A.; Park, S.; Estrada, A.; Sumarlidason, A.; Gil, Y.; Ratnakar, V.; Krum, D.; Phan, T.; Meena, A.

2013-12-01

A plethora of open source technologies for manipulating, transforming, querying, and visualizing 'big data' have blossomed and matured in the last few years, driven in large part by recognition of the tremendous value that can be derived by leveraging data mining and visualization techniques on large data sets. One facet of many of these tools is that input data must often be prepared into a particular format (e.g.: JSON, CSV), or loaded into a particular storage technology (e.g.: HDFS) before analysis can take place. This process, commonly known as Extract-Transform-Load, or ETL, often involves multiple well-defined steps that must be executed in a particular order, and the approach taken for a particular data set is generally sensitive to the quantity and quality of the input data, as well as the structure and complexity of the desired output. When working with very large, heterogeneous, unstructured or semi-structured data sets, automating the ETL process and monitoring its progress becomes increasingly important. Apache Object Oriented Data Technology (OODT) provides a suite of complementary data management components called the Process Control System (PCS) that can be connected together to form flexible ETL pipelines as well as browser-based user interfaces for monitoring and control of ongoing operations. The lightweight, metadata driven middleware layer can be wrapped around custom ETL workflow steps, which themselves can be implemented in any language. Once configured, it facilitates communication between workflow steps and supports execution of ETL pipelines across a distributed cluster of compute resources. As participants in a DARPA-funded effort to develop open source tools for large-scale data analysis, we utilized Apache OODT to rapidly construct custom ETL pipelines for a variety of very large data sets to prepare them for analysis and visualization applications. We feel that OODT, which is free and open source software available through the Apache

Modeling transducer impulse responses for predicting calibrated pressure pulses with the ultrasound simulation program Field II

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bæk, David; Jensen, Jørgen Arendt; Willatzen, Morten

2010-01-01

FIELD II is a simulation software capable of predicting the field pressure in front of transducers having any complicated geometry. A calibrated prediction with this program is, however, dependent on an exact voltage-to-surface acceleration impulse response of the transducer. Such impulse response...... is not calculated by FIELD II. This work investigates the usability of combining a one-dimensional multilayer transducer modeling principle with the FIELD II software. Multilayer here refers to a transducer composed of several material layers. Measurements of pressure and current from Pz27 piezoceramic disks...... transducer model and the FIELD II software in combination give good agreement with measurements....

Cloud Computing: A model Construct of Real-Time Monitoring for Big Dataset Analytics Using Apache Spark

Science.gov (United States)

Alkasem, Ameen; Liu, Hongwei; Zuo, Decheng; Algarash, Basheer

2018-01-01

The volume of data being collected, analyzed, and stored has exploded in recent years, in particular in relation to the activity on the cloud computing. While large-scale data processing, analysis, storage, and platform model such as cloud computing were previously and currently are increasingly. Today, the major challenge is it address how to monitor and control these massive amounts of data and perform analysis in real-time at scale. The traditional methods and model systems are unable to cope with these quantities of data in real-time. Here we present a new methodology for constructing a model for optimizing the performance of real-time monitoring of big datasets, which includes a machine learning algorithms and Apache Spark Streaming to accomplish fine-grained fault diagnosis and repair of big dataset. As a case study, we use the failure of Virtual Machines (VMs) to start-up. The methodology proposition ensures that the most sensible action is carried out during the procedure of fine-grained monitoring and generates the highest efficacy and cost-saving fault repair through three construction control steps: (I) data collection; (II) analysis engine and (III) decision engine. We found that running this novel methodology can save a considerate amount of time compared to the Hadoop model, without sacrificing the classification accuracy or optimization of performance. The accuracy of the proposed method (92.13%) is an improvement on traditional approaches.

Predicting peptides binding to MHC class II molecules using multi-objective evolutionary algorithms

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Feng Lin

2007-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Peptides binding to Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC class II molecules are crucial for initiation and regulation of immune responses. Predicting peptides that bind to a specific MHC molecule plays an important role in determining potential candidates for vaccines. The binding groove in class II MHC is open at both ends, allowing peptides longer than 9-mer to bind. Finding the consensus motif facilitating the binding of peptides to a MHC class II molecule is difficult because of different lengths of binding peptides and varying location of 9-mer binding core. The level of difficulty increases when the molecule is promiscuous and binds to a large number of low affinity peptides. In this paper, we propose two approaches using multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEA for predicting peptides binding to MHC class II molecules. One uses the information from both binders and non-binders for self-discovery of motifs. The other, in addition, uses information from experimentally determined motifs for guided-discovery of motifs. Results The proposed methods are intended for finding peptides binding to MHC class II I-Ag7 molecule – a promiscuous binder to a large number of low affinity peptides. Cross-validation results across experiments on two motifs derived for I-Ag7 datasets demonstrate better generalization abilities and accuracies of the present method over earlier approaches. Further, the proposed method was validated and compared on two publicly available benchmark datasets: (1 an ensemble of qualitative HLA-DRB1*0401 peptide data obtained from five different sources, and (2 quantitative peptide data obtained for sixteen different alleles comprising of three mouse alleles and thirteen HLA alleles. The proposed method outperformed earlier methods on most datasets, indicating that it is well suited for finding peptides binding to MHC class II molecules. Conclusion We present two MOEA-based algorithms for finding motifs

The Impact of EuroSCORE II Risk Factors on Prediction of Long-Term Mortality.

Science.gov (United States)

Barili, Fabio; Pacini, Davide; D'Ovidio, Mariangela; Dang, Nicholas C; Alamanni, Francesco; Di Bartolomeo, Roberto; Grossi, Claudio; Davoli, Marina; Fusco, Danilo; Parolari, Alessandro

2016-10-01

The European System for Cardiac Operation Risk Evaluation (EuroSCORE) II has not been tested yet for predicting long-term mortality. This study was undertaken to evaluate the relationship between EuroSCORE II and long-term mortality and to develop a new algorithm based on EuroSCORE II factors to predict long-term survival after cardiac surgery. Complete data on 10,033 patients who underwent major cardiac surgery during a 7-year period were retrieved from three prospective institutional databases and linked with the Italian Tax Register Information System. Mortality at follow-up was analyzed with time-to-event analysis. The Kaplan-Meier estimates of survival at 1 and 5 were, respectively, 95.0% ± 0.2% and 84.7% ± 0.4%. Both discrimination and calibration of EuroSCORE II decreased in the prediction of 1-year and 5-year mortality. Nonetheless, EuroSCORE II was confirmed to be an independent predictor of long-term mortality with a nonlinear trend. Several EuroSCORE II variables were independent risk factors for long-term mortality in a regression model, most of all very low ejection fraction (less than 20%), salvage operation, and dialysis. In the final model, isolated mitral valve surgery and isolated coronary artery bypass graft surgery were associated with improved long-term survival. The EuroSCORE II cannot be considered a direct estimator of long-term risk of death, as its performance fades for mortality at follow-up longer than 30 days. Nonetheless, it is nonlinearly associated with long-term mortality, and most of its variables are risk factors for long-term mortality. Hence, they can be used in a different algorithm to stratify the risk of long-term mortality after surgery. Copyright © 2016 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Enhancing organization and maintenance of big data with Apache Solr in IBM WebSphere Commerce deployments

OpenAIRE

Grigel, Rudolf

2015-01-01

The main objective of this thesis was to enhance the organization and maintenance of big data with Apache Solr in IBM WebSphere Commerce deployments. This objective can be split into several subtasks: reorganization of data, fast and optimised exporting and importing, efficient update and cleanup operations. E-Commerce is a fast growing and frequently changing environment. There is a constant flow of data that is rapidly growing larger and larger every day which is becoming an ...

Software Code Smell Prediction Model Using Shannon, Rényi and Tsallis Entropies

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Aakanshi Gupta

2018-05-01

Full Text Available The current era demands high quality software in a limited time period to achieve new goals and heights. To meet user requirements, the source codes undergo frequent modifications which can generate the bad smells in software that deteriorate the quality and reliability of software. Source code of the open source software is easily accessible by any developer, thus frequently modifiable. In this paper, we have proposed a mathematical model to predict the bad smells using the concept of entropy as defined by the Information Theory. Open-source software Apache Abdera is taken into consideration for calculating the bad smells. Bad smells are collected using a detection tool from sub components of the Apache Abdera project, and different measures of entropy (Shannon, Rényi and Tsallis entropy. By applying non-linear regression techniques, the bad smells that can arise in the future versions of software are predicted based on the observed bad smells and entropy measures. The proposed model has been validated using goodness of fit parameters (prediction error, bias, variation, and Root Mean Squared Prediction Error (RMSPE. The values of model performance statistics ( R 2 , adjusted R 2 , Mean Square Error (MSE and standard error also justify the proposed model. We have compared the results of the prediction model with the observed results on real data. The results of the model might be helpful for software development industries and future researchers.

Outcrop Analysis of the Cretaceous Mesaverde Group: Jicarilla Apache Reservation, New Mexico

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ridgley, Jennie; Dunbar, Robin Wright

2001-04-24

Field work for this project was conducted during July and April 1998, at which time fourteen measured sections were described and correlated on or adjacent to Jicarilla Apache Reservation lands. A fifteenth section, described east of the main field area, is included in this report, although its distant location precluded use in the correlations and cross sections presented herein. Ground-based photo mosaics were shot for much of the exposed Mesaverde outcrop belt and were used to assist in correlation. Outcrop gamma-ray surveys at six of the fifteen measured sections using a GAD-6 scintillometer was conducted. The raw gamma-ray data are included in this report, however, analysis of those data is part of the ongoing Phase Two of this project.

Prediction of the binding affinities of peptides to class II MHC using a regularized thermodynamic model

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Mittelmann Hans D

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The binding of peptide fragments of extracellular peptides to class II MHC is a crucial event in the adaptive immune response. Each MHC allotype generally binds a distinct subset of peptides and the enormous number of possible peptide epitopes prevents their complete experimental characterization. Computational methods can utilize the limited experimental data to predict the binding affinities of peptides to class II MHC. Results We have developed the Regularized Thermodynamic Average, or RTA, method for predicting the affinities of peptides binding to class II MHC. RTA accounts for all possible peptide binding conformations using a thermodynamic average and includes a parameter constraint for regularization to improve accuracy on novel data. RTA was shown to achieve higher accuracy, as measured by AUC, than SMM-align on the same data for all 17 MHC allotypes examined. RTA also gave the highest accuracy on all but three allotypes when compared with results from 9 different prediction methods applied to the same data. In addition, the method correctly predicted the peptide binding register of 17 out of 18 peptide-MHC complexes. Finally, we found that suboptimal peptide binding registers, which are often ignored in other prediction methods, made significant contributions of at least 50% of the total binding energy for approximately 20% of the peptides. Conclusions The RTA method accurately predicts peptide binding affinities to class II MHC and accounts for multiple peptide binding registers while reducing overfitting through regularization. The method has potential applications in vaccine design and in understanding autoimmune disorders. A web server implementing the RTA prediction method is available at http://bordnerlab.org/RTA/.

NN-align. An artificial neural network-based alignment algorithm for MHC class II peptide binding prediction

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Lund Ole

2009-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The major histocompatibility complex (MHC molecule plays a central role in controlling the adaptive immune response to infections. MHC class I molecules present peptides derived from intracellular proteins to cytotoxic T cells, whereas MHC class II molecules stimulate cellular and humoral immunity through presentation of extracellularly derived peptides to helper T cells. Identification of which peptides will bind a given MHC molecule is thus of great importance for the understanding of host-pathogen interactions, and large efforts have been placed in developing algorithms capable of predicting this binding event. Results Here, we present a novel artificial neural network-based method, NN-align that allows for simultaneous identification of the MHC class II binding core and binding affinity. NN-align is trained using a novel training algorithm that allows for correction of bias in the training data due to redundant binding core representation. Incorporation of information about the residues flanking the peptide-binding core is shown to significantly improve the prediction accuracy. The method is evaluated on a large-scale benchmark consisting of six independent data sets covering 14 human MHC class II alleles, and is demonstrated to outperform other state-of-the-art MHC class II prediction methods. Conclusion The NN-align method is competitive with the state-of-the-art MHC class II peptide binding prediction algorithms. The method is publicly available at http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetMHCII-2.0.

Evaluation of the predictive indices for candidemia in an adult intensive care unit

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Gilberto Gambero Gaspar

2015-02-01

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION: To evaluate predictive indices for candidemia in an adult intensive care unit (ICU and to propose a new index. METHODS: A prospective cohort study was conducted between January 2011 and December 2012. This study was performed in an ICU in a tertiary care hospital at a public university and included 114 patients staying in the adult ICU for at least 48 hours. The association of patient variables with candidemia was analyzed. RESULTS: There were 18 (15.8% proven cases of candidemia and 96 (84.2% cases without candidemia. Univariate analysis revealed the following risk factors: parenteral nutrition, severe sepsis, surgical procedure, dialysis, pancreatitis, acute renal failure, and an APACHE II score higher than 20. For the Candida score index, the odds ratio was 8.50 (95% CI, 2.57 to 28.09; the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 0.78, 0.71, 0.33, and 0.94, respectively. With respect to the clinical predictor index, the odds ratio was 9.45 (95%CI, 2.06 to 43.39; the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 0.89, 0.54, 0.27, and 0.96, respectively. The proposed candidemia index cutoff was 8.5; the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 0.77, 0.70, 0.33, and 0.94, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The Candida score and clinical predictor index excluded candidemia satisfactorily. The effectiveness of the candidemia index was comparable to that of the Candida score.

Urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin is an excellent predictor of mortality in intensive care unit patients

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Haifa M. Algethamy

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Objectives: To assess urine neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (uNGAL level as a potential predictor of acute kidney injury (AKI, and both intensive care unit (ICU and in-hospital mortality. Methods: Patients presenting to our ICU with a systolic blood pressure (SBP less than 90 mmHg or mean arterial pressure (MAP less than 65 mmHg, and no prior kidney disease were followed prospectively. Baseline data were collected on patient demographics, admission diagnosis, APACHE II and SOFA scores, SBP, MAP, serum creatinine and cystatin C, and uNGAL. Patients were monitored throughout hospitalization, including daily uNGAL, serum creatinine and cystatin C, and continuous MAP. Bivariate analysis compared those dying in the ICU and in-hospital versus survivors; with hierarchical binary logistic regression used to identify predictors of mortality. Areas under receiver-operating-characteristic curves (AUC were used to measure sensitivity and specificity at different uNGAL thresholds. Results: Among 75 patients followed, 16 died in the ICU, and another 24 prior to hospital discharge. Mortality rates were greatest in trauma and sepsis patients. The ICU survivors differed from non-survivors in almost all clinical variables; but only 2 predicted ICU mortality on multivariate analysis: day one uNGAL (p=0.01 and 24-hour APACHE II score (p=0.07. Only the APACHE II score significantly predicted in-hospital mortality (p=0.003. The AUC for day one uNGAL was greater for ICU (AUC=0.85 than in-hospital mortality (AUC=0.74. Conclusions: Day one uNGAL is a highly accurate predictor of ICU, but less so for in-hospital mortality.

Dynamic detection of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide helps to predict the outcome of patients with major trauma.

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Qian, A; Zhang, M; Zhao, G

2015-02-01

NT-proBNP and BNP have been demonstrated to be prognostic markers in cardiac disease and sepsis. However, the prognostic value and the dynamic changes of BNP or NT-proBNP in trauma patients remain unclear. The present study was conducted to investigate the dynamic changes of NT-proBNP in patients with major trauma (injury severity score ≥16), determine whether NT-proBNP could be used as a simple index to predict mortality in major trauma patients. This prospective observational study included 60 patients with major trauma. Serum NT-proBNP levels were measured on the 1st, 3rd and 7th day after injury The NT-proBNP levels in survivors were compared with those in non-survivors. The efficacy of NT-proBNP to predict survival was analyzed using receiver operating characteristic curves. An analysis of correlations between NT-proBNP and various factors, including injury severity score, Glasgow coma score, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II, central venous pressure, creatine kinase-MB, cardiac troponin I and procalcitonin (PCT) was performed. NT-proBNP levels in patients with traumatic brain injury were compared with those in patients without traumatic brain injury. A comparison of NT-proBNP levels between patients with and without sepsis was also performed at each time point. NT-proBNP levels in non-survivors were significantly higher than those in survivors at all the indicated time points. In the group of non-survivors, NT-proBNP levels on the 7th day were markedly higher than those on the 1st day. In contrast, NT-proBNP levels in survivors showed a reduction over time. The efficacy of NT-proBNP to predict survival was analyzed using ROC curves, and there was no difference in the area under the ROC between NT-proBNP and APACHE II/ISS at the three time points. A significant correlation was found between NT-proBNP and ISS on the 1st day, NT-proBNP and CK-MB, Tn-I and APACHE II on the 3rd day, NT-proBNP and PCT on the 7th day. There were no significant

Use of a semiquantitative procalcitonin kit for evaluating severity and predicting mortality in patients with sepsis

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Kenzaka T

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Tsuneaki Kenzaka,1 Masanobu Okayama,2 Shigehiro Kuroki,1 Miho Fukui,3 Shinsuke Yahata,3 Hiroki Hayashi,3 Akihito Kitao,3 Eiji Kajii,2 Masayoshi Hashimoto41Division of General Medicine, 2Division of Community and Family Medicine, Center for Community Medicine, Jichi Medical University School of Medicine, Shimotsuke; 3Department of General Medicine, Toyooka Public Hospital, Toyooka; 4Department of Family and Community Medicine, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, JapanBackground: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical usefulness of a semiquantitative procalcitonin kit for assessing severity of sepsis and early determination of mortality in affected patients.Methods: This was a prospective, observational study including 206 septic patients enrolled between June 2008 and August 2009. Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II scores were measured, along with semiquantitative procalcitonin concentrations. Patients were divided into three groups based on their semiquantitative procalcitonin concentrations (group A, <2 ng/mL; group B ≥ 2 ng/mL < 10 ng/mL; group C ≥ 10 ng/mL.Results: A significant difference in DIC, SOFA, and APACHE II scores was found between group A and group C and between group B and group C (P < 0.01. Patients with severe sepsis and septic shock had significantly higher procalcitonin concentrations than did patients with less severe disease. The rate of patients with septic shock with high procalcitonin concentrations showed an upward trend. There was a significant (P < 0.01 difference between the three groups with regard to numbers of patients and rates of severe sepsis, septic shock, DIC, and mortality.Conclusion: Semiquantitative procalcitonin concentration testing can be helpful for early assessment of disease severity in patients with sepsis. Furthermore, it may also help in predicting early

Update on Astrometric Follow-Up at Apache Point Observatory by Adler Planetarium

Science.gov (United States)

Nault, Kristie A.; Brucker, Melissa; Hammergren, Mark

2016-10-01

We began our NEO astrometric follow-up and characterization program in 2014 Q4 using about 500 hours of observing time per year with the Astrophysical Research Consortium (ARC) 3.5m telescope at Apache Point Observatory (APO). Our observing is split into 2 hour blocks approximately every other night for astrometry (this poster) and several half-nights per month for spectroscopy (see poster by M. Hammergren et al.) and light curve studies.For astrometry, we use the ARC Telescope Imaging Camera (ARCTIC) with an SDSS r filter, in 2 hour observing blocks centered around midnight. ARCTIC has a magnitude limit of V~23 in 60s, and we target 20 NEOs per session. ARCTIC has a FOV 1.57 times larger and a readout time half as long as the previous imager, SPIcam, which we used from 2014 Q4 through 2015 Q3. Targets are selected primarily from the Minor Planet Center's (MPC) NEO Confirmation Page (NEOCP), and NEA Observation Planning Aid; we also refer to JPL's What's Observable page, the Spaceguard Priority List and Faint NEOs List, and requests from other observers. To quickly adapt to changing weather and seeing conditions, we create faint, midrange, and bright target lists. Detected NEOs are measured with Astrometrica and internal software, and the astrometry is reported to the MPC.As of June 19, 2016, we have targeted 2264 NEOs, 1955 with provisional designations, 1582 of which were detected. We began observing NEOCP asteroids on January 30, 2016, and have targeted 309, 207 of which were detected. In addition, we serendipitously observed 281 moving objects, 201 of which were identified as previously known objects.This work is based on observations obtained with the Apache Point Observatory 3.5m telescope, which is owned and operated by the Astrophysical Research Consortium. We gratefully acknowledge support from NASA NEOO award NNX14AL17G and thank the University of Chicago Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics for observing time in 2014.

Prediction of MHC class II binding affinity using SMM-align, a novel stabilization matrix alignment method

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Morten; Lundegaard, Claus; Lund, Ole

2007-01-01

the correct alignment of a peptide in the binding groove a crucial part of identifying the core of an MHC class II binding motif. Here, we present a novel stabilization matrix alignment method, SMM-align, that allows for direct prediction of peptide:MHC binding affinities. The predictive performance...... of the method is validated on a large MHC class II benchmark data set covering 14 HLA-DR (human MHC) and three mouse H2-IA alleles. RESULTS: The predictive performance of the SMM-align method was demonstrated to be superior to that of the Gibbs sampler, TEPITOPE, SVRMHC, and MHCpred methods. Cross validation...... between peptide data set obtained from different sources demonstrated that direct incorporation of peptide length potentially results in over-fitting of the binding prediction method. Focusing on amino terminal peptide flanking residues (PFR), we demonstrate a consistent gain in predictive performance...

Measurement and prediction of dabigatran etexilate mesylate Form II solubility in mono-solvents and mixed solvents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xiao, Yan; Wang, Jingkang; Wang, Ting; Ouyang, Jinbo; Huang, Xin; Hao, Hongxun; Bao, Ying; Fang, Wen; Yin, Qiuxiang

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Solubility of DEM Form II in mono-solvents and binary solvent mixtures was measured. • Regressed UNIFAC model was used to predict the solubility in solvent mixtures. • The experimental solubility data were correlated by different models. - Abstract: UV spectrometer method was used to measure the solubility data of dabigatran etexilate mesylate (DEM) Form II in five mono-solvents (methanol, ethanol, ethane-1,2-diol, DMF, DMAC) and binary solvent mixtures of methanol and ethanol in the temperature range from 287.37 K to 323.39 K. The experimental solubility data in mono-solvents were correlated with modified Apelblat equation, van’t Hoff equation and λh equation. GSM model and Modified Jouyban-Acree model were employed to correlate the solubility data in mixed solvent systems. And Regressed UNIFAC model was used to predict the solubility of DEM Form II in the binary solvent mixtures. Results showed that the predicted data were consistent with the experimental data.

Peak-summer East Asian rainfall predictability and prediction part II: extratropical East Asia

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Yim, So-Young; Wang, Bin; Xing, Wen

2016-07-01

The part II of the present study focuses on northern East Asia (NEA: 26°N-50°N, 100°-140°E), exploring the source and limit of the predictability of the peak summer (July-August) rainfall. Prediction of NEA peak summer rainfall is extremely challenging because of the exposure of the NEA to midlatitude influence. By examining four coupled climate models' multi-model ensemble (MME) hindcast during 1979-2010, we found that the domain-averaged MME temporal correlation coefficient (TCC) skill is only 0.13. It is unclear whether the dynamical models' poor skills are due to limited predictability of the peak-summer NEA rainfall. In the present study we attempted to address this issue by applying predictable mode analysis method using 35-year observations (1979-2013). Four empirical orthogonal modes of variability and associated major potential sources of variability are identified: (a) an equatorial western Pacific (EWP)-NEA teleconnection driven by EWP sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies, (b) a western Pacific subtropical high and Indo-Pacific dipole SST feedback mode, (c) a central Pacific-El Nino-Southern Oscillation mode, and (d) a Eurasian wave train pattern. Physically meaningful predictors for each principal component (PC) were selected based on analysis of the lead-lag correlations with the persistent and tendency fields of SST and sea-level pressure from March to June. A suite of physical-empirical (P-E) models is established to predict the four leading PCs. The peak summer rainfall anomaly pattern is then objectively predicted by using the predicted PCs and the corresponding observed spatial patterns. A 35-year cross-validated hindcast over the NEA yields a domain-averaged TCC skill of 0.36, which is significantly higher than the MME dynamical hindcast (0.13). The estimated maximum potential attainable TCC skill averaged over the entire domain is around 0.61, suggesting that the current dynamical prediction models may have large rooms to improve

Improved prediction of MHC class I and class II epitopes using a novel Gibbs sampling approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Morten; Lundegaard, Claus; Worning, Peder

2004-01-01

Prediction of which peptides will bind a specific major histocompatibility complex (MHC) constitutes an important step in identifying potential T-cell epitopes suitable as vaccine candidates. MHC class II binding peptides have a broad length distribution complicating such predictions. Thus......, identifying the correct alignment is a crucial part of identifying the core of an MHC class II binding motif. In this context, we wish to describe a novel Gibbs motif sampler method ideally suited for recognizing such weak sequence motifs. The method is based on the Gibbs sampling method, and it incorporates...

High performance Spark best practices for scaling and optimizing Apache Spark

CERN Document Server

Karau, Holden

2017-01-01

Apache Spark is amazing when everything clicks. But if you haven’t seen the performance improvements you expected, or still don’t feel confident enough to use Spark in production, this practical book is for you. Authors Holden Karau and Rachel Warren demonstrate performance optimizations to help your Spark queries run faster and handle larger data sizes, while using fewer resources. Ideal for software engineers, data engineers, developers, and system administrators working with large-scale data applications, this book describes techniques that can reduce data infrastructure costs and developer hours. Not only will you gain a more comprehensive understanding of Spark, you’ll also learn how to make it sing. With this book, you’ll explore: How Spark SQL’s new interfaces improve performance over SQL’s RDD data structure The choice between data joins in Core Spark and Spark SQL Techniques for getting the most out of standard RDD transformations How to work around performance issues i...

Extraction of UMLS® Concepts Using Apache cTAKES™ for German Language.

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Becker, Matthias; Böckmann, Britta

2016-01-01

Automatic information extraction of medical concepts and classification with semantic standards from medical reports is useful for standardization and for clinical research. This paper presents an approach for an UMLS concept extraction with a customized natural language processing pipeline for German clinical notes using Apache cTAKES. The objectives are, to test the natural language processing tool for German language if it is suitable to identify UMLS concepts and map these with SNOMED-CT. The German UMLS database and German OpenNLP models extended the natural language processing pipeline, so the pipeline can normalize to domain ontologies such as SNOMED-CT using the German concepts. For testing, the ShARe/CLEF eHealth 2013 training dataset translated into German was used. The implemented algorithms are tested with a set of 199 German reports, obtaining a result of average 0.36 F1 measure without German stemming, pre- and post-processing of the reports.

Characteristics and outcome of critically ill patients with 2009 H1N1 influenza infection in Syria

Science.gov (United States)

Alsadat, Reem; Dakak, Abdulrahman; Mazlooms, Mouna; Ghadhban, Ghasan; Fattoom, Shadi; Betelmal, Ibrahim; Abouchala, Nabil; Kherallah, Mazen

2012-01-01

Objectives: To describe the epidemiologic characteristics, clinical features, and outcome of severe cases of 2009 H1N1 influenza A infections who were admitted to the intensive care units (ICUs) in Damascus, Syria. Materials and Methods: Retrospectively, we collected clinical data on all patients who were admitted to the ICU with confirmed or suspected diagnosis of severe 2009 H1N1 influenza A with respiratory failure at 4 major tertiary care hospitals in Damascus, Syria. Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II system was used to assess the severity of illness within the first 24 h after admission. The outcome was overall hospital mortality. Results: Eighty patients were admitted to the ICU with severe 2009 H1N1 infection. The mean age was 40.7 years; 69.8% of patients had ≥1 of the risk factors: asthmatics 20%, obesity 23.8%, and pregnancy 5%; and 72.5% had acute lung injury or adult respiratory distress syndrome, 12.5% had viral pneumonia, 42.5% had secondary bacterial pneumonia, and 15% had exacerbation of airflow disease. Mechanical ventilation was required in 73.7% of cases. The mean hospital length of stay was 11.7 days (median 8 days, range 0–77 days, IQR: 5–14 days). The overall mortality rate was 51% for a mean APACHE II score of 15.2 with a predicted mortality of 21% (standardized mortality ratio of 2.4, 95% confidence interval: 1.7–3.2, P value < 0.001). Conclusion: Critically ill patients with severe 2009 H1N1 infection in this limited resource country had a much higher mortality rate than the predicted APACHE II mortality rate or when compared with the reported mortality rates for severe cases in other countries during 2009 H1N1 pandemic. PMID:23210019

Testing the Predictive Validity of the Hendrich II Fall Risk Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Jung, Hyesil; Park, Hyeoun-Ae

2018-03-01

Cumulative data on patient fall risk have been compiled in electronic medical records systems, and it is possible to test the validity of fall-risk assessment tools using these data between the times of admission and occurrence of a fall. The Hendrich II Fall Risk Model scores assessed during three time points of hospital stays were extracted and used for testing the predictive validity: (a) upon admission, (b) when the maximum fall-risk score from admission to falling or discharge, and (c) immediately before falling or discharge. Predictive validity was examined using seven predictive indicators. In addition, logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors that significantly affect the occurrence of a fall. Among the different time points, the maximum fall-risk score assessed between admission and falling or discharge showed the best predictive performance. Confusion or disorientation and having a poor ability to rise from a sitting position were significant risk factors for a fall.

Outcomes of decompressive craniectomy in patients after traumatic brain injury.

Science.gov (United States)

Nambiar, Mithun; MacIsaac, Christopher; Grabinski, Rafal; Liew, Danny; Kavar, Bhadrakant

2015-06-01

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) can result in cerebral oedema and vascular changes resulting in an increase in intracranial pressure (ICP), which can lead to further secondary damage. Decompressive craniectomy (DC) is a surgical option in the management of ICP. We aimed to investigate outcomes of DC after TBI. We performed a retrospective audit of 57 adult patients (aged > 15 years) who underwent DC after TBI, at the Royal Melbourne Hospital from 1 January 2005 to 30 June 2011. Our functional outcome measure was the Extended Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOSE). Patients had a median age of 30 years (range, 17- 73 years). The hospital mortality rate was 47% (27 patients). A higher postoperative median ICP was the most significant predictor of hospital mortality (OR, 1.1; 95% CI, 1-1.3). There was a mean decrease of 7.7mmHg in ICP between the mean preoperative and postoperative ICP values (95% CI, - 10.5 to - 5.0mmHg). There was a mean decrease of 3.5mmHg in the mean cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) from preoperative to postoperative CPP values (95% CI, - 6.2 to - 0.8mmHg). At the 6-month follow-up, a poor outcome (GOSE score, 1-4) was seen in 39 patients (68%), while a good outcome (GOSE score, 5- 8) was noted in 15 patients (26%). A high APACHE II score on admission was the most significant predictor of a worse GOSE score at 6 months (OR, 1.3; 95% CI, 1.1-1.5). Analysis of the APACHE II and IMPACT scores as models for predicting mortality at 6 months showed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.792 and 0.805, respectively, and for predicting poor outcome at 6 months, showed an AUC of 0.862 and 0.883, respectively. DC decreased ICP postoperatively. The IMPACT and APACHE II scores are good models for prediction of death and poor outcome at 6 months.

TMDIM: an improved algorithm for the structure prediction of transmembrane domains of bitopic dimers

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Han; Ng, Marcus C. K.; Jusoh, Siti Azma; Tai, Hio Kuan; Siu, Shirley W. I.

2017-09-01

α-Helical transmembrane proteins are the most important drug targets in rational drug development. However, solving the experimental structures of these proteins remains difficult, therefore computational methods to accurately and efficiently predict the structures are in great demand. We present an improved structure prediction method TMDIM based on Park et al. (Proteins 57:577-585, 2004) for predicting bitopic transmembrane protein dimers. Three major algorithmic improvements are introduction of the packing type classification, the multiple-condition decoy filtering, and the cluster-based candidate selection. In a test of predicting nine known bitopic dimers, approximately 78% of our predictions achieved a successful fit (RMSD PHP, MySQL and Apache, with all major browsers supported.

APOGEE-2: The Second Phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment in SDSS-IV

Science.gov (United States)

Sobeck, Jennifer; Majewski, S.; Hearty, F.; Schiavon, R. P.; Holtzman, J. A.; Johnson, J.; Frinchaboy, P. M.; Skrutskie, M. F.; Munoz, R.; Pinsonneault, M. H.; Nidever, D. L.; Zasowski, G.; Garcia Perez, A.; Fabbian, D.; Meza Cofre, A.; Cunha, K. M.; Smith, V. V.; Chiappini, C.; Beers, T. C.; Steinmetz, M.; Anders, F.; Bizyaev, D.; Roman, A.; Fleming, S. W.; Crane, J. D.; SDSS-IV/APOGEE-2 Collaboration

2014-01-01

The second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), a part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV), will commence operations in 2014. APOGEE-2 represents a significant expansion over APOGEE-1, not only in the size of the stellar sample, but also in the coverage of the sky through observations in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Observations on the 2.5m Sloan Foundation Telescope of the Apache Point Observatory (APOGEE-2N) will continue immediately after the conclusion of APOGEE-1, to be followed by observations with the 2.5m du Pont Telescope of the Las Campanas Observatory (APOGEE-2S) within three years. Over the six-year lifetime of the project, high resolution (R˜22,500), high signal-to-noise (≥100) spectroscopic data in the H-band wavelength regime (1.51-1.69 μm) will be obtained for several hundred thousand stars, more than tripling the total APOGEE-1 sample. Accurate radial velocities and detailed chemical compositions will be generated for target stars in the main Galactic components (bulge, disk, and halo), open/globular clusters, and satellite dwarf galaxies. The spectroscopic follow-up program of Kepler targets with the APOGEE-2N instrument will be continued and expanded. APOGEE-2 will significantly extend and enhance the APOGEE-1 legacy of scientific contributions to understanding the origin and evolution of the elements, the assembly and formation history of galaxies like the Milky Way, and fundamental stellar astrophysics.

Prediction of Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) Score Using Acoustic Measurements in a Sample of Iium Engineering Students

Science.gov (United States)

Fikri Zanil, Muhamad; Nur Wahidah Nik Hashim, Nik; Azam, Huda

2017-11-01

Psychiatrist currently relies on questionnaires and interviews for psychological assessment. These conservative methods often miss true positives and might lead to death, especially in cases where a patient might be experiencing suicidal predisposition but was only diagnosed as major depressive disorder (MDD). With modern technology, an assessment tool might aid psychiatrist with a more accurate diagnosis and thus hope to reduce casualty. This project will explore on the relationship between speech features of spoken audio signal (reading) in Bahasa Malaysia with the Beck Depression Inventory scores. The speech features used in this project were Power Spectral Density (PSD), Mel-frequency Ceptral Coefficients (MFCC), Transition Parameter, formant and pitch. According to analysis, the optimum combination of speech features to predict BDI-II scores include PSD, MFCC and Transition Parameters. The linear regression approach with sequential forward/backward method was used to predict the BDI-II scores using reading speech. The result showed 0.4096 mean absolute error (MAE) for female reading speech. For male, the BDI-II scores successfully predicted 100% less than 1 scores difference with MAE of 0.098437. A prediction system called Depression Severity Evaluator (DSE) was developed. The DSE managed to predict one out of five subjects. Although the prediction rate was low, the system precisely predict the score within the maximum difference of 4.93 for each person. This demonstrates that the scores are not random numbers.

Historical review of uranium-vanadium in the eastern Carrizo Mountains, San Juan County, New Mexico and Apache County, Arizona

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chenoweth, W.L.

1980-03-01

This report is a brief review of the uranium and/or vanadium mining in the eastern Carrizo Mountains, San Juan County, New Mexico and Apache County, Arizona. It was prepared at the request of the Navajo Tribe, the New Mexico Energy and Minerals Department, and the Arizona Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology. This report deals only with historical production data. The locations of the mines and the production are presented in figures and tables

The Value of the SYNTAX Score II in Predicting Clinical Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation.

Science.gov (United States)

Ryan, Nicola; Nombela-Franco, Luis; Jiménez-Quevedo, Pilar; Biagioni, Corina; Salinas, Pablo; Aldazábal, Andrés; Cerrato, Enrico; Gonzalo, Nieves; Del Trigo, María; Núñez-Gil, Iván; Fernández-Ortiz, Antonio; Macaya, Carlos; Escaned, Javier

2017-11-27

The predictive value of the SYNTAX score (SS) for clinical outcomes after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is very limited and could potentially be improved by the combination of anatomic and clinical variables, the SS-II. We aimed to evaluate the value of the SS-II in predicting outcomes in patients undergoing TAVI. A total of 402 patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis undergoing transfemoral TAVI were included. Preprocedural TAVI angiograms were reviewed and the SS-I and SS-II were calculated using the SS algorithms. Patients were stratified in 3 groups according to SS-II tertiles. The coprimary endpoints were all-cause death and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), a composite of all-cause death, cerebrovascular event, or myocardial infarction at 1 year. Increased SS-II was associated with higher 30-day mortality (P=.036) and major bleeding (P=.015). The 1-year risk of death and MACE was higher among patients in the 3rd SS-II tertile (HR, 2.60; P=.002 and HR, 2.66; P<.001) and was similar among patients in the 2nd tertile (HR, 1.27; P=.507 and HR, 1.05; P=.895) compared with patients in the 1st tertile. The highest SS-II tertile was an independent predictor of long-term mortality (P=.046) and MACE (P=.001). The SS-II seems more suited to predict clinical outcomes in patients undergoing TAVI than the SS-I. Increased SS-II was associated with poorer clinical outcomes at 1 and 4 years post-TAVI, independently of the presence of coronary artery disease. Copyright © 2017 Sociedad Española de Cardiología. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE)

Science.gov (United States)

Majewski, Steven R.; Schiavon, Ricardo P.; Frinchaboy, Peter M.; Allende Prieto, Carlos; Barkhouser, Robert; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Blank, Basil; Brunner, Sophia; Burton, Adam; Carrera, Ricardo; Chojnowski, S. Drew; Cunha, Kátia; Epstein, Courtney; Fitzgerald, Greg; García Pérez, Ana E.; Hearty, Fred R.; Henderson, Chuck; Holtzman, Jon A.; Johnson, Jennifer A.; Lam, Charles R.; Lawler, James E.; Maseman, Paul; Mészáros, Szabolcs; Nelson, Matthew; Nguyen, Duy Coung; Nidever, David L.; Pinsonneault, Marc; Shetrone, Matthew; Smee, Stephen; Smith, Verne V.; Stolberg, Todd; Skrutskie, Michael F.; Walker, Eric; Wilson, John C.; Zasowski, Gail; Anders, Friedrich; Basu, Sarbani; Beland, Stephane; Blanton, Michael R.; Bovy, Jo; Brownstein, Joel R.; Carlberg, Joleen; Chaplin, William; Chiappini, Cristina; Eisenstein, Daniel J.; Elsworth, Yvonne; Feuillet, Diane; Fleming, Scott W.; Galbraith-Frew, Jessica; García, Rafael A.; García-Hernández, D. Aníbal; Gillespie, Bruce A.; Girardi, Léo; Gunn, James E.; Hasselquist, Sten; Hayden, Michael R.; Hekker, Saskia; Ivans, Inese; Kinemuchi, Karen; Klaene, Mark; Mahadevan, Suvrath; Mathur, Savita; Mosser, Benoît; Muna, Demitri; Munn, Jeffrey A.; Nichol, Robert C.; O'Connell, Robert W.; Parejko, John K.; Robin, A. C.; Rocha-Pinto, Helio; Schultheis, Matthias; Serenelli, Aldo M.; Shane, Neville; Silva Aguirre, Victor; Sobeck, Jennifer S.; Thompson, Benjamin; Troup, Nicholas W.; Weinberg, David H.; Zamora, Olga

2017-09-01

The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), one of the programs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III), has now completed its systematic, homogeneous spectroscopic survey sampling all major populations of the Milky Way. After a three-year observing campaign on the Sloan 2.5 m Telescope, APOGEE has collected a half million high-resolution (R ˜ 22,500), high signal-to-noise ratio (>100), infrared (1.51-1.70 μm) spectra for 146,000 stars, with time series information via repeat visits to most of these stars. This paper describes the motivations for the survey and its overall design—hardware, field placement, target selection, operations—and gives an overview of these aspects as well as the data reduction, analysis, and products. An index is also given to the complement of technical papers that describe various critical survey components in detail. Finally, we discuss the achieved survey performance and illustrate the variety of potential uses of the data products by way of a number of science demonstrations, which span from time series analysis of stellar spectral variations and radial velocity variations from stellar companions, to spatial maps of kinematics, metallicity, and abundance patterns across the Galaxy and as a function of age, to new views of the interstellar medium, the chemistry of star clusters, and the discovery of rare stellar species. As part of SDSS-III Data Release 12 and later releases, all of the APOGEE data products are publicly available.

Prediction of individual mandibular changes induced by functional jaw orthopedics followed by fixed appliances in Class II patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Franchi, Lorenzo; Baccetti, Tiziano

2006-11-01

To identify pretreatment cephalometric variables for the prediction of individual mandibular outcomes of functional jaw orthopedics (FJO) followed by fixed appliances in Class II patients treated at the peak in mandibular growth. The study was performed on 51 subjects (24 females, 27 males) with Class II malocclusion. First-phase therapy was accomplished with a twin block in 16 subjects, a stainless steel crown Herbst in 15 subjects, and an acrylic splint Herbst in 20 subjects. Lateral cephalograms were available at the start of treatment with FJO and at the completion of fixed appliance therapy. All subjects received FJO at the peak in mandibular growth (CS 3 at T1). Individual responsiveness to Class II treatment including FJO was defined on the basis of the T2-T1 increment in total mandibular length (Co-Gn) when compared with untreated Class II subjects. Discriminant analysis identified a single predictive parameter (Co-Go-Me degrees) with a classification power of 80%. Pretreatment vertical and sagittal parameters were not able to improve the prediction based upon the mandibular angle. A Class II patient at the peak in skeletal maturation (CS 3) with a pretreatment Co-Go-Me degrees smaller than 125.5 degrees is expected to respond favorably to treatment including FJO. A Class II patient at CS 3 with a pretreatment value for Co-Go-Me degrees greater than 125.5 degrees is expected to respond poorly to treatment including FJO.

Hardening en servidor web Linux Apache, PHP y configurar el firewall de aplicaciones modsecurity para mitigar ataques al servidor

OpenAIRE

Espol; Delgado Quishpe, Byron Alberto

2017-01-01

Realizar un hardening al servidor web, se procederá a revisar las directivas en los archivos de configuración del servicio Apache, PHP, y se procederá a realizar instalación y configuración de un firewall de aplicaciones llamado mod_security la cual nos permitirá mitigar ataques a nuestro servidor web. realizando un análisis de vulnerabilidades encontrado en el servidor. Guayaquil Magíster en Seguridad Informática Aplicada

Aplikasi Search Engine Perpustakaan Petra Berbasis Android dengan Apache SOLR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andreas Handojo

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Abstrak: Pendidikan merupakan kebutuhan yang penting bagi manusia untuk meningkatkan kemampuan serta taraf hidupnya.Selain melalui pendidikan formal, ilmu juga dapat diperoleh melalui media cetak atau buku.Perpustakaan merupakan salah satu sarana yang penting dalam menunjang hal tersebut.Meskipun sangat bermanfaat, terdapat kesulitan penggunaan layanan perpustakaan, karena terlalu banyaknya koleksi pustaka yang ada (buku, jurnal, majalah, dan sebagainya sehingga sulit untuk menemukan buku yang ingin dicari.Oleh sebab itu, selain harus berkembang dengan penyediaan koleksi pustaka, perpustakaan harus dapat mengikuti perkembangan zaman yang ada sehingga mempermudah penggunaan layanan perpustakaan.Saat iniperpustakaan Universitas Kristen Petra memiliki perpustakaan dengan kurang lebih 230.000 koleksi fisik maupun digital (berdasarkan data 2014.Dimana daftar koleksi fisik dan dokumen digital dapat diakses melalui website perpustakaan.Adanya koleksi pustaka yang sangat banyak ini menyebabkan kesulitan pengguna dalam melakukan proses pencarian. Sehingga guna menambah fitur layanan yang diberikan maka pada penelitian ini dibuatlah sebuah aplikasi layanan search engine perpustakaan menggunakan platform Apache SOLR dan database PostgreSQL. Selain itu, guna lebih meningkatkan kemudahan akses maka aplikasi ini dibuat dengan menggunakan platform mobile device berbasis Android.Selain pengujian terhadap aplikasi dilakukan juga pengujian dengan mengedarkan kuesioner terhadap 50 calon pengguna.Dari hasil kuestioner tersebut menunjukkan bahwa fitur-fitur yang dibuat telah sesuai dengan kebutuhan pengguna (78%. Kata kunci: SOLR, Mesin Pencarian, Perpustakaan, PostgreSQL Abstract: Education is an essential requirement for people to improve their standard of living. Other than through formal education, science can also be obtained through the print media or books. Library is one important tool supporting it. Although it is useful, there are difficulties use library

Survival in Patients Receiving Prolonged Ventilation: Factors that Influence Outcome

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. James Mamary

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Background Prolonged mechanical ventilation is increasingly common. It is expensive and associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Our objective is to comprehensively characterize patients admitted to a Ventilator Rehabilitation Unit (VRU for weaning and identify characteristics associated with survival. Methods 182 consecutive patients over 3.5 years admitted to Temple University Hospital (TUH VRU were characterized. Data were derived from comprehensive chart review and a prospectively collected computerized database. Survival was determined by hospital records and social security death index and mailed questionnaires. Results Upon admission to the VRU, patients were hypoalbuminemic (albumin 2.3 ± 0.6 g/dL, anemic (hemoglobin 9.6 ± 1.4 g/dL, with moderate severity of illness (APACHE II score 10.7 + 4.1, and multiple comorbidities (Charlson index 4.3 + 2.3. In-hospital mortality (19% was related to a higher Charlson Index score ( P = 0.006; OR 1.08-1.6, and APACHE II score ( P = 0.016; OR 1.03-1.29. In-hospital mortality was inversely related to admission albumin levels ( P = 0.023; OR 0.17-0.9. The presence of COPD as a comorbid illness or primary determinant of respiratory failure and higher VRU admission APACHE II score predicted higher long-term mortality. Conversely, higher VRU admission hemoglobin was associated with better long term survival (OR 0.57-0.90; P = 0.0006. Conclusion Patients receiving prolonged ventilation are hypoalbuminemic, anemic, have moderate severity of illness, and multiple comorbidities. Survival relates to these factors and the underlying illness precipitating respiratory failure, especially COPD.

Prognosis of patients with rheumatic diseases admitted to intensive care.

Science.gov (United States)

Beil, M; Sviri, S; de la Guardia, V; Stav, I; Ben-Chetrit, E; van Heerden, P V

2017-01-01

Variable mortality rates have been reported for patients with rheumatic diseases admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU). Due to the absence of appropriate control groups in previous studies, it is not known whether the presence of a rheumatic disease constitutes a risk factor. Moreover, the accuracy of the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score for predicting outcome in this group of patients has been questioned. The primary goal of this study was to compare outcome of patients with rheumatic diseases admitted to a medical ICU to those of controls. The records of all patients admitted between 1 April 2003 and 30 June 2014 (n=4020) were screened for the presence of a rheumatic disease during admission (n=138). The diagnosis of a rheumatic disease was by standard criteria for these conditions. An age- and gender-matched control group of patients without a rheumatic disease was extracted from the patient population in the database during the same period (n=831). Mortality in ICU, in hospital and after 180 days did not differ significantly between patients with and without rheumatic diseases. There was no difference in the performance of the APACHE II score for predicting outcome in patients with rheumatic diseases and controls. This score, as well as a requirement for the use of inotropes or vasopressors, accurately predicted hospital mortality in the group of patients with rheumatic diseases. In conclusion, patients with a rheumatic condition admitted to intensive care do not do significantly worse than patients without such a disease.

Prediction of CMEs and Type II Bursts from Sun to Earth

Science.gov (United States)

Cairns, I. H.; Schmidt, J. M.; Gopalswamy, N.; van der Holst, B.

2017-12-01

Most major space weather events are due to fast CMEs and their shocks interacting with Earth's magnetosphere. SImilarly, type II solar radio bursts are well-known signatures of CMEs and their shocks moving through the corona and solar wind. The properties of the space weather events and the type II radio bursts depend sensitively on the CME velocity, shape, and evolution as functions of position and time, as well as on the magnetic field vector in the coronal and solar wind plasma, downstream of the CME shock, and inside the CME. We report simulations of CMEs and type II bursts from the Sun to Earth with the Space Weather Modelling Framework (2015 and 2016 versions), set up carefully using relevant data, and a kinetic radio emission theory. Excellent agreement between observations, simulations, and theory are found for the coronal (metric) type II burst of 7 September 2014 and associated CME, including the lack of radio emission in the solar wind beyond about 10 solar radii. Similarly, simulation of a CME and type II burst from the Sun to 1 AU over the period 29 November - 1 December 2013 yield excellent agreement for the radio burst from 10 MHz to 30 kHz for STEREO A and B and Wind, arrival of the CME at STEREO A within 1 hour reported time, deceleration of the CME in agreement with the Gopalswamy et al. [2011] observational analyses, and Bz rotations at STEREO A from upstream of the CME shock to within the CME. These results provide strong support for the type II theory and also that the Space WeatherModeling Framework can accurately predict the properties and evolution of CMEs and the interplanetary magnetic field and plasma from the Sun to 1 AU when sufficiently carefully initialized.

Mescalero Apache Tribe Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Peso, F.

1992-03-13

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended, authorizes the siting, construction and operation of a Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS) facility. The MRS is intended to be used for the temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel from the nation's nuclear power plants beginning as early as 1998. Pursuant to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the Office of the Nuclear Waste Negotiator was created. On October 7, 1991, the Nuclear Waste Negotiator invited the governors of states and the Presidents of Indian tribes to apply for government grants in order to conduct a study to assess under what conditions, if any, they might consider hosting an MRS facility. Pursuant to this invitation, on October 11, 1991 the Mescalero Apache Indian Tribe of Mescalero, NM applied for a grant to conduct a phased, preliminary study of the safety, technical, political, environmental, social and economic feasibility of hosting an MRS. The preliminary study included: (1) An investigative education process to facilitate the Tribe's comprehensive understanding of the safety, environmental, technical, social, political, and economic aspects of hosting an MRS, and; (2) The development of an extensive program that is enabling the Tribe, in collaboration with the Negotiator, to reach an informed and carefully researched decision regarding the conditions, (if any), under which further pursuit of the MRS would be considered. The Phase 1 grant application enabled the Tribe to begin the initial activities necessary to determine whether further consideration is warranted for hosting the MRS facility. The Tribe intends to pursue continued study of the MRS in order to meet the following objectives: (1) Continuing the education process towards a comprehensive understanding of the safety, environmental, technical, social and economic aspects of the MRS; (2) Conducting an effective public participation and information program; (3) Participating in MRS meetings.

Mescalero Apache Tribe Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Peso, F.

1992-01-01

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended, authorizes the siting, construction and operation of a Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS) facility. The MRS is intended to be used for the temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel from the nation's nuclear power plants beginning as early as 1998. Pursuant to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the Office of the Nuclear Waste Negotiator was created. On October 7, 1991, the Nuclear Waste Negotiator invited the governors of states and the Presidents of Indian tribes to apply for government grants in order to conduct a study to assess under what conditions, if any, they might consider hosting an MRS facility. Pursuant to this invitation, on October 11, 1991 the Mescalero Apache Indian Tribe of Mescalero, NM applied for a grant to conduct a phased, preliminary study of the safety, technical, political, environmental, social and economic feasibility of hosting an MRS. The preliminary study included: (1) An investigative education process to facilitate the Tribe's comprehensive understanding of the safety, environmental, technical, social, political, and economic aspects of hosting an MRS, and; (2) The development of an extensive program that is enabling the Tribe, in collaboration with the Negotiator, to reach an informed and carefully researched decision regarding the conditions, (if any), under which further pursuit of the MRS would be considered. The Phase 1 grant application enabled the Tribe to begin the initial activities necessary to determine whether further consideration is warranted for hosting the MRS facility. The Tribe intends to pursue continued study of the MRS in order to meet the following objectives: (1) Continuing the education process towards a comprehensive understanding of the safety, environmental, technical, social and economic aspects of the MRS; (2) Conducting an effective public participation and information program; (3) Participating in MRS meetings

Extreme Environment Damage Index and Accumulation Model for CMC Laminate Fatigue Life Prediction, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Materials Research & Design (MR&D) is proposing in the SBIR Phase II an effort to develop a tool for predicting the fatigue life of C/SiC composite...

Aplicación de las redes neuronales artificiales para la estratificación de riesgo de mortalidad hospitalaria Application of artificial neural networks for risk stratification of hospital mortality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J. Trujillano

2003-12-01

predict hospital mortality with that of the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II system and multiple logistic regression (LR. A secondary objective was to compare the allocation of individual probability among the models. Method: The variables required for calculating the APACHE II were prospectively collected. A total of 1146 patients were divided (randomly 70% and 30% into the Development (800 and the Validation (346 sets. With the same variables an LR model and an ANN were carried out (a 3-layer perceptron trained by algorithm backpropagation with bootstrap resampling and with 9 nodes in the hidden layer in the Development set. The models developed were contrasted with the Validation set and their discrimination properties were evaluated using the area under the ROC curve (AUC [95% CI] and calibration with the Hosmer-Lemeshow C (HLC test. Differences between the probabilities were evaluated using the Bland-Altman test. Results: The Validation set showed an APACHE II with an AUC = 0.79 (0.75-0.84 and HLC = 11 (p = 0.329; LR model AUC = 0.81 (0.76-0.85 and HLC = 29 (p = 0.0001 and an ANN AUC = 0.82 (0.77-0.86 and HLC = 10 (p = 0.404. The patients with the most important differences in the allocation of probability between LR and ANN (8% of the total were neurological. The worst results were found in trauma patients with an AUC of not greater than 0.75 in all the models. In respiratory patients, the ANN achieved the best AUC = 0.87 (0.78-0.91. Conclusions: The ANN was able to stratify hospital mortality risk by using the APACHE II system variables. The ANN tended to achieve better results than LR, since, in order to work, it does not require lineal restrictions or independent variables. Allocation of individual probability differed in each model.

Factors associated with pulmonary dysfunction in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery with use of intra-aortic balloon pump.

Science.gov (United States)

Amaral Gonçalves Fusatto, Helena; Castilho de Figueiredo, Luciana; Ragonete Dos Anjos Agostini, Ana Paula; Sibinelli, Melissa; Dragosavac, Desanka

2018-01-01

The aim of this study was to identify pulmonary dysfunction and factors associated with prolonged mechanical ventilation, hospital stay, weaning failure and mortality in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting with use of intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP). This observational study analyzed respiratory, surgical, clinical and demographic variables and related them to outcomes. We analyzed 39 patients with a mean age of 61.2 years. Pulmonary dysfunction, characterized by mildly impaired gas exchange, was present from the immediate postoperative period to the third postoperative day. Mechanical ventilation time was influenced by the use of IABP and PaO2/FiO2, female gender and smoking. Intensive care unit (ICU) stay was influenced by APACHE II score and use of IABP. Mortality was strongly influenced by APACHE II score, followed by weaning failure. Pulmonary dysfunction was present from the first to the third postoperative day. Mechanical ventilation time was influenced by female gender, smoking, duration of IABP use and PaO2/FiO2 on the first postoperative day. ICU stay was influenced by APACHE II score and duration of IABP. Mortality was influenced by APACHE II score, followed by weaning failure. Copyright © 2017 Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Majewski, Steven R.; Brunner, Sophia; Burton, Adam; Chojnowski, S. Drew; Pérez, Ana E. García; Hearty, Fred R.; Lam, Charles R.; Schiavon, Ricardo P.; Frinchaboy, Peter M.; Prieto, Carlos Allende; Carrera, Ricardo; Barkhouser, Robert; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Blank, Basil; Henderson, Chuck; Cunha, Kátia; Epstein, Courtney; Johnson, Jennifer A.; Fitzgerald, Greg; Holtzman, Jon A.

2017-01-01

The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), one of the programs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III), has now completed its systematic, homogeneous spectroscopic survey sampling all major populations of the Milky Way. After a three-year observing campaign on the Sloan 2.5 m Telescope, APOGEE has collected a half million high-resolution ( R  ∼ 22,500), high signal-to-noise ratio (>100), infrared (1.51–1.70 μ m) spectra for 146,000 stars, with time series information via repeat visits to most of these stars. This paper describes the motivations for the survey and its overall design—hardware, field placement, target selection, operations—and gives an overview of these aspects as well as the data reduction, analysis, and products. An index is also given to the complement of technical papers that describe various critical survey components in detail. Finally, we discuss the achieved survey performance and illustrate the variety of potential uses of the data products by way of a number of science demonstrations, which span from time series analysis of stellar spectral variations and radial velocity variations from stellar companions, to spatial maps of kinematics, metallicity, and abundance patterns across the Galaxy and as a function of age, to new views of the interstellar medium, the chemistry of star clusters, and the discovery of rare stellar species. As part of SDSS-III Data Release 12 and later releases, all of the APOGEE data products are publicly available.

The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE)

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Majewski, Steven R.; Brunner, Sophia; Burton, Adam; Chojnowski, S. Drew; Pérez, Ana E. García; Hearty, Fred R.; Lam, Charles R. [Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4325 (United States); Schiavon, Ricardo P. [Gemini Observatory, 670 N. A’Ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720 (United States); Frinchaboy, Peter M. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129 (United States); Prieto, Carlos Allende; Carrera, Ricardo [Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Barkhouser, Robert [Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States); Bizyaev, Dmitry [Apache Point Observatory and New Mexico State University, P.O. Box 59, Sunspot, NM, 88349-0059 (United States); Blank, Basil; Henderson, Chuck [Pulse Ray Machining and Design, 4583 State Route 414, Beaver Dams, NY 14812 (United States); Cunha, Kátia [Observatório Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 20921-400 (Brazil); Epstein, Courtney; Johnson, Jennifer A. [The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 (United States); Fitzgerald, Greg [New England Optical Systems, 237 Cedar Hill Street, Marlborough, MA 01752 (United States); Holtzman, Jon A. [New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003 (United States); and others

2017-09-01

The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), one of the programs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III), has now completed its systematic, homogeneous spectroscopic survey sampling all major populations of the Milky Way. After a three-year observing campaign on the Sloan 2.5 m Telescope, APOGEE has collected a half million high-resolution ( R  ∼ 22,500), high signal-to-noise ratio (>100), infrared (1.51–1.70 μ m) spectra for 146,000 stars, with time series information via repeat visits to most of these stars. This paper describes the motivations for the survey and its overall design—hardware, field placement, target selection, operations—and gives an overview of these aspects as well as the data reduction, analysis, and products. An index is also given to the complement of technical papers that describe various critical survey components in detail. Finally, we discuss the achieved survey performance and illustrate the variety of potential uses of the data products by way of a number of science demonstrations, which span from time series analysis of stellar spectral variations and radial velocity variations from stellar companions, to spatial maps of kinematics, metallicity, and abundance patterns across the Galaxy and as a function of age, to new views of the interstellar medium, the chemistry of star clusters, and the discovery of rare stellar species. As part of SDSS-III Data Release 12 and later releases, all of the APOGEE data products are publicly available.

External validation of a biomarker and clinical prediction model for hospital mortality in acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Zhiguo; Wickersham, Nancy; Kangelaris, Kirsten N; May, Addison K; Bernard, Gordon R; Matthay, Michael A; Calfee, Carolyn S; Koyama, Tatsuki; Ware, Lorraine B

2017-08-01

Mortality prediction in ARDS is important for prognostication and risk stratification. However, no prediction models have been independently validated. A combination of two biomarkers with age and APACHE III was superior in predicting mortality in the NHLBI ARDSNet ALVEOLI trial. We validated this prediction tool in two clinical trials and an observational cohort. The validation cohorts included 849 patients from the NHLBI ARDSNet Fluid and Catheter Treatment Trial (FACTT), 144 patients from a clinical trial of sivelestat for ARDS (STRIVE), and 545 ARDS patients from the VALID observational cohort study. To evaluate the performance of the prediction model, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), model discrimination, and calibration were assessed, and recalibration methods were applied. The biomarker/clinical prediction model performed well in all cohorts. Performance was better in the clinical trials with an AUC of 0.74 (95% CI 0.70-0.79) in FACTT, compared to 0.72 (95% CI 0.67-0.77) in VALID, a more heterogeneous observational cohort. The AUC was 0.73 (95% CI 0.70-0.76) when FACTT and VALID were combined. We validated a mortality prediction model for ARDS that includes age, APACHE III, surfactant protein D, and interleukin-8 in a variety of clinical settings. Although the model performance as measured by AUC was lower than in the original model derivation cohort, the biomarker/clinical model still performed well and may be useful for risk assessment for clinical trial enrollment, an issue of increasing importance as ARDS mortality declines, and better methods are needed for selection of the most severely ill patients for inclusion.

Inequalities in Open Source Software Development: Analysis of Contributor's Commits in Apache Software Foundation Projects.

Science.gov (United States)

Chełkowski, Tadeusz; Gloor, Peter; Jemielniak, Dariusz

2016-01-01

While researchers are becoming increasingly interested in studying OSS phenomenon, there is still a small number of studies analyzing larger samples of projects investigating the structure of activities among OSS developers. The significant amount of information that has been gathered in the publicly available open-source software repositories and mailing-list archives offers an opportunity to analyze projects structures and participant involvement. In this article, using on commits data from 263 Apache projects repositories (nearly all), we show that although OSS development is often described as collaborative, but it in fact predominantly relies on radically solitary input and individual, non-collaborative contributions. We also show, in the first published study of this magnitude, that the engagement of contributors is based on a power-law distribution.

FORUM - FutureTox II: In vitro Data and In Silico Models for Predictive Toxicology

Science.gov (United States)

FutureTox II, a Society of Toxicology Contemporary Concepts in Toxicology workshop, was held in January, 2014. The meeting goals were to review and discuss the state of the science in toxicology in the context of implementing the NRC 21st century vision of predicting in vivo resp...

FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR A PETROLEUM REFINERY FOR THE JICARILLA APACHE TRIBE

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jones, John D.

2004-01-01

A feasibility study for a proposed petroleum refinery for the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation was performed. The available crude oil production was identified and characterized. There is 6,000 barrels per day of crude oil production available for processing in the proposed refinery. The proposed refinery will utilize a lower temperature, smaller crude fractionation unit. It will have a Naphtha Hydrodesulfurizer and Reformer to produce high octane gasoline. The surplus hydrogen from the reformer will be used in a specialized hydrocracker to convert the heavier crude oil fractions to ultra low sulfur gasoline and diesel fuel products. The proposed refinery will produce gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel, and a minimal amount of lube oil. The refinery will require about $86,700,000 to construct. It will have net annual pre-tax profit of about $17,000,000. The estimated return on investment is 20%. The feasibility is positive subject to confirmation of long term crude supply. The study also identified procedures for evaluating processing options as a means for American Indian Tribes and Native American Corporations to maximize the value of their crude oil production

Predictive Modeling of a Paradigm Mechanical Cooling Tower Model: II. Optimal Best-Estimate Results with Reduced Predicted Uncertainties

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ruixian Fang

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This work uses the adjoint sensitivity model of the counter-flow cooling tower derived in the accompanying PART I to obtain the expressions and relative numerical rankings of the sensitivities, to all model parameters, of the following model responses: (i outlet air temperature; (ii outlet water temperature; (iii outlet water mass flow rate; and (iv air outlet relative humidity. These sensitivities are subsequently used within the “predictive modeling for coupled multi-physics systems” (PM_CMPS methodology to obtain explicit formulas for the predicted optimal nominal values for the model responses and parameters, along with reduced predicted standard deviations for the predicted model parameters and responses. These explicit formulas embody the assimilation of experimental data and the “calibration” of the model’s parameters. The results presented in this work demonstrate that the PM_CMPS methodology reduces the predicted standard deviations to values that are smaller than either the computed or the experimentally measured ones, even for responses (e.g., the outlet water flow rate for which no measurements are available. These improvements stem from the global characteristics of the PM_CMPS methodology, which combines all of the available information simultaneously in phase-space, as opposed to combining it sequentially, as in current data assimilation procedures.

Perform wordcount Map-Reduce Job in Single Node Apache Hadoop cluster and compress data using Lempel-Ziv-Oberhumer (LZO) algorithm

OpenAIRE

Mirajkar, Nandan; Bhujbal, Sandeep; Deshmukh, Aaradhana

2013-01-01

Applications like Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter have huge data which has to be stored and retrieved as per client access. This huge data storage requires huge database leading to increase in physical storage and becomes complex for analysis required in business growth. This storage capacity can be reduced and distributed processing of huge data can be done using Apache Hadoop which uses Map-reduce algorithm and combines the repeating data so that entire data is stored in reduced format. The paper ...

Pneumonias e infecção HIV. Algumas particularidades clínicas e factores de prognóstico

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Jorge T. Monteiro

1996-03-01

<0,03. Mortality was higher in Group A (52,6% than in Group B (29,6%, (p<0,04. Analysing the A Group patients, we found no significant differences between alive and deceased patients, with the exception for albuminemia, which was lower in the deceased patients (p<0,02. In conclusion, the HIV+ patient's PNM have a more agressive behavior when compared with community acquired HIV-patient's PNM. The prognosis was not influenced by the APACHE II. Some prognostic factores, usually accepted as predictive in the analysis of HIV+ patients do not seem to be worth in the late stages of AIDS, mainly when they require intensive care. Palavras-chave: Pneumonias, HIV, APACHE II, Ventilação Mecânica, Prognóstico, Key-Words: Pneumonias, HIV, APACHE II, Mechanical Ventilation, Prognosis

Visible Wavelength Reflectance Spectra and Taxonomies of Near-Earth Objects from Apache Point Observatory

Science.gov (United States)

Hammergren, Mark; Brucker, Melissa J.; Nault, Kristie A.; Gyuk, Geza; Solontoi, Michael R.

2015-11-01

Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are interesting to scientists and the general public for diverse reasons: their impacts pose a threat to life and property; they present important albeit biased records of the formation and evolution of the Solar System; and their materials may provide in situ resources for future space exploration and habitation.In January 2015 we began a program of NEO astrometric follow-up and physical characterization using a 17% share of time on the Astrophysical Research Consortium (ARC) 3.5-meter telescope at Apache Point Observatory (APO). Our 500 hours of annual observing time are split into frequent, short astrometric runs (see poster by K. A. Nault et. al), and half-night runs devoted to physical characterization (see poster by M. J. Brucker et. al for preliminary rotational lightcurve results). NEO surface compositions are investigated with 0.36-1.0 μm reflectance spectroscopy using the Dual Imaging Spectrograph (DIS) instrument. As of August 25, 2015, including testing runs during fourth quarter 2014, we have obtained reflectance spectra of 68 unique NEOs, ranging in diameter from approximately 5m to 8km.In addition to investigating the compositions of individual NEOs to inform impact hazard and space resource evaluations, we may examine the distribution of taxonomic types and potential trends with other physical and orbital properties. For example, the Yarkovsky effect, which is dependent on asteroid shape, mass, rotation, and thermal characteristics, is believed to dominate other dynamical effects in driving the delivery of small NEOs from the main asteroid belt. Studies of the taxonomic distribution of a large sample of NEOs of a wide range of sizes will test this hypothesis.We present a preliminary analysis of the reflectance spectra obtained in our survey to date, including taxonomic classifications and potential trends with size.Acknowledgements: Based on observations obtained with the Apache Point Observatory 3.5-meter telescope, which

Inequalities in Open Source Software Development: Analysis of Contributor’s Commits in Apache Software Foundation Projects

Science.gov (United States)

2016-01-01

While researchers are becoming increasingly interested in studying OSS phenomenon, there is still a small number of studies analyzing larger samples of projects investigating the structure of activities among OSS developers. The significant amount of information that has been gathered in the publicly available open-source software repositories and mailing-list archives offers an opportunity to analyze projects structures and participant involvement. In this article, using on commits data from 263 Apache projects repositories (nearly all), we show that although OSS development is often described as collaborative, but it in fact predominantly relies on radically solitary input and individual, non-collaborative contributions. We also show, in the first published study of this magnitude, that the engagement of contributors is based on a power-law distribution. PMID:27096157

Predictors of post-traumatic stress disorder following critical illness: A mixed methods study.

Science.gov (United States)

Battle, Ceri E; James, Karen; Bromfield, Tom; Temblett, Paul

2017-11-01

Post-traumatic stress disorder has been reported in survivors of critical illness. The aim of this study was to investigate the predictors of post-traumatic stress disorder in survivors of critical illness. Patients attending the intensive care unit (ICU) follow-up clinic completed the UK-Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome 14-Questions Inventory and data was collected from their medical records. Predictors investigated included age, gender, Apache II score, ICU length of stay, pre-illness psychopathology; delirium and benzodiazepine administration during ICU stay and delusional memories of the ICU stay following discharge. A total of 198 patients participated, with 54 (27%) patients suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder. On multivariable logistic regression, the significant predictors of post-traumatic stress disorder were younger age, lower Apache II score, pre-illness psychopathology and delirium during the ICU stay. The predictors of post-traumatic stress disorder in this study concur with previous research however a lower Apache II score has not been previously reported.

A Comparison of a Machine Learning Model with EuroSCORE II in Predicting Mortality after Elective Cardiac Surgery: A Decision Curve Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Allyn, Jérôme; Allou, Nicolas; Augustin, Pascal; Philip, Ivan; Martinet, Olivier; Belghiti, Myriem; Provenchere, Sophie; Montravers, Philippe; Ferdynus, Cyril

2017-01-01

The benefits of cardiac surgery are sometimes difficult to predict and the decision to operate on a given individual is complex. Machine Learning and Decision Curve Analysis (DCA) are recent methods developed to create and evaluate prediction models. We conducted a retrospective cohort study using a prospective collected database from December 2005 to December 2012, from a cardiac surgical center at University Hospital. The different models of prediction of mortality in-hospital after elective cardiac surgery, including EuroSCORE II, a logistic regression model and a machine learning model, were compared by ROC and DCA. Of the 6,520 patients having elective cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass, 6.3% died. Mean age was 63.4 years old (standard deviation 14.4), and mean EuroSCORE II was 3.7 (4.8) %. The area under ROC curve (IC95%) for the machine learning model (0.795 (0.755-0.834)) was significantly higher than EuroSCORE II or the logistic regression model (respectively, 0.737 (0.691-0.783) and 0.742 (0.698-0.785), p machine learning model, in this monocentric study, has a greater benefit whatever the probability threshold. According to ROC and DCA, machine learning model is more accurate in predicting mortality after elective cardiac surgery than EuroSCORE II. These results confirm the use of machine learning methods in the field of medical prediction.

THE DATA REDUCTION PIPELINE FOR THE APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY GALACTIC EVOLUTION EXPERIMENT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nidever, David L.; Holtzman, Jon A.; Prieto, Carlos Allende; Mészáros, Szabolcs; Beland, Stephane; Bender, Chad; Desphande, Rohit; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Burton, Adam; García Pérez, Ana E.; Hearty, Fred R.; Majewski, Steven R.; Skrutskie, Michael F.; Sobeck, Jennifer S.; Wilson, John C.; Fleming, Scott W.; Muna, Demitri; Nguyen, Duy; Schiavon, Ricardo P.; Shetrone, Matthew

2015-01-01

The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III, explores the stellar populations of the Milky Way using the Sloan 2.5-m telescope linked to a high resolution (R ∼ 22,500), near-infrared (1.51–1.70 μm) spectrograph with 300 optical fibers. For over 150,000 predominantly red giant branch stars that APOGEE targeted across the Galactic bulge, disks and halo, the collected high signal-to-noise ratio (>100 per half-resolution element) spectra provide accurate (∼0.1 km s −1 ) RVs, stellar atmospheric parameters, and precise (≲0.1 dex) chemical abundances for about 15 chemical species. Here we describe the basic APOGEE data reduction software that reduces multiple 3D raw data cubes into calibrated, well-sampled, combined 1D spectra, as implemented for the SDSS-III/APOGEE data releases (DR10, DR11 and DR12). The processing of the near-IR spectral data of APOGEE presents some challenges for reduction, including automated sky subtraction and telluric correction over a 3°-diameter field and the combination of spectrally dithered spectra. We also discuss areas for future improvement

Detection of attack-targeted scans from the Apache HTTP Server access logs

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Merve Baş Seyyar

2018-01-01

Full Text Available A web application could be visited for different purposes. It is possible for a web site to be visited by a regular user as a normal (natural visit, to be viewed by crawlers, bots, spiders, etc. for indexing purposes, lastly to be exploratory scanned by malicious users prior to an attack. An attack targeted web scan can be viewed as a phase of a potential attack and can lead to more attack detection as compared to traditional detection methods. In this work, we propose a method to detect attack-oriented scans and to distinguish them from other types of visits. In this context, we use access log files of Apache (or ISS web servers and try to determine attack situations through examination of the past data. In addition to web scan detections, we insert a rule set to detect SQL Injection and XSS attacks. Our approach has been applied on sample data sets and results have been analyzed in terms of performance measures to compare our method and other commonly used detection techniques. Furthermore, various tests have been made on log samples from real systems. Lastly, several suggestions about further development have been also discussed.

THE DATA REDUCTION PIPELINE FOR THE APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY GALACTIC EVOLUTION EXPERIMENT

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nidever, David L. [Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States); Holtzman, Jon A. [New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003 (United States); Prieto, Carlos Allende; Mészáros, Szabolcs [Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Via Láctea s/n, E-38205 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Beland, Stephane [Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO (United States); Bender, Chad; Desphande, Rohit [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States); Bizyaev, Dmitry [Apache Point Observatory and New Mexico State University, P.O. Box 59, sunspot, NM 88349-0059 (United States); Burton, Adam; García Pérez, Ana E.; Hearty, Fred R.; Majewski, Steven R.; Skrutskie, Michael F.; Sobeck, Jennifer S.; Wilson, John C. [Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4325 (United States); Fleming, Scott W. [Computer Sciences Corporation, 3700 San Martin Dr, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States); Muna, Demitri [Department of Astronomy and the Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 (United States); Nguyen, Duy [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3H4 (Canada); Schiavon, Ricardo P. [Gemini Observatory, 670 N. A’Ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720 (United States); Shetrone, Matthew, E-mail: dnidever@umich.edu [University of Texas at Austin, McDonald Observatory, Fort Davis, TX 79734 (United States)

2015-12-15

The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III, explores the stellar populations of the Milky Way using the Sloan 2.5-m telescope linked to a high resolution (R ∼ 22,500), near-infrared (1.51–1.70 μm) spectrograph with 300 optical fibers. For over 150,000 predominantly red giant branch stars that APOGEE targeted across the Galactic bulge, disks and halo, the collected high signal-to-noise ratio (>100 per half-resolution element) spectra provide accurate (∼0.1 km s{sup −1}) RVs, stellar atmospheric parameters, and precise (≲0.1 dex) chemical abundances for about 15 chemical species. Here we describe the basic APOGEE data reduction software that reduces multiple 3D raw data cubes into calibrated, well-sampled, combined 1D spectra, as implemented for the SDSS-III/APOGEE data releases (DR10, DR11 and DR12). The processing of the near-IR spectral data of APOGEE presents some challenges for reduction, including automated sky subtraction and telluric correction over a 3°-diameter field and the combination of spectrally dithered spectra. We also discuss areas for future improvement.

Optimization of simultaneous electrochemical determination of Cd(II), Pb(II), Cu(II) and Hg(II) at carbon nanotube-modified graphite electrodes.

Science.gov (United States)

Pikna, L'ubomír; Heželová, Mária; Kováčová, Zuzana

2015-01-01

The health of the environment is worsening every day. Monitoring of potentially toxic elements and remediation of environmental pollution are necessary. Therefore, the research and development of simple, inexpensive, portable and effective sensors is important. Electrochemistry is a useful component of the field of environment monitoring. The present study focuses on evaluating and comparing three types of electrodes (PIGE, PIGE/MWCNT/HNO3 and PIGE/MWCNT/EDTA/HNO3) employed for the simultaneous electrochemical determination of four potentially toxic elements: Cd(II), Pb(II), Cu(II) and Hg(II). Cyclic voltammograms were measured in an acetate buffer. The LOD, LOQ, the standard and relative precisions of the method and a prediction intervals were calculated (according to the technical procedure DIN 32 645) for the three electrodes and for each measured element. The LOD for PIGE/CNT/HNO3 (the electrode with narrowest calculated prediction intervals) was 2.98 × 10(-7) mol L(-1) for Cd(II), 4.83 × 10(-7) mol L(-1) for Pb(II), 3.81 × 10(-7) mol L(-1) for Cu(II), 6.79 × 10(-7) mol L(-1) for Hg(II). One of the benefits of this study was the determination of the amount of Hg(II) in the mixture of other elements.

The outcomes and prognostic factors of acute respiratory failure in the patients 90 years old and over

Science.gov (United States)

Kung, Shu-Chen; Wang, Ching-Min; Lai, Chih-Cheng; Chao, Chien-Ming

2018-01-01

This retrospective cohort study investigated the outcomes and prognostic factors in nonagenarians (patients 90 years old or older) with acute respiratory failure. Between 2006 and 2016, all nonagenarians with acute respiratory failure requiring invasive mechanical ventilation (MV) were enrolled. Outcomes including in-hospital mortality and ventilator dependency were measured. A total of 173 nonagenarians with acute respiratory failure were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). A total of 56 patients died during the hospital stay and the rate of in-hospital mortality was 32.4%. Patients with higher APACHE (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation) II scores (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 5.91; 95 % CI, 1.55-22.45; p = 0.009, APACHE II scores ≥ 25 vs APACHE II scores < 15), use of vasoactive agent (adjust OR, 2.67; 95% CI, 1.12-6.37; p = 0.03) and more organ dysfunction (adjusted OR, 11.13; 95% CI, 3.38-36.36, p < 0.001; ≥ 3 organ dysfunction vs ≤ 1 organ dysfunction) were more likely to die. Among the 117 survivors, 25 (21.4%) patients became dependent on MV. Female gender (adjusted OR, 3.53; 95% CI, 1.16-10.76, p = 0.027) and poor consciousness level (adjusted OR, 4.98; 95% CI, 1.41-17.58, p = 0.013) were associated with MV dependency. In conclusion, the mortality rate of nonagenarians with acute respiratory failure was high, especially for those with higher APACHE II scores or more organ dysfunction. PMID:29467961

The outcomes and prognostic factors of acute respiratory failure in the patients 90 years old and over.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Wan-Ling; Chen, Chin-Ming; Kung, Shu-Chen; Wang, Ching-Min; Lai, Chih-Cheng; Chao, Chien-Ming

2018-01-23

This retrospective cohort study investigated the outcomes and prognostic factors in nonagenarians (patients 90 years old or older) with acute respiratory failure. Between 2006 and 2016, all nonagenarians with acute respiratory failure requiring invasive mechanical ventilation (MV) were enrolled. Outcomes including in-hospital mortality and ventilator dependency were measured. A total of 173 nonagenarians with acute respiratory failure were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). A total of 56 patients died during the hospital stay and the rate of in-hospital mortality was 32.4%. Patients with higher APACHE (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation) II scores (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 5.91; 95 % CI, 1.55-22.45; p = 0.009, APACHE II scores ≥ 25 vs APACHE II scores < 15), use of vasoactive agent (adjust OR, 2.67; 95% CI, 1.12-6.37; p = 0.03) and more organ dysfunction (adjusted OR, 11.13; 95% CI, 3.38-36.36, p < 0.001; ≥ 3 organ dysfunction vs ≤ 1 organ dysfunction) were more likely to die. Among the 117 survivors, 25 (21.4%) patients became dependent on MV. Female gender (adjusted OR, 3.53; 95% CI, 1.16-10.76, p = 0.027) and poor consciousness level (adjusted OR, 4.98; 95% CI, 1.41-17.58, p = 0.013) were associated with MV dependency. In conclusion, the mortality rate of nonagenarians with acute respiratory failure was high, especially for those with higher APACHE II scores or more organ dysfunction.

Bulbar impairment score predicts noninvasive volume-cycled ventilation failure during an acute lower respiratory tract infection in ALS.

Science.gov (United States)

Servera, Emilio; Sancho, Jesús; Bañuls, Pilar; Marín, Julio

2015-11-15

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients can suffer episodes of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) leading to an acute respiratory failure (ARF) requiring noninvasive ventilation (NIV). To determine whether clinical or functional parameters can predict noninvasive management failure during LRTI causing ARF in ALS. A prospective study involving all ALS patients with ARF requiring NIV in a Respiratory Care Unit. NIV was provided with volume-cycled ventilators. 63 ALS patients were included (APACHE II: 14.93±3.56, Norris bulbar subscore (NBS): 18.78±9.68, ALSFRS-R: 19.90±6.98, %FVC: 40.01±18.07%, MIC: 1.62±0.74L, PCF 2.51±1.15L/s, PImax -34.90±19.44cmH2O, PEmax 51.20±28.84cmH2O). In 73.0% of patients NIV was successful in averting death or endotracheal intubation. Differences were found between the success and failure in the NBS (22.08±6.15 vs 8.66±3.39, pNIV failure was the NBS (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.31-0.92, p 0.002) with a cut-off point of 12 (S 0.93; E 0.97; PPV 0.76; NPV 0.97). NBS can predict noninvasive management failure during LRTI in ALS. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Demonstration of the Military Ecological Risk Assessment Framework (MERAF): Apache Longbow - Hell Missile Test at Yuma Proving Ground

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Efroymson, R.A.

2002-05-09

This ecological risk assessment for a testing program at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, is a demonstration of the Military Ecological Risk Assessment Framework (MERAF; Suter et al. 2001). The demonstration is intended to illustrate how risk assessment guidance concerning-generic military training and testing activities and guidance concerning a specific type of activity (e.g., low-altitude aircraft overflights) may be implemented at a military installation. MERAF was developed with funding from the Strategic Research and Development Program (SERDP) of the Department of Defense. Novel aspects of MERAF include: (1) the assessment of risks from physical stressors using an ecological risk assessment framework, (2) the consideration of contingent or indirect effects of stressors (e.g., population-level effects that are derived from habitat or hydrological changes), (3) the integration of risks associated with different component activities or stressors, (4) the emphasis on quantitative risk estimates and estimates of uncertainty, and (5) the modularity of design, permitting components of the framework to be used in various military risk assessments that include similar activities. The particular subject of this report is the assessment of ecological risks associated with a testing program at Cibola Range of Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona. The program involves an Apache Longbow helicopter firing Hellfire missiles at moving targets, i.e., M60-A1 tanks. Thus, the three component activities of the Apache-Hellfire test were: (1) helicopter overflight, (2) missile firing, and (3) tracked vehicle movement. The demonstration was limited, to two ecological endpoint entities (i.e., potentially susceptible and valued populations or communities): woody desert wash communities and mule deer populations. The core assessment area is composed of about 126 km{sup 2} between the Chocolate and Middle Mountains. The core time of the program is a three-week period, including fourteen days of

Demonstration of the Military Ecological Risk Assessment Framework (MERAF): Apache Longbow - Hell Missile Test at Yuma Proving Ground

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Efroymson, R.A.

2002-01-01

This ecological risk assessment for a testing program at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, is a demonstration of the Military Ecological Risk Assessment Framework (MERAF; Suter et al. 2001). The demonstration is intended to illustrate how risk assessment guidance concerning-generic military training and testing activities and guidance concerning a specific type of activity (e.g., low-altitude aircraft overflights) may be implemented at a military installation. MERAF was developed with funding from the Strategic Research and Development Program (SERDP) of the Department of Defense. Novel aspects of MERAF include: (1) the assessment of risks from physical stressors using an ecological risk assessment framework, (2) the consideration of contingent or indirect effects of stressors (e.g., population-level effects that are derived from habitat or hydrological changes), (3) the integration of risks associated with different component activities or stressors, (4) the emphasis on quantitative risk estimates and estimates of uncertainty, and (5) the modularity of design, permitting components of the framework to be used in various military risk assessments that include similar activities. The particular subject of this report is the assessment of ecological risks associated with a testing program at Cibola Range of Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona. The program involves an Apache Longbow helicopter firing Hellfire missiles at moving targets, i.e., M60-A1 tanks. Thus, the three component activities of the Apache-Hellfire test were: (1) helicopter overflight, (2) missile firing, and (3) tracked vehicle movement. The demonstration was limited, to two ecological endpoint entities (i.e., potentially susceptible and valued populations or communities): woody desert wash communities and mule deer populations. The core assessment area is composed of about 126 km 2 between the Chocolate and Middle Mountains. The core time of the program is a three-week period, including fourteen days of

Corelation among clinical, biochemical and tomographic criteria in order to evaluate the severity in acute pancreatitis Correlación entre criterios clínicos, bioquímicos y tomográficos para evaluar la gravedad de la pancreatitis aguda

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L. A. Lujano-Nicolás

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Background: the acute pancreatitis is an inflammatory process that may involve peripancreatic tissue and distant organs. According to the Atlanta criteria, in 10 to 20% of the patients the disease is severe. Nowadays there are different clinical and biochemical severity scales such as the Ranson, APACHE-II (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation and hematocrit, which have discrepancies when being compared to tomographic scales such as the Balthazar. There exist few studies that correlate these parameters. Objective: to evaluate the severity of the acute pancreatitis according to the Ranson, APACHE-II and serous hematocrit criteria at the moment of admission of the patient and correlate these scales with the local pancreatic complications according to the Balthazar classification. Patients and method: retrospective, observational and analytic study. There were included patients of any gender above the age of 18, with diagnosis of acute pancreatitis of any etiology, who had performed an abdominal tomography 72 hours after the beginning of the clinical condition in order to stage the pancreatic damage. The diagnosis of acute pancreatitis was established with 2 of the 3 following criteria: a characteristic abdominal pain; b uprising of the amylase and/or lipase more than 3 times above the superior normal limit; and c characteristic finds of acute pancreatitis in the computed tomography. In order to make the correlation, the Pearson or the Spearman tests were used according to the distribution of the variables. Results: there were included 28 patients (21 masculine, 75%. The most frequent etiology was due to alcohol (53.6%, bile (21.4% and hypertriglyceridemia (17.9%. The age average was 38.1 years old. Fifty per cent of the patients had acute severe pancreatitis according to the Atlanta criteria. Of the patients with APACHE-II less than 8 points, 62.5% were classified according to the Balthazar tomographic scale as D or E degree. Ninety

The Effect of a Monocular Helmet-Mounted Display on Aircrew Health: A Longitudinal Cohort Study of Apache AH Mk 1 Pilots -(Vision and Handedness)

Science.gov (United States)

2015-05-19

the day, night, and in adverse weather through the use of nose-mounted, forward-looking infrared (FLIR) pilotage and targeting sensors that provide a...sensor video and/or symbology to each crewmember via a helmet display unit (HDU). The HDU contains a 1-inch (in.) diameter cathode ray tube (CRT...American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, 12(4): 365–369. Sale, D. F., and Lund, G. J. 1993. AH-64 Apache program update

Early warning score independently predicts adverse outcome and mortality in patients with acute pancreatitis.

Science.gov (United States)

Jones, Michael J; Neal, Christopher P; Ngu, Wee Sing; Dennison, Ashley R; Garcea, Giuseppe

2017-08-01

The aim of this study was to compare the prognostic value of established scoring systems with early warning scores in a large cohort of patients with acute pancreatitis. In patients presenting with acute pancreatitis, age, sex, American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) grade, Modified Glasgow Score, Ranson criteria, APACHE II scores and early warning score (EWS) were recorded for the first 72 h following admission. These variables were compared between survivors and non-survivors, between patients with mild/moderate and severe pancreatitis (based on the 2012 Atlanta Classification) and between patients with a favourable or adverse outcome. A total of 629 patients were identified. EWS was the best predictor of adverse outcome amongst all of the assessed variables (area under curve (AUC) values 0.81, 0.84 and 0.83 for days 1, 2 and 3, respectively) and was the most accurate predictor of mortality on both days 2 and 3 (AUC values of 0.88 and 0.89, respectively). Multivariable analysis revealed that an EWS ≥2 was independently associated with severity of pancreatitis, adverse outcome and mortality. This study confirms the usefulness of EWS in predicting the outcome of acute pancreatitis. It should become the mainstay of risk stratification in patients with acute pancreatitis.

Predictive Performance of the Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) II and the Initial Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) Score in Acutely Ill Intensive Care Patients

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Granholm, Anders; Møller, Morten Hylander; Kragh, Mette

2016-01-01

PURPOSE: Severity scores including the Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) II and the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score are used in intensive care units (ICUs) to assess disease severity, predict mortality and in research. We aimed to assess the predictive performance of SAPS II...... compared the discrimination of SAPS II and initial SOFA scores, compared the discrimination of SAPS II in our cohort with the original cohort, assessed the calibration of SAPS II customised to our cohort, and compared the discrimination for 90-day mortality vs. in-hospital mortality for both scores....... Discrimination was evaluated using areas under the receiver operating characteristics curves (AUROC). Calibration was evaluated using Hosmer-Lemeshow's goodness-of-fit Ĉ-statistic. RESULTS: AUROC for in-hospital mortality was 0.80 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.77-0.83) for SAPS II and 0.73 (95% CI 0...

Prognostic Factors in Patients Hospitalized with Diabetic Ketoacidosis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Avinash Agarwal

2016-09-01

Full Text Available BackgroundDiabetic ketoacidosis (DKA is characterized by a biochemical triad of hyperglycemia, acidosis, and ketonemia. This condition is life-threatening despite improvements in diabetic care. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical and biochemical prognostic markers of DKA. We assessed correlations in prognostic markers with DKA-associated morbidity and mortality.MethodsTwo hundred and seventy patients that were hospitalized with DKA over a period of 2 years were evaluated clinically and by laboratory tests. Serial assays of serum electrolytes, glucose, and blood pH were performed, and clinical outcome was noted as either discharged to home or death.ResultsThe analysis indicated that significant predictors included sex, history of type 1 diabetes mellitus or type 2 diabetes mellitus, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, total leukocyte count, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II score, blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, serum magnesium, serum phosphate, serum osmolality, serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminases, serum glutamic pyruvic transaminases, serum albumin, which were further regressed and subjected to multivariate logistic regression (MLR analysis. The MLR analysis indicated that males were 7.93 times more likely to have favorable outcome compared with female patients (odds ratio, 7.93; 95% confidence interval, 3.99 to 13.51, while decreases in mean APACHE II score (14.83 and serum phosphate (4.38 at presentation may lead to 2.86- and 2.71-fold better outcomes, respectively, compared with higher levels (APACHE II score, 25.00; serum phosphate, 6.04.ConclusionSex, baseline biochemical parameters such as APACHE II score, and phosphate level were important predictors of the DKA-associated mortality.

Comparison of mortality prediction models and validation of SAPS II in critically ill burns patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Pantet, O; Faouzi, M; Brusselaers, N; Vernay, A; Berger, M M

2016-06-30

Specific burn outcome prediction scores such as the Abbreviated Burn Severity Index (ABSI), Ryan, Belgian Outcome of Burn Injury (BOBI) and revised Baux scores have been extensively studied. Validation studies of the critical care score SAPS II (Simplified Acute Physiology Score) have included burns patients but not addressed them as a cohort. The study aimed at comparing their performance in a Swiss burns intensive care unit (ICU) and to observe whether they were affected by a standardized definition of inhalation injury. We conducted a retrospective cohort study, including all consecutive ICU burn admissions (n=492) between 1996 and 2013: 5 epochs were defined by protocol changes. As required for SAPS II calculation, stays burned (TBSA) and inhalation injury (systematic standardized diagnosis since 2006). Study epochs were compared (χ2 test, ANOVA). Score performance was assessed by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. SAPS II performed well (AUC 0.89), particularly in burns burns <40% TBSA. Ryan and BOBI scores were least accurate, as they heavily weight inhalation injury.

Identification and Construction of Combinatory Cancer Hallmark-Based Gene Signature Sets to Predict Recurrence and Chemotherapy Benefit in Stage II Colorectal Cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Shanwu; Tibiche, Chabane; Zou, Jinfeng; Zaman, Naif; Trifiro, Mark; O'Connor-McCourt, Maureen; Wang, Edwin

2016-01-01

Decisions regarding adjuvant therapy in patients with stage II colorectal cancer (CRC) have been among the most challenging and controversial in oncology over the past 20 years. To develop robust combinatory cancer hallmark-based gene signature sets (CSS sets) that more accurately predict prognosis and identify a subset of patients with stage II CRC who could gain survival benefits from adjuvant chemotherapy. Thirteen retrospective studies of patients with stage II CRC who had clinical follow-up and adjuvant chemotherapy were analyzed. Respective totals of 162 and 843 patients from 2 and 11 independent cohorts were used as the discovery and validation cohorts, respectively. A total of 1005 patients with stage II CRC were included in the 13 cohorts. Among them, 84 of 416 patients in 3 independent cohorts received fluorouracil-based adjuvant chemotherapy. Identification of CSS sets to predict relapse-free survival and identify a subset of patients with stage II CRC who could gain substantial survival benefits from fluorouracil-based adjuvant chemotherapy. Eight cancer hallmark-based gene signatures (30 genes each) were identified and used to construct CSS sets for determining prognosis. The CSS sets were validated in 11 independent cohorts of 767 patients with stage II CRC who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy. The CSS sets accurately stratified patients into low-, intermediate-, and high-risk groups. Five-year relapse-free survival rates were 94%, 78%, and 45%, respectively, representing 60%, 28%, and 12% of patients with stage II disease. The 416 patients with CSS set-defined high-risk stage II CRC who received fluorouracil-based adjuvant chemotherapy showed a substantial gain in survival benefits from the treatment (ie, recurrence reduced by 30%-40% in 5 years). The CSS sets substantially outperformed other prognostic predictors of stage 2 CRC. They are more accurate and robust for prognostic predictions and facilitate the identification of patients with stage

Nonoperative management for perforated peptic ulcer: who can benefit?

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Cao, Feng; Li, Jia; Li, Ang; Fang, Yu; Wang, Ya-Jun; Li, Fei

2014-07-01

Although nonoperative management for perforated peptic ulcer (PPU) has been used for several decades, the indication is still unclear. A clinicoradiological score was sought to predict who can benefit from it. A clinicoradiological protocol for the assessment of patients presenting with PPU was used. A logistic regression model was applied to identify determinant variables and construct a clinical score that would identify patients who can be successfully treated with nonoperative management. Of 241 consecutive patients with PPU, 107 successfully received nonoperative management, and 134 required surgery. In multivariable analysis, the following four variables correlated with surgery and were given one point each toward the clinical score: age ≥70 years, fluid collection detection by ultrasound, contrast extravasation detection by water-soluble contrast examination, and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score ≥8. Eighty-five percent of patients with a score of 1 or less were successfully treated with nonoperative management, whereas 23 of 29 patients with a score of 3 or more required surgery. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.804 (95% confidence interval = 0.717-0.891). By combining clinical, radiological parameters, and APACHE II score, the clinical score allowed early identification of PPU patients who can benefit from nonoperative management. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Analysis of 230 cases of emergent surgery for obstructing colon cancer--lessons learned.

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Aslar, Ahmet Kessaf; Ozdemir, Süleyman; Mahmoudi, Hatim; Kuzu, Mehmet Ayhan

2011-01-01

We aimed to identify prognostic factors affecting clinical outcomes in emergent primary resection. A retrospective analysis of prospectively acquired data of 230 consecutive emergent patients between August 1994 and January 2005 were evaluated in this study. Sixty-nine patients applied with right colon obstruction and 161 patients with left. Resection and primary anastomosis was carried out in 128 patients and resection and stoma in 102 patients. The patients were divided into two cohorts: patients who developed poor outcome within 30 days after surgery and those who did not. Major morbidity or mortality were reported in 60 (26.1%) patients. Analysis revealed that the most important prognostic factors for poor outcome were American Anesthesiology Association (ASA) grade ≥3, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score ≥11, age >60 years, presence of peritonitis, and surgery during on-call hours. Age >60 years and on-call surgery were determinant factors in right-sided obstructions, whereas ASA grade ≥3, APACHE II score ≥11, and presence of peritonitis were determinant factors in left-sided obstructions. All these factors but the timing of the operation emphasize the pivotal role of the patient's physiological condition on admission. Accurate preoperative evaluation might predict the clinical outcome and help in establishing the most appropriate treatment.

Solar photocatalytic removal of Cu(II), Ni(II), Zn(II) and Pb(II): Speciation modeling of metal-citric acid complexes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kabra, Kavita; Chaudhary, Rubina; Sawhney, R.L.

2008-01-01

The present study is targeted on solar photocatalytic removal of metal ions from wastewater. Photoreductive deposition and dark adsorption of metal ions Cu(II), Ni(II), Pb(II) and Zn(II), using solar energy irradiated TiO 2 , has been investigated. Citric acid has been used as a hole scavenger. Modeling of metal species has been performed and speciation is used as a tool for discussing the photodeposition trends. Ninety-seven percent reductive deposition was obtained for copper. The deposition values of other metals were significantly low [nickel (36.4%), zinc (22.2%) and lead (41.4%)], indicating that the photocatalytic treatment process, using solar energy, was more suitable for wastewater containing Cu(II) ions. In absence of citric acid, the decreasing order deposition was Cu(II) > Ni(II) > Pb(II) > Zn(II), which proves the theoretical thermodynamic predictions about the metals

Association between Accessory Gene Regulator Polymorphism and Mortality among Critically Ill Patients Receiving Vancomycin for Nosocomial MRSA Bacteremia: A Cohort Study

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Angélica Cechinel

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Background. Polymorphism of the accessory gene regulator group II (agr in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA is predictive of vancomycin failure therapy. Nevertheless, the impact of group II agr expression on mortality of patients with severe MRSA infections is not well established. Objective. The goal of our study was to evaluate the association between agr polymorphism and all-cause in-hospital mortality among critically ill patients receiving vancomycin for nosocomial MRSA bacteremia. Methods. All patients with documented bacteremia by MRSA requiring treatment in the ICU between May 2009 and November 2011 were included in the study. Cox proportional hazards regression was performed to evaluate whether agr polymorphism was associated with all-cause in-hospital mortality. Covariates included age, APACHE II score, initial C-reactive protein plasma levels, initial serum creatinine levels, vancomycin minimum inhibitory concentration, vancomycin serum levels, and time to effective antibiotic administration. Results. The prevalence of group I and group II agr expression was 52.4% and 47.6%, respectively. Bacteremia by MRSA group III or group IV agr was not documented in our patients. The mean APACHE II of the study population was 24.3 (standard deviation 8.5. The overall cohort mortality was 66.6% (14 patients. After multivariate analysis, initial plasma C-reactive protein levels (P=0.01, initial serum creatinine levels (P=0.008, and expression of group II agr (P=0.006 were positively associated with all-cause in-hospital mortality. Patients with bacteremia by MRSA with group II agr expression had their risk of death increased by 12.6 times when compared with those with bacteremia by MRSA with group I agr expression. Conclusion. Group II agr polymorphism is associated with an increase in mortality in critically ill patients with bacteremia by MRSA treated with vancomycin.

HLA Class-II Associated HIV Polymorphisms Predict Escape from CD4+ T Cell Responses.

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Nathan Erdmann

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Antiretroviral therapy, antibody and CD8+ T cell-mediated responses targeting human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1 exert selection pressure on the virus necessitating escape; however, the ability of CD4+ T cells to exert selective pressure remains unclear. Using a computational approach on HIV gag/pol/nef sequences and HLA-II allelic data, we identified 29 HLA-II associated HIV sequence polymorphisms or adaptations (HLA-AP in an African cohort of chronically HIV-infected individuals. Epitopes encompassing the predicted adaptation (AE or its non-adapted (NAE version were evaluated for immunogenicity. Using a CD8-depleted IFN-γ ELISpot assay, we determined that the magnitude of CD4+ T cell responses to the predicted epitopes in controllers was higher compared to non-controllers (p<0.0001. However, regardless of the group, the magnitude of responses to AE was lower as compared to NAE (p<0.0001. CD4+ T cell responses in patients with acute HIV infection (AHI demonstrated poor immunogenicity towards AE as compared to NAE encoded by their transmitted founder virus. Longitudinal data in AHI off antiretroviral therapy demonstrated sequence changes that were biologically confirmed to represent CD4+ escape mutations. These data demonstrate an innovative application of HLA-associated polymorphisms to identify biologically relevant CD4+ epitopes and suggests CD4+ T cells are active participants in driving HIV evolution.

Predictive validity of the Hendrich fall risk model II in an acute geriatric unit.

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Ivziku, Dhurata; Matarese, Maria; Pedone, Claudio

2011-04-01

Falls are the most common adverse events reported in acute care hospitals, and older patients are the most likely to fall. The risk of falling cannot be completely eliminated, but it can be reduced through the implementation of a fall prevention program. A major evidence-based intervention to prevent falls has been the use of fall-risk assessment tools. Many tools have been increasingly developed in recent years, but most instruments have not been investigated regarding reliability, validity and clinical usefulness. This study intends to evaluate the predictive validity and inter-rater reliability of Hendrich fall risk model II (HFRM II) in order to identify older patients at risk of falling in geriatric units and recommend its use in clinical practice. A prospective descriptive design was used. The study was carried out in a geriatric acute care unit of an Italian University hospital. All over 65 years old patients consecutively admitted to a geriatric acute care unit of an Italian University hospital over 8-month period were enrolled. The patients enrolled were screened for the falls risk by nurses with the HFRM II within 24h of admission. The falls occurring during the patient's hospital stay were registered. Inter-rater reliability, area under the ROC curve, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values and time for the administration were evaluated. 179 elderly patients were included. The inter-rater reliability was 0.87 (95% CI 0.71-1.00). The administration time was about 1min. The most frequently reported risk factors were depression, incontinence, vertigo. Sensitivity and specificity were respectively 86% and 43%. The optimal cut-off score for screening at risk patients was 5 with an area under the ROC curve of 0.72. The risk factors more strongly associated with falls were confusion and depression. As falls of older patients are a common problem in acute care settings it is necessary that the nurses use specific validate and reliable

Shark class II invariant chain reveals ancient conserved relationships with cathepsins and MHC class II.

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Criscitiello, Michael F; Ohta, Yuko; Graham, Matthew D; Eubanks, Jeannine O; Chen, Patricia L; Flajnik, Martin F

2012-03-01

The invariant chain (Ii) is the critical third chain required for the MHC class II heterodimer to be properly guided through the cell, loaded with peptide, and expressed on the surface of antigen presenting cells. Here, we report the isolation of the nurse shark Ii gene, and the comparative analysis of Ii splice variants, expression, genomic organization, predicted structure, and function throughout vertebrate evolution. Alternative splicing to yield Ii with and without the putative protease-protective, thyroglobulin-like domain is as ancient as the MHC-based adaptive immune system, as our analyses in shark and lizard further show conservation of this mechanism in all vertebrate classes except bony fish. Remarkable coordinate expression of Ii and class II was found in shark tissues. Conserved Ii residues and cathepsin L orthologs suggest their long co-evolution in the antigen presentation pathway, and genomic analyses suggest 450 million years of conserved Ii exon/intron structure. Other than an extended linker preceding the thyroglobulin-like domain in cartilaginous fish, the Ii gene and protein are predicted to have largely similar physiology from shark to man. Duplicated Ii genes found only in teleosts appear to have become sub-functionalized, as one form is predicted to play the same role as that mediated by Ii mRNA alternative splicing in all other vertebrate classes. No Ii homologs or potential ancestors of any of the functional Ii domains were found in the jawless fish or lower chordates. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Is 'gut feeling' by medical staff better than validated scores in estimation of mortality in a medical intensive care unit? - The prospective FEELING-ON-ICU study.

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Radtke, Anne; Pfister, Roman; Kuhr, Kathrin; Kochanek, Matthias; Michels, Guido

2017-10-01

The aim of the FEELING-ON-ICU study was to compare mortality estimations of critically ill patients based on 'gut feeling' of medical staff and by Acute Physiology And Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II, Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) II and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA). Medical staff estimated patients' mortality risks via questionnaires. APACHE II, SAPS II and SOFA were calculated retrospectively from records. Estimations were compared with actual in-hospital mortality using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and the area under the ROC curve (AUC). 66 critically ill patients (60.6% male, mean age 63±15years (range 30-86)) were evaluated each by a nurse (n=66, male 32.4%) and a physician (n=66, male 67.6%). 15 (22.7%) patients died on the intensive care unit. AUC was largest for estimations by physicians (AUC 0.814 (95% CI 0.705-0.923)), followed by SOFA (AUC 0.749 (95% CI 0.629-0.868)), SAPS II (AUC 0.723 (95% CI 0.597-0.849)), APACHE II (AUC 0.721 (95% CI 0.595-0.847)) and nursing staff (AUC 0.669 (95% CI 0.529-0.810)) (p<0.05 for all results). The concept of physicians' 'gut feeling' was comparable to classical objective scores in mortality estimations of critically ill patients. Concerning practicability physicians' evaluations were advantageous to complex score calculation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The severity assessment of critically ill preeclamptic women: a case-control study A avaliação de gravidade de mulheres em estado grave por pré-eclâmpsia: estudo caso-controle

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João Paulo Souza

2006-03-01

Full Text Available BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The assessment of illness severity and prognosis of obstetric patients by scoring systems is still a controversial issue. Preeclampsia is a leading cause of severe maternal morbidity and mortality, and a major cause of obstetric admission to intensive care unit. There is paucity of data regarding the predictability of critically ill preeclamptic women and the application of scoring systems to this population. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the application of APACHE II, SAPS II and MPM II scoring systems between a preeclamptic population and a non obstetric female population. METHODS: A case-control study was conducted on 28 preeclamptic women and 56 non obstetric female patients, admitted to a general intensive care unit over a period of 10 years. The predictive accuracy of the prognostic evaluation systems was estimated by the area under the receiver operator characteristic curve. RESULTS: The mortality rate was 21.4% (6:28 for the study group and 35.7% (20:56 for the control group, with an OR = 0.49 (95%CI = 0.17-1.41. The main causes of ICU admission of preeclamptic women were HELLP syndrome, coma and pulmonary edema. In the preeclamptic population, only the MPM II score showed an area under the ROC curve statistically different from 0.500, while in the control group, all scoring systems had their areas under the ROC curves statistically different from 0.500. CONCLUSIONS: The application of APACHE II and SAPS II to evaluate critically ill preeclamptic women may be not appropriate.JUSTIFICATIVA E OBJETIVOS: A avaliação de gravidade e do prognóstico de pacientes obstétricas através de escores é ainda tema controverso, sendo escassa a informação sobre mulheres com pré-eclâmpsia. Esta é uma das maiores causas de morbidade materna grave e de mortalidade materna, além de ser também uma das principais causas de internação obstétrica em UTI. Os objetivos deste estudo foram avaliar e comparar a

Transport with Astra in TJ-II; Transporte con Astra en TJ-II

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lopez-Bruna, D; Castejon, F; Fontdecaba, J M

2004-07-01

This report describes the adaptation of the numerical transport shell ASTRA for performing plasma calculations in the TJ-II stellarator device. Firstly, an approximation to the TJ-II geometry is made and a simple transport model is shared with two other codes in order to compare these codes (PROCTR, PRETOR-Stellarator) with ASTRA as calculation tool for TJ-II plasmas are provided: interpretative and predictive transport. The first consists in estimating the transport coefficients from real experimental data, thes being taken from three TJ-II discharges. The predictive facet is illustrated using a model that is able to includes self-consistently thedynamics of transport barriers. The report includes this model, written in the ASTRA programming language, to illustrate the use of ASTRA. (Author) 26 refs.

Compressor Part II: Volute Flow Predictions

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Yu-Tai Lee

1999-01-01

Full Text Available A numerical method that solves the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations is used to study an inefficient component of a shipboard air-conditioning HCFC-124 compressor system. This high-loss component of the centrifugal compressor was identified as the volute through a series of measurements given in Part I of the paper. The predictions were made using three grid topologies. The first grid closes the connection between the cutwater and the discharge diffuser. The other two grids connect the cutwater area with the discharge diffuser. Experiments were performed to simulate both the cutwater conditions used in the predictions. Surface pressures along the outer wall and near the inlet of the volute were surveyed for comparisons with the predictions. Good agreements between the predicted results and the measurements validate the calculations. Total pressure distributions and flow stream traces from the prediction results support the loss distribution through the volute. A modified volute configuration is examined numerically for further loss comparison.

Narrowing the scope of failure prediction using targeted fault load injection

Science.gov (United States)

Jordan, Paul L.; Peterson, Gilbert L.; Lin, Alan C.; Mendenhall, Michael J.; Sellers, Andrew J.

2018-05-01

As society becomes more dependent upon computer systems to perform increasingly critical tasks, ensuring that those systems do not fail becomes increasingly important. Many organizations depend heavily on desktop computers for day-to-day operations. Unfortunately, the software that runs on these computers is written by humans and, as such, is still subject to human error and consequent failure. A natural solution is to use statistical machine learning to predict failure. However, since failure is still a relatively rare event, obtaining labelled training data to train these models is not a trivial task. This work presents new simulated fault-inducing loads that extend the focus of traditional fault injection techniques to predict failure in the Microsoft enterprise authentication service and Apache web server. These new fault loads were successful in creating failure conditions that were identifiable using statistical learning methods, with fewer irrelevant faults being created.

Providing access to risk prediction tools via the HL7 XML-formatted risk web service.

Science.gov (United States)

Chipman, Jonathan; Drohan, Brian; Blackford, Amanda; Parmigiani, Giovanni; Hughes, Kevin; Bosinoff, Phil

2013-07-01

Cancer risk prediction tools provide valuable information to clinicians but remain computationally challenging. Many clinics find that CaGene or HughesRiskApps fit their needs for easy- and ready-to-use software to obtain cancer risks; however, these resources may not fit all clinics' needs. The HughesRiskApps Group and BayesMendel Lab therefore developed a web service, called "Risk Service", which may be integrated into any client software to quickly obtain standardized and up-to-date risk predictions for BayesMendel tools (BRCAPRO, MMRpro, PancPRO, and MelaPRO), the Tyrer-Cuzick IBIS Breast Cancer Risk Evaluation Tool, and the Colorectal Cancer Risk Assessment Tool. Software clients that can convert their local structured data into the HL7 XML-formatted family and clinical patient history (Pedigree model) may integrate with the Risk Service. The Risk Service uses Apache Tomcat and Apache Axis2 technologies to provide an all Java web service. The software client sends HL7 XML information containing anonymized family and clinical history to a Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) server, where it is parsed, interpreted, and processed by multiple risk tools. The Risk Service then formats the results into an HL7 style message and returns the risk predictions to the originating software client. Upon consent, users may allow DFCI to maintain the data for future research. The Risk Service implementation is exemplified through HughesRiskApps. The Risk Service broadens the availability of valuable, up-to-date cancer risk tools and allows clinics and researchers to integrate risk prediction tools into their own software interface designed for their needs. Each software package can collect risk data using its own interface, and display the results using its own interface, while using a central, up-to-date risk calculator. This allows users to choose from multiple interfaces while always getting the latest risk calculations. Consenting users contribute their data for future

Predictive value of pretreatment lymphocyte count in stage II colorectal cancer and in high-risk patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, Lei; Zhu, Ji; Jia, Huixun; Huang, Liyong; Li, Dawei; Li, Qingguo; Li, Xinxiang

2016-01-05

Pretreatment lymphocyte count (LC) has been associated with prognosis and chemotherapy response in several cancers. The predictive value of LC for stage II colorectal cancer (CRC) and for high-risk patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) has not been determined. A retrospective review of prospectively collected data from 1332 consecutive stage II CRC patients who underwent curative tumor resection was conducted. A pretreatment LC value risk, 459 (62.2%) of whom received AC. Patients with low LCs had significantly worse 5-year OS (74.6% vs. 90.2%, p risk patients with low LCs had the poorest DFS (p value or combined with high-risk status were both independent prognostic factors(p risk, AC-treated patients with high LCs had significantly longer DFS than untreated patients (HR, 0.594; 95% CI, 0.364-0.970; p = 0.035). There was no difference or trend for DFS or OS in patients with low LCs, regardless of the use of AC (DFS, p = 0.692; OS, p = 0.522). Low LC was also independently associated with poorer DFS in high-risk, AC-treated patients (HR, 1.885; 95% CI, 1.112-3.196; p = 0.019). Pretreatment LC is an independent prognostic factor for survival in stage II CRC. Furthermore, pretreatment LC reliably predicts chemotherapeutic efficacy in high-risk patients with stage II CRC.

FutureTox II: in vitro data and in silico models for predictive toxicology.

Science.gov (United States)

Knudsen, Thomas B; Keller, Douglas A; Sander, Miriam; Carney, Edward W; Doerrer, Nancy G; Eaton, David L; Fitzpatrick, Suzanne Compton; Hastings, Kenneth L; Mendrick, Donna L; Tice, Raymond R; Watkins, Paul B; Whelan, Maurice

2015-02-01

FutureTox II, a Society of Toxicology Contemporary Concepts in Toxicology workshop, was held in January, 2014. The meeting goals were to review and discuss the state of the science in toxicology in the context of implementing the NRC 21st century vision of predicting in vivo responses from in vitro and in silico data, and to define the goals for the future. Presentations and discussions were held on priority concerns such as predicting and modeling of metabolism, cell growth and differentiation, effects on sensitive subpopulations, and integrating data into risk assessment. Emerging trends in technologies such as stem cell-derived human cells, 3D organotypic culture models, mathematical modeling of cellular processes and morphogenesis, adverse outcome pathway development, and high-content imaging of in vivo systems were discussed. Although advances in moving towards an in vitro/in silico based risk assessment paradigm were apparent, knowledge gaps in these areas and limitations of technologies were identified. Specific recommendations were made for future directions and research needs in the areas of hepatotoxicity, cancer prediction, developmental toxicity, and regulatory toxicology. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Toxicology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Earthquake prediction in California using regression algorithms and cloud-based big data infrastructure

Science.gov (United States)

Asencio-Cortés, G.; Morales-Esteban, A.; Shang, X.; Martínez-Álvarez, F.

2018-06-01

Earthquake magnitude prediction is a challenging problem that has been widely studied during the last decades. Statistical, geophysical and machine learning approaches can be found in literature, with no particularly satisfactory results. In recent years, powerful computational techniques to analyze big data have emerged, making possible the analysis of massive datasets. These new methods make use of physical resources like cloud based architectures. California is known for being one of the regions with highest seismic activity in the world and many data are available. In this work, the use of several regression algorithms combined with ensemble learning is explored in the context of big data (1 GB catalog is used), in order to predict earthquakes magnitude within the next seven days. Apache Spark framework, H2 O library in R language and Amazon cloud infrastructure were been used, reporting very promising results.

A network-based predictive gene-expression signature for adjuvant chemotherapy benefit in stage II colorectal cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Bangrong; Luo, Liping; Feng, Lin; Ma, Shiqi; Chen, Tingqing; Ren, Yuan; Zha, Xiao; Cheng, Shujun; Zhang, Kaitai; Chen, Changmin

2017-12-13

The clinical benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy for stage II colorectal cancer (CRC) is controversial. This study aimed to explore novel gene signature to predict outcome benefit of postoperative 5-Fu-based therapy in stage II CRC. Gene-expression profiles of stage II CRCs from two datasets with 5-Fu-based adjuvant chemotherapy (training dataset, n = 212; validation dataset, n = 85) were analyzed to identify the indicator. A systemic approach by integrating gene-expression and protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was implemented to develop the predictive signature. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards model were used to determine the survival benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy. Experiments with shRNA knock-down were carried out to confirm the signature identified in this study. In the training dataset, we identified 44 PPI sub-modules, by which we separate patients into two clusters (1 and 2) having different chemotherapeutic benefit. A predictor of 11 PPI sub-modules (11-PPI-Mod) was established to discriminate the two sub-groups, with an overall accuracy of 90.1%. This signature was independently validated in an external validation dataset. Kaplan-Meier curves showed an improved outcome for patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy in Cluster 1 sub-group, but even worse survival for those in Cluster 2 sub-group. Similar results were found in both the training and the validation dataset. Multivariate Cox regression revealed an interaction effect between 11-PPI-Mod signature and adjuvant therapy treatment in the training dataset (RFS, p = 0.007; OS, p = 0.006) and the validation dataset (RFS, p = 0.002). From the signature, we found that PTGES gene was up-regulated in CRC cells which were more resistant to 5-Fu. Knock-down of PTGES indicated a growth inhibition and up-regulation of apoptotic markers induced by 5-Fu in CRC cells. Only a small proportion of stage II CRC patients could benefit from adjuvant therapy. The 11-PPI-Mod as

Does the KABC-II Display Ethnic Bias in the Prediction of Reading, Math, and Writing in Elementary School Through High School?

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Scheiber, Caroline

2017-09-01

This study explored whether the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition (KABC-II) predicted academic achievement outcomes of the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement-Second Edition (KTEA-II) equally well across a representative sample of African American, Hispanic, and Caucasian school-aged children ( N = 2,001) in three grade groups (1-4, 5-8, 9-12). It was of interest to study possible prediction bias in the slope and intercept of the five underlying Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) cognitive factors of the KABC-II-Sequential/Gsm (Short-Term Memory), Learning/Glr (Long-Term Storage and Retrieval), Simultaneous/Gv (Visual Processing), Planning/Gf (Fluid Reasoning), and Knowledge/Gc (Crystallized Ability)-in estimating reading, writing, and math. Structural equation modeling techniques demonstrated a lack of bias in the slopes; however, four of the five CHC indexes showed a persistent overprediction of the minority groups' achievement in the intercept. The overprediction is likely attributable to institutional or societal contributions, which limit the students' ability to achieve to their fullest potential.

Admission factors associated with hospital mortality in patients with haematological malignancy admitted to UK adult, general critical care units: a secondary analysis of the ICNARC Case Mix Programme Database.

Science.gov (United States)

Hampshire, Peter A; Welch, Catherine A; McCrossan, Lawrence A; Francis, Katharine; Harrison, David A

2009-01-01

of the three scores analysed, as assessed by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.78, but all scores were poorly calibrated. APACHE II had the highest accuracy at predicting hospital mortality, with a standardised mortality ratio of 1.01. SAPS II and the ICNARC score both underestimated hospital mortality. Increased hospital mortality is associated with the length of hospital stay prior to ICU admission and with severe sepsis, suggesting that, if appropriate, such patients should be treated aggressively with early ICU admission. A low haematocrit was associated with higher mortality and this relationship requires further investigation. The severity-of-illness scores assessed in this study had reasonable discriminative power, but none showed good calibration.

Admission factors associated with hospital mortality in patients with haematological malignancy admitted to UK adult, general critical care units: a secondary analysis of the ICNARC Case Mix Programme Database

Science.gov (United States)

2009-01-01

model had the best discrimination of the three scores analysed, as assessed by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.78, but all scores were poorly calibrated. APACHE II had the highest accuracy at predicting hospital mortality, with a standardised mortality ratio of 1.01. SAPS II and the ICNARC score both underestimated hospital mortality. Conclusions Increased hospital mortality is associated with the length of hospital stay prior to ICU admission and with severe sepsis, suggesting that, if appropriate, such patients should be treated aggressively with early ICU admission. A low haematocrit was associated with higher mortality and this relationship requires further investigation. The severity-of-illness scores assessed in this study had reasonable discriminative power, but none showed good calibration. PMID:19706163

Comparison of the Nosocomial Pneumonia Mortality Prediction (NPMP) model with standard mortality prediction tools.

Science.gov (United States)

Srinivasan, M; Shetty, N; Gadekari, S; Thunga, G; Rao, K; Kunhikatta, V

2017-07-01

Severity or mortality prediction of nosocomial pneumonia could aid in the effective triage of patients and assisting physicians. To compare various severity assessment scoring systems for predicting intensive care unit (ICU) mortality in nosocomial pneumonia patients. A prospective cohort study was conducted in a tertiary care university-affiliated hospital in Manipal, India. One hundred patients with nosocomial pneumonia, admitted in the ICUs who developed pneumonia after >48h of admission, were included. The Nosocomial Pneumonia Mortality Prediction (NPMP) model, developed in our hospital, was compared with Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II), Mortality Probability Model II (MPM 72  II), Simplified Acute Physiology Score II (SAPS II), Multiple Organ Dysfunction Score (MODS), Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA), Clinical Pulmonary Infection Score (CPIS), Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Predisposition, Insult, Response, Organ dysfunction (VAP-PIRO). Data and clinical variables were collected on the day of pneumonia diagnosis. The outcome for the study was ICU mortality. The sensitivity and specificity of the various scoring systems was analysed by plotting receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and computing the area under the curve for each of the mortality predicting tools. NPMP, APACHE II, SAPS II, MPM 72  II, SOFA, and VAP-PIRO were found to have similar and acceptable discrimination power as assessed by the area under the ROC curve. The AUC values for the above scores ranged from 0.735 to 0.762. CPIS and MODS showed least discrimination. NPMP is a specific tool to predict mortality in nosocomial pneumonia and is comparable to other standard scores. Copyright © 2017 The Healthcare Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Role of angiotensin II receptor type 2 in predicting biochemical recurrence in the treatment of prostate cancer].

Science.gov (United States)

Chibichyan, M B; Kogan, M I; Chernogubova, E A; Pavlenko, I A; Matishov, D G

2016-12-01

To identify markers for predicting aggressive forms of prostate cancer. The study retrospectively evaluated expression of angiotensin II type 2 receptors (AT2-R) in prostate needle biopsy tissue from patients with and without biochemical recurrence after combined hormone and radiation therapy. The study findings showed that low expression of AT2-R in prostate tissue was associated with a high risk of biochemical recurrence. The data on the nature of AT2-R expression in prostate tissue of prostate cancer patients may be considered as a tool for predicting biochemical recurrence after combined hormone and radiation therapy. The test has a sensitivity of 87.5% and specificity of 85.71%.

[Establishment of comprehensive prediction model of acute gastrointestinal injury classification of critically ill patients].

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yan; Wang, Jianrong; Liu, Weiwei; Zhang, Guangliang

2018-03-25

To develop the comprehensive prediction model of acute gastrointestinal injury (AGI) grades of critically ill patients. From April 2015 to November 2015, the binary channel gastrointestinal sounds (GIS) monitor system which has been developed and verified by the research group was used to gather and analyze the GIS of 60 consecutive critically ill patients who were admitted in Critical Care Medicine of Chinese PLA General Hospital. Also, the AGI grades (Grande I(-IIII(, the higher the level, the heavier the gastrointestinal dysfunction) were evaluated. Meanwhile, the clinical data and physiological and biochemical indexes of included patients were collected and recorded daily, including illness severity score (APACHE II( score, consisting of the acute physiology score, age grade and chronic health evaluation), sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA score, including respiration, coagulation, liver, cardioascular, central nervous system and kidney) and Glasgow coma scale (GCS); body mass index, blood lactate and glucose, and treatment details (including mechanical ventilation, sedatives, vasoactive drugs, enteral nutrition, etc.) Then principal component analysis was performed on the significantly correlated GIS (five indexes of gastrointestinal sounds were found to be negatively correlated with AGI grades, which included the number, percentage of time, mean power, maximum power and maximum time of GIS wave from the channel located at the stomach) and clinical factors after standardization. The top 5 post-normalized main components were selected for back-propagation (BP) neural network training, to establish comprehensive AGI grades models of critically ill patients based on the neural network model. The 60 patients aged 19 to 98 (mean 54.6) years and included 42 males (70.0%). There were 22 cases of multiple fractures, 15 cases of severe infection, 7 cases of cervical vertebral fracture, 7 cases of aortic repair, 5 cases of post-toxicosis and 4 cases of cerebral

Remote sensing analysis of vegetation at the San Carlos Apache Reservation, Arizona and surrounding area

Science.gov (United States)

Norman, Laura M.; Middleton, Barry R.; Wilson, Natalie R.

2018-01-01

Mapping of vegetation types is of great importance to the San Carlos Apache Tribe and their management of forestry and fire fuels. Various remote sensing techniques were applied to classify multitemporal Landsat 8 satellite data, vegetation index, and digital elevation model data. A multitiered unsupervised classification generated over 900 classes that were then recoded to one of the 16 generalized vegetation/land cover classes using the Southwest Regional Gap Analysis Project (SWReGAP) map as a guide. A supervised classification was also run using field data collected in the SWReGAP project and our field campaign. Field data were gathered and accuracy assessments were generated to compare outputs. Our hypothesis was that a resulting map would update and potentially improve upon the vegetation/land cover class distributions of the older SWReGAP map over the 24,000  km2 study area. The estimated overall accuracies ranged between 43% and 75%, depending on which method and field dataset were used. The findings demonstrate the complexity of vegetation mapping, the importance of recent, high-quality-field data, and the potential for misleading results when insufficient field data are collected.

Predictive value of PET-CT for pathological response in stages II and III breast cancer patients following neoadjuvant chemotherapy with docetaxel.

Science.gov (United States)

García García-Esquinas, Marta A; Arrazola García, Juan; García-Sáenz, José A; Furió-Bacete, V; Fuentes Ferrer, Manuel E; Ortega Candil, Aída; Cabrera Martín, María N; Carreras Delgado, José L

2014-01-01

To prospectively study the value of PET-CT with fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) to predict neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) response of locoregional disease of stages II and III breast cancer patients. A written informed consent and approval were obtained from the Ethics Committee. PET-CT accuracy in the prediction of pathologic complete response (pCR) after NAC was studied in primary tumors and lymph node metastasis in 43 women (mean age: 50 years: range: 27-71 years) with histologically proven breast cancer between December 2009 and January 2011. PET-CT was performed at baseline and after NAC. SUV(max) percentage changes (ΔSUV(max)) were compared with pathology findings at surgery. Receiver-operator characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to discriminate between locoregional pCR and non-pCR. In patients not achieving pCR, it was investigated if ΔSUV(max) could accurately identify the residual cancer burden (RCB) classes: RCB-I (minimal residual disease (MRD)), RCB-II (moderate RD), and RCB-III (extensive RD). pCR was obtained in 11 patients (25.6%). Residual disease was found in 32 patients (74.4%): 16 (37.2%) RCB-I, 15 (35.6%) RCB-II and 2 (4.7%) RCB-III. Sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy to predict pCR were 90.9%, 90.6%, and 90.7%, respectively. Specificity was 94.1% in the identification of a subset of patients who had either pCR or MRD. Accuracy of ΔSUV(max) in the locoregional disease of stages II and III breast cancer patients after NAC is high for the identification of pCR cases. Its specificity is potentially sufficient to identify a subgroup of patients who could be managed with conservative surgery. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier España, S.L. and SEMNIM. All rights reserved.

Transport Risk Index of Physiologic Stability, version II (TRIPS-II): a simple and practical neonatal illness severity score.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Shoo K; Aziz, Khalid; Dunn, Michael; Clarke, Maxine; Kovacs, Lajos; Ojah, Cecil; Ye, Xiang Y

2013-05-01

Derive and validate a practical assessment of infant illness severity at admission to neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Prospective study involving 17,075 infants admitted to 15 NICUs in 2006 to 2008. Logistic regression was used to derive a prediction model for mortality comprising four empirically weighted items (temperature, blood pressure, respiratory status, response to noxious stimuli). This Transport Risk Index of Physiologic Stability, version II (TRIPS-II) was then validated for prediction of 7-day and total NICU mortality. TRIPS-II discriminated 7-day (receiver operating curve [ROC] area, 0.90) and total NICU mortality (ROC area, 0.87) from survival. Furthermore, there was a direct association between changes in TRIPS-II at 12 and 24 hours and mortality. There was good calibration across the full range of TRIPS-II scores and the gestational age at birth, and addition of TRIPS-II improved performance of prediction models that use gestational age and baseline population risk variables. TRIPS-II is a validated benchmarking tool for assessing infant illness severity at admission and for up to 24 hours after. Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Prognostic factors and scoring system for survival in colonic perforation.

Science.gov (United States)

Komatsu, Shuhei; Shimomatsuya, Takumi; Nakajima, Masayuki; Amaya, Hirokazu; Kobuchi, Taketsune; Shiraishi, Susumu; Konishi, Sayuri; Ono, Susumu; Maruhashi, Kazuhiro

2005-01-01

No ideal and generally accepted prognostic factors and scoring systems exist to determine the prognosis of peritonitis associated with colonic perforation. This study was designed to investigate prognostic factors and evaluate the various scoring systems to allow identification of high-risk patients. Between 1996 and 2003, excluding iatrogenic and trauma cases, 26 consecutive patients underwent emergency operations for colorectal perforation and were selected for this retrospective study. Several clinical factors were analyzed as possible predictive factors, and APACHE II, SOFA, MPI, and MOF scores were calculated. The overall mortality was 26.9%. Compared with the survivors, non-survivors were found more frequently in Hinchey's stage III-IV, a low preoperative marker of pH, base excess (BE), and a low postoperative marker of white blood cell count, PaO2/FiO2 ratio, and renal output (24h). According to the logistic regression model, BE was a significant independent variable. Concerning the prognostic scoring systems, an APACHE II score of 19, a SOFA score of 8, an MPI score of 30, and an MOF score of 7 or more were significantly related to poor prognosis. Preoperative BE and postoperative white blood cell count were reliable prognostic factors and early classification using prognostic scoring systems at specific points in the disease process are useful to improve our understanding of the problems involved.

Prediction of near-term increases in suicidal ideation in recently depressed patients with bipolar II disorder using intensive longitudinal data.

Science.gov (United States)

Depp, Colin A; Thompson, Wesley K; Frank, Ellen; Swartz, Holly A

2017-01-15

There are substantial gaps in understanding near-term precursors of suicidal ideation in bipolar II disorder. We evaluated whether repeated patient-reported mood and energy ratings predicted subsequent near-term increases in suicide ideation. Secondary data were used from 86 depressed adults with bipolar II disorder enrolled in one of 3 clinical trials evaluating Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy and/or pharmacotherapy as treatments for depression. Twenty weeks of daily mood and energy ratings and weekly Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) were obtained. Penalized regression was used to model trajectories of daily mood and energy ratings in the 3 week window prior to HDRS Suicide Item ratings. Participants completed an average of 68.6 (sd=52) days of mood and energy ratings. Aggregated across the sample, 22% of the 1675 HDRS Suicide Item ratings were non-zero, indicating presence of at least some suicidal thoughts. A cross-validated model with longitudinal ratings of energy and depressed mood within the three weeks prior to HDRS ratings resulted in an AUC of 0.91 for HDRS Suicide item >2, accounting for twice the variation when compared to baseline HDRS ratings. Energy, both at low and high levels, was an earlier predictor than mood. Data derived from a heterogeneous treated sample may not generalize to naturalistic samples. Identified suicidal behavior was absent from the sample so it could not be predicted. Prediction models coupled with intensively gathered longitudinal data may shed light on the dynamic course of near-term risk factors for suicidal ideation in bipolar II disorder. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Clinical effects of low-molecular-weight heparin combined with ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research August 2016; 15 (8): 1787-1792 ... Keywords: Acute pancreatitis, Low-molecular-weight heparin, Multiple organ function syndrome,. APACHE II score ... mediators by lowering the expression of.

The Apache Longbow-Hellfire Missile Test at Yuma Proving Ground: Ecological Risk Assessment for Missile Firing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jones, Daniel Steven; Efroymson, Rebecca Ann; Hargrove, William Walter; Suter, Glenn; Pater, Larry

2008-01-01

A multiple stressor risk assessment was conducted at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, as a demonstration of the Military Ecological Risk Assessment Framework. The focus was a testing program at Cibola Range, which involved an Apache Longbow helicopter firing Hellfire missiles at moving targets, M60-A1 tanks. This paper describes the ecological risk assessment for the missile launch and detonation. The primary stressor associated with this activity was sound. Other minor stressors included the detonation impact, shrapnel, and fire. Exposure to desert mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus crooki) was quantified using the Army sound contour program BNOISE2, as well as distances from the explosion to deer. Few effects data were available from related studies. Exposure-response models for the characterization of effects consisted of human 'disturbance' and hearing damage thresholds in units of C-weighted decibels (sound exposure level) and a distance-based No Observed Adverse Effects Level for moose and cannonfire. The risk characterization used a weight-of-evidence approach and concluded that risk to mule deer behavior from the missile firing was likely for a negligible number of deer, but that no risk to mule deer abundance and reproduction is expected

Data collection and field experiments at the Apache Leap research site. Annual report, May 1995--1996

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woodhouse, E.G.; Bassett, R.L.; Neuman, S.P.; Chen, G.

1997-08-01

This report documents the research performed during the period May 1995-May 1996 for a project of the U.S. Regulatory Commission (sponsored contract NRC-04-090-051) by the University of Arizona. The project manager for this research in Thomas J. Nicholson, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. The objectives of this research were to examine hypotheses and test alternative conceptual models concerning unsaturated flow and transport through fractured rock, and to design and execute confirmatory field and laboratory experiments to test these hypotheses and conceptual models at the Apache Leap Research Site near Superior, Arizona. Each chapter in this report summarizes research related to a specific set of objectives and can be read and interpreted as a separate entity. Topics include: crosshole pneumatic and gaseous tracer field and modeling experiments designed to help validate the applicability of contiuum geostatistical and stochastic concepts, theories, models, and scaling relations relevant to unsaturated flow and transport in fractured porous tuffs; use of geochemistry and aquifer testing to evaluate fracture flow and perching mechanisms; investigations of 234 U/ 238 U fractionation to evaluate leaching selectivity; and transport and modeling of both conservative and non-conservative tracers

Pol II promoter prediction using characteristic 4-mer motifs: a machine learning approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shoyaib Mohammad

2008-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Eukaryotic promoter prediction using computational analysis techniques is one of the most difficult jobs in computational genomics that is essential for constructing and understanding genetic regulatory networks. The increased availability of sequence data for various eukaryotic organisms in recent years has necessitated for better tools and techniques for the prediction and analysis of promoters in eukaryotic sequences. Many promoter prediction methods and tools have been developed to date but they have yet to provide acceptable predictive performance. One obvious criteria to improve on current methods is to devise a better system for selecting appropriate features of promoters that distinguish them from non-promoters. Secondly improved performance can be achieved by enhancing the predictive ability of the machine learning algorithms used. Results In this paper, a novel approach is presented in which 128 4-mer motifs in conjunction with a non-linear machine-learning algorithm utilising a Support Vector Machine (SVM are used to distinguish between promoter and non-promoter DNA sequences. By applying this approach to plant, Drosophila, human, mouse and rat sequences, the classification model has showed 7-fold cross-validation percentage accuracies of 83.81%, 94.82%, 91.25%, 90.77% and 82.35% respectively. The high sensitivity and specificity value of 0.86 and 0.90 for plant; 0.96 and 0.92 for Drosophila; 0.88 and 0.92 for human; 0.78 and 0.84 for mouse and 0.82 and 0.80 for rat demonstrate that this technique is less prone to false positive results and exhibits better performance than many other tools. Moreover, this model successfully identifies location of promoter using TATA weight matrix. Conclusion The high sensitivity and specificity indicate that 4-mer frequencies in conjunction with supervised machine-learning methods can be beneficial in the identification of RNA pol II promoters comparative to other methods. This

Transport with Astra in TJ-II

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lopez-Bruna, D.; Castejon, F.; Fontdecaba, J. M.

2004-01-01

This report describes the adaptation of the numerical transport shell ASTRA for performing plasma calculations in the TJ-II stellarator device. Firstly, an approximation to the TJ-II geometry is made and a simple transport model is shared with two other codes in order to compare these codes (PROCTR, PRETOR-Stellarator) with ASTRA as calculation tool for TJ-II plasmas are provided: interpretative and predictive transport. The first consists in estimating the transport coefficients from real experimental data, thes being taken from three TJ-II discharges. The predictive facet is illustrated using a model that is able to includes self-consistently the dynamics of transport barriers. The report includes this model, written in the ASTRA programming language, to illustrate the use of ASTRA. (Author) 26 refs

Metabonomics analysis of plasma reveals the lactate to cholesterol ratio as an independent prognostic factor of short-term mortality in acute heart failure.

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Franck Desmoulin

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: Mortality in heart failure (AHF remains high, especially during the first days of hospitalization. New prognostic biomarkers may help to optimize treatment. The aim of the study was to determine metabolites that have a high prognostic value. METHODS: We conducted a prospective study on a training cohort of AHF patients (n = 126 admitted in the cardiac intensive care unit and assessed survival at 30 days. Venous plasmas collected at admission were used for (1H NMR--based metabonomics analysis. Differences between plasma metabolite profiles allow determination of discriminating metabolites. A cohort of AHF patients was subsequently constituted (n = 74 to validate the findings. RESULTS: Lactate and cholesterol were the major discriminating metabolites predicting 30-day mortality. Mortality was increased in patients with high lactate and low total cholesterol concentrations at admission. Accuracies of lactate, cholesterol concentration and lactate to cholesterol (Lact/Chol ratio to predict 30-day mortality were evaluated using ROC analysis. The Lact/Chol ratio provided the best accuracy with an AUC of 0.82 (P < 0.0001. The acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (APACHE II scoring system provided an AUC of 0.76 for predicting 30-day mortality. APACHE II score, Cardiogenic shock (CS state and Lact/Chol ratio ≥ 0.4 (cutoff value with 82% sensitivity and 64% specificity were significant independent predictors of 30-day mortality with hazard ratios (HR of 1.11, 4.77 and 3.59, respectively. In CS patients, the HR of 30-day mortality risk for plasma Lact/Chol ratio ≥ 0.4 was 3.26 compared to a Lact/Chol ratio of < 0.4 (P = 0.018. The predictive power of the Lact/Chol ratio for 30-day mortality outcome was confirmed with the independent validation cohort. CONCLUSION: This study identifies the plasma Lact/Chol ratio as a useful objective and simple parameter to evaluate short term prognostic and could be integrated into quantitative

Desempenho de seis modelos de predição prognóstica em pacientes críticos que receberam suporte renal extracorpóreo Performance of six prognostic scores in critically ILL patients receiving renal replacement therapy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elizabeth R. Maccariello

2008-06-01

Full Text Available JUSTIFICATIVA E OBJETIVOS: Não existe consenso sobre qual modelo prognóstico deva ser utilizado em pacientes com disfunção renal aguda (DRA. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar o desempenho de seis escores de prognóstico em pacientes que necessitaram de suporte renal. MÉTODO: Coorte prospectiva de pacientes internados nas unidades de terapia intensiva (UTI de três hospitais terciários que necessitaram de suporte renal por DRA durante 32 meses. Foram excluídos os pacientes crônicos em programa de diálise ou com BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There is no consensus about prognostic scores for use in patients with acute kidney injury (AKI. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of six prognostic scores in predicting hospital mortality in patients with AKI and need for renal replacement therapy (RRT. METHODS: Prospective cohort of patients admitted to the intensive care units (ICU of three tertiary care hospitals that required RRT for AKI over a 32-month period. Patients with end-stage renal disease and those with ICU stay < 24h were excluded. Data from the first 24h of ICU admission were used to calculate SAPS II and APACHE II scores, and data from the first 24h of RRT were used in the calculation of LOD, ODIN, Liaño and Mehta scores. Discrimination was evaluated using the area under ROC curve (AUROC and calibration using the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test. The hospital mortality was the end-point of interest. RESULTS: 467 patients were evaluated. Hospital mortality rate was 75%. Mean SAPS II and APACHE II scores were 48.5 ±11.2 and 27.4 ± 6.3 points, and median LOD score was 7 (5-8 points. Except for Mehta score (p = 0.001, calibration was appropriate in all models. However, discrimination was uniformly unsatisfactory; AUROC ranged from 0.60 for ODIN to 0.72 for SAPS II and Mehta scores. In addition, except for Mehta, all models tended to underestimate hospital mortality. CONCLUSIONS: Organ dysfunction, general and

A Big Data Approach for Situation-Aware estimation, correction and prediction of aerosol effects, based on MODIS Joint Atmosphere product (collection 6) time series data

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, A. K.; Toshniwal, D.

2017-12-01

The MODIS Joint Atmosphere product, MODATML2 and MYDATML2 L2/3 provided by LAADS DAAC (Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive & Distribution System Distributed Active Archive Center) re-sampled from medium resolution MODIS Terra /Aqua Satellites data at 5km scale, contains Cloud Reflectance, Cloud Top Temperature, Water Vapor, Aerosol Optical Depth/Thickness, Humidity data. These re-sampled data, when used for deriving climatic effects of aerosols (particularly in case of cooling effect) still exposes limitations in presence of uncertainty measures in atmospheric artifacts such as aerosol, cloud, cirrus cloud etc. The effect of uncertainty measures in these artifacts imposes an important challenge for estimation of aerosol effects, adequately affecting precise regional weather modeling and predictions: Forecasting and recommendation applications developed largely depend on these short-term local conditions (e.g. City/Locality based recommendations to citizens/farmers based on local weather models). Our approach inculcates artificial intelligence technique for representing heterogeneous data(satellite data along with air quality data from local weather stations (i.e. in situ data)) to learn, correct and predict aerosol effects in the presence of cloud and other atmospheric artifacts, defusing Spatio-temporal correlations and regressions. The Big Data process pipeline consisting correlation and regression techniques developed on Apache Spark platform can easily scale for large data sets including many tiles (scenes) and over widened time-scale. Keywords: Climatic Effects of Aerosols, Situation-Aware, Big Data, Apache Spark, MODIS Terra /Aqua, Time Series

Monolayer II-VI semiconductors: A first-principles prediction

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Hui; Chen, Nian-Ke; Zhang, S. B.; Li, Xian-Bin

A systematic study of 32 honeycomb monolayer II-VI semiconductors is carried out by first-principles methods. It appears that BeO, MgO, CaO, ZnO, CdO, CaS, SrS, SrSe, BaTe, and HgTe honeycomb monolayers have a good dynamic stability which is revealed by phonon calculations. In addition, from the molecular dynamic (MD) simulation of other unstable candidates, we also find two extra monolayers dynamically stable, which are tetragonal BaS and orthorhombic HgS. The honeycomb monolayers exist in form of either a planar perfect honeycomb or a low-buckled 2D layer, all of which possess a band gap and most of them are in the ultraviolet region. Interestingly, the dynamically stable SrSe has a gap near visible light, and displays exotic electronic properties with a flat top of the valence band, and hence has a strong spin polarization upon hole doping. The honeycomb HgTe has been reported to achieve a topological nontrivial phase under appropriate in-plane tensile strain and spin-orbital coupling (SOC). Some II-VI partners with less than 5% lattice mismatch may be used to design novel 2D heterojunction devices. If synthesized, potential applications of these 2D II-VI families could include optoelectronics, spintronics, and strong correlated electronics. Distinguished Student (DS) Program of APS FIP travel funds.

TBscore II

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rudolf, Frauke; Lemvik, Grethe; Abate, Ebba

2013-01-01

Abstract Background: The TBscore, based on simple signs and symptoms, was introduced to predict unsuccessful outcome in tuberculosis patients on treatment. A recent inter-observer variation study showed profound variation in some variables. Further, some variables depend on a physician assessing...... them, making the score less applicable. The aim of the present study was to simplify the TBscore. Methods: Inter-observer variation assessment and exploratory factor analysis were combined to develop a simplified score, the TBscore II. To validate TBscore II we assessed the association between start...

Leptin Is Associated With Persistence of Hyperglycemia in Acute Pancreatitis

Science.gov (United States)

Kennedy, James I.C.; Askelund, Kathryn J.; Premkumar, Rakesh; Phillips, Anthony R.J.; Murphy, Rinki; Windsor, John A.; Petrov, Maxim S.

2016-01-01

Abstract Adipokines have many homeostatic roles, including modulation of glucose metabolism, but their role in the pathophysiology of hyperglycemia associated with acute and critical illnesses in general, and acute pancreatitis (AP) in particular, is largely unknown. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between a panel of adipokines and hyperglycemia in the early course of AP, as well as the role of adipokines as predictors of AP severity. Adiponectin, leptin, omentin, resistin, and visfatin were measured on a daily basis in the first 72 hours after hospital admission. A first set of analyses was undertaken with admission glycemia stratified by severity, and a second set of analyses was undertaken based on persistence of early hyperglycemia. All of the analyses were adjusted for confounders. A total of 32 patients with AP were included in this study. None of the studied adipokines was significantly associated with glucose level on admission. Leptin was significantly (P = 0.003) increased in patients with persistent hyperglycemia. Adiponectin was significantly associated with the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score in patients with persistent hyperglycemia (P = 0.015), visfatin with APACHE II score in patients with persistent hyperglycemia (P = 0.014), and omentin with APACHE II score in all of the patients regardless of the presence or absence of hyperglycemia (P = 0.021). Leptin is significantly associated with persistent hyperglycemia in the early course of AP. Omentin has a potential to become an accurate predictor of AP severity. PMID:26871770

Mescalero Apache Tribe Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS). Phase 1 feasibility study report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Peso, F.

1992-03-13

The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended, authorizes the siting, construction and operation of a Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS) facility. The MRS is intended to be used for the temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel from the nation`s nuclear power plants beginning as early as 1998. Pursuant to the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the Office of the Nuclear Waste Negotiator was created. On October 7, 1991, the Nuclear Waste Negotiator invited the governors of states and the Presidents of Indian tribes to apply for government grants in order to conduct a study to assess under what conditions, if any, they might consider hosting an MRS facility. Pursuant to this invitation, on October 11, 1991 the Mescalero Apache Indian Tribe of Mescalero, NM applied for a grant to conduct a phased, preliminary study of the safety, technical, political, environmental, social and economic feasibility of hosting an MRS. The preliminary study included: (1) An investigative education process to facilitate the Tribe`s comprehensive understanding of the safety, environmental, technical, social, political, and economic aspects of hosting an MRS, and; (2) The development of an extensive program that is enabling the Tribe, in collaboration with the Negotiator, to reach an informed and carefully researched decision regarding the conditions, (if any), under which further pursuit of the MRS would be considered. The Phase 1 grant application enabled the Tribe to begin the initial activities necessary to determine whether further consideration is warranted for hosting the MRS facility. The Tribe intends to pursue continued study of the MRS in order to meet the following objectives: (1) Continuing the education process towards a comprehensive understanding of the safety, environmental, technical, social and economic aspects of the MRS; (2) Conducting an effective public participation and information program; (3) Participating in MRS meetings.

Aplicación de las redes neuronales artificiales para la estratificación de riesgo de mortalidad hospitalaria

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Trujillano J.

2003-01-01

Full Text Available Objetivo: Comparar la capacidad de predicción de mortalidad hospitalaria de una red neuronal artificial (RNA con el Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II y la regresión logística (RL, y comparar la asignación de probabilidades entre los distintos modelos. Método: Se recogen de forma prospectiva las variables necesarias para el cálculo del APACHE II. Disponemos de 1.146 pacientes asignándose aleatoriamente (70 y 30% al grupo de Desarrollo (800 y al de Validación (346. Con las mismas variables se genera un modelo de RL y de RNA (perceptrón de 3 capas entrenado por algoritmo de backpropagation con remuestreo bootstrap y con 9 nodos en la capa oculta en el grupo de desarrollo. Se comparan los tres modelos en función de los criterios de discriminación con el área bajo la curva ROC (ABC [IC del 95%] y de calibración con el test de Hosmer-Lemeshow C (HLC. Las diferencias entre las probabilidades se valoran con el test de Bland-Altman. Resultados: En el grupo de validación, el APACHE II con ABC de 0,79 (0,75-0,84 y HLC de 11 (p = 0,329; modelo RL, ABC de 0,81 (0,76-0,85 y HLC de 29 (p = 0,0001, y en RNA, ABC de 0,82 (0,77-0,86 y HLC de 10 (p = 0,404. Los pacientes con mayores diferencias en la asignación de probabilidad entre RL y RN (8% del total son pacientes con problemas neurológicos. Los peores resultados se obtienen en los pacientes traumáticos (ABC inferior a 0,75 en todos los modelos. En los pacientes respiratorios, la RNA alcanza los mejores resultados (ABC = 0,87 [0,78-0,91]. Conclusiones: Una RNA es capaz de estratificar el riesgo de mortalidad hospitalaria utilizando las variables del sistema APACHE II. La RNA consigue mejores resultados frente a RL, sin alcanzar significación, ya que no trabaja con restricciones lineales ni de independencia de variables, con una diferente asignación de probabilidad individual entre los modelos.

The international INTRAVAL project. Phase 2, working group 1 report. Flow and tracer experiments in unsaturated tuff and soil. Las Cruces trench and Apache Leap tuff studies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nicholson, T.J.; Guzman-Guzman, A.; Hills, R.; Rasmussen, T.C.

1997-01-01

The Working Group 1 final report summaries two test case studies, the Las Cruces Trench (LCT), and Apache Leap Tuff Site (ALTS) experiments. The objectives of these two field studies were to evaluate models for water flow and contaminant transport in unsaturated, heterogeneous soils and fractured tuff. The LCT experiments were specifically designed to test various deterministic and stochastic models of water flow and solute transport in heterogeneous, unsaturated soils. Experimental data from the first tow LCT experiments, and detailed field characterisation studies provided information for developing and calibrating the models. Experimental results from the third experiment were held confidential from the modellers, and were used for model comparison. Comparative analyses included: point comparisons of water content; predicted mean behavior for water flow; point comparisons of solute concentrations; and predicted mean behavior for tritium transport. These analyses indicated that no model, whether uniform or heterogeneous, proved superior. Since the INTRAVAL study, however, a new method has been developed for conditioning the hydraulic properties used for flow and transport modelling based on the initial field-measured water content distributions and a set of scale-mean hydraulic parameters. Very good matches between the observed and simulated flow and transport behavior were obtained using the conditioning procedure, without model calibration. The ALTS experiments were designed to evaluate characterisation methods and their associated conceptual models for coupled matrix-fracture continua over a range of scales (i.e., 2.5 centimeter rock samples; 10 centimeter cores; 1 meter block; and 30 meter boreholes). Within these spatial scales, laboratory and field tests were conducted for estimating pneumatic, thermal, hydraulic, and transport property values for different conceptual models. The analyses included testing of current conceptual, mathematical and physical

Prediction of a new region in the H-T phase diagram of a disordered type II superconductor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nandgaonkar, Ajay; Kanhere, D.G.; Trivedi, Nandini

1997-01-01

The phase diagram of a type II superconductor (SC) in the magnetic field (B) - temperature (T) plane is shown schematically. At low T the system consists of an Abrikosov triangular vortex lattice which melts as the temperature is increased. At high B, the rigidity of the vortex lattice C 66 decreases with increasing B. Thus, the melting curve essentially tracks the H c2 behaviour, as shown in region (a) in fig. It was further suggested by Nelson, based on a mapping of vortices in 3D onto a problem of boson world-lines in spatial 2D and 1 imaginary dimension, that the classical statistical mechanics of vortices is analogous to the problem of quantum melting of the bosons. He used this mapping to predict a novel reentrant behavior of the phase boundary. These predictions were verified by experiments

Commonly used severity scores are not good predictors of mortality in sepsis from severe leptospirosis: a series of ten patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Velissaris, Dimitrios; Karanikolas, Menelaos; Flaris, Nikolaos; Fligou, Fotini; Marangos, Markos; Filos, Kriton S

2012-01-01

Introduction. Severe leptospirosis, also known as Weil's disease, can cause multiorgan failure with high mortality. Scoring systems for disease severity have not been validated for leptospirosis, and there is no documented method to predict mortality. Methods. This is a case series on 10 patients admitted to ICU for multiorgan failure from severe leptospirosis. Data were collected retrospectively, with approval from the Institution Ethics Committee. Results. Ten patients with severe leptospirosis were admitted in the Patras University Hospital ICU in a four-year period. Although, based on SOFA scores, predicted mortality was over 80%, seven of 10 patients survived and were discharged from the hospital in good condition. There was no association between SAPS II or SOFA scores and mortality, but survivors had significantly lower APACHE II scores compared to nonsurvivors. Conclusion. Commonly used severity scores do not seem to be useful in predicting mortality in severe leptospirosis. Early ICU admission and resuscitation based on a goal-directed therapy protocol are recommended and may reduce mortality. However, this study is limited by retrospective data collection and small sample size. Data from large prospective studies are needed to validate our findings.

The novel EuroSCORE II algorithm predicts the hospital mortality of thoracic aortic surgery in 461 consecutive Japanese patients better than both the original additive and logistic EuroSCORE algorithms.

Science.gov (United States)

Nishida, Takahiro; Sonoda, Hiromichi; Oishi, Yasuhisa; Tanoue, Yoshihisa; Nakashima, Atsuhiro; Shiokawa, Yuichi; Tominaga, Ryuji

2014-04-01

The European System for Cardiac Operative Risk Evaluation (EuroSCORE) II was developed to improve the overestimation of surgical risk associated with the original (additive and logistic) EuroSCOREs. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the significance of the EuroSCORE II by comparing its performance with that of the original EuroSCOREs in Japanese patients undergoing surgery on the thoracic aorta. We have calculated the predicted mortalities according to the additive EuroSCORE, logistic EuroSCORE and EuroSCORE II algorithms in 461 patients who underwent surgery on the thoracic aorta during a period of 20 years (1993-2013). The actual in-hospital mortality rates in the low- (additive EuroSCORE of 3-6), moderate- (7-11) and high-risk (≥11) groups (followed by overall mortality) were 1.3, 6.2 and 14.4% (7.2% overall), respectively. Among the three different risk groups, the expected mortality rates were 5.5 ± 0.6, 9.1 ± 0.7 and 13.5 ± 0.2% (9.5 ± 0.1% overall) by the additive EuroSCORE algorithm, 5.3 ± 0.1, 16 ± 0.4 and 42.4 ± 1.3% (19.9 ± 0.7% overall) by the logistic EuroSCORE algorithm and 1.6 ± 0.1, 5.2 ± 0.2 and 18.5 ± 1.3% (7.4 ± 0.4% overall) by the EuroSCORE II algorithm, indicating poor prediction (P algorithms were 0.6937, 0.7169 and 0.7697, respectively. Thus, the mortality expected by the EuroSCORE II more closely matched the actual mortality in all three risk groups. In contrast, the mortality expected by the logistic EuroSCORE overestimated the risks in the moderate- (P = 0.0002) and high-risk (P < 0.0001) patient groups. Although all of the original EuroSCOREs and EuroSCORE II appreciably predicted the surgical mortality for thoracic aortic surgery in Japanese patients, the EuroSCORE II best predicted the mortalities in all risk groups.

Comparative Study of Load Testing Tools: Apache JMeter, HP LoadRunner, Microsoft Visual Studio (TFS, Siege

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Rabiya Abbas

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Software testing is the process of verifying and validating the user’s requirements. Testing is ongoing process during whole software development. Software testing is characterized into three main types. That is, in Black box testing, user doesn’t know domestic knowledge, internal logics and design of system. In white box testing, Tester knows the domestic logic of code. In Grey box testing, Tester has little bit knowledge about the internal structure and working of the system. It is commonly used in case of Integration testing.Load testing helps us to analyze the performance of the system under heavy load or under Zero load. This is achieved with the help of a Load Testing Tool. The intention for writing this research is to carry out a comparison of four load testing tools i.e. Apache JMeter, LoadRunner, Microsoft Visual Studio (TFS, Siege based on certain criteria  i.e. test scripts generation , result reports, application support, plug-in supports, and cost . The main focus is to study these load testing tools and identify which tool is better and more efficient . We assume this comparison can help in selecting the most appropriate tool and motivates the use of open source load testing tools.

[Severity of disease scoring systems and mortality after non-cardiac surgery].

Science.gov (United States)

Reis, Pedro Videira; Sousa, Gabriela; Lopes, Ana Martins; Costa, Ana Vera; Santos, Alice; Abelha, Fernando José

2018-04-05

Mortality after surgery is frequent and severity of disease scoring systems are used for prediction. Our aim was to evaluate predictors for mortality after non-cardiac surgery. Adult patients admitted at our surgical intensive care unit between January 2006 and July 2013 was included. Univariate analysis was carried using Mann-Whitney, Chi-square or Fisher's exact test. Logistic regression was performed to assess independent factors with calculation of odds ratio and 95% confidence interval (95% CI). 4398 patients were included. Mortality was 1.4% in surgical intensive care unit and 7.4% during hospital stay. Independent predictors of mortality in surgical intensive care unit were APACHE II (OR=1.24); emergent surgery (OR=4.10), serum sodium (OR=1.06) and FiO 2 at admission (OR=14.31). Serum bicarbonate at admission (OR=0.89) was considered a protective factor. Independent predictors of hospital mortality were age (OR=1.02), APACHE II (OR=1.09), emergency surgery (OR=1.82), high-risk surgery (OR=1.61), FiO 2 at admission (OR=1.02), postoperative acute renal failure (OR=1.96), heart rate (OR=1.01) and serum sodium (OR=1.04). Dying patients had higher scores in severity of disease scoring systems and longer surgical intensive care unit stay. Some factors influenced both surgical intensive care unit and hospital mortality. Copyright © 2017 Sociedade Brasileira de Anestesiologia. Publicado por Elsevier Editora Ltda. All rights reserved.

Gene expression profiles in stages II and III colon cancers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thorsteinsson, Morten; Kirkeby, Lene T; Hansen, Raino

2012-01-01

PURPOSE: A 128-gene signature has been proposed to predict outcome in patients with stages II and III colorectal cancers. In the present study, we aimed to reproduce and validate the 128-gene signature in external and independent material. METHODS: Gene expression data from the original material...... were retrieved from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) (n¿=¿111) in addition to a Danish data set (n¿=¿37). All patients had stages II and III colon cancers. A Prediction Analysis of Microarray classifier, based on the 128-gene signature and the original training set of stage I (n¿=¿65) and stage IV (n...... correctly predicted as stage IV-like, and the remaining patients were predicted as stage I-like and unclassifiable, respectively. Stage II patients could not be stratified. CONCLUSIONS: The 128-gene signature showed reproducibility in stage III colon cancer, but could not predict recurrence in stage II...

Statistical downscaling of historical monthly mean winds over a coastal region of complex terrain. II. Predicting wind components

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kamp, Derek van der [University of Victoria, Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium, Victoria, BC (Canada); University of Victoria, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Victoria, BC (Canada); Curry, Charles L. [Environment Canada University of Victoria, Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, Victoria, BC (Canada); University of Victoria, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Victoria, BC (Canada); Monahan, Adam H. [University of Victoria, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Victoria, BC (Canada)

2012-04-15

A regression-based downscaling technique was applied to monthly mean surface wind observations from stations throughout western Canada as well as from buoys in the Northeast Pacific Ocean over the period 1979-2006. A predictor set was developed from principal component analysis of the three wind components at 500 hPa and mean sea-level pressure taken from the NCEP Reanalysis II. Building on the results of a companion paper, Curry et al. (Clim Dyn 2011), the downscaling was applied to both wind speed and wind components, in an effort to evaluate the utility of each type of predictand. Cross-validated prediction skill varied strongly with season, with autumn and summer displaying the highest and lowest skill, respectively. In most cases wind components were predicted with better skill than wind speeds. The predictive ability of wind components was found to be strongly related to their orientation. Wind components with the best predictions were often oriented along topographically significant features such as constricted valleys, mountain ranges or ocean channels. This influence of directionality on predictive ability is most prominent during autumn and winter at inland sites with complex topography. Stations in regions with relatively flat terrain (where topographic steering is minimal) exhibit inter-station consistencies including region-wide seasonal shifts in the direction of the best predicted wind component. The conclusion that wind components can be skillfully predicted only over a limited range of directions at most stations limits the scope of statistically downscaled wind speed predictions. It seems likely that such limitations apply to other regions of complex terrain as well. (orig.)

The Decrease of Peripheral Blood CD4+ T Cells Indicates Abdominal Compartment Syndrome in Severe Acute Pancreatitis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yao Liu

Full Text Available Few data are available on the role of T lymphocytes and inflammatory cytokines in abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS in severe acute pancreatitis (SAP. We conducted a retrospective study to assess the risk factors associated with ACS in SAP.A total of 76 SAP patients who were admitted within 24 hours after symptom onset in our study. There were 36 patients suffering from ACS and 40 from intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH. On the 1st, 3rd and 7th days after hospital admission, the following variables were assessed: serum value of C-reactive protein (CRP, and the proportions of peripheral CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II score, and computed tomography severity index (CTSI score were assessed on days 1 and 7 after hospitalization.Compared with the patients with IAH, ACS patients showed statistically higher CRP value on 7th day after hospital admission, proportions of CD4+ T cells on days 1, 3, 7 and CD4+/CD8+ ratio on day 1 were significantly lower (P < 0.05, respectively. A CD4+ T cell proportion of 30.3% on the 1st day indicated ACS with an area under the curve (AUC of 0.774, a sensitivity with 82.5% and specificity with 72.0%, respectively. Sensitivity/specificity for predicting ACS in SAP patients on day 1 was 70.0%/68.0% for CD4+/CD8+ ratio, 72.2%/65.0% for APACHE II score.The reduction of peripheral blood CD4+ T lymphocytes is associated with ACS in SAP, and may act as a potential predictor of ACS in SAP.

In silico prediction of drug dissolution and absorption with variation in intestinal pH for BCS class II weak acid drugs: ibuprofen and ketoprofen.

Science.gov (United States)

Tsume, Yasuhiro; Langguth, Peter; Garcia-Arieta, Alfredo; Amidon, Gordon L

2012-10-01

The FDA Biopharmaceutical Classification System guidance allows waivers for in vivo bioavailability and bioequivalence studies for immediate-release solid oral dosage forms only for BCS class I. Extensions of the in vivo biowaiver for a number of drugs in BCS class III and BCS class II have been proposed, in particular, BCS class II weak acids. However, a discrepancy between the in vivo BE results and in vitro dissolution results for BCS class II acids was recently observed. The objectives of this study were to determine the oral absorption of BCS class II weak acids via simulation software and to determine if the in vitro dissolution test with various dissolution media could be sufficient for in vitro bioequivalence studies of ibuprofen and ketoprofen as models of carboxylic acid drugs. The oral absorption of these BCS class II acids from the gastrointestinal tract was predicted by GastroPlus™. Ibuprofen did not satisfy the bioequivalence criteria at lower settings of intestinal pH of 6.0. Further the experimental dissolution of ibuprofen tablets in a low concentration phosphate buffer at pH 6.0 (the average buffer capacity 2.2 mmol l (-1) /pH) was dramatically reduced compared with the dissolution in SIF (the average buffer capacity 12.6 mmol l (-1) /pH). Thus these predictions for the oral absorption of BCS class II acids indicate that the absorption patterns depend largely on the intestinal pH and buffer strength and must be considered carefully for a bioequivalence test. Simulation software may be a very useful tool to aid the selection of dissolution media that may be useful in setting an in vitro bioequivalence dissolution standard. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Structure-based prediction and identification of 4-epimerization activity of phosphate sugars in class II aldolases.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Seon-Hwa; Hong, Seung-Hye; An, Jung-Ung; Kim, Kyoung-Rok; Kim, Dong-Eun; Kang, Lin-Woo; Oh, Deok-Kun

2017-05-16

Sugar 4-epimerization reactions are important for the production of rare sugars and their derivatives, which have various potential industrial applications. For example, the production of tagatose, a functional sweetener, from fructose by sugar 4-epimerization is currently constrained because a fructose 4-epimerase does not exist in nature. We found that class II D-fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase (FbaA) catalyzed the 4-epimerization of D-fructose-6-phosphate (F6P) to D-tagatose-6-phosphate (T6P) based on the prediction via structural comparisons with epimerase and molecular docking and the identification of the condensed products of C3 sugars. In vivo, the 4-epimerization activity of FbaA is normally repressed. This can be explained by our results showing the catalytic efficiency of D-fructose-6-phosphate kinase for F6P phosphorylation was significantly higher than that of FbaA for F6P epimerization. Here, we identified the epimerization reactions and the responsible catalytic residues through observation of the reactions of FbaA and L-rhamnulose-1-phosphate aldolases (RhaD) variants with substituted catalytic residues using different substrates. Moreover, we obtained detailed potential epimerization reaction mechanism of FbaA and a general epimerization mechanism of the class II aldolases L-fuculose-1-phosphate aldolase, RhaD, and FbaA. Thus, class II aldolases can be used as 4-epimerases for the stereo-selective synthesis of valuable carbohydrates.

Nutrición enteral total vs. nutrición parenteral total en pacientes con pancreatitis aguda grave Total enteral nutrition vs. total parenteral nutrition in patients with severe acute pancreatitis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Casas

2007-05-01

Full Text Available Objetivo: comparar la eficacia de la instauración precoz de nutrición enteral total (NET frente a nutrición parenteral total (NPT en pacientes con pancreatitis aguda grave (PAG. Métodos: estudio prospectivo aleatorio. Se incluyeron consecutivamente 22 pacientes con PAG aplicando los criterios APACHE II, valores de PCR y graduación de Balthazar en la TC. El grupo I (n = 11 recibió NPT y el grupo II (n = 12 NET. Se valoró la respuesta inflamatoria (PCR, TNF-alfa, IL-6, las proteínas viscerales (pre-albúmina, albúmina, la tasa de complicaciones (síndrome de respuesta inflamatoria sistémica, fallo multiorgánico, infecciones, las intervenciones quirúrgicas, la estancia hospitalaria y la mortalidad. Resultados: no hubo diferencias significativas en los primeros 10 días entre los dos grupos en la evolución de los criterios APACHE II, en las concentraciones de PCR, TNF-alfa e IL-6 ni tampoco en los valores de pre-albúmina y albúmina. Siete pacientes del grupo I presentaron complicaciones graves frente a 4 del grupo II. Requirieron intervención quirúrgica 3 pacientes del grupo I. La estancia hospitalaria fue similar en los dos grupos. Dos pacientes del grupo I fallecieron. Conclusiones: se ha observado una tendencia a una mejor evolución de los pacientes con PAG que utilizaron NET frente a los que utilizaron NPT.Objective: to compare the efficacy of early total enteral nutrition (TEN vs. total parenteral nutrition (TPN in patients with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP. Methods: a total of 22 consecutive patients with SAP were randomized to receive TPN (group I or TEN (group II. SAP was defined applying APACHE II score, C-reactive protein (CRP measurements and/or Balthazar CT scan score. Acute inflammatory response (CRP, TNF-alpha, IL-6, visceral proteins (pre-albumin, albumin, complications (systemic inflammatory response syndrome, multiorgan failure, infections, surgical interventions, length of hospital stay and mortality were

Prediction of the oscillator strengths for the electric dipole transitions in Th II

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dembczynski, Jerzy [Institute of Control and Information Engineering, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Poznan University of Technology, Piotrowo 3A, 60-965 Poznan (Poland); Ruczkowski, Jaroslaw; Elantkowska, Magdalena [Laboratory of Quantum Engineering and Metrology, Faculty of Technical Physics, Poznan University of Technology, Nieszawska 13B, 60-965 Poznan (Poland)

2014-07-01

In order to parametrize the oscillator strength, the matrix of angular coefficients of the possible transitions in multiconfiguration system were calculated. In the odd and even configuration systems, the fine structure eigenvectors for both parities were obtained, using our semiempirical method, which taken into account also the second order effects, resulting from the excitations from electronic closed shells to open shells and from open shells to empty shell. The correctness of the fine structure wave functions was verified by the comparison of calculated and experimental hyperfine structure constants for Th II available in the literature. The least square fit to experimental values for some transitions allow to obtain the values of radial parameters and predict the oscillator strengths values for all possible transitions from the levels under consideration. These calculations are necessary for the design of the nuclear frequency standard based on the thorium ion.

Building and validating a prediction model for paediatric type 1 diabetes risk using next generation targeted sequencing of class II HLA genes.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Lue Ping; Carlsson, Annelie; Larsson, Helena Elding; Forsander, Gun; Ivarsson, Sten A; Kockum, Ingrid; Ludvigsson, Johnny; Marcus, Claude; Persson, Martina; Samuelsson, Ulf; Örtqvist, Eva; Pyo, Chul-Woo; Bolouri, Hamid; Zhao, Michael; Nelson, Wyatt C; Geraghty, Daniel E; Lernmark, Åke

2017-11-01

It is of interest to predict possible lifetime risk of type 1 diabetes (T1D) in young children for recruiting high-risk subjects into longitudinal studies of effective prevention strategies. Utilizing a case-control study in Sweden, we applied a recently developed next generation targeted sequencing technology to genotype class II genes and applied an object-oriented regression to build and validate a prediction model for T1D. In the training set, estimated risk scores were significantly different between patients and controls (P = 8.12 × 10 -92 ), and the area under the curve (AUC) from the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was 0.917. Using the validation data set, we validated the result with AUC of 0.886. Combining both training and validation data resulted in a predictive model with AUC of 0.903. Further, we performed a "biological validation" by correlating risk scores with 6 islet autoantibodies, and found that the risk score was significantly correlated with IA-2A (Z-score = 3.628, P < 0.001). When applying this prediction model to the Swedish population, where the lifetime T1D risk ranges from 0.5% to 2%, we anticipate identifying approximately 20 000 high-risk subjects after testing all newborns, and this calculation would identify approximately 80% of all patients expected to develop T1D in their lifetime. Through both empirical and biological validation, we have established a prediction model for estimating lifetime T1D risk, using class II HLA. This prediction model should prove useful for future investigations to identify high-risk subjects for prevention research in high-risk populations. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Multi-metals column adsorption of lead(II), cadmium(II) and manganese(II) onto natural bentonite clay.

Science.gov (United States)

Alexander, Jock Asanja; Surajudeen, Abdulsalam; Aliyu, El-Nafaty Usman; Omeiza, Aroke Umar; Zaini, Muhammad Abbas Ahmad

2017-10-01

The present work was aimed at evaluating the multi-metals column adsorption of lead(II), cadmium(II) and manganese(II) ions onto natural bentonite. The bentonite clay adsorbent was characterized for physical and chemical properties using X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area and cation exchange capacity. The column performance was evaluated using adsorbent bed height of 5.0 cm, with varying influent concentrations (10 mg/L and 50 mg/L) and flow rates (1.4 mL/min and 2.4 mL/min). The result shows that the breakthrough time for all metal ions ranged from 50 to 480 minutes. The maximum adsorption capacity was obtained at initial concentration of 10 mg/L and flow rate of 1.4 mL/min, with 2.22 mg/g of lead(II), 1.71 mg/g of cadmium(II) and 0.37 mg/g of manganese(II). The order of metal ions removal by natural bentonite is lead(II) > cadmium(II) > manganese(II). The sorption performance and the dynamic behaviour of the column were predicted using Adams-Bohart, Thomas, and Yoon-Nelson models. The linear regression analysis demonstrated that the Thomas and Yoon-Nelson models fitted well with the column adsorption data for all metal ions. The natural bentonite was effective for the treatment of wastewater laden with multi-metals, and the process parameters obtained from this work can be used at the industrial scale.

In Silico Prediction of Drug Dissolution and Absorption with variation in Intestinal pH for BCS Class II Weak Acid Drugs: Ibuprofen and Ketoprofen§

Science.gov (United States)

Tsume, Yasuhiro; Langguth, Peter; Garcia-Arieta, Alfredo; Amidon, Gordon L.

2012-01-01

The FDA Biopharmaceutical Classification System guidance allows waivers for in vivo bioavailability and bioequivalence studies for immediate-release solid oral dosage forms only for BCS class I. Extensions of the in vivo biowaiver for a number of drugs in BCS Class III and BCS class II have been proposed, particularly, BCS class II weak acids. However, a discrepancy between the in vivo- BE results and in vitro- dissolution results for a BCS class II acids was recently observed. The objectives of this study were to determine the oral absorption of BCS class II weak acids via simulation software and to determine if the in vitro dissolution test with various dissolution media could be sufficient for in vitro bioequivalence studies of ibuprofen and ketoprofen as models of carboxylic acid drugs. The oral absorption of these BCS class II acids from the gastrointestinal tract was predicted by GastroPlus™. Ibuprofen did not satisfy the bioequivalence criteria at lower settings of intestinal pH=6.0. Further the experimental dissolution of ibuprofen tablets in the low concentration phosphate buffer at pH 6.0 (the average buffer capacity 2.2 mmol L-1/pH) was dramatically reduced compared to the dissolution in SIF (the average buffer capacity 12.6 mmol L -1/pH). Thus these predictions for oral absorption of BCS class II acids indicate that the absorption patterns largely depend on the intestinal pH and buffer strength and must be carefully considered for a bioequivalence test. Simulation software may be very useful tool to aid the selection of dissolution media that may be useful in setting an in vitro bioequivalence dissolution standard. PMID:22815122

Relationship between personality disorder functioning styles and the emotional states in bipolar I and II disorders.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiashu Yao

Full Text Available Bipolar disorder types I (BD I and II (BD II behave differently in clinical manifestations, normal personality traits, responses to pharmacotherapies, biochemical backgrounds and neuroimaging activations. How the varied emotional states of BD I and II are related to the comorbid personality disorders remains to be settled.We therefore administered the Plutchick - van Praag Depression Inventory (PVP, the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ, the Hypomanic Checklist-32 (HCL-32, and the Parker Personality Measure (PERM in 37 patients with BD I, 34 BD II, and in 76 healthy volunteers.Compared to the healthy volunteers, patients with BD I and II scored higher on some PERM styles, PVP, MDQ and HCL-32 scales. In BD I, the PERM Borderline style predicted the PVP scale; and Antisocial predicted HCL-32. In BD II, Borderline, Dependent, Paranoid (- and Schizoid (- predicted PVP; Borderline predicted MDQ; Passive-Aggressive and Schizoid (- predicted HCL-32. In controls, Borderline and Narcissistic (- predicted PVP; Borderline and Dependent (- predicted MDQ.Besides confirming the different predictability of the 11 functioning styles of personality disorder to BD I and II, we found that the prediction was more common in BD II, which might underlie its higher risk of suicide and poorer treatment outcome.

Relationship between Personality Disorder Functioning Styles and the Emotional States in Bipolar I and II Disorders

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Jiashu; Xu, You; Qin, Yanhua; Liu, Jing; Shen, Yuedi; Wang, Wei; Chen, Wei

2015-01-01

Background Bipolar disorder types I (BD I) and II (BD II) behave differently in clinical manifestations, normal personality traits, responses to pharmacotherapies, biochemical backgrounds and neuroimaging activations. How the varied emotional states of BD I and II are related to the comorbid personality disorders remains to be settled. Methods We therefore administered the Plutchick – van Praag Depression Inventory (PVP), the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ), the Hypomanic Checklist-32 (HCL-32), and the Parker Personality Measure (PERM) in 37 patients with BD I, 34 BD II, and in 76 healthy volunteers. Results Compared to the healthy volunteers, patients with BD I and II scored higher on some PERM styles, PVP, MDQ and HCL-32 scales. In BD I, the PERM Borderline style predicted the PVP scale; and Antisocial predicted HCL-32. In BD II, Borderline, Dependant, Paranoid (-) and Schizoid (-) predicted PVP; Borderline predicted MDQ; Passive-Aggressive and Schizoid (-) predicted HCL-32. In controls, Borderline and Narcissistic (-) predicted PVP; Borderline and Dependant (-) predicted MDQ. Conclusion Besides confirming the different predictability of the 11 functioning styles of personality disorder to BD I and II, we found that the prediction was more common in BD II, which might underlie its higher risk of suicide and poorer treatment outcome. PMID:25625553

A scoring system based on artificial neural network for predicting 10-year survival in stage II A colon cancer patients after radical surgery

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Wu; Lu, Shi-Xun; Lu, Zhen-Hai; Li, Pei-Xing; Yun, Jing-Ping; Zhang, Rong-Xin; Pan, Zhi-Zhong; Wan, De-Sen

2016-01-01

Nearly 20% patients with stage II A colon cancer will develop recurrent disease post-operatively. The present study aims to develop a scoring system based on Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model for predicting 10-year survival outcome. The clinical and molecular data of 117 stage II A colon cancer patients from Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center were used for training set and test set; poor pathological grading (score 49), reduced expression of TGFBR2 (score 33), over-expression of TGF-β (score 45), MAPK (score 32), pin1 (score 100), β-catenin in tumor tissue (score 50) and reduced expression of TGF-β in normal mucosa (score 22) were selected as the prognostic risk predictors. According to the developed scoring system, the patients were divided into 3 subgroups, which were supposed with higher, moderate and lower risk levels. As a result, for the 3 subgroups, the 10-year overall survival (OS) rates were 16.7%, 62.9% and 100% (P < 0.001); and the 10-year disease free survival (DFS) rates were 16.7%, 61.8% and 98.8% (P < 0.001) respectively. It showed that this scoring system for stage II A colon cancer could help to predict long-term survival and screen out high-risk individuals for more vigorous treatment. PMID:27008710

A scoring system based on artificial neural network for predicting 10-year survival in stage II A colon cancer patients after radical surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Jian-Hong; Fang, Yu-Jing; Li, Cai-Xia; Ou, Qing-Jian; Jiang, Wu; Lu, Shi-Xun; Lu, Zhen-Hai; Li, Pei-Xing; Yun, Jing-Ping; Zhang, Rong-Xin; Pan, Zhi-Zhong; Wan, De Sen

2016-04-19

Nearly 20% patients with stage II A colon cancer will develop recurrent disease post-operatively. The present study aims to develop a scoring system based on Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model for predicting 10-year survival outcome. The clinical and molecular data of 117 stage II A colon cancer patients from Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center were used for training set and test set; poor pathological grading (score 49), reduced expression of TGFBR2 (score 33), over-expression of TGF-β (score 45), MAPK (score 32), pin1 (score 100), β-catenin in tumor tissue (score 50) and reduced expression of TGF-β in normal mucosa (score 22) were selected as the prognostic risk predictors. According to the developed scoring system, the patients were divided into 3 subgroups, which were supposed with higher, moderate and lower risk levels. As a result, for the 3 subgroups, the 10-year overall survival (OS) rates were 16.7%, 62.9% and 100% (P < 0.001); and the 10-year disease free survival (DFS) rates were 16.7%, 61.8% and 98.8% (P < 0.001) respectively. It showed that this scoring system for stage II A colon cancer could help to predict long-term survival and screen out high-risk individuals for more vigorous treatment.

Modified poisoning severity score for early prognostic evaluation in acute paraquat poisoning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Feng-lin SONG

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Objective To study the applied value of modified poisoning severity score (PSS for early prognostic evaluation in acute paraquat poisoning. Methods Thirty-seven patients with acute paraquat poisoning from June 2013 to June 2016 were enrolled. The PSS score, the modified PSS score, the acute physiology and the chronic health status Ⅱ score (APACHE Ⅱ of the patients were calculated. The relationship between modified PSS and APACHE Ⅱ was analyzed. Also the factors that affect outcome were analyzed by logistic regression analysis. The work characteristic curve (ROC curve of the PSS, the modified PSS and the APECH Ⅱ were drawn and compared. Results There was a positive correlation between the risk of death and admission time, poisonous dose, the concentration of urine paraquat, and white blood cell count (P<0.05. There was a significant correlation between the modified PSS and the APACHE Ⅱ(P<0.0001. The immediate PSS score, the modified PSS score, and the APACHE Ⅱ score were significant for the prognosis of patients with acute paraquat poisoning. The area under the curve (AUC was in turn 0.774, 0.788, 0.799. Among them, the best bound of the modified PSS score was 6.5 (when the score is greater than 6.5, the risk of death is higher. Further comparison of the area under the three curves showed that there was no significant difference in the area under the ROC curve between the three scores in predicting the prognosis of death [P=0.7633(PSS-DPSS, P=0.7791(PSS-APACHE Ⅱ, P=0.8918(DPSS-APACHE Ⅱ]. Conclusion Modified PSS is helpful in early predicting the prognosis of acute paraquat poisoning. DOI: 10.11855/j.issn.0577-7402.2018.04.13

Numerical Predictions of Wind Turbine Power and Aerodynamic Loads for the NREL Phase II and IV Combined Experiment Rotor

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Duque, Earl P. N.; Johnson, Wayne; vanDam, C. P.; Chao, David D.; Cortes, Regina; Yee, Karen

1999-01-01

Accurate, reliable and robust numerical predictions of wind turbine rotor power remain a challenge to the wind energy industry. The literature reports various methods that compare predictions to experiments. The methods vary from Blade Element Momentum Theory (BEM), Vortex Lattice (VL), to variants of Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RaNS). The BEM and VL methods consistently show discrepancies in predicting rotor power at higher wind speeds mainly due to inadequacies with inboard stall and stall delay models. The RaNS methodologies show promise in predicting blade stall. However, inaccurate rotor vortex wake convection, boundary layer turbulence modeling and grid resolution has limited their accuracy. In addition, the inherently unsteady stalled flow conditions become computationally expensive for even the best endowed research labs. Although numerical power predictions have been compared to experiment. The availability of good wind turbine data sufficient for code validation experimental data that has been extracted from the IEA Annex XIV download site for the NREL Combined Experiment phase II and phase IV rotor. In addition, the comparisons will show data that has been further reduced into steady wind and zero yaw conditions suitable for comparisons to "steady wind" rotor power predictions. In summary, the paper will present and discuss the capabilities and limitations of the three numerical methods and make available a database of experimental data suitable to help other numerical methods practitioners validate their own work.

The prediction of creep damage in Type 347 weld metal: part II creep fatigue tests

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Spindler, M.W.

2005-01-01

Calculations of creep damage under conditions of strain control are often carried out using either a time fraction approach or a ductility exhaustion approach. In part I of this paper the rupture strength and creep ductility data for a Type 347 weld metal were fitted to provide the material properties that are used to calculate creep damage. Part II of this paper examines whether the time fraction approach or the ductility exhaustion approach gives the better predictions of creep damage in creep-fatigue tests on the same Type 347 weld metal. In addition, a new creep damage model, which was developed by removing some of the simplifying assumptions that are made in the ductility exhaustion approach, was used. This new creep damage model is a function of the strain rate, stress and temperature and was derived from creep and constant strain rate test data using a reverse modelling technique (see part I of this paper). It is shown that the new creep damage model gives better predictions of creep damage in the creep-fatigue tests than the time fraction and the ductility exhaustion approaches

The Syrian civil war: The experience of the Surgical Intensive Care Units.

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Ozdogan, Hatice Kaya; Karateke, Faruk; Ozdogan, Mehmet; Cetinalp, Sibel; Ozyazici, Sefa; Gezercan, Yurdal; Okten, Ali Ihsan; Celik, Muge; Satar, Salim

2016-01-01

Since the civilian war in Syria began, thousands of seriously injured trauma patients from Syria were brought to Turkey for emergency operations and/or postoperative intensive care. The aim of this study was to present the demographics and clinical features of the wounded patients in Syrian civil war admitted to the surgical intensive care units in a tertiary care centre. The records of 80 trauma patients admitted to the Anaesthesia, General Surgery and Neurosurgery ICUs between June 1, 2012 and July 15, 2014 were included in the study. The data were reviewed regarding the demographics, time of presentation, place of reference, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score and Injury Severity Score (ISS), surgical procedures, complications, length of stay and mortality. A total of 80 wounded patients (70 males and 10 females) with a mean age of 28.7 years were admitted to surgical ICUs. The most frequent cause of injury was gunshot injury. The mean time interval between the occurrence of injury and time of admission was 2.87 days. Mean ISS score on admission was 21, and mean APACHE II score was 15.7. APACHE II scores of non-survivors were significantly increased compared with those of survivors (P=0.001). No significant differences was found in the age, ISS, time interval before admission, length of stay in ICU, rate of surgery before or after admission. The most important factor affecting mortality in this particular trauma-ICU patient population from Syrian civil war was the physiological condition of patients on admission. Rapid transport and effective initial and on-road resuscitation are critical in decreasing the mortality rate in civil wars and military conflicts.

The normal transverse mesocolon and involvement of the mesocolon in acute pancreatitis: an MRI study.

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Chi, Xiao Xiao; Zhang, Xiao Ming; Chen, Tian Wu; Huang, Xiao Hua; Yang, Lin; Tang, Wei; Xiao, Bo

2014-01-01

To study the MRI findings of the normal transverse mesocolon and the involvement of the mesocolon in acute pancreatitis (AP) as well as the relationship between the involvement of the mesocolon and the severity of AP. Forty patients without pancreatic disorders were retrospectively analyzed to observe the normal transverse mesocolon using MRI; 210 patients with AP confirmed by clinical and laboratory tests were retrospectively analyzed using MRI to observe transverse-mesocolon involvement (TMI). The severity of TMI was recorded as zero points (no abnormalities and transverse-mesocolon vessel involvement), one point (linear and patchy signal in the transverse mesocolon) or two points (transverse-mesocolon effusion). The AP severity was graded by the MRI severity index (MRSI) and the Acute Physiology And Chronic Healthy Evaluation II (APACHE II) scoring system. The correlations of TMI with MRSI and APACHE-II were analyzed. In a normal transverse mesocolon, the display rates of the middle colic artery, the middle colic vein and the gastrocolic trunk on MRI were 95.0%, 82.5% and 100.0%, respectively. Of the 210 patients with AP, 130 patients (61.9%) had TMI. According to the TMI grading, 40%, 39% and 20% of the patients were graded at zero, one and two points, respectively. TMI was strongly correlated with the MRSI score (r = 0.759, P = 0.000) and the APACHE-II score (r = 0.384, P = 0.000). MRI could be used to visualize transverse-mesocolon involvement. The severity of TMI could reflect that of AP in the clinical setting and imaging. TMI might be a supplementary indicator of the severity of AP.

Adding the s-Process Element Cerium to the APOGEE Survey: Identification and Characterization of Ce II Lines in the H-band Spectral Window

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Cunha, Katia; Smith, Verne V.; Hasselquist, Sten; Souto, Diogo; Shetrone, Matthew D.; Allende Prieto, Carlos; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Frinchaboy, Peter; García-Hernández, D. Anibal; Holtzman, Jon; Johnson, Jennifer A.; Jőnsson, Henrik; Majewski, Steven R.; Mészáros, Szabolcs; Nidever, David; Pinsonneault, Mark; Schiavon, Ricardo P.; Sobeck, Jennifer; Skrutskie, Michael F.; Zamora, Olga; Zasowski, Gail; Fernández-Trincado, J. G.

2017-08-01

Nine Ce II lines have been identified and characterized within the spectral window observed by the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) survey (between λ1.51 and 1.69 μm). At solar metallicities, cerium is an element that is produced predominantly as a result of the slow capture of neutrons (the s-process) during asymptotic giant branch stellar evolution. The Ce II lines were identified using a combination of a high-resolution (R=λ /δ λ ={{100,000}}) Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) spectrum of α Boo and an APOGEE spectrum (R = 22,400) of a metal-poor, but s-process enriched, red giant (2M16011638-1201525). Laboratory oscillator strengths are not available for these lines. Astrophysical gf-values were derived using α Boo as a standard star, with the absolute cerium abundance in α Boo set by using optical Ce II lines that have precise published laboratory gf-values. The near-infrared Ce II lines identified here are also analyzed, as consistency checks, in a small number of bright red giants using archival FTS spectra, as well as a small sample of APOGEE red giants, including two members of the open cluster NGC 6819, two field stars, and seven metal-poor N- and Al-rich stars. The conclusion is that this set of Ce II lines can be detected and analyzed in a large fraction of the APOGEE red giant sample and will be useful for probing chemical evolution of the s-process products in various populations of the Milky Way.

The Goddard Integral Field Spectrograph at Apache Point Observatory: Current Status and Progress Towards Photon Counting

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McElwain, Michael W.; Grady, Carol A.; Bally, John; Brinkmann, Jonathan V.; Bubeck, James; Gong, Qian; Hilton, George M.; Ketzeback, William F.; Lindler, Don; Llop Sayson, Jorge; Malatesta, Michael A.; Norton, Timothy; Rauscher, Bernard J.; Rothe, Johannes; Straka, Lorrie; Wilkins, Ashlee N.; Wisniewski, John P.; Woodgate, Bruce E.; York, Donald G.

2015-01-01

We present the current status and progress towards photon counting with the Goddard Integral Field Spectrograph (GIFS), a new instrument at the Apache Point Observatory's ARC 3.5m telescope. GIFS is a visible light imager and integral field spectrograph operating from 400-1000 nm over a 2.8' x 2.8' and 14' x 14' field of view, respectively. As an IFS, GIFS obtains over 1000 spectra simultaneously and its data reduction pipeline reconstructs them into an image cube that has 32 x 32 spatial elements and more than 200 spectral channels. The IFS mode can be applied to a wide variety of science programs including exoplanet transit spectroscopy, protostellar jets, the galactic interstellar medium probed by background quasars, Lyman-alpha emission line objects, and spectral imaging of galactic winds. An electron-multiplying CCD (EMCCD) detector enables photon counting in the high spectral resolution mode to be demonstrated at the ARC 3.5m in early 2015. The EMCCD work builds upon successful operational and characterization tests that have been conducted in the IFS laboratory at NASA Goddard. GIFS sets out to demonstrate an IFS photon-counting capability on-sky in preparation for future exoplanet direct imaging missions such as the AFTA-Coronagraph, Exo-C, and ATLAST mission concepts. This work is supported by the NASA APRA program under RTOP 10-APRA10-0103.

Developing Online Communities with LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) - the IMIA OSNI and CHIRAD Experiences.

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Murray, Peter J; Oyri, Karl

2005-01-01

Many health informatics organisations do not seem to use, on a practical basis, for the benefit of their activities and interaction with their members, the very technologies that they often promote for use within healthcare environments. In particular, many organisations seem to be slow to take up the benefits of interactive web technologies. This paper presents an introduction to some of the many free/libre and open source (FLOSS) applications currently available and using the LAMP - Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP architecture - as a way of cheaply deploying reliable, scalable, and secure web applications. The experience of moving to applications using LAMP architecture, in particular that of the Open Source Nursing Informatics (OSNI) Working Group of the Special Interest Group in Nursing Informatics of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA-NI), in using PostNuke, a FLOSS Content Management System (CMS) illustrates many of the benefits of such applications. The experiences of the authors in installing and maintaining a large number of websites using FLOSS CMS to develop dynamic, interactive websites that facilitate real engagement with the members of IMIA-NI OSNI, the IMIA Open Source Working Group, and the Centre for Health Informatics Research and Development (CHIRAD), as well as other organisations, is used as the basis for discussing the potential benefits that could be realised by others within the health informatics community.

Macrocyclic receptor showing extremely high Sr(II)/Ca(II) and Pb(II)/Ca(II) selectivities with potential application in chelation treatment of metal intoxication.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferreirós-Martínez, Raquel; Esteban-Gómez, David; Tóth, Éva; de Blas, Andrés; Platas-Iglesias, Carlos; Rodríguez-Blas, Teresa

2011-04-18

Herein we report a detailed investigation of the complexation properties of the macrocyclic decadentate receptor N,N'-Bis[(6-carboxy-2-pyridil)methyl]-4,13-diaza-18-crown-6 (H(2)bp18c6) toward different divalent metal ions [Zn(II), Cd(II), Pb(II), Sr(II), and Ca(II)] in aqueous solution. We have found that this ligand is especially suited for the complexation of large metal ions such as Sr(II) and Pb(II), which results in very high Pb(II)/Ca(II) and Pb(II)/Zn(II) selectivities (in fact, higher than those found for ligands widely used for the treatment of lead poisoning such as ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (edta)), as well as in the highest Sr(II)/Ca(II) selectivity reported so far. These results have been rationalized on the basis of the structure of the complexes. X-ray crystal diffraction, (1)H and (13)C NMR spectroscopy, as well as theoretical calculations at the density functional theory (B3LYP) level have been performed. Our results indicate that for large metal ions such as Pb(II) and Sr(II) the most stable conformation is Δ(δλδ)(δλδ), while for Ca(II) our calculations predict the Δ(λδλ)(λδλ) form being the most stable one. The selectivity that bp18c6(2-) shows for Sr(II) over Ca(II) can be attributed to a better fit between the large Sr(II) ions and the relatively large crown fragment of the ligand. The X-ray crystal structure of the Pb(II) complex shows that the Δ(δλδ)(δλδ) conformation observed in solution is also maintained in the solid state. The Pb(II) ion is endocyclically coordinated, being directly bound to the 10 donor atoms of the ligand. The bond distances to the donor atoms of the pendant arms (2.55-2.60 Å) are substantially shorter than those between the metal ion and the donor atoms of the crown moiety (2.92-3.04 Å). This is a typical situation observed for the so-called hemidirected compounds, in which the Pb(II) lone pair is stereochemically active. The X-ray structures of the Zn(II) and Cd(II) complexes show that

Comparison of the systemic inflammatory response syndrome between monomicrobial and polymicrobial Pseudomonas aeruginosa nosocomial bloodstream infections

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Wenzel Richard P

2005-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Some studies of nosocomial bloodstream infection (nBSI have demonstrated a higher mortality for polymicrobial bacteremia when compared to monomicrobial nBSI. The purpose of this study was to compare differences in systemic inflammatory response and mortality between monomicrobial and polymicrobial nBSI with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Methods We performed a historical cohort study on 98 adults with P. aeruginosa (Pa nBSI. SIRS scores were determined 2 days prior to the first positive blood culture through 14 days afterwards. Monomicrobial (n = 77 and polymicrobial BSIs (n = 21 were compared. Results 78.6% of BSIs were caused by monomicrobial P. aeruginosa infection (MPa and 21.4% by polymicrobial P. aeruginosa infection (PPa. Median APACHE II score on the day of BSI was 22 for MPa and 23 for PPa BSIs. Septic shock occurred in 33.3% of PPa and in 39.0% of MPa (p = 0.64. Progression to septic shock was associated with death more frequently in PPa (OR 38.5, CI95 2.9–508.5 than MPa (OR 4.5, CI95 1.7–12.1. Maximal SIR (severe sepsis, septic shock or death was seen on day 0 for PPa BSI vs. day 1 for MPa. No significant difference was noted in the incidence of organ failure, 7-day or overall mortality between the two groups. Univariate analysis revealed that APACHE II score ≥20 at BSI onset, Charlson weighted comorbidity index ≥3, burn injury and respiratory, cardiovascular, renal and hematologic failure were associated with death, while age, malignant disease, diabetes mellitus, hepatic failure, gastrointestinal complications, inappropriate antimicrobial therapy, infection with imipenem resistant P. aeruginosa and polymicrobial nBSI were not. Multivariate analysis revealed that hematologic failure (p Conclusion In this historical cohort study of nBSI with P. aeruginosa, the incidence of septic shock and organ failure was high in both groups. Additionally, patients with PPa BSI were not more acutely ill, as judged by APACHE II

Características de pacientes com DPOC internados em UTI de um hospital de referência para doenças respiratórias no Brasil Characteristics of COPD patients admitted to the ICU of a referral hospital for respiratory diseases in Brazil

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Mariângela Pimentel Pincelli

2011-04-01

ópolis, Brazil, between October of 2006 and October of 2007. Data related to demographics, causes of hospitalization, pharmacological treatment, ventilatory support, length of hospital stay, in-hospital complications, ICU mortality, and 28-day mortality were obtained from the medical charts of the patients. Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II scores were calculated. Mortality at 18 months was assessed by subsequent telephone calls. RESULTS: During the study period, 192 patients were admitted to the ICU, 24 (12.5% of whom were diagnosed with respiratory failure and COPD. The mean length of ICU stay was 12.0 ± 11.1 days. Noninvasive ventilation was used in 10 of the 24 patients (41.66% and failed in 5 of those 10. Invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV was used in a total of 15 patients (62.5%. Overall ICU mortality and 28-day mortality were 20.83% and 33.33%, respectively. However, 18-month mortality was 62.5%. CONCLUSIONS: Respiratory failure associated with COPD was responsible for 12.5% of the ICU admissions. Orotracheal intubation and IMV were necessary in 62.5% of the cases. The ICU mortality rate was in accordance with that predicted by the APACHE II scores. However, late mortality was high.

Perovskite phases in the systems Asup(II)O-Usup(VI)O/sub 3/. 2. On the system A/sub 2/sup(II)Bsup(II)Usup(VI)O/sub 6/, with Asup(II), Bsup(II) = Ba, Sr, Ca

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Griffiths, A J; Kemmler-Sack, S [Tuebingen Univ. (Germany, F.R.). Lehrstuhl fuer Anorganische Chemie 2

1980-07-01

Studies on the system A/sub 2/sup(II)Bsup(II)Usup(VI)O/sub 6/ with Asup(II), Bsup(II) = Ba, Sr, Ca or combinations of these have shown that the alkaline earth ions cannot substitute each other in all proportions. The perovskites were studied by X-ray diffraction and vibrational spectroscopic methods. The lattice vibration region of the far infrared spectra proved to be of particular value in providing information on the occupancy of the A and B sites. Analysis of the spectra shows that, in the majority of cases, contary to the geometrical predictions some of the larger alkaline earth ions occupy the six-coordinated B sites and some smaller ions the A positions. The number of ions that take in this A reversible B site-exchange can amount to 20%, but is normally smaller.

Nursing workload in a trauma intensive care unit

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Luana Loppi Goulart

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Severely injured patients with multiple and conflicting injuries present themselves to nursing professionals at critical care units faced with care management challenges. The goal of the present study is to evaluate nursing workload and verify the correlation between workload and the APACHE II severity index. It is a descriptive study, conducted in the Trauma Intensive Care Unit of a teaching hospital. We used the Nursing Activities Score and APACHE II as instruments. The sample comprised 32 patients, of which most were male, young adults, presenting polytrauma, coming from the Reference Emergency Unit, in surgical treatment, and discharged from the ICU. The average obtained on the Nursing Activities Score instrument was 72% during hospitalization periods. The data displayed moderate correlation between workload and patient severity. In other words, the higher the score, the higher the patient’s mortality risk. doi: 10.5216/ree.v16i2.22922.

Predictors of Multidrug Resistant Acinetobacter Baumannii Infections in Surgical Intensive Care Patients: A Retrospective Analysis

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Aynur Camkıran

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Objective: Multidrug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (MRAB is an important cause of hospital acquired infection and leads to an increasing morbidity and mortality in intensive care units (ICU. The aim of this study was to investigate the predictors of MRAB infection in surgical ICU patients. Material and Method: The charts of the patients who were admitted to the ICU between January 2008 and August 2010 were reviewed to identify patients with MRAB infection. Recorded data were as follows: age, sex, medical history, underlying surgical pathology, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score (APACHE II and Glasgow Coma Score on ICU admission,presence of invasive procedures (intubation, arterial, central venous lines, urinary catheters, and renal replacement therapy, days in ICU and white blood cells (WBC and lactate count on infection day, infection site, complications (such as organ/system failure, length of stay (LOS in the ICU and hospital, and final outcome. Results: During the study period 25 patients with MRAB infection were identified. When compared with their matched control group (n=25, patients with MRAB infection had a significantly higher mean APACHE II score (p=0.001 and more frequently had an open wound (p=0.002 or required mechanical ventilation (p=0.005, with respiratory system disease (p=0.03, arterial catheterization (p=0.006, and central venous catheterization (p=0.004. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that APACHE II score (OR,1.155; CI, 1.008-1.324; p= 0.038 and open wound (OR, 27.77; CI, 2.020-333.333; p=0.018 were predictors of MRAB infection in these patients. Compared to their controls, patients with MRAB infection hand a longer LOS in ICU (36.44±30.44 days vs 7.80±8.13 days, p<0.000 and hospital (55.12±40.81 days vs 19.04±13.44 days, p<0.000. In hospital mortality rates for patients with MRAB infection and their controls were 56% and 32%, respectively (p=0.154. Conclusion: Our results indicate

Combined enteral feeding and total parenteral nutritional support improves outcome in surgical intensive care unit patients.

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Hsu, Min-Hui; Yu, Ying E; Tsai, Yueh-Miao; Lee, Hui-Chen; Huang, Ying-Che; Hsu, Han-Shui

2012-09-01

For intensive care unit (ICU) patients with gastrointestinal dysfunction and in need of total parenteral nutrition (TPN) support, the benefit of additional enteral feeding is not clear. This study aimed to investigate whether combined TPN with enteral feeding is associated with better outcomes in surgical intensive care unit (SICU) patients. Clinical data of 88 patients in SICU were retrospectively collected. Variables used for analysis included route and percentage of nutritional support, total caloric intake, age, gender, body weight, body mass index, admission diagnosis, surgical procedure, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score, comorbidities, length of hospital stay, postoperative complications, blood glucose values and hospital mortality. Wound dehiscence and central catheter infection were observed more frequently in the group of patients receiving TPN calories less than 90% of total calorie intake (p = 0.004 and 0.043, respectively). APACHE II scores were higher in nonsurvivors than in survivors (p = 0.001). More nonsurvivors received TPN calories exceeding 90% of total calorie intake and were in need of dialysis during ICU admission (p = 0.005 and 0.013, respectively). Multivariate analysis revealed that the percentage of TPN calories over total calories and APACHE II scores were independent predictors of ICU mortality in patients receiving supplementary TPN after surgery. In SICU patients receiving TPN, patients who could be fed enterally more than 10% of total calories had better clinical outcomes than patients receiving less than 10% of total calorie intake from enteral feeding. Enteral feeding should be given whenever possible in severely ill patients. 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V

[Survival in acute renal failure with conventional therapy or continuous replacement therapy].

Science.gov (United States)

Santibáñez-Velázquez, Martín; Sánchez-Montoya, Felipe; Alvirde-Gutiérrez, Luis

2014-01-01

To know the survival rate in patients with RIFLE I and II stages on acute renal failure, treated with supportive care or continuous renal replacement therapy with PRISMA machine, at an intensive care unit. There were included patients of both sexes, aged 16 to 69 years, with acute renal failure in RIFLE I and II stages and score of scale APACHE II lower than 36 points. The sample studied was divided in two groups: a group was treated with supportive care, and the other group received continuous renal replacement therapy via PRISMA machine. We compared mortality between both groups and the association with the RIFLE stages with Pearson's chi-squared test. The average score of the scale APACHE I was 14 points, and the probability of death was 15 %. The patients with acute renal failure RIFLE I were 54.5 % and RIFLE II 45.5 %, with mortality of 30.4 % and 38.8 %, respectively. Patients in RIFLE I stage who received supportive care and continuous replacement therapy had non-statistical differences in mortality (p = 0.356). The mortality in patients with acute renal failure in RIFLE II stage treated with continuous replacement therapy was higher (p = 0.000). Because of its accessibility and lower mortality, supportive care should be the initial procedure in patients with acute renal failure in RIFLE I and II stages.

ASSESSMENT OF SEVERITY OF PERFORATED PERITONITIS USING MODIFIED APACHE II SCORE

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L. Rajeswar Reddy

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Acute generalised peritonitis from gastrointestinal hollow viscus perforation is a potentially life threatening condition. It is a common surgical emergency in many general surgical units in the developing countries and it is often associated with high morbidity and mortality. Grading the severity of acute peritonitis has assisted in no small way in decision making and has improved therapy in the management of severely ill patients. Empirically based risk assessment for important clinical events has been extremely useful in evaluating new therapies, in monitoring resources for effective use and improving quality of care. MATERIAL AND METHODS A prospective survey of patients with acute generalised peritonitis due to gastrointestinal perforation was carried out in general surgical wards of KIMS Hospital, Amalapuram during the period starting from July 2013-November 2016. The study population consisted of 50 consecutive patients who had laparotomy during the study period for acute peritonitis due to gastrointestinal perforation, after diagnostic conformation. RESULT AND DISCUSSION The most common cause of peritonitis in our study was perforated duodenal ulcer (31 cases, followed by appendicular perforation (7 cases, followed by stomach perforation (7 cases. Despite delay in seeking treatment, the overall mortality rate (14% was favourably comparable with other published series.

THE APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY GALACTIC EVOLUTION EXPERIMENT: FIRST DETECTION OF HIGH-VELOCITY MILKY WAY BAR STARS

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Nidever, David L.; Zasowski, Gail; Majewski, Steven R.; Beaton, Rachael L.; Wilson, John C.; Skrutskie, Michael F.; O' Connell, Robert W. [Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4325 (United States); Bird, Jonathan; Schoenrich, Ralph; Johnson, Jennifer A.; Sellgren, Kris [Department of Astronomy and the Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210 (United States); Robin, Annie C.; Schultheis, Mathias [Institut Utinam, CNRS UMR 6213, OSU THETA, Universite de Franche-Comte, 41bis avenue de l' Observatoire, F-25000 Besancon (France); Martinez-Valpuesta, Inma; Gerhard, Ortwin [Max-Planck-Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse, D-85748 Garching (Germany); Shetrone, Matthew [McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin, Fort Davis, TX 79734 (United States); Schiavon, Ricardo P. [Gemini Observatory, 670 North A' Ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720 (United States); Weiner, Benjamin [Steward Observatory, 933 North Cherry Street, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States); Schneider, Donald P. [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States); Allende Prieto, Carlos, E-mail: dln5q@virginia.edu [Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, E-38205 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); and others

2012-08-20

Commissioning observations with the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III, have produced radial velocities (RVs) for {approx}4700 K/M-giant stars in the Milky Way (MW) bulge. These high-resolution (R {approx} 22, 500), high-S/N (>100 per resolution element), near-infrared (NIR; 1.51-1.70 {mu}m) spectra provide accurate RVs ({epsilon}{sub V} {approx} 0.2 km s{sup -1}) for the sample of stars in 18 Galactic bulge fields spanning -1 Degree-Sign -32 Degree-Sign . This represents the largest NIR high-resolution spectroscopic sample of giant stars ever assembled in this region of the Galaxy. A cold ({sigma}{sub V} {approx} 30 km s{sup -1}), high-velocity peak (V{sub GSR} Almost-Equal-To +200 km s{sup -1}) is found to comprise a significant fraction ({approx}10%) of stars in many of these fields. These high RVs have not been detected in previous MW surveys and are not expected for a simple, circularly rotating disk. Preliminary distance estimates rule out an origin from the background Sagittarius tidal stream or a new stream in the MW disk. Comparison to various Galactic models suggests that these high RVs are best explained by stars in orbits of the Galactic bar potential, although some observational features remain unexplained.

The dimensionality of stellar chemical space using spectra from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

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Price-Jones, Natalie; Bovy, Jo

2018-03-01

Chemical tagging of stars based on their similar compositions can offer new insights about the star formation and dynamical history of the Milky Way. We investigate the feasibility of identifying groups of stars in chemical space by forgoing the use of model derived abundances in favour of direct analysis of spectra. This facilitates the propagation of measurement uncertainties and does not pre-suppose knowledge of which elements are important for distinguishing stars in chemical space. We use ˜16 000 red giant and red clump H-band spectra from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) and perform polynomial fits to remove trends not due to abundance-ratio variations. Using expectation maximized principal component analysis, we find principal components with high signal in the wavelength regions most important for distinguishing between stars. Different subsamples of red giant and red clump stars are all consistent with needing about 10 principal components to accurately model the spectra above the level of the measurement uncertainties. The dimensionality of stellar chemical space that can be investigated in the H band is therefore ≲10. For APOGEE observations with typical signal-to-noise ratios of 100, the number of chemical space cells within which stars cannot be distinguished is approximately 1010±2 × (5 ± 2)n - 10 with n the number of principal components. This high dimensionality and the fine-grained sampling of chemical space are a promising first step towards chemical tagging based on spectra alone.

Modeling Fe II Emission and Revised Fe II (UV) Empirical Templates for the Seyfert 1 Galaxy I Zw 1

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Bruhweiler, F.; Verner, E.

2008-03-01

We use the narrow-lined broad-line region (BLR) of the Seyfert 1 galaxy, I Zw 1, as a laboratory for modeling the ultraviolet (UV) Fe II 2100-3050 Å emission complex. We calculate a grid of Fe II emission spectra representative of BLR clouds and compare them with the observed I Zw 1 spectrum. Our predicted spectrum for log [nH/(cm -3) ] = 11.0, log [ΦH/(cm -2 s-1) ] = 20.5, and ξ/(1 km s-1) = 20, using Cloudy and an 830 level model atom for Fe II with energies up to 14.06 eV, gives a better fit to the UV Fe II emission than models with fewer levels. Our analysis indicates (1) the observed UV Fe II emission must be corrected for an underlying Fe II pseudocontinuum; (2) Fe II emission peaks can be misidentified as that of other ions in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with narrow-lined BLRs possibly affecting deduced physical parameters; (3) the shape of 4200-4700 Å Fe II emission in I Zw 1 and other AGNs is a relative indicator of narrow-line region (NLR) and BLR Fe II emission; (4) predicted ratios of Lyα, C III], and Fe II emission relative to Mg II λ2800 agree with extinction corrected observed I Zw 1 fluxes, except for C IV λ1549 (5) the sensitivity of Fe II emission strength to microturbulence ξ casts doubt on existing relative Fe/Mg abundances derived from Fe II (UV)/Mg II flux ratios. Our calculated Fe II emission spectra, suitable for BLRs in AGNs, are available at http://iacs.cua.edu/people/verner/FeII. Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 05-26555.

Tracers of Chromospheric Structure. I. Observations of Ca II K and Hα in M Dwarfs

Science.gov (United States)

Walkowicz, Lucianne M.; Hawley, Suzanne L.

2009-02-01

We report on our observing program4This paper is based on observations obtained with the Apache Point Observatory 3.5 m telescope, which is owned and operated by the Astrophysical Research Consortium. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. to capture simultaneous spectra of Ca II and Balmer lines in a sample of nearby M3 dwarfs. Our goal is to investigate the chromospheric temperature structure required to produce these lines at the observed levels. We find a strong positive correlation between instantaneous measurements of Ca II K and the Balmer lines in active stars, although these lines may not be positively correlated in time-resolved measurements. The relationship between Hα and Ca II K remains ambiguous for weak and intermediate activity stars, with Hα absorption corresponding to a range of Ca II K emission. A similar relationship is also observed between Ca II K and the higher-order Balmer lines. As our sample consists of a single spectral type, correlations between these important chromospheric tracers cannot be ascribed to continuum effects, as suggested by other authors. These data confirm prior nonsimultaneous observations of the Hα line behavior with increasing activity, showing an initial increase in the Hα absorption with increasing Ca II K emission, prior to Hα filling in and eventually becoming a pure emission line in the most active stars. We also compare our optical measurements with archival UV and X-ray measurements, finding a positive correlation between the chromospheric and coronal emission for both high and intermediate activity stars. We compare our results with previous determinations of the active fraction of low-mass stars

Field studies at the Apache Leap Research Site in support of alternative conceptual models

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Woodhouse, E.G.; Davidson, G.R.; Theis, C. [eds.] [and others

1997-08-01

This is a final technical report for a project of the U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission (sponsored contract NRC-04-090-51) with the University of Arizona. The contract was an optional extension that was initiated on July 21, 1994 and that expired on May 31, 1995. The project manager was Thomas J. Nicholson, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. The objectives of this contract were to examine hypotheses and conceptual models concerning unsaturated flow and transport through fractured rock, and to design and execute confirmatory field and laboratory experiments to test these hypotheses and conceptual models at the Apache Leap Research Site near Superior, Arizona. The results discussed here are products of specific tasks that address a broad spectrum of issues related to flow and transport through fractures. Each chapter in this final report summarizes research related to a specific set of objectives and can be read and interpreted as a separate entity. The tasks include detection and characterization of historical rapid fluid flow through fractured rock and the relationship to perched water systems using environmental isotopic tracers of {sup 3}H and {sup 14}C, fluid- and rock-derived {sup 2343}U/{sup 238}U measurements, and geophysical data. The water balance in a small watershed at the ALRS demonstrates the methods of acounting for ET, and estimating the quantity of water available for infiltration through fracture networks. Grain density measurements were made for core-sized samples using a newly designed gas pycnometer. The distribution and magnitude of air permeability measurements have been measured in a three-dimensional setting; the subsequent geostatistical analysis is presented. Electronic versions of the data presented here are available from authors; more detailed discussions and analyses are available in technical publications referenced herein, or soon to appear in the professional literature.

Field studies at the Apache Leap Research Site in support of alternative conceptual models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Woodhouse, E.G.; Davidson, G.R.; Theis, C.

1997-08-01

This is a final technical report for a project of the U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission (sponsored contract NRC-04-090-51) with the University of Arizona. The contract was an optional extension that was initiated on July 21, 1994 and that expired on May 31, 1995. The project manager was Thomas J. Nicholson, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research. The objectives of this contract were to examine hypotheses and conceptual models concerning unsaturated flow and transport through fractured rock, and to design and execute confirmatory field and laboratory experiments to test these hypotheses and conceptual models at the Apache Leap Research Site near Superior, Arizona. The results discussed here are products of specific tasks that address a broad spectrum of issues related to flow and transport through fractures. Each chapter in this final report summarizes research related to a specific set of objectives and can be read and interpreted as a separate entity. The tasks include detection and characterization of historical rapid fluid flow through fractured rock and the relationship to perched water systems using environmental isotopic tracers of 3 H and 14 C, fluid- and rock-derived 2343 U/ 238 U measurements, and geophysical data. The water balance in a small watershed at the ALRS demonstrates the methods of acounting for ET, and estimating the quantity of water available for infiltration through fracture networks. Grain density measurements were made for core-sized samples using a newly designed gas pycnometer. The distribution and magnitude of air permeability measurements have been measured in a three-dimensional setting; the subsequent geostatistical analysis is presented. Electronic versions of the data presented here are available from authors; more detailed discussions and analyses are available in technical publications referenced herein, or soon to appear in the professional literature

Predictive Models and Computational Toxicology (II IBAMTOX)

Science.gov (United States)

EPA’s ‘virtual embryo’ project is building an integrative systems biology framework for predictive models of developmental toxicity. One schema involves a knowledge-driven adverse outcome pathway (AOP) framework utilizing information from public databases, standardized ontologies...

Spectroscopic Classification of SN 2018bek as a Young Type II Supernova

Science.gov (United States)

Xiang, Danfeng; Wang, Xiaofeng; Zhang, Kaicheng; Li, Wenxiong; DerKacy, James; Baron, Eddie; Brink, Thomas; Zheng, Weikang; Filippenko, Alex; Lin, Han; Rui, Liming; Hu, Lei; Hu, Maokai; Zhang, Tianmeng; Zhang, Jujia

2018-05-01

We obtained a few optical spectra of SN 2018bek,discovered by Jaroslaw Grzegorzek,on UT May 05-09 2018 with the 3.5m telescope (+Dual Imaging Spectrograph) at the Apache Point Observatory, the 2.16-m telescope(+BFOSC) at Xinglong Observatory of NAOC, and the Lick 3.0-m telescope (+Kast) at Lick Observatory.

Chaotic time series. Part II. System Identification and Prediction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bjørn Lillekjendlie

1994-10-01

Full Text Available This paper is the second in a series of two, and describes the current state of the art in modeling and prediction of chaotic time series. Sample data from deterministic non-linear systems may look stochastic when analysed with linear methods. However, the deterministic structure may be uncovered and non-linear models constructed that allow improved prediction. We give the background for such methods from a geometrical point of view, and briefly describe the following types of methods: global polynomials, local polynomials, multilayer perceptrons and semi-local methods including radial basis functions. Some illustrative examples from known chaotic systems are presented, emphasising the increase in prediction error with time. We compare some of the algorithms with respect to prediction accuracy and storage requirements, and list applications of these methods to real data from widely different areas.

Using Pop-II models to predict effects of wolf predation and hunter harvests on elk, mule deer, and moose on the northern range

Science.gov (United States)

Mack, John A.; Singer, Francis J.

1993-01-01

The effects of establishing a gray wolf (Canis lupus) population in Yellowstone National Park were predicted for three ungulate species—elk (Cervus elaphus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and moose (Alces alces)—using previously developed POP-II population models. We developed models for 78 and 100 wolves. For each wolf population, we ran scenarios using wolf predation rates of 9, 12, and 15 ungulates/wolf/year. With 78 wolves and the antlerless elk harvest reduced 27%, our modeled elk population estimated were 5-18% smaller than the model estimate without wolves. With 100 wolves and the antlerless elk harvest reduced 27%, our elk population estimated were 11-30% smaller than the population estimates without wolves. Wolf predation effects were greater on the modeled mule deer population than on elk. With 78 wolves and no antlerless deer harvest, we predicted the mule deer population could be 13-44% larger than without wolves. With 100 wolves and no antlerless deer harvest, the mule deer population was 0-36% larger than without wolves. After wolf recovery, our POP-II models suggested moose harvests would have to be reduced at least 50% to maintain moose numbers at the levels predicted when wolves were not present. Mule deer and moose population data are limited, and these wolf predation effects may be overestimated if population sizes or male-female ratios were underestimated in our population models. We recommend additional mule deer and moose population data be obtained.

A systematic review of the factors associated with interest in predictive genetic testing for obesity, type II diabetes and heart disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Collins, J; Ryan, L; Truby, H

2014-10-01

In the future, it may be possible for individuals to take a genetic test to determine their genetic predisposition towards developing lifestyle-related chronic diseases. A systematic review of the literature was undertaken to identify the factors associated with an interest in having predictive genetic testing for obesity, type II diabetes and heart disease amongst unaffected adults. Ovid Medline, PsycINFO and EMBASE online databases were searched using predefined search terms. Publications meeting the inclusion criteria (English language, free-living adult population not selected as a result of their disease diagnosis, reporting interest as an outcome, not related to a single gene inherited disease) were assessed for quality and content. Narrative synthesis of the results was undertaken. From the 2329 publications retrieved, eight studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Overall, the evidence base was small but of positive quality. Interest was associated with personal attitudes towards disease risk and the provision of information about genetic testing, shaped by perceived risk of disease and expected outcomes of testing. The role of demographic factors was investigated with largely inconclusive findings. Interest in predictive genetic testing for obesity, type II diabetes or heart disease was greatest amongst those who perceived the risk of disease to be high and/or the outcomes of testing to be beneficial. © 2013 The British Dietetic Association Ltd.

Predicting scholars' scientific impact.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Amin Mazloumian

Full Text Available We tested the underlying assumption that citation counts are reliable predictors of future success, analyzing complete citation data on the careers of ~150,000 scientists. Our results show that i among all citation indicators, the annual citations at the time of prediction is the best predictor of future citations, ii future citations of a scientist's published papers can be predicted accurately (r(2 = 0.80 for a 1-year prediction, P<0.001 but iii future citations of future work are hardly predictable.

Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae colonization and infection in critically ill patients: a retrospective matched cohort comparison with non-carriers.

Science.gov (United States)

Dickstein, Y; Edelman, R; Dror, T; Hussein, K; Bar-Lavie, Y; Paul, M

2016-09-01

To examine whether carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) carriage is associated with incidence of clinical infection as a means of assessing whether the morbidity and mortality associated with these bacteria are mediated by underlying conditions or intrinsic properties of CRE. This retrospective matched cohort study compared the incidence of invasive infections in CRE-colonized patients and matched non-carriers in the intensive care unit (ICU). The primary outcome was infection caused by CRE of the same species as the colonizing strain among CRE carriers, and infections caused by carbapenem-sensitive strains of the same organism in non-carriers. Hospital discharge and death were considered as competing events. Competing-risks hazard analysis was performed for the entire cohort and for a nested cohort matched by Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II scores, stratified by matching. In total, 146 CRE carriers were compared with 292 non-carriers. Patients were well matched for most risk factors for Enterobacteriaceae infection, including age, renal failure, previous invasive infection, previous hospitalization, APACHE II score, length of mechanical ventilation, length of hospitalization and CRE carriage. On regression analysis, colonization with CRE was independently associated with Enterobacteriaceae infection {cause-specific hazard ratio (CSHR) 2.06 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03-4.09]}. On regression analysis of the APACHE-II-matched cohort (N=284), colonization with CRE remained significantly associated with Enterobacteriaceae infection [CSHR 3.32 (95% CI 1.31-8.43)]. Colonization with CRE was associated with at least a two-fold increased risk of infection by the colonizing strain amongst ICU patients. Copyright © 2016 The Healthcare Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Features and treatment of gas-forming synergistic necrotizing cellulitis: a nine-year retrospective study.

Science.gov (United States)

Ling, Xiangwei; Ye, Yuanyuan; Guo, Hailei; Liu, Zhengjun; Xia, Weidong; Lin, Cai

2018-03-01

As many doctors know little about gas-forming synergistic necrotizing cellulitis, we retrospectively explored it in our study. Totally, 30 patients diagnosed with gas-forming synergistic necrotizing cellulitis between November 2006 and September 2015 were included. They were divided into two groups: open drainage group (19 patients) and aggressive debridement group (11 patients). Retrospectively analyzed data comprised demographic characteristics, APACHE II scores, pathogen culture results, bleeding amount during the operation, white blood cell count, length of hospital stay and recovery. The mortality rate was 26% in the open drainage group and 73% in the aggressive debridement group (p=0.023). There was no statistical difference in the APACHE II score before treatment between the open drainageand aggressive debridement groups (16.6±4.5 vs 18.1±7.5, p=0.511). The APACHE II score was significantly higher after treatment in the aggressive debridement group (14.2±5.8 score vs 20.1±9.1, p=0.038). There were no statistical differences in the white blood count cell before and after treatment (13.49 × 109±5.05×109 cells/L vs 17.46×109±6.94×109 cells/L, p=0.082; 10.37×109±3.54×109 cells/L vs 15.47×109 ±7.51×109 cells/L, p=0.055; respectively). The bleeding amount during the operation was significantly more in the aggressive debridement group (315±112 ml vs 105±45 ml, pgas-forming synergistic necrotizing cellulitis, performing open drainage as early as possible isthe most important procedure after admission.

Dancetime! 500 Years of Social Dance. Volume II: 20th Century. [Videotape].

Science.gov (United States)

Teten, Carol

This 50-minute VHS videotape is the second in a 2-volume series that presents 500 years of social dance, music, and fashion. It features dance and music of the 20th century, including; 1910s: animal dances, castle walk, apache, and tango; 1920s: black bottom and charleston; 1930s: marathon, movie musicals, big apple, and jitterbug; 1940s: rumba;…

Quadratic prediction of factor scores

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wansbeek, T

1999-01-01

Factor scores are naturally predicted by means of their conditional expectation given the indicators y. Under normality this expectation is linear in y but in general it is an unknown function of y. II is discussed that under nonnormality factor scores can be more precisely predicted by a quadratic

Evaluation of the predictors for duration of mechanical ventilation in respiratory intensive care unit

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hira H

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Mechanical ventilation (MV is a life saving modality. Till no method is evolved to predict the duration of this treatment. This study is undertaken to evaluate the clinical and laboratory parameters at initiation and 48 hour of the patient being treated by mechanical ventilation; and correlate these parameters with the duration of MV required. Methods: It was prospective observational study conducted in the respiratory intensive care unit (RICU of a tertiary referral and teaching hospital. Thirty consecutive patients suffering from various medical diseases requiring MV were the participants. Clinical, laboratory, ventilatory parameters and six severity scores viz.; GCS, APACHE-II, SAPS, OSF, ALI/ARDS and Sepsis/Septic shock criteria of each patient, both at initiation and at 48 hour of MV were recorded. Correlation between various severity scores at initiation and at 48 hour of initiation with duration of mechanical ventilation was computed. Results: Based on the duration of mechanical ventilation required, the patients were divided in two groups. Those requiring mechanical ventilation < 7 days and> 7 days were designated Group I and Group II respectively. Three out of 6 severity scores (GCS, APACHE-II, SAPS recorded at 48 hour of MV showed statistically significant difference between the both groups with p value of 0.010, 0.009 and 0.006 respectively. Further stepwise logistic regression analysis showed that SAPS score at 48 hour of initiation was the best predictor of duration of MV. It was found that a cut off value of 15 for SAPS score at 48 hour might predict the duration of MV i.e. < 7days or> 7 days. Based on linear regression analysis a simple equation was formulated by putting the SAPS value at 48 hour, the value of Y was computed. If MV required was less than 7 days, the value of Y was more than - 0.172 and if need of mechanical ventilation was more than 7 days, Y was less than -0.1720. Conclusions: For patients requiring

The relative value of operon predictions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brouwer, Rutger W. W.; Kuipers, Oscar P.; van Hijum, Sacha A. F. T.

For most organisms, computational operon predictions are the only source of genome-wide operon information. Operon prediction methods described in literature are based on (a combination of) the following five criteria: (i) intergenic distance, (ii) conserved gene clusters, (iii) functional relation,

Confocal arthroscopy-based patient-specific constitutive models of cartilaginous tissues - II: prediction of reaction force history of meniscal cartilage specimens.

Science.gov (United States)

Taylor, Zeike A; Kirk, Thomas B; Miller, Karol

2007-10-01

The theoretical framework developed in a companion paper (Part I) is used to derive estimates of mechanical response of two meniscal cartilage specimens. The previously developed framework consisted of a constitutive model capable of incorporating confocal image-derived tissue microstructural data. In the present paper (Part II) fibre and matrix constitutive parameters are first estimated from mechanical testing of a batch of specimens similar to, but independent from those under consideration. Image analysis techniques which allow estimation of tissue microstructural parameters form confocal images are presented. The constitutive model and image-derived structural parameters are then used to predict the reaction force history of the two meniscal specimens subjected to partially confined compression. The predictions are made on the basis of the specimens' individual structural condition as assessed by confocal microscopy and involve no tuning of material parameters. Although the model does not reproduce all features of the experimental curves, as an unfitted estimate of mechanical response the prediction is quite accurate. In light of the obtained results it is judged that more general non-invasive estimation of tissue mechanical properties is possible using the developed framework.

DFT predictions, synthesis, stoichiometric structures and anti-diabetic activity of Cu (II) and Fe (III) complexes of quercetin, morin, and primuletin

Science.gov (United States)

Jabeen, Erum; Janjua, Naveed Kausar; Ahmed, Safeer; Murtaza, Iram; Ali, Tahir; Masood, Nosheen; Rizvi, Aysha Sarfraz; Murtaza, Gulam

2017-12-01

The current study is aimed at the synthesis of Cu (II) and Fe (III) complexes of three flavonoids {morin (mor), quercetin (quer) and primuletin (prim)} and characterization through UV-Vis spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, FTIR, and thermal analysis. Structure prediction through DFT calculation was supported by experimental data. Benesi-Hildebrand equation was modified to function for 1:2 Cu-flavonoid and 1:3 Fe-flavonoid complexes. DFT predictions revealed that out of poly chelation sites present in morin and quercetin, 3-OH site was utilized as preferable chelation site while primuletin chelated through 5-OH position. In-vivo trials revealed the complexes to have better anti-diabetic potential than respective flavonoid. Fls/M-Fls proved as antagonistic to Alloxan induced diabetes and also retained anti-diabetic activity even in the presence of (2-hydroxypropyl)-β-cyclodextrin (HPβCD).

Feasibility and predictive performance of the Hendrich Fall Risk Model II in a rehabilitation department: a prospective study.

Science.gov (United States)

Campanini, Isabella; Mastrangelo, Stefano; Bargellini, Annalisa; Bassoli, Agnese; Bosi, Gabriele; Lombardi, Francesco; Tolomelli, Stefano; Lusuardi, Mirco; Merlo, Andrea

2018-01-11

Falls are a common adverse event in both elderly inpatients and patients admitted to rehabilitation units. The Hendrich Fall Risk Model II (HIIFRM) has been already tested in all hospital wards with high fall rates, with the exception of the rehabilitation setting. This study's aim is to address the feasibility and predictive performances of HIIFRM in a hospital rehabilitation department. A 6 months prospective study in a Italian rehabilitation department with patients from orthopaedic, pulmonary, and neurological rehabilitation wards. All admitted patients were enrolled and assessed within 24 h of admission by means of the HIIFRM. The occurrence of falls was checked and recorded daily. HIIFRM feasibility was assessed as the percentage of successful administrations at admission. HIIFRM predictive performance was determined in terms of area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC), best cutoff, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, along with their asymptotic 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). One hundred ninety-one patents were admitted. HIIFRM was feasible in 147 cases (77%), 11 of which suffered a fall (7.5%). Failures in administration were mainly due to bedridden patients (e.g. minimally conscious state, vegetative state). AUC was 0.779(0.685-0.873). The original HIIFRM cutoff of 5 led to a sensitivity of 100% with a mere specificity of 49%(40-57%), thus suggesting using higher cutoffs. Moreover, the median score for non-fallers at rehabilitation units was higher than that reported in literature for geriatric non fallers. The best trade-off between sensitivity and specificity was obtained by using a cutoff of 8. This lead to sensitivity = 73%(46-99%), specificity = 72%(65-80%), positive predictive value = 17% and negative predictive value = 97%. These results support the use of the HIIFRM as a predictive tool. The HIIFRM showed satisfactory feasibility and predictive performances in

OVERVIEW OF THE SDSS-IV MaNGA SURVEY: MAPPING NEARBY GALAXIES AT APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bundy, Kevin [Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU, WPI), Todai Institutes for Advanced Study, the University of Tokyo, Kashiwa 277-8583 (Japan); Bershady, Matthew A.; Wake, David A.; Tremonti, Christy; Diamond-Stanic, Aleksandar M. [Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 475 North Charter Street, Madison, WI 53706 (United States); Law, David R.; Cherinka, Brian [Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H4 (Canada); Yan, Renbin; Sánchez-Gallego, José R. [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kentucky, 505 Rose Street, Lexington, KY 40506-0055 (United States); Drory, Niv [McDonald Observatory, Department of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, Austin, TX 78712-0259 (United States); MacDonald, Nicholas [Department of Astronomy, Box 351580, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States); Weijmans, Anne-Marie [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews KY16 9SS (United Kingdom); Thomas, Daniel; Masters, Karen; Coccato, Lodovico [Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth (United Kingdom); Aragón-Salamanca, Alfonso [School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD (United Kingdom); Avila-Reese, Vladimir [Instituto de Astronomia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, A.P. 70-264, 04510 Mexico D.F. (Mexico); Badenes, Carles [Department of Physics and Astronomy and Pittsburgh Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology Center (PITT PACC), University of Pittsburgh, 3941 OHara St, Pittsburgh, PA 15260 (United States); Falcón-Barroso, Jésus [Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain); Belfiore, Francesco [Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, 19 J. J. Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE (United Kingdom); and others

2015-01-01

We present an overview of a new integral field spectroscopic survey called MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory), one of three core programs in the fourth-generation Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) that began on 2014 July 1. MaNGA will investigate the internal kinematic structure and composition of gas and stars in an unprecedented sample of 10,000 nearby galaxies. We summarize essential characteristics of the instrument and survey design in the context of MaNGA's key science goals and present prototype observations to demonstrate MaNGA's scientific potential. MaNGA employs dithered observations with 17 fiber-bundle integral field units that vary in diameter from 12'' (19 fibers) to 32'' (127 fibers). Two dual-channel spectrographs provide simultaneous wavelength coverage over 3600-10300 Å at R ∼ 2000. With a typical integration time of 3 hr, MaNGA reaches a target r-band signal-to-noise ratio of 4-8 (Å{sup –1} per 2'' fiber) at 23 AB mag arcsec{sup –2}, which is typical for the outskirts of MaNGA galaxies. Targets are selected with M {sub *} ≳ 10{sup 9} M {sub ☉} using SDSS-I redshifts and i-band luminosity to achieve uniform radial coverage in terms of the effective radius, an approximately flat distribution in stellar mass, and a sample spanning a wide range of environments. Analysis of our prototype observations demonstrates MaNGA's ability to probe gas ionization, shed light on recent star formation and quenching, enable dynamical modeling, decompose constituent components, and map the composition of stellar populations. MaNGA's spatially resolved spectra will enable an unprecedented study of the astrophysics of nearby galaxies in the coming 6 yr.

OVERVIEW OF THE SDSS-IV MaNGA SURVEY: MAPPING NEARBY GALAXIES AT APACHE POINT OBSERVATORY

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bundy, Kevin; Bershady, Matthew A.; Wake, David A.; Tremonti, Christy; Diamond-Stanic, Aleksandar M.; Law, David R.; Cherinka, Brian; Yan, Renbin; Sánchez-Gallego, José R.; Drory, Niv; MacDonald, Nicholas; Weijmans, Anne-Marie; Thomas, Daniel; Masters, Karen; Coccato, Lodovico; Aragón-Salamanca, Alfonso; Avila-Reese, Vladimir; Badenes, Carles; Falcón-Barroso, Jésus; Belfiore, Francesco

2015-01-01

We present an overview of a new integral field spectroscopic survey called MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory), one of three core programs in the fourth-generation Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) that began on 2014 July 1. MaNGA will investigate the internal kinematic structure and composition of gas and stars in an unprecedented sample of 10,000 nearby galaxies. We summarize essential characteristics of the instrument and survey design in the context of MaNGA's key science goals and present prototype observations to demonstrate MaNGA's scientific potential. MaNGA employs dithered observations with 17 fiber-bundle integral field units that vary in diameter from 12'' (19 fibers) to 32'' (127 fibers). Two dual-channel spectrographs provide simultaneous wavelength coverage over 3600-10300 Å at R ∼ 2000. With a typical integration time of 3 hr, MaNGA reaches a target r-band signal-to-noise ratio of 4-8 (Å –1 per 2'' fiber) at 23 AB mag arcsec –2 , which is typical for the outskirts of MaNGA galaxies. Targets are selected with M * ≳ 10 9 M ☉ using SDSS-I redshifts and i-band luminosity to achieve uniform radial coverage in terms of the effective radius, an approximately flat distribution in stellar mass, and a sample spanning a wide range of environments. Analysis of our prototype observations demonstrates MaNGA's ability to probe gas ionization, shed light on recent star formation and quenching, enable dynamical modeling, decompose constituent components, and map the composition of stellar populations. MaNGA's spatially resolved spectra will enable an unprecedented study of the astrophysics of nearby galaxies in the coming 6 yr

Prediction of equilibrium parameters of adsorption of lead (II) ions onto diatomite

Science.gov (United States)

Salman, Taylan; Ardalı, Yüksel; Gamze Turan, N.

2013-04-01

Heavy metals from industrial wastewaters are one of the most important environmental issues to be solved today. Due to their toxicity and nonbiodegradable nature, heavy metals cause environmental and public health problems. Various techniques have been developed to remove heavy metals from aqueous solutions. These include chemical precipitation, reverse osmosis, ion Exchange and adsorption. Among them, adsorption is considered to be a particularly competitive and effective process for the removal of heavy metals from aqueous solutions. There is growing interest in using low cost, commercially available materials for the adsorption of heavy metals. Diatomite is a siliceous sedimentary rock having an amorphous form of silica (SiO2. nH2O) containing a small amount of microcrystalline material. It has unique combination of physical and chemical properties such as high porosity, high permeability, small particle size, large surface area, and low thermal conductivity. In addition, it is available in Turkey and in various locations around the world. Therefore, diatomite has been successfully used as adsorbent for the removal of heavy metals. The aim of the study is to investigate the adsorption properties of diatomite. The equilibrium adsorption data were applied to the Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevic (D-R) isotherm models. Adsorption experiments were performed under batch process, using Pb (II) initial concentration, pH of solution and contact time as variables. The results demonstrated that the adsorption of Pb (II) was strongly dependent on pH of solution. The effect of pH on adsorption of Pb(II) on diatomite was conducted by varying pH from 2 to 12 at 20 oC. In the pH range of 2.0-4.0, the adsorption percentage increases slightly as the pH increasing. At pH>4, the adsorption percentage decreases with increasing pH because hydrolysis product and the precipitation begin to play an important role in the sorption of Pb (II). At pH4, the maximum adsorption

Improved methods for predicting peptide binding affinity to MHC class II molecules

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Kamilla Kjærgaard; Andreatta, Massimo; Marcatili, Paolo

2018-01-01

Major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC-II) molecules are expressed on the surface of professional antigen presenting cells where they display peptides to T helper cells, which orchestrate the onset and outcome of many host immune responses. Understanding which peptides will be presented b...... are publicly available at www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetMHCII-2.3 and www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetMHCIIpan-3.2. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved....

A cephalometric analysis of Class II dentate subjects to establish a formula to determine the occlusal plane in Class II edentate subjects: A neo adjunct

OpenAIRE

Nikita Sinha; K Mahendranadh Reddy; Nidhi Gupta; Y M Shastry

2017-01-01

Purpose: Occlusal plane (OP) differs considerably in participants with skeletal Class I and Class II participants. In this study, cephalometrics has been used to help in the determination of orientation of the OP utilizing the nonresorbable bony anatomic landmarks in skeletal Class II participants and an attempt has been made to predict and examine the OP in individuals with skeletal class II jaw relationship. Materials and Methods: One hundred dentulous participants with skeletal Class II...

Untitled

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Figure 6. The reasons given by farmers for changing varieties in Kasese, Apach and Arua districts of Uganda and relative impotance of the reasons given for abandoning varieties. V Kasest. (a). NAI. II. Apac. Arul have been influenced by the age of those 1201 interviewed and their ability to remember past 100 experience.

First results from SAGE II

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Abdurashitov, J.N.; Faizov, E.L.; Gavrin, V.N.

1994-01-01

The Russian-American Gallium solar neutrino Experiment (SAGE) began the second phase of operation (SAGE II) in September of 1992. Monthly measurements of the integral flux of solar neutrinos have been made with 55 tonnes of gallium. The K-peak results of the first five runs of SAGE II give a capture rate of 76 -18 +21 (stat) -7 +5 (sys) SNU. combined with the SAGE I result, the capture rate is 74 -12 +13 (stat) -7 +5 (sys) SNU. This represents only 56%--60% of the capture rate predicted by different Standard Solar Models

Can Early Computed Tomography Angiography after Endovascular Aortic Aneurysm Repair Predict the Need for Reintervention in Patients with Type II Endoleak?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dudeck, O., E-mail: oliver.dudeck@med.ovgu.de [University of Magdeburg, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine (Germany); Schnapauff, D. [Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Department of Radiology (Germany); Herzog, L.; Löwenthal, D.; Bulla, K.; Bulla, B. [University of Magdeburg, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine (Germany); Halloul, Z.; Meyer, F. [University of Magdeburg, Department of General, Visceral and Vascular Surgery (Germany); Pech, M. [University of Magdeburg, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine (Germany); Gebauer, B. [Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Department of Radiology (Germany); Ricke, J. [University of Magdeburg, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine (Germany)

2015-02-15

PurposeThis study was designed to identify parameters on CT angiography (CTA) of type II endoleaks following endovascular aortic aneurysm repair (EVAR) for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), which can be used to predict the subsequent need for reinterventions.MethodsWe retrospectively identified 62 patients with type II endoleak who underwent early CTA in mean 3.7 ± 1.9 days after EVAR. On the basis of follow-up examinations (mean follow-up period 911 days; range, 373–1,987 days), patients were stratified into two groups: those who did (n = 18) and those who did not (n = 44) require reintervention. CTA characteristics, such as AAA, endoleak, as well as nidus dimensions, patency of the inferior mesenteric artery, number of aortic branch vessels, and the pattern of endoleak appearance, were recorded and correlated with the clinical outcome.ResultsUnivariate and receiver operating characteristic curve regression analyses revealed significant differences between the two groups for the endoleak volume (surveillance group: 1391.6 ± 1427.9 mm{sup 3}; reintervention group: 3227.7 ± 2693.8 mm{sup 3}; cutoff value of 2,386 mm{sup 3}; p = 0.002), the endoleak diameter (13.6 ± 4.3 mm compared with 25.9 ± 9.6 mm; cutoff value of 19 mm; p < 0.0001), the number of aortic branch vessels (2.9 ± 1.2 compared with 4.2 ± 1.4 vessels; p = 0.001), as well as a “complex type” endoleak pattern (13.6 %, n = 6 compared with 44.4 %, n = 8; p = 0.02).ConclusionsEarly CTA can predict the future need for reintervention in patients with type II endoleak. Therefore, treatment decision should be based not only on aneurysm enlargement alone but also on other imaging characteristics.

The Apache Longbow-Hellfire Missile Test at Yuma Proving Ground: Introduction and Problem Formulation for a Multiple Stressor Risk Assessment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Efroymson, Rebecca Ann; Peterson, Mark J.; Jones, Daniel Steven; Suter, Glenn

2008-01-01

An ecological risk assessment was conducted at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, as a demonstration of the Military Ecological Risk Assessment Framework (MERAF). The focus of the assessment was a testing program at Cibola Range, which involved an Apache Longbow helicopter firing Hellfire missiles at moving targets, i.e., M60-A1 tanks. The problem formulation for the assessment included conceptual models for three component activities of the test, helicopter overflight, missile firing, and tracked vehicle movement, and two ecological endpoint entities, woody desert wash communities and desert mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus crooki) populations. An activity-specific risk assessment framework was available to provide guidance for assessing risks associated with aircraft overflights. Key environmental features of the study area include barren desert pavement and tree-lined desert washes. The primary stressors associated with helicopter overflights were sound and the view of the aircraft. The primary stressor associated with Hellfire missile firing was sound. The principal stressor associated with tracked vehicle movement was soil disturbance, and a resulting, secondary stressor was hydrological change. Water loss to washes and wash vegetation was expected to result from increased ponding, infiltration and/or evaporation associated with disturbances to desert pavement. A plan for estimating integrated risks from the three military activities was included in the problem formulation

Results from SAGE II

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nico, J.S.

1994-01-01

The Russian-American Gallium solar neutrino Experiment (SAGE) began the second phase of operation (SAGE II) in September of 1992. Monthly measurements of the integral flux of solar neutrinos have been made with 55 tonnes of gallium. The K-peak results of the first nine runs of SAGE II give a capture rate of 66 -13 +18 (stat) -7 +5 (sys) SNU. Combined with the SAGE I result of 73 -16 +18 (stat) -7 5 (sys) SNU, the capture rate is 69 -11 +11 (stat) -7 +5 (sys) SNU. This represents only 52%--56% of the capture rate predicted by different Standard Solar Models

Characterization of spent EBR-II driver fuel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McKnight, R. D.

1998-01-01

Operations and material control and accountancy requirements for the Fuel Conditioning Facility demand accurate prediction of the mass flow of spent EBR-II driver fuel into the facility. This requires validated calculational tools that can predict the burnup and isotopic distribution in irradiated Zr-alloy fueled driver assemblies. Detailed core-follow depletion calculations have been performed for an extensive series of EBR-II runs to produce a database of material inventories for the spent fuel to be processed. As this fuel is processed, comparison of calculated values with measured data obtained from samples of this fuel is producing a growing set of validation data. A more extensive set of samples and measurements from the initial processing of irradiated driver fuel has produced valuable estimates of the biases and uncertainties in both the measured and calculated values. Results of these comparisons are presented herein and indicate the calculated values adequately predict the mass flows

Accessing the public MIMIC-II intensive care relational database for clinical research.

Science.gov (United States)

Scott, Daniel J; Lee, Joon; Silva, Ikaro; Park, Shinhyuk; Moody, George B; Celi, Leo A; Mark, Roger G

2013-01-10

The Multiparameter Intelligent Monitoring in Intensive Care II (MIMIC-II) database is a free, public resource for intensive care research. The database was officially released in 2006, and has attracted a growing number of researchers in academia and industry. We present the two major software tools that facilitate accessing the relational database: the web-based QueryBuilder and a downloadable virtual machine (VM) image. QueryBuilder and the MIMIC-II VM have been developed successfully and are freely available to MIMIC-II users. Simple example SQL queries and the resulting data are presented. Clinical studies pertaining to acute kidney injury and prediction of fluid requirements in the intensive care unit are shown as typical examples of research performed with MIMIC-II. In addition, MIMIC-II has also provided data for annual PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology Challenges, including the 2012 Challenge "Predicting mortality of ICU Patients". QueryBuilder is a web-based tool that provides easy access to MIMIC-II. For more computationally intensive queries, one can locally install a complete copy of MIMIC-II in a VM. Both publicly available tools provide the MIMIC-II research community with convenient querying interfaces and complement the value of the MIMIC-II relational database.

Bowing-reactivity trends in EBR-II assuming zero-swelling ducts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meneghetti, D.

1994-01-01

Predicted trends of duct-bowing reactivities for the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) are correlated with predicted row-wise duct deflections assuming use of idealized zero-void-swelling subassembly ducts. These assume no irradiation induced swellings of ducts but include estimates of the effects of irradiation-creep relaxation of thermally induced bowing stresses. The results illustrate the manners in which at-power creeps may affect subsequent duct deflections at zero power and thereby the trends of the bowing component of a subsequent power reactivity decrement

A Novel Procedure for Prediction of Mixed Mode I/II in Fracture Toughness of Laminate Composites

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Mahmood Shokrieh

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Delamination is one of the important modes of failure in laminated composite materials. In this respect, the mixed mode I/II fracture is the most major mode of delamination incidence in laminated composite. In the present research, a relation between the fracture toughness of double cantilever beam (DCB and asymmetric double cantilever beam (ADCB specimens is presented. The DCB and ADCB samples are used for measuring the mode I and mixed mode I/II fracture toughness (G of laminated composite materials, respectively. By considering the diversity of the stacking sequence of lay-ups, the test performance on all different types of lay-ups in order to measure the fracture toughness of laminated composites is a tedious, costly and time consuming task. The purpose of deriving this relation is to estimate the value of the strain energy release rate of laminated composite ADCB specimens by testing a unidirectional DCB. To develop this relationship, the geometry of DCB and ADCB specimens are considered to obtain fracture toughness of multi-directional laminate composites of ADCB samples with arbitrary ply sequence which may be used for design purposes. The procedure presented here reduces the calculation costs of the finite element modeling and its corresponding test significantly. The results obtained by this method are compared with those of experimental and numerical methods. It is shown that the fracture toughness of multi-directional lay-ups can be predicted by measuring the unidirectional ply with an error less than 10% demonstrating the accuracy of the procedure developed in the present research.

[The association between early blood glucose fluctuation and prognosis in critically ill patients].

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Jian; Gu, Qin

2012-01-01

To investigate the association between early blood glucose level fluctuation and prognosis of critically ill patients. A retrospective study involving 95 critically ill patients in intensive care unit (ICU) was conducted. According to the 28-day outcome after admission to ICU, the patients were divided into nonsurvivors (43 cases) and survivors (52 cases), and the blood glucose level in them was monitored in the first 72 hours. Blood glucose concentration at admission (BGadm), mean blood glucose level (MBG), hyperglycemia index (HGI), glycemic lability index (GLI), incidence of hypoglycemia and total dosage of intravenous insulin for each patient were compared. The index as an independent risk factor of mortality was determined by multivariate logistic regression analysis and the predictor value by comparing the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve, AUC) of each index. The BGadm (mmol/L), MBG (mmol/L), HGI and the incidence of hypoglycemia showed no significant differences between nonsurvivors and survivors [BGadm: 9.87 ± 4.48 vs. 9.26 ± 3.07, MBG: 8.59 ± 1.23 vs. 8.47 ± 1.01, HGI(6.0): 2.45 ± 0.94 vs. 1.68 ± 1.05, HGI(8.3): 0.84 ± 0.70 vs. 0.68 ± 0.51, the incidence of hypoglycemia: 9.30% vs. 5.77%, all P > 0.05], but acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II ) score, GLI and the total dosage of intravenous insulin (U) were significantly higher in nonsurvivors than survivors [APACHE II score: 23 ± 6 vs. 19 ± 6, GLI: 56.96 (65.43) vs. 23.87 (41.62), the total dosage of intravenous insulin: 65.5 (130.5) vs. 12.5 (90.0), all P curve was plotted, the AUC of APACHE II score and GLI was respectively 0.69 and 0.71, and there was no significant difference (P > 0.05). Early fluctuation of blood glucose is a significant independent risk factor of mortality in critically ill patients. Control the early fluctuation of blood glucose concentration might improve the patients' outcome.

Biosorption of copper(II) and lead(II) onto potassium hydroxide treated pine cone powder.

Science.gov (United States)

Ofomaja, A E; Naidoo, E B; Modise, S J

2010-08-01

Pine cone powder surface was treated with potassium hydroxide and applied for copper(II) and lead(II) removal from solution. Isotherm experiments and desorption tests were conducted and kinetic analysis was performed with increasing temperatures. As solution pH increased, the biosorption capacity and the change in hydrogen ion concentration in solution increased. The change in hydrogen ion concentration for lead(II) biosorption was slightly higher than for copper(II) biosorption. The results revealed that ion-exchange is the main mechanism for biosorption for both metal ions. The pseudo-first order kinetic model was unable to describe the biosorption process throughout the effective biosorption period while the modified pseudo-first order kinetics gave a better fit but could not predict the experimentally observed equilibrium capacities. The pseudo-second order kinetics gave a better fit to the experimental data over the temperature range from 291 to 347 K and the equilibrium capacity increased from 15.73 to 19.22 mg g(-1) for copper(II) and from 23.74 to 26.27 for lead(II). Activation energy was higher for lead(II) (22.40 kJ mol(-1)) than for copper(II) (20.36 kJ mol(-1)). The free energy of activation was higher for lead(II) than for copper(II) and the values of DeltaH* and DeltaS* indicate that the contribution of reorientation to the activation stage is higher for lead(II) than copper(II). This implies that lead(II) biosorption is more spontaneous than copper(II) biosorption. Equilibrium studies showed that the Langmuir isotherm gave a better fit for the equilibrium data indicating monolayer coverage of the biosorbent surface. There was only a small interaction between metal ions when simultaneously biosorbed and cation competition was higher for the Cu-Pb system than for the Pb-Cu system. Desorption studies and the Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherm and energy parameter, E, also support the ion-exchange mechanism. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Predicting the mixed-mode I/II spatial damage propagation along 3D-printed soft interfacial layer via a hyperelastic softening model

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Lei; Li, Yaning

2018-07-01

A methodology was developed to use a hyperelastic softening model to predict the constitutive behavior and the spatial damage propagation of nonlinear materials with damage-induced softening under mixed-mode loading. A user subroutine (ABAQUS/VUMAT) was developed for numerical implementation of the model. 3D-printed wavy soft rubbery interfacial layer was used as a material system to verify and validate the methodology. The Arruda - Boyce hyperelastic model is incorporated with the softening model to capture the nonlinear pre-and post- damage behavior of the interfacial layer under mixed Mode I/II loads. To characterize model parameters of the 3D-printed rubbery interfacial layer, a series of scarf-joint specimens were designed, which enabled systematic variation of stress triaxiality via a single geometric parameter, the slant angle. It was found that the important model parameter m is exponentially related to the stress triaxiality. Compact tension specimens of the sinusoidal wavy interfacial layer with different waviness were designed and fabricated via multi-material 3D printing. Finite element (FE) simulations were conducted to predict the spatial damage propagation of the material within the wavy interfacial layer. Compact tension experiments were performed to verify the model prediction. The results show that the model developed is able to accurately predict the damage propagation of the 3D-printed rubbery interfacial layer under complicated stress-state without pre-defined failure criteria.

Spliceman2: a computational web server that predicts defects in pre-mRNA splicing.

Science.gov (United States)

Cygan, Kamil Jan; Sanford, Clayton Hendrick; Fairbrother, William Guy

2017-09-15

Most pre-mRNA transcripts in eukaryotic cells must undergo splicing to remove introns and join exons, and splicing elements present a large mutational target for disease-causing mutations. Splicing elements are strongly position dependent with respect to the transcript annotations. In 2012, we presented Spliceman, an online tool that used positional dependence to predict how likely distant mutations around annotated splice sites were to disrupt splicing. Here, we present an improved version of the previous tool that will be more useful for predicting the likelihood of splicing mutations. We have added industry-standard input options (i.e. Spliceman now accepts variant call format files), which allow much larger inputs than previously available. The tool also can visualize the locations-within exons and introns-of sequence variants to be analyzed and the predicted effects on splicing of the pre-mRNA transcript. In addition, Spliceman2 integrates with RNAcompete motif libraries to provide a prediction of which trans -acting factors binding sites are disrupted/created and links out to the UCSC genome browser. In summary, the new features in Spliceman2 will allow scientists and physicians to better understand the effects of single nucleotide variations on splicing. Freely available on the web at http://fairbrother.biomed.brown.edu/spliceman2 . Website implemented in PHP framework-Laravel 5, PostgreSQL, Apache, and Perl, with all major browsers supported. william_fairbrother@brown.edu. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

Any light particle search II. Technical Design Report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baehre, Robin; Doebrich, Babette; Dreyling-Eschweiler, Jan

2013-02-01

This document constitutes an excerpt of the Technical Design Report for the second stage of the ''Any Light Particle Search'' (ALPS-II) at DESY as submitted to the DESY PRC in August 2012 and reviewed in November 2012. ALPS-II is a ''Light Shining through a Wall'' experiment which searches for photon oscillations into weakly interacting sub-eV particles. These are often predicted by extensions of the Standard Model and motivated by astrophysical phenomena. The first phases of the ALPS-II project were approved by the DESY management on February 21st, 2013.

Any light particle search II. Technical Design Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baehre, Robin [Albert Einstein Institute, Hannover (Germany); Doebrich, Babette; Dreyling-Eschweiler, Jan [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Hamburg (Germany); and others

2013-02-15

This document constitutes an excerpt of the Technical Design Report for the second stage of the ''Any Light Particle Search'' (ALPS-II) at DESY as submitted to the DESY PRC in August 2012 and reviewed in November 2012. ALPS-II is a ''Light Shining through a Wall'' experiment which searches for photon oscillations into weakly interacting sub-eV particles. These are often predicted by extensions of the Standard Model and motivated by astrophysical phenomena. The first phases of the ALPS-II project were approved by the DESY management on February 21st, 2013.

First results from SAGE II

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aburashitov, J.N.; Faizov, E.L.; Gavrin, V.N.; Gusev, A.O.; Kalikhov, A.V.; Knodel, T.V.; Knyshenko, I.I.; Kornoukhov, V.N.; Mirmov, I.N.; Pshukov, A.M.; Shalagin, A.M.; Shikhin, A.A.; Timofeyev, P.V.; Veretenkin, E.P.; Vermul, V.M.; Zatsepin, G.T.; Bowles, T.J.; Nico, J.S.; Teasdale, W.A.; Wark, D.L.; Wilkerson, J.F.; Cleveland, B.T.; Daily, T.; Davis, R. Jr.; Lande, K.; Lee, C.K.; Wildenhain, P.W.; Elliott, S.R.; Cherry, M.L.

1995-01-01

The Russian-American Gallium solar neutrino Experiment (SAGE) began the second phase of operation (SAGE II) in September of 1992. Monthly measurements of the integral flux of solar neutrinos have been made with 55 tonnes of gallium. The K-peak results of the first five runs of SAGE II give a capture rate of 76 +21 -18 (stat) +5 -7 (sys) SNU. Combined with the SAGE I result, the capture rate is 74 +13 -12 (stat) +5 -7 (sys) SNU. This represents only 56%--60% of the capture rate predicted by different Standard Solar Models. copyright 1995 American Institute of Physics

Development of a web-based liver cancer prediction model for type II diabetes patients by using an artificial neural network.

Science.gov (United States)

Rau, Hsiao-Hsien; Hsu, Chien-Yeh; Lin, Yu-An; Atique, Suleman; Fuad, Anis; Wei, Li-Ming; Hsu, Ming-Huei

2016-03-01

Diabetes mellitus is associated with an increased risk of liver cancer, and these two diseases are among the most common and important causes of morbidity and mortality in Taiwan. To use data mining techniques to develop a model for predicting the development of liver cancer within 6 years of diagnosis with type II diabetes. Data were obtained from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan, which covers approximately 22 million people. In this study, we selected patients who were newly diagnosed with type II diabetes during the 2000-2003 periods, with no prior cancer diagnosis. We then used encrypted personal ID to perform data linkage with the cancer registry database to identify whether these patients were diagnosed with liver cancer. Finally, we identified 2060 cases and assigned them to a case group (patients diagnosed with liver cancer after diabetes) and a control group (patients with diabetes but no liver cancer). The risk factors were identified from the literature review and physicians' suggestion, then, chi-square test was conducted on each independent variable (or potential risk factor) for a comparison between patients with liver cancer and those without, those found to be significant were selected as the factors. We subsequently performed data training and testing to construct artificial neural network (ANN) and logistic regression (LR) prediction models. The dataset was randomly divided into 2 groups: a training group and a test group. The training group consisted of 1442 cases (70% of the entire dataset), and the prediction model was developed on the basis of the training group. The remaining 30% (618 cases) were assigned to the test group for model validation. The following 10 variables were used to develop the ANN and LR models: sex, age, alcoholic cirrhosis, nonalcoholic cirrhosis, alcoholic hepatitis, viral hepatitis, other types of chronic hepatitis, alcoholic fatty liver disease, other types of fatty liver disease, and

Making oxidation potentials predictable: Coordination of additives applied to the electronic fine tuning of an iron(II) complex

KAUST Repository

Haslinger, Stefan

2014-11-03

This work examines the impact of axially coordinating additives on the electronic structure of a bioinspired octahedral low-spin iron(II) N-heterocyclic carbene (Fe-NHC) complex. Bearing two labile trans-acetonitrile ligands, the Fe-NHC complex, which is also an excellent oxidation catalyst, is prone to axial ligand exchange. Phosphine- and pyridine-based additives are used for substitution of the acetonitrile ligands. On the basis of the resulting defined complexes, predictability of the oxidation potentials is demonstrated, based on a correlation between cyclic voltammetry experiments and density functional theory calculated molecular orbital energies. Fundamental insights into changes of the electronic properties upon axial ligand exchange and the impact on related attributes will finally lead to target-oriented manipulation of the electronic properties and consequently to the effective tuning of the reactivity of bioinspired systems.

Making oxidation potentials predictable: Coordination of additives applied to the electronic fine tuning of an iron(II) complex

KAUST Repository

Haslinger, Stefan; Kü ck, Jens W.; Hahn, Eva M.; Cokoja, Mirza; Pö thig, Alexander; Basset, Jean-Marie; Kü hn, Fritz

2014-01-01

This work examines the impact of axially coordinating additives on the electronic structure of a bioinspired octahedral low-spin iron(II) N-heterocyclic carbene (Fe-NHC) complex. Bearing two labile trans-acetonitrile ligands, the Fe-NHC complex, which is also an excellent oxidation catalyst, is prone to axial ligand exchange. Phosphine- and pyridine-based additives are used for substitution of the acetonitrile ligands. On the basis of the resulting defined complexes, predictability of the oxidation potentials is demonstrated, based on a correlation between cyclic voltammetry experiments and density functional theory calculated molecular orbital energies. Fundamental insights into changes of the electronic properties upon axial ligand exchange and the impact on related attributes will finally lead to target-oriented manipulation of the electronic properties and consequently to the effective tuning of the reactivity of bioinspired systems.

High-dose Sulbactam Treatment for Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Caused by Carbapenem-Resistant

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

In Beom Jeong

2016-11-01

Full Text Available Background Several antibiotics can be used to treat ventilator-associated pneumonia caused by carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii (CRAB-VAP including high-dose sulbactam. However, the effectiveness of high-dose sulbactam therapy is not well known. We report our experience with high-dose sulbactam for treatment of CRAB-VAP. Methods Medical records of patients with CRAB-VAP who were given high-dose sulbactam between May 2013 and June 2015 were reviewed. Results Fifty-eight patients with CRAB-VAP were treated with high-dose sulbactam. The mean age was 72.0 ± 15.2 years, and the acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II score was 15.1 ± 5.10 at the time of CRAB-VAP diagnosis. Early clinical improvement was observed in 65.5% of patients, and 30-day mortality was 29.3%. Early clinical failure (odds ratio [OR]: 8.720, confidence interval [CI]: 1.346-56.484; p = 0.023 and APACHE II score ≥ 14 at CRAB-VAP diagnosis (OR: 10.934, CI: 1.047-114.148; p = 0.046 were associated with 30-day mortality. Conclusions High-dose sulbactam therapy may be effective for the treatment of CRAB-VAP. However, early clinical failure was observed in 35% of patients and was associated with poor outcome.

ColoLipidGene: signature of lipid metabolism-related genes to predict prognosis in stage-II colon cancer patients

Science.gov (United States)

Vargas, Teodoro; Moreno-Rubio, Juan; Herranz, Jesús; Cejas, Paloma; Molina, Susana; González-Vallinas, Margarita; Mendiola, Marta; Burgos, Emilio; Aguayo, Cristina; Custodio, Ana B.; Machado, Isidro; Ramos, David; Gironella, Meritxell; Espinosa-Salinas, Isabel; Ramos, Ricardo; Martín-Hernández, Roberto; Risueño, Alberto; De Las Rivas, Javier; Reglero, Guillermo; Yaya, Ricardo; Fernández-Martos, Carlos; Aparicio, Jorge; Maurel, Joan; Feliu, Jaime; de Molina, Ana Ramírez

2015-01-01

Lipid metabolism plays an essential role in carcinogenesis due to the requirements of tumoral cells to sustain increased structural, energetic and biosynthetic precursor demands for cell proliferation. We investigated the association between expression of lipid metabolism-related genes and clinical outcome in intermediate-stage colon cancer patients with the aim of identifying a metabolic profile associated with greater malignancy and increased risk of relapse. Expression profile of 70 lipid metabolism-related genes was determined in 77 patients with stage II colon cancer. Cox regression analyses using c-index methodology was applied to identify a metabolic-related signature associated to prognosis. The metabolic signature was further confirmed in two independent validation sets of 120 patients and additionally, in a group of 264 patients from a public database. The combined analysis of these 4 genes, ABCA1, ACSL1, AGPAT1 and SCD, constitutes a metabolic-signature (ColoLipidGene) able to accurately stratify stage II colon cancer patients with 5-fold higher risk of relapse with strong statistical power in the four independent groups of patients. The identification of a group of 4 genes that predict survival in intermediate-stage colon cancer patients allows delineation of a high-risk group that may benefit from adjuvant therapy, and avoids the toxic and unnecessary chemotherapy in patients classified as low-risk group. PMID:25749516

NetTurnP--neural network prediction of beta-turns by use of evolutionary information and predicted protein sequence features.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bent Petersen

Full Text Available UNLABELLED: β-turns are the most common type of non-repetitive structures, and constitute on average 25% of the amino acids in proteins. The formation of β-turns plays an important role in protein folding, protein stability and molecular recognition processes. In this work we present the neural network method NetTurnP, for prediction of two-class β-turns and prediction of the individual β-turn types, by use of evolutionary information and predicted protein sequence features. It has been evaluated against a commonly used dataset BT426, and achieves a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.50, which is the highest reported performance on a two-class prediction of β-turn and not-β-turn. Furthermore NetTurnP shows improved performance on some of the specific β-turn types. In the present work, neural network methods have been trained to predict β-turn or not and individual β-turn types from the primary amino acid sequence. The individual β-turn types I, I', II, II', VIII, VIa1, VIa2, VIba and IV have been predicted based on classifications by PROMOTIF, and the two-class prediction of β-turn or not is a superset comprised of all β-turn types. The performance is evaluated using a golden set of non-homologous sequences known as BT426. Our two-class prediction method achieves a performance of: MCC=0.50, Qtotal=82.1%, sensitivity=75.6%, PPV=68.8% and AUC=0.864. We have compared our performance to eleven other prediction methods that obtain Matthews correlation coefficients in the range of 0.17-0.47. For the type specific β-turn predictions, only type I and II can be predicted with reasonable Matthews correlation coefficients, where we obtain performance values of 0.36 and 0.31, respectively. CONCLUSION: The NetTurnP method has been implemented as a webserver, which is freely available at http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetTurnP/. NetTurnP is the only available webserver that allows submission of multiple sequences.

NetTurnP--neural network prediction of beta-turns by use of evolutionary information and predicted protein sequence features.

Science.gov (United States)

Petersen, Bent; Lundegaard, Claus; Petersen, Thomas Nordahl

2010-11-30

β-turns are the most common type of non-repetitive structures, and constitute on average 25% of the amino acids in proteins. The formation of β-turns plays an important role in protein folding, protein stability and molecular recognition processes. In this work we present the neural network method NetTurnP, for prediction of two-class β-turns and prediction of the individual β-turn types, by use of evolutionary information and predicted protein sequence features. It has been evaluated against a commonly used dataset BT426, and achieves a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.50, which is the highest reported performance on a two-class prediction of β-turn and not-β-turn. Furthermore NetTurnP shows improved performance on some of the specific β-turn types. In the present work, neural network methods have been trained to predict β-turn or not and individual β-turn types from the primary amino acid sequence. The individual β-turn types I, I', II, II', VIII, VIa1, VIa2, VIba and IV have been predicted based on classifications by PROMOTIF, and the two-class prediction of β-turn or not is a superset comprised of all β-turn types. The performance is evaluated using a golden set of non-homologous sequences known as BT426. Our two-class prediction method achieves a performance of: MCC=0.50, Qtotal=82.1%, sensitivity=75.6%, PPV=68.8% and AUC=0.864. We have compared our performance to eleven other prediction methods that obtain Matthews correlation coefficients in the range of 0.17-0.47. For the type specific β-turn predictions, only type I and II can be predicted with reasonable Matthews correlation coefficients, where we obtain performance values of 0.36 and 0.31, respectively. The NetTurnP method has been implemented as a webserver, which is freely available at http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetTurnP/. NetTurnP is the only available webserver that allows submission of multiple sequences.

Synthesis and characterisation of Cu(II), Ni(II), Mn(II), Zn(II) and VO(II ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Unknown

Synthesis and characterisation of Cu(II), Ni(II), Mn(II), Zn(II) and VO(II) Schiff base complexes derived from o-phenylenediamine and acetoacetanilide. N RAMAN*, Y PITCHAIKANI RAJA and A KULANDAISAMY. Department of Chemistry, VHNSN College, Virudhunagar 626 001, India e-mail: ra_man@123india.com.

(18)F-alfatide II and (18)F-FDG dual-tracer dynamic PET for parametric, early prediction of tumor response to therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Jinxia; Guo, Ning; Lang, Lixin; Kiesewetter, Dale O; Xie, Qingguo; Li, Quanzheng; Eden, Henry S; Niu, Gang; Chen, Xiaoyuan

2014-01-01

or (18)F-FDG were observed, both (18)F-alfatide II Bp and (18)F-FDG influx from kinetic analysis in tumors showed significant decreases. For therapy of MDA-MB-435 tumors with paclitaxel protein-bound particles, a significant decrease was observed only with (18)F-alfatide II Bp value from kinetic analysis but not (18)F-FDG influx. The parameters fitted with compartmental modeling from the dual-tracer dynamic imaging are consistent with those from single-tracer imaging, substantiating the feasibility of this methodology. Even though no significant differences in tumor size were found until 5 d after doxorubicin treatment started, at day 3 there were already substantial differences in (18)F-alfatide II Bp and (18)F-FDG influx rate. Dual-tracer imaging can measure (18)F-alfatide II Bp value and (18)F-FDG influx simultaneously to evaluate tumor angiogenesis and metabolism. Such changes are known to precede anatomic changes, and thus parametric imaging may offer the promise of early prediction of therapy response.

Biologically active new Fe(II, Co(II, Ni(II, Cu(II, Zn(II and Cd(II complexes of N-(2-thienylmethylenemethanamine

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C. SPÎNU

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Iron(II, cobalt(II, nickel (II, copper (II, zinc(II and cadmium(II complexes of the type ML2Cl2, where M is a metal and L is the Schiff base N-(2-thienylmethylenemethanamine (TNAM formed by the condensation of 2-thiophenecarboxaldehyde and methylamine, were prepared and characterized by elemental analysis as well as magnetic and spectroscopic measurements. The elemental analyses suggest the stoichiometry to be 1:2 (metal:ligand. Magnetic susceptibility data coupled with electronic, ESR and Mössbauer spectra suggest a distorted octahedral structure for the Fe(II, Co(II and Ni(II complexes, a square-planar geometry for the Cu(II compound and a tetrahedral geometry for the Zn(II and Cd(II complexes. The infrared and NMR spectra of the complexes agree with co-ordination to the central metal atom through nitrogen and sulphur atoms. Conductance measurements suggest the non-electrolytic nature of the complexes, except for the Cu(II, Zn(II and Cd(II complexes, which are 1:2 electrolytes. The Schiff base and its metal chelates were screened for their biological activity against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the metal chelates were found to possess better antibacterial activity than that of the uncomplexed Schiff base.

MHC2NNZ: A novel peptide binding prediction approach for HLA DQ molecules

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Xie, Jiang; Zeng, Xu; Lu, Dongfang; Liu, Zhixiang; Wang, Jiao

2017-07-01

The major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC-II) molecule plays a crucial role in immunology. Computational prediction of MHC-II binding peptides can help researchers understand the mechanism of immune systems and design vaccines. Most of the prediction algorithms for MHC-II to date have made large efforts in human leukocyte antigen (HLA, the name of MHC in Human) molecules encoded in the DR locus. However, HLA DQ molecules are equally important and have only been made less progress because it is more difficult to handle them experimentally. In this study, we propose an artificial neural network-based approach called MHC2NNZ to predict peptides binding to HLA DQ molecules. Unlike previous artificial neural network-based methods, MHC2NNZ not only considers sequence similarity features but also captures the chemical and physical properties, and a novel method incorporating these properties is proposed to represent peptide flanking regions (PFR). Furthermore, MHC2NNZ improves the prediction accuracy by combining with amino acid preference at more specific positions of the peptides binding core. By evaluating on 3549 peptides binding to six most frequent HLA DQ molecules, MHC2NNZ is demonstrated to outperform other state-of-the-art MHC-II prediction methods.

Impact of Targeted Preoperative Optimization on Clinical Outcome in Emergency Abdominal Surgeries: A Prospective Randomized Trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Sethi, Ashish; Debbarma, Miltan; Narang, Neeraj; Saxena, Anudeep; Mahobia, Mamta; Tomar, Gaurav Singh

2018-01-01

Perforation peritonitis continues to be one of the most common surgical emergencies that need a surgical intervention most of the times. Anesthesiologists are invariably involved in managing such cases efficiently in perioperative period. The assessment and evaluation of Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score at presentation and 24 h after goal-directed optimization, administration of empirical broad-spectrum antibiotics, and definitive source control postoperatively. Outcome assessment in terms of duration of hospital stay and mortality in with or without optimization was also measured. It is a prospective, randomized, double-blind controlled study in hospital setting. One hundred and one patients aged ≥18 years, of the American Society of Anesthesiologists physical Status I and II (E) with clinical diagnosis of perforation peritonitis posted for surgery were enrolled. Enrolled patients were randomly divided into two groups. Group A is optimized by goal-directed optimization protocol in the preoperative holding room by anesthesiology residents whereas in Group S, managed by surgery residents in the surgical wards without any fixed algorithm. The assessment of APACHE II score was done as a first step on admission and 24 h postoperatively. Duration of hospital stay and mortality in both the groups were also measured and compared. Categorical data are presented as frequency counts (percent) and compared using the Chi-square or Fisher's exact test. The statistical significance for categorical variables was determined by Chi-square analysis. For continuous variables, a two-sample t -test was applied. The mean APACHE II score on admission in case and control groups was comparable. Significant lowering of serial scores in case group was observed as compared to control group ( P = 0.02). There was a significant lowering of mean duration of hospital stay seen in case group (9.8 ± 1.7 days) as compared to control group ( P = 0

Probing HeII Reionization at z>3.5 with Resolved HeII Lyman Alpha Forest Spectra

Science.gov (United States)

Worseck, Gabor

2017-08-01

The advent of GALEX and COS have revolutionized our view of HeII reionization, the final major phase transition of the intergalactic medium. COS spectra of the HeII Lyman alpha forest have confirmed with high confidence the high HeII transmission that signifies the completion of HeII reionization at z 2.7. However, the handful of z>3.5 quasars observed to date show a set of HeII transmission 'spikes' and larger regions with non-zero transmission that suggest HeII reionization was well underway by z=4. This is in striking conflict with predictions from state-of-the-art radiative transfer simulations of a HeII reionization driven by bright quasars. Explaining these measurements may require either faint quasars or more exotic sources of hard photons at z>4, with concomitant implications for HI reionization. However, many of the observed spikes are unresolved in G140L spectra and are significantly impacted by Poisson noise. Current data cannot reliably probe the ionization state of helium at z>3.5.We request 41 orbits to obtain science-grade G130M spectra of the two UV-brightest HeII-transmitting QSOs at z>3.5 to confirm and resolve their HeII transmission spikes as an unequivocal test of early HeII reionization. These spectra are complemented by recently obtained data from 8m telescopes: (1) Echelle spectra of the coeval HI Lya forest to map the underlying density field that modulates the HeII absorption, and (2) Our dedicated survey for foreground QSOs that may source the HeII transmission. Our recent HST programs revealed the only two viable targets to resolve the z>3.5 HeII Lyman alpha forest, and to conclusively solve this riddle.

Comparing the Suitability of Autodock, Gold and Glide for the Docking and Predicting the Possible Targets of Ru(II-Based Complexes as Anticancer Agents

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Adebayo A. Adeniyi

2013-03-01

Full Text Available In cancer chemotherapy, metal-based complexes have been recognized as the most promising means of inhibiting cancer growth due to the successful application of cis-platin and its derivatives above many of the existing organic anticancer agents. The limitations in their rational design can be traced to the complexity of the mechanism of their operations, lack of proper knowledge of their targets and lack of force fields in docking packages to appropriately define the metal centre of the organometallic complexes. In this paper, some of the promising anticancer complexes of Ru(II such as the rapta-based complexes formulated as [Ru(η6-p-cymeneL2(pta] and those with unusual ligands are considered. CatB and kinases which have been experimentally confirmed as possible targets of the complexes are also predicted by the three methods as one of the most targeted receptors while TopII and HDAC7 are predicted by two and one of the methods as best targets. The interesting features of the binding of the complexes show that some of the complexes preferentially target specific macromolecules than the others, which is an indication of their specificity and possibility of their therapeutic combination without severe side effects that may come from competition for the same target. Also, introduction of unusual ligands is found to significantly improve the activities of most of the complexes studied. Strong correlations are observed for the predicted binding sites and the orientation of the complexes within the binding site by the three methods of docking. However there are disparities in the ranking of the complexes by the three method of docking, especially that of Glide.

Design and verification of controllers for longitudinal oscillations using optimal control theory and numerical simulation: Predictions for PEP-II

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hindi, H.; Prabhakar, S.; Fox, J.; Teytelman, D.

1997-12-01

The authors present a technique for the design and verification of efficient bunch-by-bunch controllers for damping longitudinal multibunch instabilities. The controllers attempt to optimize the use of available feedback amplifier power--one of the most expensive components of a feedback system--and define the limits of closed loop system performance. The design technique alternates between analytic computation of single bunch optimal controllers and verification on a multibunch numerical simulator. The simulator identifies unstable coupled bunch modes and predicts their growth and damping rates. The results from the simulator are shown to be in reasonable agreement with analytical calculations based on the single bunch model. The technique is then used to evaluate the performance of a variety of controllers proposed for PEP-II

Towards Predictive Association Theories

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kontogeorgis, Georgios; Tsivintzelis, Ioannis; Michelsen, Michael Locht

2011-01-01

Association equations of state like SAFT, CPA and NRHB have been previously applied to many complex mixtures. In this work we focus on two of these models, the CPA and the NRHB equations of state and the emphasis is on the analysis of their predictive capabilities for a wide range of applications....... We use the term predictive in two situations: (i) with no use of binary interaction parameters, and (ii) multicomponent calculations using binary interaction parameters based solely on binary data. It is shown that the CPA equation of state can satisfactorily predict CO2–water–glycols–alkanes VLE...

Predisposing risk factors for delirium in living donor liver transplantation patients in intensive care units.

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Szu-Han Wang

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Delirium is one of the main causes of increased length of intensive care unit (ICU stay among patients who have undergone living donor liver transplantation (LDLT. We aimed to evaluate risk factors for delirium after LDLT as well as to investigate whether delirium impacts the length of ICU and hospital stay. METHODS: Seventy-eight patients who underwent LDLT during the period January 2010 to December 2012 at a single medical center were enrolled. The Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit (CAM-ICU scale was used to diagnose delirium. Preoperative, postoperative, and hematologic factors were included as potential risk factors for developing delirium. RESULTS: During the study period, delirium was diagnosed in 37 (47.4% patients after LDLT. The mean onset of symptoms occurred 7.0±5.5 days after surgery and the mean duration of symptoms was 5.0±2.6 days. The length of stay in the ICU for patients with delirium (39.8±28.1 days was significantly longer than that for patients without delirium (29.3±19.0 days (p<0.05. Risk factors associated with delirium included history of alcohol abuse [odds ratio (OR = 6.40, 95% confidence interval (CI: 1.85-22.06], preoperative hepatic encephalopathy (OR = 4.45, 95% CI: 1.36-14.51, APACHE II score ≥16 (OR = 1.73, 95% CI: 1.71-2.56, and duration of endotracheal intubation ≥5 days (OR = 1.81, 95% CI: 1.52-2.23. CONCLUSIONS: History of alcohol abuse, preoperative hepatic encephalopathy, APACHE II scores ≥16 and endotracheal intubation ≥5 days were predictive of developing delirium in the ICU following liver transplantation surgery and were associated with increased length of ICU and hospital stay.

Complexes of cobalt(II), nickel(II), copper(II), zinc(II), cadmium(II) and dioxouranium(II) with thiophene-2-aldehydethiosemicarbazone

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Singh, Balwan; Misra, Harihar

1986-01-01

Metal complexes of thiosemicarbazides have been known for their pharmacological applications. Significant antitubercular, fungicidal and antiviral activities have been reported for thiosemicarbazides and their derivatives. The present study describes the systhesis and characterisation of complexes of Co II , Cu II , Zn II ,Cd II and UO II with thiosemicarbazone obtained by condensing thiophene-2-aldehyde with thiosemicarbazide. 17 refs., 2 tables. (author)

Any light particle search II. Technical Design Report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baehre, Robin [Albert Einstein Institute, Hannover (Germany); Doebrich, Babette; Dreyling-Eschweiler, Jan [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Hamburg (Germany)] [and others

2013-02-15

This document constitutes an excerpt of the Technical Design Report for the second stage of the ''Any Light Particle Search'' (ALPS-II) at DESY as submitted to the DESY PRC in August 2012 and reviewed in November 2012. ALPS-II is a ''Light Shining through a Wall'' experiment which searches for photon oscillations into weakly interacting sub-eV particles. These are often predicted by extensions of the Standard Model and motivated by astrophysical phenomena. The first phases of the ALPS-II project were approved by the DESY management on February 21st, 2013.

The SRP-II as a Rich Source of Data on the Psychopathic Personality

Science.gov (United States)

Lester, Whitney S.; Salekin, Randall T.; Sellbom, Martin

2013-01-01

This study examined the factor structure, external correlates, and predictive utility of the Self-Report Psychopathy scale (SRP-II; Hare, Harpur, & Hemphill, 1989). Despite a revision of the SRP-II to address, among other criticisms, a lack of items reflecting antisocial behavior, we hypothesized that the SRP-II would have a conceptually coherent…

Protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist-II production is a strong predictive marker for extrahepatic metastases in early hepatocellular carcinoma: a prospective evaluation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bae, Hyun-Mi; Lee, Jeong-Hoon; Yoon, Jung-Hwan; Kim, Yoon Jun; Heo, Dae Seog; Lee, Hyo-Suk

2011-01-01

Clinicians often experience extrahepatic metastases associated with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), even if no evidence of intrahepatic recurrence after treatment is observed. We investigated the pretreatment predictors of extrahepatic metastases in HCC patients. Patients diagnosed with HCC without evidence of extrahepatic metastases were prospectively enrolled. We evaluated the correlation between extrahepatic metastases and pretreatment clinical variables, including serum tumor markers. A total of 354 patients were included. Seventy-six patients (21%) had extrahepatic metastases during the observation period (median, 25.3 months; range, 0.6-51.3 months). Cox regression multivariate analysis showed that serum protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist-II (PIVKA-II) production levels, the intrahepatic tumor stage, platelet count, and portal vein thrombosis were independent risk factors for extrahepatic metastases. Patients with a PIVKA-II production ≥ 300 mAU/mL had a 2.7-fold (95% confidence interval; 1.5-4.8; P < 0.001) and 3.7-fold (95% confidence interval; 2.0-6.6; P < 0.001) increased risk for extrahepatic metastases after adjustment for stage, platelet count, alpha-fetoprotein ≥ 400 ng/mL, and portal vein thrombosis according to the AJCC and BCLC staging systems, respectively. PIVKA-II production levels might be a good candidate predictive marker for extrahepatic HCC metastases, especially in patients with smaller and/or fewer tumors in the liver with in stages regardless of serum alpha-fetoprotein

Predicted continuum spectra of type II supernovae - LTE results

Science.gov (United States)

Shaviv, G.; Wehrse, R.; Wagoner, R. V.

1985-01-01

The continuum spectral energy distribution of the flux emerging from type II supernovae is calculated from quasi-static radiative transfer through a power-law density gradient, assuming radiative equilibrium and LTE. It is found that the Balmer jump disappears at high effective temperatures and low densities, while the spectrum resembles that of a dilute blackbody but is flatter with a sharper cutoff at the short-wavelength end. A significant UV excess is found in all models calculated. The calculation should be considered exploratory because of significant effects which are anticipated to arise from departure from LTE.

He II lines in the spectrum of zeta Puppis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Snijders, M.A.J.; Underhill, A.B.

1975-01-01

Equivalents widths of He II lines in the series n=2,3,4 and 5 are compiled and compared with predictions from plane-parallel, static model atmospheres using a non-LTE theory of line formation. The agreement between observation and prediction for a (50,000,4.0) model atmosphere is good for the upper members of the n=3 and the n=5 series, but the two lines of the n=2 series which are observed and the upper members of the n=4 series (4→15,4→17, etc.) are stronger than predicted. Well-determined profiles of lines from the n=3 series indicate v sin i=200 km s -1 . Profiles of the higher members of the n=4 series, however, do not match the predictions, the observed line cores being deeper than predicted. The n=4 level appears to be more overpopulated at moderate depths in the atmosphere than the non-LTE calculations with plane-parallel layers indicate. This may be due to an overlap of the H and He II lines in the even-even series caused by macroturbulent velocities of the hydrogen atoms and helium atoms

Mn(II), Zn(II) and VO(II) Schiff

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Journal of Chemical Sciences; Volume 113; Issue 3. Synthesis and characterisation of Cu(II), Ni(II), Mn(II), Zn(II) and VO(II) Schiff base complexes derived from o-phenylenediamine and acetoacetanilide. N Raman Y Pitchaikani Raja A Kulandaisamy. Inorganic Volume 113 Issue 3 June 2001 pp 183-189 ...

Population II brown dwarfs and dark haloes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zinnecker, H.

1986-01-01

Opacity-limited fragmentation is investigated as a function of the dust-to-gas ratio and it is found that the characteristic protostellar mass Msub(*) is metallicity-dependent. This dependence is such that, for the low metallicity gas out of which the stars of Population II formed in the halo, Msub(*) is less than 0.1 M solar mass. If applicable, these theoretical considerations would predict that substellar masses have formed more frequently under the metal-poor conditions in the early Galaxy (Population II brown dwarfs). Thus the missing mass in the Galactic halo and in the dark haloes around other spirals may well reside in these metal-poor Population II brown dwarfs. (author)

PARALLEL MEASUREMENT AND MODELING OF TRANSPORT IN THE DARHT II BEAMLINE ON ETA II

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chambers, F W; Raymond, B A; Falabella, S; Lee, B S; Richardson, R A; Weir, J T; Davis, H A; Schultze, M E

2005-01-01

To successfully tune the DARHT II transport beamline requires the close coupling of a model of the beam transport and the measurement of the beam observables as the beam conditions and magnet settings are varied. For the ETA II experiment using the DARHT II beamline components this was achieved using the SUICIDE (Simple User Interface Connecting to an Integrated Data Environment) data analysis environment and the FITS (Fully Integrated Transport Simulation) model. The SUICIDE environment has direct access to the experimental beam transport data at acquisition and the FITS predictions of the transport for immediate comparison. The FITS model is coupled into the control system where it can read magnet current settings for real time modeling. We find this integrated coupling is essential for model verification and the successful development of a tuning aid for the efficient convergence on a useable tune. We show the real time comparisons of simulation and experiment and explore the successes and limitations of this close coupled approach

Subsurface Analysis of the Mesaverde Group on and near the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation, New Mexico-its implication on Sites of Oil and Gas Accumulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ridgley, Jennie

2001-08-21

The purpose of the phase 2 Mesaverde study part of the Department of Energy funded project ''Analysis of oil-bearing Cretaceous Sandstone Hydrocarbon Reservoirs, exclusive of the Dakota Sandstone, on the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation, New Mexico'' was to define the facies of the oil-producing units within the subsurface units of the Mesaverde Group and integrate these results with outcrop studies that defined the depositional environments of these facies within a sequence stratigraphic context. The focus of this report will center on (1) integration of subsurface correlations with outcrop correlations of components of the Mesaverde, (2) application of the sequence stratigraphic model determined in the phase one study to these correlations, (3) determination of the facies distribution of the Mesaverde Group and their relationship to sites of oil and gas accumulation, (4) evaluation of the thermal maturity and potential source rocks for oil and gas in the Mesaverde Group, and (5) evaluation of the structural features on the Reservation as they may control sites of oil accumulation.

An Assessment of Comprehensive Code Prediction State-of-the-Art Using the HART II International Workshop Data

Science.gov (United States)

vanderWall, Berend G.; Lim, Joon W.; Smith, Marilyn J.; Jung, Sung N.; Bailly, Joelle; Baeder, James D.; Boyd, D. Douglas, Jr.

2012-01-01

Despite significant advancements in computational fluid dynamics and their coupling with computational structural dynamics (= CSD, or comprehensive codes) for rotorcraft applications, CSD codes with their engineering level of modeling the rotor blade dynamics, the unsteady sectional aerodynamics and the vortical wake are still the workhorse for the majority of applications. This is especially true when a large number of parameter variations is to be performed and their impact on performance, structural loads, vibration and noise is to be judged in an approximate yet reliable and as accurate as possible manner. In this paper, the capabilities of such codes are evaluated using the HART II Inter- national Workshop data base, focusing on a typical descent operating condition which includes strong blade-vortex interactions. Three cases are of interest: the baseline case and two cases with 3/rev higher harmonic blade root pitch control (HHC) with different control phases employed. One setting is for minimum blade-vortex interaction noise radiation and the other one for minimum vibration generation. The challenge is to correctly predict the wake physics - especially for the cases with HHC - and all the dynamics, aerodynamics, modifications of the wake structure and the aero-acoustics coming with it. It is observed that the comprehensive codes used today have a surprisingly good predictive capability when they appropriately account for all of the physics involved. The minimum requirements to obtain these results are outlined.

The HART II International Workshop: An Assessment of the State-of-the-Art in Comprehensive Code Prediction

Science.gov (United States)

vanderWall, Berend G.; Lim, Joon W.; Smith, Marilyn J.; Jung, Sung N.; Bailly, Joelle; Baeder, James D.; Boyd, D. Douglas, Jr.

2013-01-01

Significant advancements in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and their coupling with computational structural dynamics (CSD, or comprehensive codes) for rotorcraft applications have been achieved recently. Despite this, CSD codes with their engineering level of modeling the rotor blade dynamics, the unsteady sectional aerodynamics and the vortical wake are still the workhorse for the majority of applications. This is especially true when a large number of parameter variations is to be performed and their impact on performance, structural loads, vibration and noise is to be judged in an approximate yet reliable and as accurate as possible manner. In this article, the capabilities of such codes are evaluated using the HART II International Workshop database, focusing on a typical descent operating condition which includes strong blade-vortex interactions. A companion article addresses the CFD/CSD coupled approach. Three cases are of interest: the baseline case and two cases with 3/rev higher harmonic blade root pitch control (HHC) with different control phases employed. One setting is for minimum blade-vortex interaction noise radiation and the other one for minimum vibration generation. The challenge is to correctly predict the wake physics-especially for the cases with HHC-and all the dynamics, aerodynamics, modifications of the wake structure and the aero-acoustics coming with it. It is observed that the comprehensive codes used today have a surprisingly good predictive capability when they appropriately account for all of the physics involved. The minimum requirements to obtain these results are outlined.

Sequential Oxygenation Index and Organ Dysfunction Assessment within the First 3 Days of Mechanical Ventilation Predict the Outcome of Adult Patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Failure

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Hsu-Ching Kao

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Objective. To determine early predictors of outcomes of adult patients with severe acute respiratory failure. Method. 100 consecutive adult patients with severe acute respiratory failure were evaluated in this retrospective study. Data including comorbidities, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA score, Acute Physiological Assessment and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II score, PaO2, FiO2, PaO2/FiO2, PEEP, mean airway pressure (mPaw, and oxygenation index (OI on the 1st and the 3rd day of mechanical ventilation, and change in OI within 3 days were recorded. Primary outcome was hospital mortality; secondary outcome measure was ventilator weaning failure. Results. 38 out of 100 (38% patients died within the study period. 48 patients (48% failed to wean from ventilator. Multivariate analysis showed day 3 OI ( and SOFA ( score were independent predictors of hospital mortality. Preexisting cerebrovascular accident (CVA ( was the predictor of weaning failure. Results from Kaplan-Meier method demonstrated that higher day 3 OI was associated with shorter survival time (log-Rank test, . Conclusion. Early OI (within 3 days and SOFA score were predictors of mortality in severe acute respiratory failure. In the future, prospective studies measuring serial OIs in a larger scale of study cohort is required to further consolidate our findings.

Adsorption of Pb(II), Cu(II), Cd(II), Zn(II), Ni(II), Fe(II), and As(V) on bacterially produced metal sulfides.

Science.gov (United States)

Jong, Tony; Parry, David L

2004-07-01

The adsorption of Pb(II), Cu(II), Cd(II), Zn(II), Ni(II), Fe(II) and As(V) onto bacterially produced metal sulfide (BPMS) material was investigated using a batch equilibrium method. It was found that the sulfide material had adsorptive properties comparable with those of other adsorbents with respect to the specific uptake of a range of metals and, the levels to which dissolved metal concentrations in solution can be reduced. The percentage of adsorption increased with increasing pH and adsorbent dose, but decreased with increasing initial dissolved metal concentration. The pH of the solution was the most important parameter controlling adsorption of Cd(II), Cu(II), Fe(II), Ni(II), Pb(II), Zn(II), and As(V) by BPMS. The adsorption data were successfully modeled using the Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Desorption experiments showed that the reversibility of adsorption was low, suggesting high-affinity adsorption governed by chemisorption. The mechanism of adsorption for the divalent metals was thought to be the formation of strong, inner-sphere complexes involving surface hydroxyl groups. However, the mechanism for the adsorption of As(V) by BPMS appears to be distinct from that of surface hydroxyl exchange. These results have important implications to the management of metal sulfide sludge produced by bacterial sulfate reduction.

Carbonate-mediated Fe(II) oxidation in the air-cathode fuel cell: a kinetic model in terms of Fe(II) speciation.

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Wei; Zhai, Lin-Feng; Cui, Yu-Zhi; Sun, Min; Jiang, Yuan

2013-06-06

Due to the high redox activity of Fe(II) and its abundance in natural waters, the electro-oxidation of Fe(II) can be found in many air-cathode fuel cell systems, such as acid mine drainage fuel cells and sediment microbial fuel cells. To deeply understand these iron-related systems, it is essential to elucidate the kinetics and mechanisms involved in the electro-oxidation of Fe(II). This work aims to develop a kinetic model that adequately describes the electro-oxidation process of Fe(II) in air-cathode fuel cells. The speciation of Fe(II) is incorporated into the model, and contributions of individual Fe(II) species to the overall Fe(II) oxidation rate are quantitatively evaluated. The results show that the kinetic model can accurately predict the electro-oxidation rate of Fe(II) in air-cathode fuel cells. FeCO3, Fe(OH)2, and Fe(CO3)2(2-) are the most important species determining the electro-oxidation kinetics of Fe(II). The Fe(II) oxidation rate is primarily controlled by the oxidation of FeCO3 species at low pH, whereas at high pH Fe(OH)2 and Fe(CO3)2(2-) are the dominant species. Solution pH, carbonate concentration, and solution salinity are able to influence the electro-oxidation kinetics of Fe(II) through changing both distribution and kinetic activity of Fe(II) species.

Artificial neural network (ANN) approach for modeling Zn(II) adsorption in batch process

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yildiz, Sayiter [Engineering Faculty, Cumhuriyet University, Sivas (Turkmenistan)

2017-09-15

Artificial neural networks (ANN) were applied to predict adsorption efficiency of peanut shells for the removal of Zn(II) ions from aqueous solutions. Effects of initial pH, Zn(II) concentrations, temperature, contact duration and adsorbent dosage were determined in batch experiments. The sorption capacities of the sorbents were predicted with the aid of equilibrium and kinetic models. The Zn(II) ions adsorption onto peanut shell was better defined by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, for both initial pH, and temperature. The highest R{sup 2} value in isotherm studies was obtained from Freundlich isotherm for the inlet concentration and from Temkin isotherm for the sorbent amount. The high R{sup 2} values prove that modeling the adsorption process with ANN is a satisfactory approach. The experimental results and the predicted results by the model with the ANN were found to be highly compatible with each other.

Artificial neural network (ANN) approach for modeling Zn(II) adsorption in batch process

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yildiz, Sayiter

2017-01-01

Artificial neural networks (ANN) were applied to predict adsorption efficiency of peanut shells for the removal of Zn(II) ions from aqueous solutions. Effects of initial pH, Zn(II) concentrations, temperature, contact duration and adsorbent dosage were determined in batch experiments. The sorption capacities of the sorbents were predicted with the aid of equilibrium and kinetic models. The Zn(II) ions adsorption onto peanut shell was better defined by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, for both initial pH, and temperature. The highest R"2 value in isotherm studies was obtained from Freundlich isotherm for the inlet concentration and from Temkin isotherm for the sorbent amount. The high R"2 values prove that modeling the adsorption process with ANN is a satisfactory approach. The experimental results and the predicted results by the model with the ANN were found to be highly compatible with each other.

Persistent type II endoleak after EVAR: the predictive value of the AAA thrombus volume.

Science.gov (United States)

Gallitto, Enrico; Gargiulo, Mauro; Mascoli, Chiara; Freyrie, Antonio; DE Matteis, Massimo; Serra, Carla; Bianchini Massoni, Claudio; Faggioli, Gianluca; Stella, Andrea

2018-02-01

Persistent type II endoleaks (ELIIp, ≥6 months) after an endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) can be associated with adverse outcomes. The aims of this study are the evaluation of the incidence of ELIIp, their preoperative morphological predictive features (PMF) and the post-EVAR abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) evolution in the presence of ELIIp. Patients underwent EVAR between 2008 and 2010 were prospectively collected. Cases with ELIIp (group A: AG) were identified. A control group without ELIIp (group B: BG), homogeneous for clinical characteristics, follow-up timing and methods (CTA and/or CEUS at 6.12 months and yearly thereafter) was retrospectively selected. The PMF evaluated by computed-tomography-angiography (CTA) were: AAA-diameter, number and diameter of AAA efferent patent vessels (EPV), AAA-total volume (TV), AAA-thrombus volume (THV) and TV/THV rate (%VR). Volumes were calculated by the dedicated vessels analysis software. AG and BG were compared. The primary endpoint was to evaluate the incidence of ELIIp. Secondary endpoints were to analyze the relation between PMF and ELIIp and to assess the post-EVAR AAA-evolution in the presence of ELIIp. Between 2008 and 2010, 200 patients underwent EVAR to treat AAA electively. An ELIIp was detected in 35cases (17.5%) (AG). Twenty-seven patients (13.5%) were included in BG. An overall of 62 patients (GA+GB) were analyzed. The mean pre-operative AAA diameter and EPV were 58±11.6 mm and 5.5±1.8 mm, respectively. The mean TV and THV were 187±111.5 cc and 82±75 cc, respectively. The median %VR was 42.3%. ELIIp was correlated to EPV≥6 (χ2, p=.015) and %VR AAA growth post-EVAR. ELIIp is a not rare complication and it could require re-interventions. Our data suggest that VEP≥6 or %VT<40% are risk factors for ELIIp. No PMF was able to predict the ELIIp evolution. The relative high rate of re-interventions, could suggest the need of adjunctive/preventing primary procedures in patients at high-risk for ELIIp.

An Analysis Plan for the ARCOMS II (Armor Combat Operations Model Support II) Experiment.

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1983-06-01

In order to facilitate Armor Combat Modeling, the data analysis shculd focus upon the methods which transform the data intc descriptive or predictive ...discussed in Chapter III tc predict the Farameter for probability of detection in time ŕt. This should be compared with the results of the N.4gh -t Vision...J 6A 46.) I-I 0 f U-CL 0~ z o -Z 06 09 03 v 0 0 SJldnYS 10 ON Ipgr Cp o LSTm n at emn itgas 4AA rI z ;A (AZ - 090.0 UlA0 -O ON 404 Fiur CAd &P CC

CRAB-II: a computer program to predict hydraulics and scram dynamics of LMFBR control assemblies and its validation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carelli, M.D.; Baker, L.A.; Willis, J.M.; Engel, F.C.; Nee, D.Y.

1982-01-01

This paper presents an analytical method, the computer code CRAB-II, which calculates the hydraulics and scram dynamics of LMFBR control assemblies of the rod bundle type and its validation against prototypic data obtained for the Clinch River Breeder Reactor (CRBR) primary control assemblies. The physical-mathematical model of the code is presented, followed by a description of the testing of prototypic CRBR control assemblies in water and sodium to characterize, respectively, their hydraulic and scram dynamics behavior. Comparison of code predictions against the experimental data are presened in detail; excellent agreement was found. Also reported are experimental data and empirical correlations for the friction factor of the absorber bundle in the entire flow range (laminar to turbulent) which represent an extension of the state-of-the-art, since only fuel and blanket assemblies friction factor correlations were previously reported in the open literature

Transport of Zn (II by TDDA-Polypropylene Supported Liquid Membranes and Recovery from Waste Discharge Liquor of Galvanizing Plant of Zn (II

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Hanif Ur Rehman

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The facilitated passage of Zn (II across flat sheet supported liquid membrane saturated with TDDA (tri-n-dodecylamine in xylene membrane phase has been investigated. The effect of acid and metal ion concentration in the feed solution, the carrier concentration in membrane phase, stripping agent concentration in stripping phase, and coions on the extraction of Zn (II was investigated. The stoichiometry of the extracted species, that is, complex, was investigated on slope analysis method and it was found that the complex (LH2·Zn(Cl2 is responsible for transport of Zn (II. A mathematical model was developed for transport of Zn (II, and the predicted results strongly agree with experimental ones. The mechanism of transport was determined by coupled coion transport mechanism with H+ and Cl− coupled ions. The optimized SLM was effectively used for elimination of Zn (II from waste discharge liquor of galvanizing plant of Zn (II.

Synthesis and spectroscopic studies of biologically active tetraazamacrocyclic complexes of Mn(II, Co(II, Ni(II, Pd(II and Pt(II

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Monika Tyagi

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Complexes of Mn(II, Co(II, Ni(II, Pd(II and Pt(II were synthesized with the macrocyclic ligand, i.e., 2,3,9,10-tetraketo-1,4,8,11-tetraazacycoletradecane. The ligand was prepared by the [2 + 2] condensation of diethyloxalate and 1,3-diamino propane and characterized by elemental analysis, mass, IR and 1H NMR spectral studies. All the complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, molar conductance, magnetic susceptibility measurements, IR, electronic and electron paramagnetic resonance spectral studies. The molar conductance measurements of Mn(II, Co(II and Ni(II complexes in DMF correspond to non electrolyte nature, whereas Pd(II and Pt(II complexes are 1:2 electrolyte. On the basis of spectral studies an octahedral geometry has been assigned for Mn(II, Co(II and Ni(II complexes, whereas square planar geometry assigned for Pd(II and Pt(II. In vitro the ligand and its metal complexes were evaluated against plant pathogenic fungi (Fusarium odum, Aspergillus niger and Rhizoctonia bataticola and some compounds found to be more active as commercially available fungicide like Chlorothalonil.

Low plasma leptin level at admission predicts delirium in critically ill patients: A prospective cohort study.

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Li, Guicheng; Lei, Xiaobao; Ai, Chenmu; Li, Tao; Chen, Zhongqing

2017-07-01

The pathophysiology of delirium remains poorly understood. Low leptin level has been associated with features leading to delirium such as dysregulated immune functions and loss of neuroprotective effects. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between plasma leptin level at intensive care unit (ICU) entry and subsequent occurrence of delirium in critically ill patients. This single-center prospective cohort study in China allocated 336 critically ill patients admitted to ICU between 05/2015 and 05/2016 into a delirium group (n=102) and non-delirium group (n=234) based on whether delirium occurred during their stay at the ICU. Patients were examined at least twice daily and delirium was diagnosed using the Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU (CAM-ICU). Blood samples were obtained after ICU entry. Plasma leptin concentrations were measured by ELISA. Delirium occurred in 30.4% (102/336) of patients. Patients who developed delirium showed significantly lower leptin level at ICU entry than those who did not (6.1±3.2 vs. 9.2±5.9ng/mL; Pdelirium (OR, 0.865; 95%CI, 0.802-0.934; Pdelirium included increasing age (OR, 1.050; 95%CI, 1.020-1.080; P=0.001) and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation-II (APACHE-II) score (OR, 1.148; 95%CI, 1.092-1.208; Pdelirium had a prolonged duration of ICU stay and higher mortality. Low plasma leptin level at ICU entry was associated with the occurrence of delirium in critically ill patients. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

NetTurnP – Neural Network Prediction of Beta-turns by Use of Evolutionary Information and Predicted Protein Sequence Features

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Petersen, Bent; Lundegaard, Claus; Petersen, Thomas Nordahl

2010-01-01

β-turns are the most common type of non-repetitive structures, and constitute on average 25% of the amino acids in proteins. The formation of β-turns plays an important role in protein folding, protein stability and molecular recognition processes. In this work we present the neural network method NetTurnP, for prediction of two-class β-turns and prediction of the individual β-turn types, by use of evolutionary information and predicted protein sequence features. It has been evaluated against a commonly used dataset BT426, and achieves a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.50, which is the highest reported performance on a two-class prediction of β-turn and not-β-turn. Furthermore NetTurnP shows improved performance on some of the specific β-turn types. In the present work, neural network methods have been trained to predict β-turn or not and individual β-turn types from the primary amino acid sequence. The individual β-turn types I, I', II, II', VIII, VIa1, VIa2, VIba and IV have been predicted based on classifications by PROMOTIF, and the two-class prediction of β-turn or not is a superset comprised of all β-turn types. The performance is evaluated using a golden set of non-homologous sequences known as BT426. Our two-class prediction method achieves a performance of: MCC  = 0.50, Qtotal = 82.1%, sensitivity  = 75.6%, PPV  = 68.8% and AUC  = 0.864. We have compared our performance to eleven other prediction methods that obtain Matthews correlation coefficients in the range of 0.17 – 0.47. For the type specific β-turn predictions, only type I and II can be predicted with reasonable Matthews correlation coefficients, where we obtain performance values of 0.36 and 0.31, respectively. Conclusion The NetTurnP method has been implemented as a webserver, which is freely available at http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/NetTurnP/. NetTurnP is the only available webserver that allows submission of multiple sequences. PMID:21152409

A Differential Approach to Choosing Extracorporeal Detoxification Methods for Abdominal Sepsis

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L. Ye Shukevich

2005-01-01

Full Text Available A differential approach to choosing the methods of extracorporeal detoxification in the complex treatment of abdominal sepsis in the context of endogenous intoxication in order to enhance the efficiency of medical measures was pathogeneti-cally substantiated. In 51 patients diagnosed as having abdominal sepsis, the latter was characterized as the endogenous intoxication syndrome in relation to the accumulation of low and medium molecular-weight substances (plasma and red blood cells in the body and their physiological elimination with urine. An original formula was used to calculate the integral marker – the endogenous intoxication index correlating with the routine severity rating scales APACHE II and SOFA and reflecting the severity of endotoxicosis. According to the values of the endogenous intoxication index and to the sum of scores by the APACHE II and SOFA scales, the patients were divided into 3 groups of the clinicopathogenetic types of endogenous intoxication. According to the type of endogenous intoxication, the authors proposed a differential approach to choosing the modes of efferent therapy for abdominal sepsis: high-volume plasmapheresis in the subcompensated type and prolonged venovenous hemofiltration, which improved the results of treatment and reduced mortality rates.

After critical care: patient support after critical care. A mixed method longitudinal study using email interviews and questionnaires.

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Pattison, Natalie; O'Gara, Geraldine; Rattray, Janice

2015-08-01

To explore experiences and needs over time, of patients discharged from ICU using the Intensive Care Experience (ICE-q) questionnaire, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and EuroQoL (EQ-5D), associated clinical predictors (APACHE II, TISS, Length of stay, RIKER scores) and in-depth email interviewing. A mixed-method, longitudinal study of patients with >48hour ICU stays at 2 weeks, 6 months, 12 months using the ICE-q, HADS, EQ-5D triangulated with clinical predictors, including age, gender, length of stay (ICU and hospital), APACHE II and TISS. In-depth qualitative email interviews were completed at 1 month and 6 months. Grounded Theory analysis was applied to interview data and data were triangulated with questionnaire and clinical data. Data was collected from January 2010 to March 2012 from 77 participants. Both mean EQ-5D visual analogue scale, utility scores and HADS scores improved from 2 weeks to 6 months, (p=Email interviews offer a convenient method of gaining in-depth interview data and could be used as part of ICU follow-up. Crown Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Estimating the Accuracy of the Chedoke-McMaster Stroke Assessment Predictive Equations for Stroke Rehabilitation.

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Dang, Mia; Ramsaran, Kalinda D; Street, Melissa E; Syed, S Noreen; Barclay-Goddard, Ruth; Stratford, Paul W; Miller, Patricia A

2011-01-01

To estimate the predictive accuracy and clinical usefulness of the Chedoke-McMaster Stroke Assessment (CMSA) predictive equations. A longitudinal prognostic study using historical data obtained from 104 patients admitted post cerebrovascular accident was undertaken. Data were abstracted for all patients undergoing rehabilitation post stroke who also had documented admission and discharge CMSA scores. Published predictive equations were used to determine predicted outcomes. To determine the accuracy and clinical usefulness of the predictive model, shrinkage coefficients and predictions with 95% confidence bands were calculated. Complete data were available for 74 patients with a mean age of 65.3±12.4 years. The shrinkage values for the six Impairment Inventory (II) dimensions varied from -0.05 to 0.09; the shrinkage value for the Activity Inventory (AI) was 0.21. The error associated with predictive values was greater than ±1.5 stages for the II dimensions and greater than ±24 points for the AI. This study shows that the large error associated with the predictions (as defined by the confidence band) for the CMSA II and AI limits their clinical usefulness as a predictive measure. Further research to establish predictive models using alternative statistical procedures is warranted.

Toward the prediction of class I and II mouse major histocompatibility complex-peptide-binding affinity: in silico bioinformatic step-by-step guide using quantitative structure-activity relationships.

Science.gov (United States)

Hattotuwagama, Channa K; Doytchinova, Irini A; Flower, Darren R

2007-01-01

Quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analysis is a cornerstone of modern informatics. Predictive computational models of peptide-major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-binding affinity based on QSAR technology have now become important components of modern computational immunovaccinology. Historically, such approaches have been built around semiqualitative, classification methods, but these are now giving way to quantitative regression methods. We review three methods--a 2D-QSAR additive-partial least squares (PLS) and a 3D-QSAR comparative molecular similarity index analysis (CoMSIA) method--which can identify the sequence dependence of peptide-binding specificity for various class I MHC alleles from the reported binding affinities (IC50) of peptide sets. The third method is an iterative self-consistent (ISC) PLS-based additive method, which is a recently developed extension to the additive method for the affinity prediction of class II peptides. The QSAR methods presented here have established themselves as immunoinformatic techniques complementary to existing methodology, useful in the quantitative prediction of binding affinity: current methods for the in silico identification of T-cell epitopes (which form the basis of many vaccines, diagnostics, and reagents) rely on the accurate computational prediction of peptide-MHC affinity. We have reviewed various human and mouse class I and class II allele models. Studied alleles comprise HLA-A*0101, HLA-A*0201, HLA-A*0202, HLA-A*0203, HLA-A*0206, HLA-A*0301, HLA-A*1101, HLA-A*3101, HLA-A*6801, HLA-A*6802, HLA-B*3501, H2-K(k), H2-K(b), H2-D(b) HLA-DRB1*0101, HLA-DRB1*0401, HLA-DRB1*0701, I-A(b), I-A(d), I-A(k), I-A(S), I-E(d), and I-E(k). In this chapter we show a step-by-step guide into predicting the reliability and the resulting models to represent an advance on existing methods. The peptides used in this study are available from the AntiJen database (http://www.jenner.ac.uk/AntiJen). The PLS method

Plasma Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1 Level as a Predictor of the Severity of Community-Acquired Pneumonia

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Kok-Khun Yong

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP-1 increases in the serum of immunocompetent patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP. However, the correlation between the circulating level of MCP-1 and severity of CAP remains unclear. This study investigated differential changes in the plasma MCP-1 levels of patients with CAP before and after an antibiotic treatment and further analyzes the association between the CAP severity and MCP-1 levels. We measured the plasma MCP-1 levels of 137 patients with CAP and 74 healthy controls by using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Upon initial hospitalization, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II; confusion, urea level, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and age of >64 years (CURB-65; and pneumonia severity index (PSI scores were determined for assessing the CAP severity in these patients. The antibiotic treatment reduced the number of white blood cells (WBCs and neutrophils as well as the level of C-reactive protein (CRP and MCP-1. The plasma MCP-1 level, but not the CRP level or WBC count, correlated with the CAP severity according to the PSI (r = 0.509, p < 0.001, CURB-65 (r = 0.468, p < 0.001, and APACHE II (r = 0.360, p < 0.001 scores. We concluded that MCP-1 levels act in the development of CAP and are involved in the severity of CAP.

Artificial neural networks study of the catalytic reduction of resazurin: stopped-flow injection kinetic-spectrophotometric determination of Cu(II) and Ni(II)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Magni, Diana M.; Olivieri, Alejandro C.; Bonivardi, Adrian L.

2005-01-01

An artificial neural network (ANN) procedure was used in the development of a catalytic spectrophotometric method for the determination of Cu(II) and Ni(II) employing a stopped-flow injection system. The method is based on the catalytic action of these ions on the reduction of resazurin by sulfide. ANNs trained by back-propagation of errors allowed us to model the systems in a concentration range of 0.5-6 and 1-15 mg l -1 for Cu(II) and Ni(II), respectively, with a low relative error of prediction (REP) for each cation: REP Cu(II) = 0.85% and REP Ni(II) = 0.79%. The standard deviations of the repeatability (s r ) and of the within-laboratory reproducibility (s w ) were measured using standard solutions of Cu(II) and Ni(II) equal to 2.75 and 3.5 mg l -1 , respectively: s r [Cu(II)] = 0.039 mg l -1 , s r [Ni(II)] = 0.044 mg l -1 , s w [Ni(II)] = 0.045 mg l -1 and s w [Ni(II)] = 0.050 mg l -1 . The ANNs-kinetic method has been applied to the determination of Cu(II) and Ni(II) in electroplating solutions and provided satisfactory results as compared with flame atomic absorption spectrophotometry method. The effect of resazurin, NaOH and Na 2 S concentrations and the reaction temperature on the analytical sensitivity is discussed

Pneumonia prevention in intubated patients given sucralfate versus proton-pump inhibitors and/or histamine II receptor blockers.

Science.gov (United States)

Grindlinger, Gene A; Cairo, Sarah B; Duperre, Carole B

2016-12-01

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a common cause of infectious morbidity and mortality in the intensive care unit (ICU). The type of stress-ulcer prophylaxis (SUP) given to ventilated patients may, in part, be responsible. We observed an increase in VAP as ventilator bundle compliance increased and a decrease in VAP when bundle compliance decreased. We reasoned that SUP which raises gastric pH such as proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs) and histamine II (H2) receptor antagonists as opposed to SUP which does not raise pH such as sucralfate (S) may be responsible and also may alter the causative bacteria. This is a single-center retrospective cohort analysis of all intubated, adult surgical patients admitted to the surgical ICU between January and June during the 3-y period 2012-2014. Demographics, APACHE II, Injury Severity Score, VAP occurrence, culprit bacteria, ventilator days, and ICU days were recorded based on the type of SUP given. There were 45 instances of VAP in the 504 study patients, 33 in the PPI/H2 group, and 12 in the S group (P < 0.01). VAP per 1000 ventilator days were 10.2 for PPI/H2 and 3.7 for S (P < 0.01). Culprit bacteria were mostly Pseudomonas, gram-negative bacilli, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in PPI/H2 patients (n = 29) compared with oropharyngeal flora in S patients (n = 6; P < 0.001). There was a substantial difference in VAP occurrence and in the culprit bacteria between S and PPI/H2 treated patients due perhaps to gastric alkalization. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Serum Total Cholinesterase Activity on Admission Is Associated with Disease Severity and Outcome in Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury.

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Qing-Hong Zhang

Full Text Available Traumatic brain injury (TBI is one of the leading causes of neurological disability. In this retrospective study, serum total cholinesterase (ChE activities were analyzed in 188 patients for diagnostic as well as predictive values for mortality.Within 72 hours after injury, serum ChE activities including both acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase were measured. Disease severity was evaluated with Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE II score, Glasgow Coma Score, length of coma, post-traumatic amnesia and injury feature. Neurocognitive and functional scores were assessed using clinical records. Of 188 patients, 146 (77.7% survived and 42 (22.3% died within 90 days. Lower ChE activities were noted in the non-survivors vs. survivors (5.94±2.19 vs. 7.04±2.16 kU/L, p=0.023, in septic vs. non-infected patients (5.93±1.89 vs. 7.31±2.45 kU/L, p=0.0005 and in patients with extremely severe injury vs. mild injury (6.3±1.98 vs. 7.57±2.48 kU/L, p=0.049. The trajectories of serum ChE levels were also different between non-survivors and survivors, septic and non-infected patients, mild and severely injured patients, respectively. Admission ChE activities were closely correlated with blood cell counts, neurocognitive and functional scores both on admission and at discharge. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that the area under the curve for ChE was inferior to that for either APACHE II or white blood cell (WBC count. However, at the optimal cutoff value of 5 kU/L, the sensitivity of ChE for correct prediction of 90-day mortality was 65.5% and the specificity was 86.4%. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that lower ChE activity (5 kU/L (p=0.04. After adjusting for other variables, ChE was identified as a borderline independent predictor for mortality as analyzed by Binary logistic regression (P=0.078.Lowered ChE activity measured on admission appears to be associated with disease severity and outcome for TBI patients.

Estimating cross-validatory predictive p-values with integrated importance sampling for disease mapping models.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Longhai; Feng, Cindy X; Qiu, Shi

2017-06-30

An important statistical task in disease mapping problems is to identify divergent regions with unusually high or low risk of disease. Leave-one-out cross-validatory (LOOCV) model assessment is the gold standard for estimating predictive p-values that can flag such divergent regions. However, actual LOOCV is time-consuming because one needs to rerun a Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis for each posterior distribution in which an observation is held out as a test case. This paper introduces a new method, called integrated importance sampling (iIS), for estimating LOOCV predictive p-values with only Markov chain samples drawn from the posterior based on a full data set. The key step in iIS is that we integrate away the latent variables associated the test observation with respect to their conditional distribution without reference to the actual observation. By following the general theory for importance sampling, the formula used by iIS can be proved to be equivalent to the LOOCV predictive p-value. We compare iIS and other three existing methods in the literature with two disease mapping datasets. Our empirical results show that the predictive p-values estimated with iIS are almost identical to the predictive p-values estimated with actual LOOCV and outperform those given by the existing three methods, namely, the posterior predictive checking, the ordinary importance sampling, and the ghosting method by Marshall and Spiegelhalter (2003). Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Type-II Weyl semimetals.

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Soluyanov, Alexey A; Gresch, Dominik; Wang, Zhijun; Wu, QuanSheng; Troyer, Matthias; Dai, Xi; Bernevig, B Andrei

2015-11-26

Fermions--elementary particles such as electrons--are classified as Dirac, Majorana or Weyl. Majorana and Weyl fermions had not been observed experimentally until the recent discovery of condensed matter systems such as topological superconductors and semimetals, in which they arise as low-energy excitations. Here we propose the existence of a previously overlooked type of Weyl fermion that emerges at the boundary between electron and hole pockets in a new phase of matter. This particle was missed by Weyl because it breaks the stringent Lorentz symmetry in high-energy physics. Lorentz invariance, however, is not present in condensed matter physics, and by generalizing the Dirac equation, we find the new type of Weyl fermion. In particular, whereas Weyl semimetals--materials hosting Weyl fermions--were previously thought to have standard Weyl points with a point-like Fermi surface (which we refer to as type-I), we discover a type-II Weyl point, which is still a protected crossing, but appears at the contact of electron and hole pockets in type-II Weyl semimetals. We predict that WTe2 is an example of a topological semimetal hosting the new particle as a low-energy excitation around such a type-II Weyl point. The existence of type-II Weyl points in WTe2 means that many of its physical properties are very different to those of standard Weyl semimetals with point-like Fermi surfaces.

Evaluation of proposed shallow-land burial sites using the PRESTO-II [Prediction of Radiation Effects from Shallow Trench Operations] methodology and code

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fields, D.E.; Uslu, I.; Yalcintas, M.G.

1987-01-01

PRESTO-II (Prediction of Radiation Effects from Shallow Trench Operations) is a computer code designed to evaluate possible doses and risks (health effects) from shallow-land burial sites. The model is intended to serve as a non-site-specific screening model for assessing radionuclide transport, ensuing exposure, and health impacts to a static local population for a 1000-year period following the end of disposal operations. Human exposure scenarios include normal releases (including leaching and operational spillage), human intrusion, and limited site farming or reclamation. Pathways and processes of transport from the trench to an individual or population include ground-water transport, overland flow, erosion, surface water dilution, suspension, atmospheric transport and deposition, inhalation, external exposure, and ingestion of contaminated beef, milk, crops, and water. The proposed waste disposal area in Koteyli, Balikesir, Turkey, has been evaluated using the PRESTO-II methodology. The results have been compared to those obtained for the Barnwell, South Carolina, site. Dose estimates for both sites are below regulatory limits, for the release and exposure scenarios considered. The doses for the sites are comparable, with slightly higher estimates obtained for the Turkish site. 7 refs., 1 tab

Outcome of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Recipients Who Were Mechanically Ventilated and Admitted to Intensive Care Units

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Tsung-Ming Yang

2007-01-01

Conclusion: The ICU mortality rate of mechanically ventilated HSCT recipients was high. Factors associated with ICU mortality were older age, high APACHE II score, presence of shock, and higher respiratory or heart rate at the time of ICU admission. SLB might provide specific diagnosis in HSCT recipients with unexplained pulmonary infiltrates and aid modification of treatment. [J Formos Med Assoc 2007;106(4:295-301

Effect of Cu(II), Cd(II) and Zn(II) on Pb(II) biosorption by algae Gelidium-derived materials.

Science.gov (United States)

Vilar, Vítor J P; Botelho, Cidália M S; Boaventura, Rui A R

2008-06-15

Biosorption of Pb(II), Cu(II), Cd(II) and Zn(II) from binary metal solutions onto the algae Gelidium sesquipedale, an algal industrial waste and a waste-based composite material was investigated at pH 5.3, in a batch system. Binary Pb(II)/Cu(II), Pb(II)/Cd(II) and Pb(II)/Zn(II) solutions have been tested. For the same equilibrium concentrations of both metal ions (1 mmol l(-1)), approximately 66, 85 and 86% of the total uptake capacity of the biosorbents is taken by lead ions in the systems Pb(II)/Cu(II), Pb(II)/Cd(II) and Pb(II)/Zn(II), respectively. Two-metal results were fitted to a discrete and a continuous model, showing the inhibition of the primary metal biosorption by the co-cation. The model parameters suggest that Cd(II) and Zn(II) have the same decreasing effect on the Pb(II) uptake capacity. The uptake of Pb(II) was highly sensitive to the presence of Cu(II). From the discrete model it was possible to obtain the Langmuir affinity constant for Pb(II) biosorption. The presence of the co-cations decreases the apparent affinity of Pb(II). The experimental results were successfully fitted by the continuous model, at different pH values, for each biosorbent. The following sequence for the equilibrium affinity constants was found: Pb>Cu>Cd approximately Zn.

Predictive role of HER2/neu, topoisomerase-II-alpha, and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMP-1) for response to adjuvant taxane-based chemotherapy in patients with intermediate-risk breast cancer

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Erber, Ramona; Gluz, Oleg; Brünner, Nils

2015-01-01

. In this study, we investigate a large cohort of patients with intermediate-risk BC treated within the WSG EC-DOC Trial for the predictive impact of topoisomerase-II-alpha, HER2/neu, and TIMP-1. Tumor tissue was available in a representative cohort of 772 cases of the WSG EC-DOC Trial collective which compared 4...

Acute aluminium phosphide poisoning: Can we predict mortality?

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Ashu Mathai

2010-01-01

Full Text Available In India, acute aluminium phosphide poisoning (AAlPP is a serious health care problem. This study aimed to determine the characteristics of AAlPP and the predictors of mortality at the time of patients′ admission. We studied consecutive admissions of patients with AAlPP admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU between November 2004 and October 2006. We noted 38 parameters at admission to the hospital and the ICU and compared survivor and non-survivor groups. A total of 27 patients were enrolled comprising5 females and 22 males and the mean ingested dose of poison was 0.75 ± 0.745 grams. Hypotension was noted in 24 patients (89% at admission and electrocardiogram abnormalities were noted in 13 patients (48.1%. The mean pH on admission was 7.20 ± 0.14 and the mean bicarbonate concentration was 12.32 ± 5.45 mmol/ L. The mortality from AAlPP was 59.3%. We found the following factors to be associated with an increased risk of mortality: a serum creatinine concentration of more than 1.0 mg % (P = 0.01, pH value less than 7.2 (P = 0.014, serum bicarbonate value less than 15 mmol/L (P = 0.048, need for mechanical ventilation (P = 0.045, need for vasoactive drugs like dobutamine (P = 0.027 and nor adrenaline (P = 0.048 and a low APACHE II score at admission (P = 0.019. AAlPP causes high mortality primarily due to early haemodynamic failure and multi-organ dysfunction

Predictive role of HER2/neu, topoisomerase-II-alpha, and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMP-1) for response to adjuvant taxane-based chemotherapy in patients with intermediate-risk breast cancer: results from the WSG-AGO EC-Doc trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Erber, Ramona; Gluz, Oleg; Brünner, Nils; Kreipe, Hans Heinrich; Pelz, Enrico; Kates, Ronald; Bartels, Annette; Huober, Jens; Mohrmann, Svjetlana; Moustafa, Zehra; Liedtke, Cornelia; Möbus, Volker; Augustin, Doris; Thomssen, Christoph; Jänicke, Fritz; Kiechle, Marion; Kuhn, Walther; Nitz, Ulrike; Harbeck, Nadia; Hartmann, Arndt

2015-04-01

Taxane-anthracycline-based adjuvant chemotherapy is standard of care in patients with node-positive breast cancer (BC) but is also associated with severe side effects and significant costs. It is yet unclear, which biomarkers would predict benefit from taxanes and/or general chemoresistance. In this study, we investigate a large cohort of patients with intermediate-risk BC treated within the WSG EC-DOC Trial for the predictive impact of topoisomerase-II-alpha, HER2/neu, and TIMP-1. Tumor tissue was available in a representative cohort of 772 cases of the WSG EC-DOC Trial collective which compared 4xEC-4xDoc versus 6xCEF/CMF. In addition to hormone receptor status and Ki-67, HER2/neu+ and topoisomerase-II-alpha status using fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) and immunohistochemistry, TIMP-1 using immunohistochemistry, and aneuploidy of chromosome 17 using FISH were evaluated and correlated with outcome and taxane benefit. There was significant superiority of EC-Doc over CEF regarding 5-year DFS (90 vs. 80 %, respectively, p = 0.006) particularly in patient subgroups defined by HR+, HER2/neu+, high proliferation (i.e., Ki-67 ≥ 20 %), patient age >50 years old and normal chromosome 17 status, high TIMP-1 and low topoisomerase-II-alpha protein expression. Significant prognostic factors in multivariate analysis were EC-Doc therapy (HR = 0.61; 95 %CI 0.38-0.986), age Doc vs. CEF) and high topoisomerase-II-alpha protein expression (HR = 0.427; 95 %CI 0.203-0.900) in multivariate interaction analysis. Despite of univariate predictive effect of HER2/neu status among other factors only topoisomerase-II-alpha protein expression was associated with significant benefit from EC-Doc compared to CEF by multivariate interaction analysis.

Symptoms of depression as possible markers of bipolar II disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Benazzi, Franco

2006-05-01

Underdiagnosis and misdiagnosis of bipolar-II disorder (BP-II) as a major depressive disorder (MDD) are frequently reported. The study aim was to find which symptoms of depression could be possible cross-sectional markers of BP-II, in order to reduce underdiagnosing BP-II. Consecutive 379 BP-II and 271 MDD major depressive episode (MDE) outpatients were interviewed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV, the Hypomania Interview Guide, and the Family History Screen, by a senior psychiatrist in a private practice. Inside-MDE hypomanic symptoms (elevated mood and increased self-esteem always absent by definition) were systematically assessed. Mixed depression was defined as an MDE plus 3 or more inside-MDE hypomanic symptoms, a definition validated by Akiskal and Benazzi. The MDE symptoms significantly more common in BP-II versus MDD were weight gain, increased eating, hypersomnia, psychomotor agitation, worthlessness, and diminished ability to concentrate. The inside-MDE hypomanic symptoms significantly more common in BP-II were distractibility, racing/crowded thoughts, irritability, psychomotor agitation, more talkativeness, increased risky and goal-directed activities. Multiple logistic regression showed that hypersomnia, racing/crowded thoughts, irritability, and psychomotor agitation were independent predictors of BP-II. Irritability had the most balanced combination of sensitivity and specificity predicting BP-II. Psychomotor agitation had the highest specificity but the lowest sensitivity. Racing/crowded thoughts had the highest sensitivity but the lowest specificity. These symptoms had a similar positive predictive value (PPV) for BP-II, which was around 70% (PPV is more clinically useful than sensitivity and specificity), which in turn was similar to the PPV of mixed depression and atypical depression (two diagnostic clinical markers of BP-II). All possible combinations of these symptoms had a PPV similar to that of the individual symptoms. The

Lupus eritematoso sistémico en la Unidad de cuidados intensivos de medicina del Hospital Nacional Cayetano Heredia.

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Sergio Vásquez Kunze

2007-10-01

Full Text Available Objetivos: Describir las características clínicas y factores pronósticos del Lupus Eritematoso Sistémico (LES en la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos (UCI de Medicina del Hospital Nacional Cayetano Heredia (HNCH. Material y métodos: Colección retrospectiva de hallazgos clínicos y de laboratorio de historias clínicas de pacientes con LES en la UCI del HNCH en el periodo 1999-2004. Se hizo estudio estadístico descriptivo y análisis univariado para variables continuas y discretas. Se calculó el score APACHE II y se evaluó su significado pronóstico. Resultados: Hubo 26 pacientes con LES de los cuales se encontraron historias clínicas de 21 de ellos. La frecuencia de LES en la UCI del HNCH es de 1,49%, es la patología reumática más frecuente en UCI. La mortalidad fue de 57,69%. El motivo de admisión más frecuente fue insuficiencia respiratoria (52,4%, mayormente debido a causa infecciosa.Las variables que se asociaron significativamente a mortalidad fueron: velocidad de sedimentación globular (VSG alta, anemia severa, hipoalbuminemia severa, la relación presión arterial de oxígeno entre la fracción inspirada de oxígeno (PaFi < 200 al ingreso. El score APACHE II en el grupo de fallecidos fue significativamente más alto (19,9 (p < 0,01. La insuficiencia renal aguda que requirió hemodiálisis y la necesidad de ventilación mecánica se asociaron significativamente a mayor mortalidad. Conclusiones: El LES en la UCI del HNCH tiene una alta mortalidad, mayor que la reportada en estudios previos. Los factores de mal pronóstico fueron VSG alta, anemia severa, hipoalbuminemia severa, PaFi<200, score APACHE II alto, necesidad de hemodiálisis y de ventilación mecánica. (Rev Med Hered 2007;18: 192-199.

Islet Oxygen Consumption Rate (OCR) Dose Predicts Insulin Independence in Clinical Islet Autotransplantation.

Science.gov (United States)

Papas, Klearchos K; Bellin, Melena D; Sutherland, David E R; Suszynski, Thomas M; Kitzmann, Jennifer P; Avgoustiniatos, Efstathios S; Gruessner, Angelika C; Mueller, Kathryn R; Beilman, Gregory J; Balamurugan, Appakalai N; Loganathan, Gopalakrishnan; Colton, Clark K; Koulmanda, Maria; Weir, Gordon C; Wilhelm, Josh J; Qian, Dajun; Niland, Joyce C; Hering, Bernhard J

2015-01-01

Reliable in vitro islet quality assessment assays that can be performed routinely, prospectively, and are able to predict clinical transplant outcomes are needed. In this paper we present data on the utility of an assay based on cellular oxygen consumption rate (OCR) in predicting clinical islet autotransplant (IAT) insulin independence (II). IAT is an attractive model for evaluating characterization assays regarding their utility in predicting II due to an absence of confounding factors such as immune rejection and immunosuppressant toxicity. Membrane integrity staining (FDA/PI), OCR normalized to DNA (OCR/DNA), islet equivalent (IE) and OCR (viable IE) normalized to recipient body weight (IE dose and OCR dose), and OCR/DNA normalized to islet size index (ISI) were used to characterize autoislet preparations (n = 35). Correlation between pre-IAT islet product characteristics and II was determined using receiver operating characteristic analysis. Preparations that resulted in II had significantly higher OCR dose and IE dose (p<0.001). These islet characterization methods were highly correlated with II at 6-12 months post-IAT (area-under-the-curve (AUC) = 0.94 for IE dose and 0.96 for OCR dose). FDA/PI (AUC = 0.49) and OCR/DNA (AUC = 0.58) did not correlate with II. OCR/DNA/ISI may have some utility in predicting outcome (AUC = 0.72). Commonly used assays to determine whether a clinical islet preparation is of high quality prior to transplantation are greatly lacking in sensitivity and specificity. While IE dose is highly predictive, it does not take into account islet cell quality. OCR dose, which takes into consideration both islet cell quality and quantity, may enable a more accurate and prospective evaluation of clinical islet preparations.

Islet Oxygen Consumption Rate (OCR Dose Predicts Insulin Independence in Clinical Islet Autotransplantation.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Klearchos K Papas

Full Text Available Reliable in vitro islet quality assessment assays that can be performed routinely, prospectively, and are able to predict clinical transplant outcomes are needed. In this paper we present data on the utility of an assay based on cellular oxygen consumption rate (OCR in predicting clinical islet autotransplant (IAT insulin independence (II. IAT is an attractive model for evaluating characterization assays regarding their utility in predicting II due to an absence of confounding factors such as immune rejection and immunosuppressant toxicity.Membrane integrity staining (FDA/PI, OCR normalized to DNA (OCR/DNA, islet equivalent (IE and OCR (viable IE normalized to recipient body weight (IE dose and OCR dose, and OCR/DNA normalized to islet size index (ISI were used to characterize autoislet preparations (n = 35. Correlation between pre-IAT islet product characteristics and II was determined using receiver operating characteristic analysis.Preparations that resulted in II had significantly higher OCR dose and IE dose (p<0.001. These islet characterization methods were highly correlated with II at 6-12 months post-IAT (area-under-the-curve (AUC = 0.94 for IE dose and 0.96 for OCR dose. FDA/PI (AUC = 0.49 and OCR/DNA (AUC = 0.58 did not correlate with II. OCR/DNA/ISI may have some utility in predicting outcome (AUC = 0.72.Commonly used assays to determine whether a clinical islet preparation is of high quality prior to transplantation are greatly lacking in sensitivity and specificity. While IE dose is highly predictive, it does not take into account islet cell quality. OCR dose, which takes into consideration both islet cell quality and quantity, may enable a more accurate and prospective evaluation of clinical islet preparations.

Bipolar H II regions produced by cloud-cloud collisions

Science.gov (United States)

Whitworth, Anthony; Lomax, Oliver; Balfour, Scott; Mège, Pierre; Zavagno, Annie; Deharveng, Lise

2018-05-01

We suggest that bipolar H II regions may be the aftermath of collisions between clouds. Such a collision will produce a shock-compressed layer, and a star cluster can then condense out of the dense gas near the center of the layer. If the clouds are sufficiently massive, the star cluster is likely to contain at least one massive star, which emits ionizing radiation, and excites an H II region, which then expands, sweeping up the surrounding neutral gas. Once most of the matter in the clouds has accreted onto the layer, expansion of the H II region meets little resistance in directions perpendicular to the midplane of the layer, and so it expands rapidly to produce two lobes of ionized gas, one on each side of the layer. Conversely, in directions parallel to the midplane of the layer, expansion of the H II region stalls due to the ram pressure of the gas that continues to fall towards the star cluster from the outer parts of the layer; a ring of dense neutral gas builds up around the waist of the bipolar H II region, and may spawn a second generation of star formation. We present a dimensionless model for the flow of ionized gas in a bipolar H II region created according to the above scenario, and predict the characteristics of the resulting free-free continuum and recombination-line emission. This dimensionless model can be scaled to the physical parameters of any particular system. Our intention is that these predictions will be useful in testing the scenario outlined above, and thereby providing indirect support for the role of cloud-cloud collisions in triggering star formation.

Dynamically Scaling Apache Storm for the Analysis of Streaming Data

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Veen, J.S. van der; Waaij, B.D. van der; Lazovik, E.; Wijbrandi, W.E.; Meijer, R.J.

2015-01-01

Stream processing platforms allow applications to analyse incoming data continuously. Several use cases exist that make use of these capabilities, ranging from monitoring of physical infrastructures to pre selecting video surveillance feeds for human inspection. It is difficult to predict how much

Estimating the Accuracy of the Chedoke–McMaster Stroke Assessment Predictive Equations for Stroke Rehabilitation

Science.gov (United States)

Dang, Mia; Ramsaran, Kalinda D.; Street, Melissa E.; Syed, S. Noreen; Barclay-Goddard, Ruth; Miller, Patricia A.

2011-01-01

ABSTRACT Purpose: To estimate the predictive accuracy and clinical usefulness of the Chedoke–McMaster Stroke Assessment (CMSA) predictive equations. Method: A longitudinal prognostic study using historical data obtained from 104 patients admitted post cerebrovascular accident was undertaken. Data were abstracted for all patients undergoing rehabilitation post stroke who also had documented admission and discharge CMSA scores. Published predictive equations were used to determine predicted outcomes. To determine the accuracy and clinical usefulness of the predictive model, shrinkage coefficients and predictions with 95% confidence bands were calculated. Results: Complete data were available for 74 patients with a mean age of 65.3±12.4 years. The shrinkage values for the six Impairment Inventory (II) dimensions varied from −0.05 to 0.09; the shrinkage value for the Activity Inventory (AI) was 0.21. The error associated with predictive values was greater than ±1.5 stages for the II dimensions and greater than ±24 points for the AI. Conclusions: This study shows that the large error associated with the predictions (as defined by the confidence band) for the CMSA II and AI limits their clinical usefulness as a predictive measure. Further research to establish predictive models using alternative statistical procedures is warranted. PMID:22654239

Physicochemical properties of 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoates of Mn(II, Co(II, Ni(II and Zn(II

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W. FERENC

2005-09-01

Full Text Available The complexes of Mn(II, Co(II, Ni(II, Cu(II and Zn(II with 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoic acid anion of the formula: M(C10H11O52·nH2O, where n = 6 for Ni(II, n = 1 for Mn(II, Co(II, Cu(II, and n = 0 for Zn, have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy, X–ray diffraction measurements, thermogravimetry and magnetic studies. They are crystalline compounds characterized by various symmetry. They decompose in various ways when heated in air to 1273 K. At first, they dehydrate in one step and form anhydrous salts. The final products of decomposition are oxides of the respective metals (Mn2O3, Co3O4, NiO, CuO, ZnO. The solubilities of the analysed complexes in water at 293 K are in the orders of 10-2 – 10-4 mol dm-3. The magnetic susceptibilities of the Mn(II, Co(II, Ni(II and Cu(II complexes were measured over the range of 76–303 K and the magnetic moments were calculated. The results show that the 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzoates of Mn(II, Co(II and Ni(II are high-spin complexes but that of Cu(II forms a dimer [Cu2(C10H11O54(H2O2]. The carboxylate groups bind as monodentate or bidentate chelating or bridging ligands.

Application Programming in AWIPS II

Science.gov (United States)

Smit, Matt; McGrath, Kevin; Burks, Jason; Carcione, Brian

2012-01-01

Since its inception almost 8 years ago, NASA's Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center has integrated NASA data into the National Weather Service's decision support system (DSS) the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS). SPoRT has, in some instances, had to shape and transform data sets into various formats and manipulate configurations to visualize them in AWIPS. With the advent of the next generation of DSS, AWIPS II, developers will be able to develop their own plugins to handle any type of data. Raytheon is developing AWIPS II to be a more extensible package written mainly in Java, and built around a Service Oriented Architecture. A plugin architecture will allow users to install their own code modules, and (if all the rules have been properly followed) they will work hand-in-hand with AWIPS II as if it were originally built in. Users can bring in new datasets with existing plugins, tweak plugins to handle a nuance or desired new functionality, or create an entirely new visualization layout for a new dataset. SPoRT is developing plugins to ensure its existing NASA data will be ready for AWIPS II when it is delivered, and to prepare for the future of new instruments on upcoming satellites.

Sequence Stratigraphic Analysis and Facies Architecture of the Cretaceous Mancos Shale on and Near the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation, New Mexico-their relation to Sites of Oil Accumulation; FINAL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ridgley, Jennie

2001-01-01

The purpose of phase 1 and phase 2 of the Department of Energy funded project Analysis of oil- bearing Cretaceous Sandstone Hydrocarbon Reservoirs, exclusive of the Dakota Sandstone, on the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation, New Mexico was to define the facies of the oil producing units within the Mancos Shale and interpret the depositional environments of these facies within a sequence stratigraphic context. The focus of this report will center on (1) redefinition of the area and vertical extent of the ''Gallup sandstone'' or El Vado Sandstone Member of the Mancos Shale, (2) determination of the facies distribution within the ''Gallup sandstone'' and other oil-producing sandstones within the lower Mancos, placing these facies within the overall depositional history of the San Juan Basin, (3) application of the principals of sequence stratigraphy to the depositional units that comprise the Mancos Shale, and (4) evaluation of the structural features on the Reservation as they may control sites of oil accumulation

Synthesis and spectral studies of manganese(II), cobalt(II), nickel(II), copper(II), zinc(II), cadmium(II) and mercury(II) complexes of 4-oxo-4H-1-benzopyran-3-carboxaldehyde hydrazone derivatives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nawar, N.; Khattab, M.A.; Bekheit, M.M.; El-Kaddah, A.H.

1996-01-01

A few complexes of Mn(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Cd(II) and Hg(II) with 4-oxo-4H-1-benzopyran-3-(carboxaldehyde-4-chlorobenzylhydrazone) (BCBH) and 4-oxo-4H-1-benzopyran-3-(carboxaldehyde-4-methylbenzylhydrazone) (BMBH) have been synthesised and characterized by elemental analysis, molar conductivities, magnetic measurements and infrared (IR) and visible spectral studies. The IR spectra show that BCBH and BMBH behave as bidentate ligands either in the keto or enol form. (author). 24 refs., 2 tabs

Stream II-V5: Revision Of Stream II-V4 To Account For The Effects Of Rainfall Events

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, K.

2010-01-01

STREAM II-V4 is the aqueous transport module currently used by the Savannah River Site emergency response Weather Information Display (WIND) system. The transport model of the Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program (WASP) was used by STREAM II to perform contaminant transport calculations. WASP5 is a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) water quality analysis program that simulates contaminant transport and fate through surface water. STREAM II-V4 predicts peak concentration and peak concentration arrival time at downstream locations for releases from the SRS facilities to the Savannah River. The input flows for STREAM II-V4 are derived from the historical flow records measured by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The stream flow for STREAM II-V4 is fixed and the flow only varies with the month in which the releases are taking place. Therefore, the effects of flow surge due to a severe storm are not accounted for by STREAM II-V4. STREAM II-V4 has been revised to account for the effects of a storm event. The steps used in this method are: (1) generate rainfall hyetographs as a function of total rainfall in inches (or millimeters) and rainfall duration in hours; (2) generate watershed runoff flow based on the rainfall hyetographs from step 1; (3) calculate the variation of stream segment volume (cross section) as a function of flow from step 2; (4) implement the results from steps 2 and 3 into the STREAM II model. The revised model (STREAM II-V5) will find the proper stream inlet flow based on the total rainfall and rainfall duration as input by the user. STREAM II-V5 adjusts the stream segment volumes (cross sections) based on the stream inlet flow. The rainfall based stream flow and the adjusted stream segment volumes are then used for contaminant transport calculations.

Lithium ion beam driven hohlraums for PBFA II

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dukart, R.J.

1994-01-01

In our light ion inertial confinement fusion (ICF) program, fusion capsules are driven with an intense x-ray radiation field produced when an intense beam of ions penetrates a radiation case and deposits energy in a foam x-ray conversion region. A first step in the program is to generate and measure these intense fields on the Particle Beam Fusion Accelerator II (PBFA II). Our goal is to generate a 100-eV radiation temperature in lithium ion beam driven hohlraums, the radiation environment which will provide the initial drive temperature for ion beam driven implosion systems designed to achieve high gain. In this paper, we describe the design of such hohlraum targets and their predicted performance on PBFA II as we provide increasing ion beam intensities

Synthesis, Characterization, and Biological Activity of Mn(II, Fe(II, Co(II, Ni(II, Cu(II, Zn(II, and Cd(II Complexes of N-Thiophenoyl-N′-Phenylthiocarbohydrazide

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M. Yadav

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Mn(II, Fe(II, Co(II, Ni(II, Cu(II, Zn(II, and Cd(II complex of N-thiophenoyl -N′-phenylthiocarbohydrazide (H2 TPTH have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, magnetic susceptibility measurements, infrared, NMR, electronic, and ESR spectral studies. The complexes were found to have compositions [Mn(H TPTH2], [Co(TPTH (H2O2], [Ni(TPTH (H2O2], [Cu(TPTH], [Zn(H TPTH], [Cd(H TPTH2], and [Fe(H TPTH2(EtOH]. The magnetic and electronic spectral studies suggest square planar geometry for [Cu(TPTH], tetrahedral geometry for [Zn(TPTH] and [Cd(H TPTH2], and octahedral geometry for rest of the complexes. The infrared spectral studies of the 1 : 1 deprotonated complexes suggest bonding through enolic oxygen, thiolato sulfur, and both the hydrazinic nitrogens. Thus, H2TPTH acts as a binegative tetradentate ligand. H2 TPTH and its metal complexes have been screened against several bacteria and fungi.

78 FR 5197 - Notice of Intent To Repatriate a Cultural Item: Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-24

... this notice. History and Description of the Cultural Items The one cultural item is a Dilzini Gaan... Jicarilla Apache Nation, New Mexico; Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Reservation, New Mexico; San... Nation, New Mexico; Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Reservation, New Mexico; San Carlos Apache...

[Analysis of risk factors of fatal outcome in pregnant and puerperant patients with severe H1N1 influenza].

Science.gov (United States)

Zabolotskikh, I B; Penzhoian, G A; Musaeva, T S; Goncharenko, S I

2010-01-01

As well as previous epidemics and pandemias of influenza, the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemia increases the risk of severe illness in pregnant. Data were reported for 28 pregnant and 2 postpartum women who have been hospitalized in ICUs of Krasnodar Region with H1N1 influenza diagnosis. The laboratory tests for H1N1 were negative in 53.3% of suspected cases of H1N1 influenza (16 of 30). The major lethal risk factor in pregnant with H1N1 influenza is a development of septic shock with low PaO2\\FiO2 ratio (less than 140) and high Murray's Acute Lung Injury Score (higher than 2.5). High Apache II, Apache III, SAPS 2, SAPS 3 and SOFA scores are the additional lethal risk factors. Lethal outcomes were more frequent in the end of the second trimester of pregnancy.

Chemical speciation of Pb(II, Cd(II, Hg(II, Co(II, Ni(II, Cu(II and Zn(II binary complexes of l-methionine in 1,2-propanediol-water mixtures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Padma Latha

2007-04-01

Full Text Available Chemical speciation of Pb(II, Cd(II, Hg(II, Co(II, Ni(II, Cu(II and Zn(II complexes of L-methionine in 0.0-60 % v/v 1,2-propanediol-water mixtures maintaining an ionic strength of 0.16 M at 303 K has been studied pH metrically. The active forms of ligand are LH2+, LH and L-. The predominant species detected are ML, MLH, ML2, ML2H, ML2H2 and MLOH. Models containing different numbers of species were refined by using the computer program MINIQUAD 75. The best-fit chemical models were arrived at based on statistical parameters. The trend in variation of complex stability constants with change in the dielectric constant of the medium is explained on the basis of electrostatic and non-electrostatic forces.

Fluid mechanics of dynamic stall. II - Prediction of full scale characteristics

Science.gov (United States)

Ericsson, L. E.; Reding, J. P.

1988-01-01

Analytical extrapolations are made from experimental subscale dynamics to predict full scale characteristics of dynamic stall. The method proceeds by establishing analytic relationships between dynamic and static aerodynamic characteristics induced by viscous flow effects. The method is then validated by predicting dynamic test results on the basis of corresponding static test data obtained at the same subscale flow conditions, and the effect of Reynolds number on the static aerodynamic characteristics are determined from subscale to full scale flow conditions.

Assessment calculation of MARS-LMR using EBR-II SHRT-45R

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Choi, C.; Ha, K.S.

2016-10-15

Highlights: • Neutronic and thermal-hydraulic behavior predicted by MARS-LMR is validated with EBR-II SHRT-45R test data. • Decay heat model of ANS-94 give better prediction of the fission power. • The core power is well predicted by reactivity feedback during initial transient, however, the predicted power after approximately 200 s is over-estimated. The study of the reactivity feedback model of the EBR-II is necessary for the better calculation of the power. • Heat transfer between inter-subassemblies is the most important parameter, especially, a low flow and power subassembly, like non-fueled subassembly. - Abstract: KAERI has designed a prototype Gen-IV SFR (PGSFR) with metallic fuel. And the safety analysis code for the PGSFR, MARS-LMR, is based on the MARS code, and supplemented with various liquid metal related features including sodium properties, heat transfer, pressure drop, and reactivity feedback models. In order to validate the newly developed MARS-LMR, KAERI has joined the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) coordinated research project (CRP) on “Benchmark Analysis of an EBR-II Shutdown Heat Removal Test (SHRT)”. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) has technically supported and participated in this program. One of benchmark analysis tests is SHRT-45R, which is an unprotected loss of flow test in an EBR-II. So, sodium natural circulation and reactivity feedbacks are major phenomena of interest. A benchmark analysis was conducted using MARS-LMR with original input data provided by ANL. MARS-LMR well predicts the core flow and power change by reactivity feedbacks in the core. Except the results of the XX10, the temperature and flow in the XX09 agreed well with the experiments. Moreover, sensitivity tests were carried out for a decay heat model, reactivity feedback model, inter-subassembly heat transfer, internal heat structures and so on, to evaluate their sensitivity and get a better prediction. The decay heat model of ANS-94 shows

Assessment calculation of MARS-LMR using EBR-II SHRT-45R

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, C.; Ha, K.S.

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Neutronic and thermal-hydraulic behavior predicted by MARS-LMR is validated with EBR-II SHRT-45R test data. • Decay heat model of ANS-94 give better prediction of the fission power. • The core power is well predicted by reactivity feedback during initial transient, however, the predicted power after approximately 200 s is over-estimated. The study of the reactivity feedback model of the EBR-II is necessary for the better calculation of the power. • Heat transfer between inter-subassemblies is the most important parameter, especially, a low flow and power subassembly, like non-fueled subassembly. - Abstract: KAERI has designed a prototype Gen-IV SFR (PGSFR) with metallic fuel. And the safety analysis code for the PGSFR, MARS-LMR, is based on the MARS code, and supplemented with various liquid metal related features including sodium properties, heat transfer, pressure drop, and reactivity feedback models. In order to validate the newly developed MARS-LMR, KAERI has joined the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) coordinated research project (CRP) on “Benchmark Analysis of an EBR-II Shutdown Heat Removal Test (SHRT)”. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) has technically supported and participated in this program. One of benchmark analysis tests is SHRT-45R, which is an unprotected loss of flow test in an EBR-II. So, sodium natural circulation and reactivity feedbacks are major phenomena of interest. A benchmark analysis was conducted using MARS-LMR with original input data provided by ANL. MARS-LMR well predicts the core flow and power change by reactivity feedbacks in the core. Except the results of the XX10, the temperature and flow in the XX09 agreed well with the experiments. Moreover, sensitivity tests were carried out for a decay heat model, reactivity feedback model, inter-subassembly heat transfer, internal heat structures and so on, to evaluate their sensitivity and get a better prediction. The decay heat model of ANS-94 shows

Modelling Zn(II) sorption onto clayey sediments using a multi-site ion-exchange model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tertre, E.; Beaucaire, C.; Coreau, N.; Juery, A.

2009-01-01

In environmental studies, it is necessary to be able to predict the behaviour of contaminants in more or less complex physico-chemical contexts. The improvement of this prediction partly depends on establishing thermodynamic models that can describe the behaviour of these contaminants and, in particular, the sorption reactions on mineral surfaces. In this way, based on the mass action law, it is possible to use surface complexation models and ion exchange models. Therefore, the aim of this study is (i) to develop an ion-exchange model able to describe the sorption of transition metal onto pure clay minerals and (ii) to test the ability of this approach to predict the sorption of these elements onto natural materials containing clay minerals (i.e. soils/sediments) under various chemical conditions. This study is focused on the behaviour of Zn(II) in the presence of clayey sediments. Considering that clay minerals are cation exchangers containing multiple sorption sites, it is possible to interpret the sorption of Zn(II), as well as competitor cations, by ion-exchange equilibria with the clay minerals. This approach is applied with success to interpret the experimental data obtained previously in the Zn(II)-H + -Na + -montmorillonite system. The authors' research team has already studied the behaviour of Na + , K + , Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ versus pH in terms of ion exchange onto pure montmorillonite, leading to the development of a thermodynamic database including the exchange site concentrations associated with montmorillonite and the selectivity coefficients of Na + , K + , Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , and Zn 2+ versus H + . In the present study, experimental isotherms of Zn(II) on two different sediments in batch reactors at different pH and ionic strengths, using NaCl and CaSO 4 as electrolytes are reported. Assuming clay minerals are the main ion-exchanging phases, it is possible to predict Zn(II) sorption onto sediments under different experimental conditions, using the previously

BetaTPred: prediction of beta-TURNS in a protein using statistical algorithms.

Science.gov (United States)

Kaur, Harpreet; Raghava, G P S

2002-03-01

beta-turns play an important role from a structural and functional point of view. beta-turns are the most common type of non-repetitive structures in proteins and comprise on average, 25% of the residues. In the past numerous methods have been developed to predict beta-turns in a protein. Most of these prediction methods are based on statistical approaches. In order to utilize the full potential of these methods, there is a need to develop a web server. This paper describes a web server called BetaTPred, developed for predicting beta-TURNS in a protein from its amino acid sequence. BetaTPred allows the user to predict turns in a protein using existing statistical algorithms. It also allows to predict different types of beta-TURNS e.g. type I, I', II, II', VI, VIII and non-specific. This server assists the users in predicting the consensus beta-TURNS in a protein. The server is accessible from http://imtech.res.in/raghava/betatpred/

Right Lateral Cerebellum Represents Linguistic Predictability.

Science.gov (United States)

Lesage, Elise; Hansen, Peter C; Miall, R Chris

2017-06-28

Mounting evidence indicates that posterolateral portions of the cerebellum (right Crus I/II) contribute to language processing, but the nature of this role remains unclear. Based on a well-supported theory of cerebellar motor function, which ascribes to the cerebellum a role in short-term prediction through internal modeling, we hypothesize that right cerebellar Crus I/II supports prediction of upcoming sentence content. We tested this hypothesis using event-related fMRI in male and female human subjects by manipulating the predictability of written sentences. Our design controlled for motor planning and execution, as well as for linguistic features and working memory load; it also allowed separation of the prediction interval from the presentation of the final sentence item. In addition, three further fMRI tasks captured semantic, phonological, and orthographic processing to shed light on the nature of the information processed. As hypothesized, activity in right posterolateral cerebellum correlated with the predictability of the upcoming target word. This cerebellar region also responded to prediction error during the outcome of the trial. Further, this region was engaged in phonological, but not semantic or orthographic, processing. This is the first imaging study to demonstrate a right cerebellar contribution in language comprehension independently from motor, cognitive, and linguistic confounds. These results complement our work using other methodologies showing cerebellar engagement in linguistic prediction and suggest that internal modeling of phonological representations aids language production and comprehension. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The cerebellum is traditionally seen as a motor structure that allows for smooth movement by predicting upcoming signals. However, the cerebellum is also consistently implicated in nonmotor functions such as language and working memory. Using fMRI, we identify a cerebellar area that is active when words are predicted and

cobalt (ii), nickel (ii)

African Journals Online (AJOL)

DR. AMINU

Department of Chemistry Bayero University, P. M. B. 3011, Kano, Nigeria. E-mail: hnuhu2000@yahoo.com. ABSTRACT. The manganese (II), cobalt (II), nickel (II) and .... water and common organic solvents, but are readily soluble in acetone. The molar conductance measurement [Table 3] of the complex compounds in.

Robust Prediction of High Lift Using Surface Vorticity, Phase II

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — FlightStream has been developed a fast, accurate, aerodynamic prediction code based on vorticity computations on the surface of an aircraft. The code, though still a...

[Value of sepsis single-disease manage system in predicting mortality in patients with sepsis].

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, J; Wang, L H; Ouyang, B; Chen, M Y; Wu, J F; Liu, Y J; Liu, Z M; Guan, X D

2018-04-03

Objective: To observe the effect of sepsis single-disease manage system on the improvement of sepsis treatment and the value in predicting mortality in patients with sepsis. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted. Patients with sepsis admitted to the Department of Surgical Intensive Care Unit of Sun Yat-Sen University First Affiliated Hospital from September 22, 2013 to May 5, 2015 were enrolled in this study. Sepsis single-disease manage system (Rui Xin clinical data manage system, China data, China) was used to monitor 25 clinical quality parameters, consisting of timeliness, normalization and outcome parameters. Based on whether these quality parameters could be completed or not, the clinical practice was evaluated by the system. The unachieved quality parameter was defined as suspicious parameters, and these suspicious parameters were used to predict mortality of patients with receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). Results: A total of 1 220 patients with sepsis were enrolled, included 805 males and 415 females. The mean age was (59±17) years, and acute physiology and chronic health evaluation (APACHE Ⅱ) scores was 19±8. The area under ROC curve of total suspicious numbers for predicting 28-day mortality was 0.70; when the suspicious parameters number was more than 6, the sensitivity was 68.0% and the specificity was 61.0% for predicting 28-day mortality. In addition, the area under ROC curve of outcome suspicious number for predicting 28-day mortality was 0.89; when the suspicious outcome parameters numbers was more than 1, the sensitivity was 88.0% and the specificity was 78.0% for predicting 28-day mortality. Moreover, the area under ROC curve of total suspicious number for predicting 90-day mortality was 0.73; when the total suspicious parameters number was more than 7, the sensitivity was 60.0% and the specificity was 74.0% for predicting 90-day mortality. Finally, the area under ROC curve of outcome suspicious numbers for predicting 90

Risk Factors Analysis and Death Prediction in Some Life-Threatening Ailments Using Chi-Square Case-Based Reasoning (χ2 CBR) Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Adeniyi, D A; Wei, Z; Yang, Y

2018-01-30

A wealth of data are available within the health care system, however, effective analysis tools for exploring the hidden patterns in these datasets are lacking. To alleviate this limitation, this paper proposes a simple but promising hybrid predictive model by suitably combining the Chi-square distance measurement with case-based reasoning technique. The study presents the realization of an automated risk calculator and death prediction in some life-threatening ailments using Chi-square case-based reasoning (χ 2 CBR) model. The proposed predictive engine is capable of reducing runtime and speeds up execution process through the use of critical χ 2 distribution value. This work also showcases the development of a novel feature selection method referred to as frequent item based rule (FIBR) method. This FIBR method is used for selecting the best feature for the proposed χ 2 CBR model at the preprocessing stage of the predictive procedures. The implementation of the proposed risk calculator is achieved through the use of an in-house developed PHP program experimented with XAMP/Apache HTTP server as hosting server. The process of data acquisition and case-based development is implemented using the MySQL application. Performance comparison between our system, the NBY, the ED-KNN, the ANN, the SVM, the Random Forest and the traditional CBR techniques shows that the quality of predictions produced by our system outperformed the baseline methods studied. The result of our experiment shows that the precision rate and predictive quality of our system in most cases are equal to or greater than 70%. Our result also shows that the proposed system executes faster than the baseline methods studied. Therefore, the proposed risk calculator is capable of providing useful, consistent, faster, accurate and efficient risk level prediction to both the patients and the physicians at any time, online and on a real-time basis.

Assessment of protein disorder region predictions in CASP10

KAUST Repository

Monastyrskyy, Bohdan; Kryshtafovych, Andriy; Moult, John; Tramontano, Anna; Fidelis, Krzysztof

2013-01-01

The article presents the assessment of disorder region predictions submitted to CASP10. The evaluation is based on the three measures tested in previous CASPs: (i) balanced accuracy, (ii) the Matthews correlation coefficient for the binary predictions, and (iii) the area under the curve in the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis of predictions using probability annotation. We also performed new analyses such as comparison of the submitted predictions with those obtained with a Naïve disorder prediction method and with predictions from the disorder prediction databases D2P2 and MobiDB. On average, the methods participating in CASP10 demonstrated slightly better performance than those in CASP9.

Assessment of protein disorder region predictions in CASP10

KAUST Repository

Monastyrskyy, Bohdan

2013-11-22

The article presents the assessment of disorder region predictions submitted to CASP10. The evaluation is based on the three measures tested in previous CASPs: (i) balanced accuracy, (ii) the Matthews correlation coefficient for the binary predictions, and (iii) the area under the curve in the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis of predictions using probability annotation. We also performed new analyses such as comparison of the submitted predictions with those obtained with a Naïve disorder prediction method and with predictions from the disorder prediction databases D2P2 and MobiDB. On average, the methods participating in CASP10 demonstrated slightly better performance than those in CASP9.

Experimental programme and analysis, ZENITH II, Core 4

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ingram, G.; Sanders, J. E.; Sherwin, J.

1974-10-15

The Phase 3 program of reactor physics experiments on the HTR (or Mk 3 GCR) lattices continued during the first half of 1974 with a study of a series of critical builds in Zenith II aimed at testing predictions of shut-down margins in the local criticality-situations arising during power reactor refueling. The paper describes the experimental program and the subsequent theoretical analysis using methods developed in the United Kingdom for calculating low-enriched uranium HTR fuel systems. The importance of improving the accuracy of predictions of shut-down margins arises from the basic requirement that the core in its most reactive condition and with a specified number of absorbers removed from the array must remain sub-critical with a margin adequate to cover the total uncertainty of +/- 1 Nile (that is, 1 % delta-k). The major uncertainty is that in modelling the complex fuel/absorber configuration, and this is the aspect essentially covered in the Zenith II Core 4 studies.

In-reactor cladding breach of EBR-II driver-fuel elements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seidel, B.R.; Einziger, R.E.

1977-01-01

Knowledge of performance and minimum useful element lifetime of Mark-II driver-fuel elements is required to maintain a high plant operating capacity factor with maximum fuel utilization. To obtain such knowledge, intentional cladding breach has been obtained in four run-to-cladding-breach Mark-II experimental driver-fuel subassemblies operating under normal conditions in EBR-II. Breach and subsequent fission-product release proved benign to reactor operations. The breaches originated on the outer surface of the cladding in the root of the restrainer dimples and were intergranular. The Weibull distribution of lifetime accurately predicts the observed minimum useful element lifetime of 10 at.% burnup, with breach ensuing shortly thereafter

Prediction of RNA Polymerase II recruitment, elongation and stalling from histone modification data

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chen, Yun; Jørgensen, Mette; Kolde, Raivo

2011-01-01

of RNAPII stalling. CONCLUSIONS: In this study we introduce a general framework to accurately predict the level of RNAPII recruitment, elongation, stalling and mRNA expression from chromatin signals. The versatility of the method also makes it ideally suited to investigate other genomic data....... strategies are needed to progress from descriptive annotation of data to quantitative, predictive models. RESULTS: Here, we describe a computational framework which with high accuracy can predict the locations of core promoters, the amount of recruited RNAPII at the promoter, the amount of elongating RNAPII...... of these four marks are found to be necessary for recruitment of RNAPII but not sufficient for the elongation. We also show that the spatial distributions of histone marks are almost as predictive as the signal strength and that a set of histone marks immediately downstream of the TSS is highly predictive...

Predicting beta-turns and their types using predicted backbone dihedral angles and secondary structures.

Science.gov (United States)

Kountouris, Petros; Hirst, Jonathan D

2010-07-31

Beta-turns are secondary structure elements usually classified as coil. Their prediction is important, because of their role in protein folding and their frequent occurrence in protein chains. We have developed a novel method that predicts beta-turns and their types using information from multiple sequence alignments, predicted secondary structures and, for the first time, predicted dihedral angles. Our method uses support vector machines, a supervised classification technique, and is trained and tested on three established datasets of 426, 547 and 823 protein chains. We achieve a Matthews correlation coefficient of up to 0.49, when predicting the location of beta-turns, the highest reported value to date. Moreover, the additional dihedral information improves the prediction of beta-turn types I, II, IV, VIII and "non-specific", achieving correlation coefficients up to 0.39, 0.33, 0.27, 0.14 and 0.38, respectively. Our results are more accurate than other methods. We have created an accurate predictor of beta-turns and their types. Our method, called DEBT, is available online at http://comp.chem.nottingham.ac.uk/debt/.

Epidemiology of Adult-population Sepsis in India: A Single Center 5 Year Experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Chatterjee, Sharmila; Bhattacharya, Mahuya; Todi, Subhash Kumar

2017-09-01

Sepsis is a major worldwide cause of morbidity and mortality. Most sepsis epidemiologic data are from the Western literature. Sparse data from India describe the epidemiology of infection rather than sepsis which is a host response to infection. This study describes the epidemiology of sepsis in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of an Indian tertiary care hospital. A prospective study conducted between June 2006 and May 2011. All consecutively admitted patients during the 5 year study >=18 years of age were included and data obtained from hospital in-patient records. Variables measured were the incidence of severe sepsis, ICU, hospital, and 28-day mortality, the median length of ICU stay, median Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score, infection site, and microbial profile. There were 4711 admissions during the study with 282 (6.2%, 95% confidence interval 2.3, 13.1) admissions with severe sepsis. ICU mortality, hospital mortality, and 28-day mortality were 56%, 63.6%, and 62.8%, respectively. Predominant infection site was respiratory tract. The most common organisms were Gram-negative microbes. The most common microbe was Acinetobacter baumanni. Median APACHE II score on admission was 22 (interquartile range 16-28) and median length of ICU stay was 8 days. Severe sepsis attributable mortality was 85%. Severe sepsis is common in Indian ICUs and is mainly due to Gram-negative organisms. ICU mortality is high in this group and care is resource intensive due to increased length of stay.

Transfusão sangüínea no intra-operatório, complicações e prognóstico Transfusión sanguínea en el intraoperatorio, complicaciones y pronóstico Complications and prognosis of intraoperative blood transfusion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

João Manoel Silva Junior

2008-10-01

Full Text Available JUSTIFICATIVA E OBJETIVOS: Transfusões sangüíneas no intra-operatório estão associadas a aumento de complicações no pós-operatório e custos hospitalares. Portanto, este estudo avaliou as características, complicações e possíveis fatores de riscos para morte em pacientes cirúrgicos que necessitaram de transfusões sangüíneas no intra-operatório. MÉTODO: Coorte prospectiva, durante período de um ano, no centro cirúrgico de hospital terciário. Incluíram-se pacientes com idade acima de 18 anos que necessitaram de transfusões sangüíneas no intra-operatório. Testemunhas de Jeová, pacientes que receberam transfusões prévias, falência coronariana e lesão encefálica aguda foram excluídos. RESULTADOS: O estudo envolveu 80 pacientes, com idade média de 68,4 ± 14,1 anos. Os pacientes ASA II foram prevalentes com 69,6% dos casos, os escores APACHE II e POSSUM foram em média, respectivamente, 13,6 ± 4,4 e 37,5 ± 11,4. A hemoglobina média no momento da transfusão era 8,2 ± 1,8 g.dL-1 e 19% dos pacientes apresentavam hemoglobina maior que 10 g.dL-1. Os pacientes receberam em média 2,2 ± 0,9 UI de concentrados de hemácias. A mortalidade hospitalar foi 26,3%. As complicações pós-transfusões totalizaram 57,5% dos casos no pós-operatório e a mais freqüente foi infecção. Foram fatores independentes de morte na regressão logística os escores APACHE II (OR = 1,34; IC 95% 1,102 - 1,622, POSSUM (OR = 1,08; IC 95% 1,008 - 1,150 e número de unidades de concentrados de hemácias recebidas (OR = 2,22; IC 95% 1,100 - 4,463. Quanto maior o número de transfusões sangüíneas, maiores as incidências de complicações e mortalidade. CONCLUSÕES: O valor de hemoglobina e o número de unidades de concentrados de hemácias utilizados foram elevados comparados com os estudos que preconizam estratégias restritivas. Foi encontrada nesta amostra alta incidência de complicações, principalmente infecções, e elevada

AWIPS II Application Development, a SPoRT Perspective

Science.gov (United States)

Burks, Jason E.; Smith, Matthew; McGrath, Kevin M.

2014-01-01

The National Weather Service (NWS) is deploying its next-generation decision support system, called AWIPS II (Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System II). NASA's Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center has developed several software 'plug-ins' to extend the capabilities of AWIPS II. SPoRT aims to continue its mission of improving short-term forecasts by providing NASA and NOAA products on the decision support system used at NWS weather forecast offices (WFOs). These products are not included in the standard Satellite Broadcast Network feed provided to WFOs. SPoRT has had success in providing support to WFOs as they have transitioned to AWIPS II. Specific examples of transitioning SPoRT plug-ins to WFOs with newly deployed AWIPS II systems will be presented. Proving Ground activities (GOES-R and JPSS) will dominate SPoRT's future AWIPS II activities, including tool development as well as enhancements to existing products. In early 2012 SPoRT initiated the Experimental Product Development Team, a group of AWIPS II developers from several institutions supporting NWS forecasters with innovative products. The results of the team's spring and fall 2013 meeting will be presented. Since AWIPS II developers now include employees at WFOs, as well as many other institutions related to weather forecasting, the NWS has dealt with a multitude of software governance issues related to the difficulties of multiple remotely collaborating software developers. This presentation will provide additional examples of Research-to-Operations plugins, as well as an update on how governance issues are being handled in the AWIPS II developer community.