WorldWideScience

Sample records for terms topics include

  1. Including plasma and fusion topics in the science education in school

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kado, Shinichiro

    2015-01-01

    Yutori education (more relaxed education policy) started with the revision of the Courses of Study to introduce 'five-day week system' in 1989, continued with the reduction of the content of school lessons by 30% in 1998, and ended with the introduction of the New Courses of Study in 2011. Focusing on science education, especially in the topics of plasma and nuclear fusion, the modality of the education system in Japan is discussed considering the transition of academic performance based on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in comparison with the examples in other countries. Particularly, the issues with high school textbooks are pointed out from the assessment of current textbooks, and the significance and the need for including the topic of 'plasma' in them are stated. Lastly, in order to make the general public acknowledged with plasma and nuclear fusion, it is suggested to include them also in junior high school textbooks, by briefly mentioning the terms related to plasma, solar wind, aurora phenomenon, and nuclear fusion energy. (S.K.)

  2. Topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for management of osteoarthritis in long-term care patients

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Argoff CE

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Charles E Argoff1, F Michael Gloth2 1Albany Medical College and Comprehensive Pain Center, Albany Medical Center, Albany, NY, USA; 2Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA Abstract: Osteoarthritis is common in patients ≥65 years of age. Although nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs are often prescribed for osteoarthritis pain, they pose age-related cardiovascular, renal, and gastrointestinal risks. Two topical NSAIDs, diclofenac sodium 1% gel (DSG and diclofenac sodium 1.5% in 45.5% dimethylsulfoxide solution (D-DMSO, are approved in the US for the treatment of osteoarthritis pain. Topical NSAIDs have shown efficacy and safety in knee (DSG, D-DMSO and hand (DSG osteoarthritis. Analyses of data from randomized controlled trials of DSG in hand and knee osteoarthritis demonstrate significant improvement of pain and function in both younger patients (<65 years and older patients (≥65 years and suggest good safety and tolerability. However, long-term safety data in older patients are limited. Topical NSAIDs can ease medication administration and help address barriers to pain management in older patients, such as taking multiple medications and inability to swallow, and are a valuable option for long-term care providers. Keywords: nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, long-term care, nursing homes, chronic pain, topical analgesics

  3. Record of the first meeting of the working group, London, 6-7 December 1977 (includes terms of reference)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    The items discussed include the presentation and adoption of the Group Working Paper on: terms of reference, prime objectives, topics and assessments, criteria for proliferation resistance, the organization of the Group, including the establishment of two sub-groups, schedule of work, assignment of work to be done, and the contributions to be made by international organizations

  4. Topical Treatment of Degenerative Knee Osteoarthritis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meng, Zengdong; Huang, Rongzhong

    2018-01-01

    This article reviews topical management strategies for degenerative osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee. A search of Pubmed, Embase and the Cochrane library using MeSH terms including "topical," "treatment," "knee" and "osteoarthritis" was carried out. Original research and review articles on the effectiveness and safety, recommendations from international published guidelines and acceptability studies of topical preparations were included. Current topical treatments included for the management of knee OA include topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, capsaicin, salicylates and physical treatments such as hot or cold therapy. Current treatment guidelines recommend topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs as an alternative and even first-line therapy for OA management, especially among elderly patients. Guidelines on other topical treatments vary, from recommendations against their use, to in favor as alternative or simultaneous therapy, especially for patients with contraindications to other analgesics. Although often well-tolerated and preferred by many patients, clinical care still lags in the adoption of topical treatments. Aspects of efficacy, safety and patient quality of life data require further research. Copyright © 2018 Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. Evaluation of retinal nerve fiber layer thickness in vernal keratoconjunctivitis patients under long-term topical corticosteroid therapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cingu, Abdullah Kursat; Cinar, Yasin; Turkcu, Fatih Mehmet; Sahinoglu-Keskek, Nedime; Sahin, Alparslan; Sahin, Muhammed; Yuksel, Harun; Caca, Ihsan

    2014-09-01

    The aim of this study was to evaluate the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness in vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC) patients who were under long-term topical corticosteroid therapy. Thirty-six eyes of 36 VKC patients with clear cornea and normal videokeratography and 40 eyes of 40 age- and gender-matched normal children were included in the study. Clinical and demographic characteristics of the patients were noted and detailed ophthalmological examination was performed. Visual acuity (VA), spherical equivalent (SE), axial length (AL) and RNFL thickness measurements were compared between the groups. To correct ocular magnification effect on RNFL, we used Littmann's formula. All VKC patients had history of topical corticosteroid use and the mean duration of the topical corticosteroid use was 23.8 ± 9.09 months. There was no significant difference between the groups in terms of intraocular pressure (IOP). VKC group had significantly worse VA, greater SE and AL and thinner mean global, superior and inferior RNFL thickness. There were significant negative correlations between the duration of topical corticosteroid use and the mean global, superior and temporal RNFL thickness in VKC group. After correction of magnification effect, VKC group still had thinner mean global, superior and inferior RNFL thickness, and significant difference between the groups in inferior RNFL thickness did not disappear. Significant RNFL thickness difference between the groups suggests a possible effect of long-term corticosteroid use in VKC patients. Because visual field (VF) analysis in pediatric patients is difficult to perform and IOP may be illusive, RNFL thickness measurements in addition to routine examinations in VKC patients may help clinicians in their practice.

  6. Meshable: searching PubMed abstracts by utilizing MeSH and MeSH-derived topical terms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Sun; Yeganova, Lana; Wilbur, W John

    2016-10-01

    Medical Subject Headings (MeSH(®)) is a controlled vocabulary for indexing and searching biomedical literature. MeSH terms and subheadings are organized in a hierarchical structure and are used to indicate the topics of an article. Biologists can use either MeSH terms as queries or the MeSH interface provided in PubMed(®) for searching PubMed abstracts. However, these are rarely used, and there is no convenient way to link standardized MeSH terms to user queries. Here, we introduce a web interface which allows users to enter queries to find MeSH terms closely related to the queries. Our method relies on co-occurrence of text words and MeSH terms to find keywords that are related to each MeSH term. A query is then matched with the keywords for MeSH terms, and candidate MeSH terms are ranked based on their relatedness to the query. The experimental results show that our method achieves the best performance among several term extraction approaches in terms of topic coherence. Moreover, the interface can be effectively used to find full names of abbreviations and to disambiguate user queries. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/IRET/MESHABLE/ CONTACT: sun.kim@nih.gov Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

  7. JST Thesaurus Headwords and Synonyms: 辞書(as Topic) [MeCab user dictionary for science technology term[Archive

    Lifescience Database Archive (English)

    Full Text Available MeCab user dictionary for science technology term 辞書(as Topic) 名詞 一般 * * * * 辞書 ジショ ジショ Thesaurus2015 200906028477984205 C BA01 UNKNOWN_2 辞書 ( a s Topic )

  8. Effects of long-term repeated topical fluoride applications and adhesion promoter on shear bond strengths of orthodontic brackets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Endo, Toshiya; Ishida, Rieko; Komatsuzaki, Akira; Sanpei, Shinya; Tanaka, Satoshi; Sekimoto, Tsuneo

    2014-01-01

    Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of long-term repeated topical application of fluoride before bonding and an adhesion promoter on the bond strength of orthodontic brackets. Materials and Methods: A total of 76 bovine incisors were collected and divided equally into four groups. In group 1, the brackets were bonded without topical fluoride application or adhesion promoter. In group 2, before bonding, the adhesion promoter was applied to nonfluoridated enamel. In group 3, the brackets were bonded without the application of the adhesion promoter to enamel, which had undergone long-term repeated topical fluoride treatments. Teeth in group 4 received the long-term repeated topical applications of fluoride, and the brackets were bonded using the adhesion promoter. All the brackets were bonded using BeautyOrtho Bond self-etching adhesive. The shear bond strength was measured and the bond failure modes were evaluated with the use of the adhesive remnant index (ARI) after debonding. Results: The mean shear bond strength was significantly lower in group 3 than in groups 1, 2, and 4, and there were no significant differences between the groups except for group 3. There were significant differences in the distribution of ARI scores between groups 2 and 3, and between groups 3 and 4. Conclusions: The adhesion promoter can recover the bond strength reduced by the long-term repeated topical applications of fluoride to the prefluoridation level and had a significantly great amount of adhesives left on either fluoridated or nonfluoridated enamel. PMID:25512720

  9. topicmodels: An R Package for Fitting Topic Models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bettina Grun

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available Topic models allow the probabilistic modeling of term frequency occurrences in documents. The fitted model can be used to estimate the similarity between documents as well as between a set of specified keywords using an additional layer of latent variables which are referred to as topics. The R package topicmodels provides basic infrastructure for fitting topic models based on data structures from the text mining package tm. The package includes interfaces to two algorithms for fitting topic models: the variational expectation-maximization algorithm provided by David M. Blei and co-authors and an algorithm using Gibbs sampling by Xuan-Hieu Phan and co-authors.

  10. A comparison of evaluation metrics for biomedical journals, articles, and websites in terms of sensitivity to topic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fu, Lawrence D; Aphinyanaphongs, Yindalon; Wang, Lily; Aliferis, Constantin F

    2011-08-01

    Evaluating the biomedical literature and health-related websites for quality are challenging information retrieval tasks. Current commonly used methods include impact factor for journals, PubMed's clinical query filters and machine learning-based filter models for articles, and PageRank for websites. Previous work has focused on the average performance of these methods without considering the topic, and it is unknown how performance varies for specific topics or focused searches. Clinicians, researchers, and users should be aware when expected performance is not achieved for specific topics. The present work analyzes the behavior of these methods for a variety of topics. Impact factor, clinical query filters, and PageRank vary widely across different topics while a topic-specific impact factor and machine learning-based filter models are more stable. The results demonstrate that a method may perform excellently on average but struggle when used on a number of narrower topics. Topic-adjusted metrics and other topic robust methods have an advantage in such situations. Users of traditional topic-sensitive metrics should be aware of their limitations. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  11. A Comparison of Evaluation Metrics for Biomedical Journals, Articles, and Websites in Terms of Sensitivity to Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fu, Lawrence D.; Aphinyanaphongs, Yindalon; Wang, Lily; Aliferis, Constantin F.

    2011-01-01

    Evaluating the biomedical literature and health-related websites for quality are challenging information retrieval tasks. Current commonly used methods include impact factor for journals, PubMed’s clinical query filters and machine learning-based filter models for articles, and PageRank for websites. Previous work has focused on the average performance of these methods without considering the topic, and it is unknown how performance varies for specific topics or focused searches. Clinicians, researchers, and users should be aware when expected performance is not achieved for specific topics. The present work analyzes the behavior of these methods for a variety of topics. Impact factor, clinical query filters, and PageRank vary widely across different topics while a topic-specific impact factor and machine learning-based filter models are more stable. The results demonstrate that a method may perform excellently on average but struggle when used on a number of narrower topics. Topic adjusted metrics and other topic robust methods have an advantage in such situations. Users of traditional topic-sensitive metrics should be aware of their limitations. PMID:21419864

  12. JST Thesaurus Headwords and Synonyms: 面接調査(as Topic) [MeCab user dictionary for science technology term[Archive

    Lifescience Database Archive (English)

    Full Text Available MeCab user dictionary for science technology term 面接調査(as Topic) 名詞 一般 * * * * 面接調査... メンセツチョウサ メンセツチョーサ Thesaurus2015 200906087132308300 C ID01 UNKNOWN_2 面接 調査 ( a s Topic )

  13. Nonlinear equilibrium in Tokamaks including convective terms and viscosity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martin, P.; Castro, E.; Puerta, J.

    2003-01-01

    MHD equilibrium in tokamaks becomes very complex, when the non-linear convective term and viscosity are included in the momentum equation. In order to simplify the analysis, each new term has been separated in type gradient terms and vorticity depending terms. For the special case in which the vorticity vanishes, an extended Grad-Shafranov type equation can be obtained. However now the magnetic surface is not isobars or current surfaces as in the usual Grad-Shafranov treatment. The non-linear convective terms introduces gradient of Bernoulli type kinetic terms . Montgomery and other authors have shown the importance of the viscosity terms in tokamaks [1,2], here the treatment is carried out for the equilibrium condition, including generalized tokamaks coordinates recently described [3], which simplify the equilibrium analysis. Calculation of the new isobar surfaces is difficult and some computation have been carried out elsewhere for some particular cases [3]. Here, our analysis is extended discussing how the toroidal current density, plasma pressure and toroidal field are modified across the midplane because of the new terms (convective and viscous). New calculations and computations are also presented. (Author)

  14. Bare quantifier fronting as contrastive topicalization

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ion Giurgea

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available I argue that indefinites (in particular bare quantifiers such as ‘something’, ‘somebody’, etc. which are neither existentially presupposed nor in the restriction of a quantifier over situations, can undergo topicalization in a number of Romance languages (Catalan, Italian, Romanian, Spanish, but only if the sentence contains “verum” focus, i.e. focus on a high degree of certainty of the sentence. I analyze these indefinites as contrastive topics, using Büring’s (1999 theory (where the term ‘S-topic’ is used for what I call ‘contrastive topic’. I propose that the topic is evaluated in relation to a scalar set including generalized quantifiers such as {lP $x P(x, lP MANYx P(x, lP MOSTx P(x, lP “xP(x} or {lP $xP(x, lP P(a, lP P(b …}, and that the contrastive topic is the weakest generalized quantifier in this set. The verum focus, which is part of the “comment” that co-occurs with the “Topic”, introduces a set of alternatives including degrees of certainty of the assertion. The speaker asserts that his claim is certainly true or highly probable, contrasting it with stronger claims for which the degree of probability is unknown. This explains the observation that in downward entailing contexts, the fronted quantified DPs are headed by ‘all’ or ‘many’, whereas ‘some’, small numbers or ‘at least n’ appear in upward entailing contexts. Unlike other cases of non-specific topics, which are property topics, these are quantifier topics: the topic part is a generalized quantifier, the comment is a property of generalized quantifiers. This explains the narrow scope of the fronted quantified DP.

  15. Long-term maintenance therapy for vulvar lichen sclerosus: the results of a randomized study comparing topical vitamin E with an emollient.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Virgili, Annarosa; Minghetti, Sara; Borghi, Alessandro; Corazza, Monica

    2013-04-01

    The chronic and relapsing nature of vulvar lichen sclerosus (VLS) represents a challenge for its long-term management after an effective treatment with topical corticosteroids. To compare the effect of topical vitamin E with that of an emollient in reducing the risk of VLS relapse over a 52-week maintenance treatment. 156 patients with VLS were enrolled in a 12-week active treatment phase on topical 0.1% mometasone furoate ointment once daily. Those who achieved disease remission entered a 52-week maintenance phase in which patients were randomized to apply either an emollient or topical vitamin E once daily. 80 patients entered the maintenance phase. At 52 weeks, for the vitamin E maintenance group, the cumulative crude relapse rate was 27.8% and the cumulative modified crude relapse rate was 55.6%. For the emollient maintenance group, the cumulative crude relapse rate was 22.7% and the cumulative modified crude relapse rate was 50.0%. The median time to relapse was 20 weeks for the vitamin E group and 18.7 weeks for the emollient group. Once VLS has been stabilized with topical corticosteroids, long-term treatment with both vitamin E and emollients may be considered in maintain LS remission.

  16. Mental Mechanisms for Topics Identification

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Louis Massey

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Topics identification (TI is the process that consists in determining the main themes present in natural language documents. The current TI modeling paradigm aims at acquiring semantic information from statistic properties of large text datasets. We investigate the mental mechanisms responsible for the identification of topics in a single document given existing knowledge. Our main hypothesis is that topics are the result of accumulated neural activation of loosely organized information stored in long-term memory (LTM. We experimentally tested our hypothesis with a computational model that simulates LTM activation. The model assumes activation decay as an unavoidable phenomenon originating from the bioelectric nature of neural systems. Since decay should negatively affect the quality of topics, the model predicts the presence of short-term memory (STM to keep the focus of attention on a few words, with the expected outcome of restoring quality to a baseline level. Our experiments measured topics quality of over 300 documents with various decay rates and STM capacity. Our results showed that accumulated activation of loosely organized information was an effective mental computational commodity to identify topics. It was furthermore confirmed that rapid decay is detrimental to topics quality but that limited capacity STM restores quality to a baseline level, even exceeding it slightly.

  17. Influence of input matrix representation on topic modelling performance

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    De Waal, A

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available Topic models explain a collection of documents with a small set of distributions over terms. These distributions over terms define the topics. Topic models ignore the structure of documents and use a bag-of-words approach which relies solely...

  18. Topical beta-Blockers and Mortality

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Muskens, Rogier P. H. M.; Wolfs, Roger C. W.; Wittenian, Jacqueline C. M.; Hofman, Albert; de Jong, Paulus T. V. M.; Stricker, Bruno H. C.; Jansonius, Nomdo M.

    Purpose: To study the associations between long-term and short-term use of topical beta-blockers and mortality. Design: Prospective population-based cohort study. Participants: To examine long-term effects, 3842 participants aged 55 years and older were recruited. To examine short-term effects, 484

  19. Topical beta-blockers and mortality

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Müskens, Rogier P. H. M.; Wolfs, Roger C. W.; Witteman, Jacqueline C. M.; Hofman, Albert; de Jong, Paulus T. V. M.; Stricker, Bruno H. C.; Jansonius, Nomdo M.

    2008-01-01

    To study the associations between long-term and short-term use of topical beta-blockers and mortality. Prospective population-based cohort study. To examine long-term effects, 3842 participants aged 55 years and older were recruited. To examine short-term effects, 484 incident beta-blocker users and

  20. Freshman Health Topics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hovde, Karen

    2011-01-01

    This article examines a cluster of health topics that are frequently selected by students in lower division classes. Topics address issues relating to addictive substances, including alcohol and tobacco, eating disorders, obesity, and dieting. Analysis of the topics examines their interrelationships and organization in the reference literature.…

  1. JST Thesaurus Headwords and Synonyms: データベース(as Topic) [MeCab user dictionary for science technology term[Archive

    Lifescience Database Archive (English)

    Full Text Available MeCab user dictionary for science technology term データベース(as Topic) 名詞 一般 * * * * データベース データベース データベース... Thesaurus2015 200906054074603733 C EG01 UNKNOWN_2 データベース ( a s Topic )

  2. Topical ganciclovir in the treatment of acute herpetic keratitis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tabbara, Khalid F; Al Balushi, Noorjehan

    2010-08-19

    Herpetic keratitis is caused by herpes simplex virus (HSV) and is a common cause of corneal blindness. Following a primary ocular herpetic infection, latency of the virus occurs, followed by subsequent recurrences of herpetic keratitis. Such recurrences may lead to structural damage of the cornea. Recurrent herpetic keratitis is a common indication for corneal transplantation. Recurrences of herpetic keratitis in the corneal graft may lead to corneal graft rejection. Several antiviral agents for HSV are available, including the thymidine analogs. Prolonged use of thymidine analogs may lead to toxicity of the ocular surface, including epithelial keratitis, corneal ulcers, follicular conjunctivitis, and punctal occlusions. Availability of topical antiviral agents that are safe and effective in the treatment and prophylaxis of herpetic keratitis is highly desirable. Ganciclovir is a potent inhibitor of members of the herpes virus family. The drug has been used systemically for the treatment of cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis. Its hematologic toxicity secondary to systemic administration led to its limited use in herpetic infections. On the other hand, topical ganciclovir has been shown to be as safe and effective as acyclovir in the treatment of herpetic epithelial keratitis. Furthermore, topical ganciclovir can reach therapeutic levels in the cornea and aqueous humor following topical application. Several clinical trials have shown that topical ganciclovir 0.15% ophthalmic gel is safe and effective in the treatment and prophylaxis of herpetic epithelial disease. Long-term use of ganciclovir ophthalmic gel in patients with penetrating keratoplasty following herpetic keratitis has prevented recurrences of the disease. Topical ganciclovir ophthalmic gel is well tolerated, does not cause toxic effects on the ocular surface, and does not cause hematologic abnormalities. Clinical studies have underscored the potential role of ganciclovir ophthalmic gel in the treatment and

  3. JST Thesaurus Headwords and Synonyms: レビュー文献(as Topic) [MeCab user dictionary for science technology term[Archive

    Lifescience Database Archive (English)

    Full Text Available MeCab user dictionary for science technology term レビュー文献(as Topic) 名詞 一般 * * * * 文献...展望 ブンケンテンボウ ブンケンテンボー Thesaurus2015 200906096212141961 C BA01 UNKNOWN_2 レビュー 文献 ( a s Topic )

  4. Topical Session on Liabilities identification and long-term management at national level - Topical Session held during the 36. Meeting of the RWMC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2003-01-01

    These proceedings cover a topical session that was held at the March 2003 meeting of the Radioactive Waste Management Committee. The topical session focused on liability assessment and management for decommissioning of all types of nuclear installations, including decontamination of historic sites and waste management, as applicable. The presentations covered the current, national situations. The first oral presentation, from Switzerland, set the scene by providing a broad coverage of the relevant issues. The subsequent presentations - five from Member countries and one from the EC - described additional national positions and the evolving EC proposed directives. Each oral presentation was followed by a brief period of Q and As for clarification only. A plenary discussion took place on the ensemble of presentations and a Rapporteur provided a report on points made and lessons learnt. Additionally, written contributions were provided by RWMC delegates from several other countries. These are included in the proceedings as are the papers from the oral sessions, and the Rapporteur's report. These papers are not intended to be exhaustive, but to give an informed glimpse of NEA countries' approaches to liability identification and management in the context of nuclear facilities decommissioning and dismantling

  5. Human-competitive automatic topic indexing

    CERN Document Server

    Medelyan, Olena

    2009-01-01

    Topic indexing is the task of identifying the main topics covered by a document. These are useful for many purposes: as subject headings in libraries, as keywords in academic publications and as tags on the web. Knowing a document’s topics helps people judge its relevance quickly. However, assigning topics manually is labor intensive. This thesis shows how to generate them automatically in a way that competes with human performance. Three kinds of indexing are investigated: term assignment, a task commonly performed by librarians, who select topics from a controlled vocabulary; tagging, a popular activity of web users, who choose topics freely; and a new method of keyphrase extraction, where topics are equated to Wikipedia article names. A general two-stage algorithm is introduced that first selects candidate topics and then ranks them by significance based on their properties. These properties draw on statistical, semantic, domain-specific and encyclopedic knowledge. They are combined using a machine learn...

  6. Ocular surface evaluation in eyes with chronic glaucoma on long term topical antiglaucoma therapy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manu Saini

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available AIM: To evaluate ocular surface changes and its correlation with the central corneal subbasal nerve fibre layer in chronic glaucoma patients. METHODS: A prospective comparative study of ocular surface evaluation was performed in 50 eyes of 25 patients using two or more antiglaucoma medications for at least 6mo and 50 eyes of 25 normal subjects without any ocular problems as controls. The study parameters evaluated included visual acuity, intraocular pressure, ocular surface evaluation parameters [fluorescein break-up time (FTBUT, Schirmer’s I test, ocular surface staining scores and ocular surface disease index score (OSDI], central corneal sensation (Cochet Bonnett aesthesiometer, central subbasal nerve fiber layer density (SBNFLD by confocal microscopy. RESULTS: The mean values in the glaucoma cases and control groups respectively were as follows: OSDI score (35.89±16.07/6.02±3.84; P=0.001, Schirmer’s I test score (7.63±2.64 mm/12.86±1.93 mm; P=0.001, FTBUT (9.44±2.76s/11.8±1.88s; P=0.001, corneal (5.7±2.33/ 1.1±0.58; P=0.001 and conjunctival staining score (5.06±1.94/0.84±0.46; P=0.001, corneal sensitivity (4.68±0.44/5.07±0.37; P=0.076, mean subbasal nerve fiber number (3.58±0.99/5.40±1.70; P=0.001, SBNFL length (1101.44±287.56 μm/1963.70±562.56 μm; P=0.001 and density (6883.94±1798.03 μm/mm2/12 273.15±3516.04 μm/mm2; P=0.001. Dry eye severity of level 2 and 3 was seen in 66% of glaucoma group. Corneal (R²=0.86 and conjunctival staining (R²=0.71 and OSDI score (R²=0.67 showed statistically significant negative correlation with central corneal SBNFLD while FTBUT (R²=0.84, corneal sensitivity (R²=0.52 showed positive correlation to central corneal SBNFLD in the long term topical antiglaucoma medication group. CONCLUSION: Ocular surface changes and antiglaucoma therapy induced dry eye is found to be associated with decreased SBNFLD in eyes on long term topical antiglaucoma medications.

  7. No antiinflammatory effect of short-term topical and subcutaneous administration of local anesthetics on postburn inflammation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Møiniche, S; Dahl, J B; Brennum, J

    1993-01-01

    , development of blister and ulcerations, or the intensity of inflammation after burn injury between the control legs and EMLA- or bupivacaine-treated legs, respectively. CONCLUSION. No antiinflammatory effect of short-term preinjury and postinjury topical 5% EMLA or subcutaneous 0.5% bupivacaine could...... and left calves with a 15 x 25 mm rectangular thermode. Eight subjects had topical 5% EMLA applied before and after burn injury, and another eight subjects were administered subcutaneous 0.5% bupivacaine infiltration before burn injury on the right or left leg. No treatment was applied to the contralateral...... leg in either group because this served as the control. The dermal response after burn injury in test areas with EMLA or bupivacaine and without treatment was compared 24 hours, 72 hours, 168 hours, and 14 days after burn injury. RESULTS. No significant difference was found in the area of flare...

  8. Clinical Reasoning Terms Included in Clinical Problem Solving Exercises?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Musgrove, John L; Morris, Jason; Estrada, Carlos A; Kraemer, Ryan R

    2016-05-01

    Background Published clinical problem solving exercises have emerged as a common tool to illustrate aspects of the clinical reasoning process. The specific clinical reasoning terms mentioned in such exercises is unknown. Objective We identified which clinical reasoning terms are mentioned in published clinical problem solving exercises and compared them to clinical reasoning terms given high priority by clinician educators. Methods A convenience sample of clinician educators prioritized a list of clinical reasoning terms (whether to include, weight percentage of top 20 terms). The authors then electronically searched the terms in the text of published reports of 4 internal medicine journals between January 2010 and May 2013. Results The top 5 clinical reasoning terms ranked by educators were dual-process thinking (weight percentage = 24%), problem representation (12%), illness scripts (9%), hypothesis generation (7%), and problem categorization (7%). The top clinical reasoning terms mentioned in the text of 79 published reports were context specificity (n = 20, 25%), bias (n = 13, 17%), dual-process thinking (n = 11, 14%), illness scripts (n = 11, 14%), and problem representation (n = 10, 13%). Context specificity and bias were not ranked highly by educators. Conclusions Some core concepts of modern clinical reasoning theory ranked highly by educators are mentioned explicitly in published clinical problem solving exercises. However, some highly ranked terms were not used, and some terms used were not ranked by the clinician educators. Effort to teach clinical reasoning to trainees may benefit from a common nomenclature of clinical reasoning terms.

  9. Developing topic-specific search filters for PubMed with click-through data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, J; Lu, Z

    2013-01-01

    Search filters have been developed and demonstrated for better information access to the immense and ever-growing body of publications in the biomedical domain. However, to date the number of filters remains quite limited because the current filter development methods require significant human efforts in manual document review and filter term selection. In this regard, we aim to investigate automatic methods for generating search filters. We present an automated method to develop topic-specific filters on the basis of users' search logs in PubMed. Specifically, for a given topic, we first detect its relevant user queries and then include their corresponding clicked articles to serve as the topic-relevant document set accordingly. Next, we statistically identify informative terms that best represent the topic-relevant document set using a background set composed of topic irrelevant articles. Lastly, the selected representative terms are combined with Boolean operators and evaluated on benchmark datasets to derive the final filter with the best performance. We applied our method to develop filters for four clinical topics: nephrology, diabetes, pregnancy, and depression. For the nephrology filter, our method obtained performance comparable to the state of the art (sensitivity of 91.3%, specificity of 98.7%, precision of 94.6%, and accuracy of 97.2%). Similarly, high-performing results (over 90% in all measures) were obtained for the other three search filters. Based on PubMed click-through data, we successfully developed a high-performance method for generating topic-specific search filters that is significantly more efficient than existing manual methods. All data sets (topic-relevant and irrelevant document sets) used in this study and a demonstration system are publicly available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/CBBresearch/Lu/downloads/CQ_filter/

  10. Immunomodulation and safety of topical calcineurin inhibitors for the treatment of atopic dermatitis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hultsch, Thomas; Kapp, Alexander; Spergel, Jonathan

    2005-01-01

    Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic or chronically relapsing inflammatory skin condition that primarily affects children. Topical corticosteroids have been the mainstay of treatment since the late 1950s. While providing excellent short-term efficacy, topical corticosteroid usage is limited by potential adverse effects, including impairment of the function and viability of Langerhans cells/dendritic cells. The recently introduced topical calcineurin inhibitors pimecrolimus cream 1% (Elidel) and tacrolimus ointment 0.03 and 0.1% (Protopic) exhibit a more selective mechanism of action and do not affect Langerhans cells/dendritic cells. For the immune system of young children 'learning' to mount a balanced Th1/Th2 response, this selective effect has particular benefits. In clinical experience, topical calcineurin inhibitors have been shown to be a safe and effective alternative to topical corticosteroids in almost 7 million patients (>5 million on pimecrolimus; >1.7 million on tacrolimus). Topical pimecrolimus is primarily used in children with mild and moderate AD, whereas tacrolimus is used preferentially in more severe cases. None of the topical calcineurin inhibitors have been associated with systemic immunosuppression-related malignancies known to occur following long-term sustained systemic immunosuppression with oral immunosuppressants (e.g., tacrolimus, cyclosporine A, and corticosteroids) in transplant patients. Preclinical and clinical data suggest a greater skin selectivity and larger safety margin for topical pimecrolimus. (c) 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel

  11. Topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for the treatment of pain due to soft tissue injury: diclofenac epolamine topical patch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lionberger, David R; Brennan, Michael J

    2010-11-10

    The objective of this article is to review published clinical data on diclofenac epolamine topical patch 1.3% (DETP) in the treatment of acute soft tissue injuries, such as strains, sprains, and contusions. Review of published literature on topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), diclofenac, and DETP in patients with acute soft tissue injuries was included. Relevant literature was identified on MEDLINE using the search terms topical NSAIDs, diclofenac, diclofenac epolamine, acute pain, sports injury, soft tissue injury, strain, sprain, and contusion, and from citations in retrieved articles covering the years 1978-2008. Review of published, randomized clinical trials and meta-analyses shows that topical NSAIDs are significantly more effective than placebo in relieving acute pain; the pooled average relative benefit was 1.7 (95% confidence interval, 1.5-1.9). In a limited number of comparisons, topical and oral NSAIDs provided comparable pain relief, but the use of topical agents produced lower plasma drug concentrations and fewer systemic adverse events (AEs). The physical-chemical properties of diclofenac epolamine make it well suited for topical use. In patients with acute soft tissue injuries treated with DETP, clinical data report an analgesic benefit within hours of the first application, and significant pain relief relative to placebo within 3 days. Moreover, DETP displayed tolerability comparable with placebo; the most common AEs were pruritus and other application site reactions. Review of published literature suggests that DETP is generally safe and well tolerated, clinically efficacious, and a rational treatment option for patients experiencing acute pain associated with strains, sprains, and contusions, and other localized painful conditions.

  12. Preliminary Data on the Safety of Phytoene- and Phytofluene-Rich Products for Human Use including Topical Application

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fabien Havas

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The colorless carotenoids phytoene and phytofluene are comparatively understudied compounds found in common foods (e.g., tomatoes and in human plasma, internal tissues, and skin. Being naturally present in common foods, their intake at dietary levels is not expected to present a safety concern. However, since the interest in these compounds in the context of many applications is expanding, it is important to conduct studies aimed at assessing their safety. We present here results of in vitro cytotoxicity and genotoxicity studies, revealing no significant cytotoxic or genotoxic potential and of short- and long-term human in vivo skin compatibility studies with phytoene- and phytofluene-rich tomato and Dunaliella salina alga extracts, showing a lack of irritancy or sensitization reactions. These results support the safe use of phytoene- and phytofluene-rich products in human topical applications.

  13. JST Thesaurus Headwords and Synonyms: プログラム学習(as Topic) [MeCab user dictionary for science technology term[Archive

    Lifescience Database Archive (English)

    Full Text Available MeCab user dictionary for science technology term プログラム学習(as Topic) 名詞 一般 * * * * プログラム学習... プログラムガクシュウ プログラムガクシュー Thesaurus2015 200906029207719115 C BJ01 UNKNOWN_2 プログラム 学習 ( a s Topic )

  14. Regulatory Information By Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    EPA develops and enforces regulations that span many environmental topics, from acid rain reduction to wetlands restoration. Each topic listed below may include related laws and regulations, compliance enforcement information, policies guidance

  15. Topical issues in nuclear, radiation and radioactive waste safety. Contributed papers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1998-08-01

    The IAEA International Conference on Topical Issues in Nuclear, Radiation and Radioactive Waste Safety was held in Vienna, Austria, 30 August - 4 September 1998 with the objective to foster the exchange of information on topical issues in nuclear, radiation and radioactive waste safety, with the aim of consolidating an international consensus on: the present status of these issues; priorities for future work; and needs for strengthening international co-operation, including recommendations for the IAEA`s future activities. The document includes 43 papers presented at the Conference dealing with the following topical issues: Safety Management; Backfitting, Upgrading and Modernization of NPPs; Regulatory Strategies; Occupational Radiation Protection: Trends and Developments; Situations of Chronic Exposure to Residual Radioactive Materials: Decommissioning and Rehabilitation and Reclamation of Land; Radiation Safety in the Far Future: The Issue of Long Term Waste Disposal. A separate abstract and indexing were provided for each paper. Refs, figs, tabs

  16. Topical issues in nuclear, radiation and radioactive waste safety. Contributed papers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1998-08-01

    The IAEA International Conference on Topical Issues in Nuclear, Radiation and Radioactive Waste Safety was held in Vienna, Austria, 30 August - 4 September 1998 with the objective to foster the exchange of information on topical issues in nuclear, radiation and radioactive waste safety, with the aim of consolidating an international consensus on: the present status of these issues; priorities for future work; and needs for strengthening international co-operation, including recommendations for the IAEA's future activities. The document includes 43 papers presented at the Conference dealing with the following topical issues: Safety Management; Backfitting, Upgrading and Modernization of NPPs; Regulatory Strategies; Occupational Radiation Protection: Trends and Developments; Situations of Chronic Exposure to Residual Radioactive Materials: Decommissioning and Rehabilitation and Reclamation of Land; Radiation Safety in the Far Future: The Issue of Long Term Waste Disposal. A separate abstract and indexing were provided for each paper

  17. Low-level radioactive waste source term model development and testing: Topical report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sullivan, T.M.; Kempf, C.R.; Suen, C.J.; Mughabghab, S.M.

    1988-08-01

    The Low-Level Waste Source Term Evaluation Project has the objective to develop a system model capable of predicting radionuclide release rates from a shallow land burial facility. The previous topical report for this project discussed the framework and methodology for developing a system model and divided the problem into four compartments: water flow, container degradation, waste form leaching, and radionuclide transport. Each of these compartments is described by submodels which will be coupled into the system model. From February 1987 to March 1988, computer models have been selected to predict water flow (FEMWATER) and radionuclide transport (FEMWASTE) and separate models have been developed to predict pitting corrosion of steel containers and leaching from porous waste forms contained in corrodible containers. This report discusses each of the models in detail and presents results obtained from applying the models to shallow land burial trenches over a range of expected conditions. 68 refs., 34 figs., 14 tabs

  18. In Vivo Short-Term Topical Application of BAY 11-7082 Prevents the Acidic Bile–Induced mRNA and miRNA Oncogenic Phenotypes in Exposed Murine Hypopharyngeal Mucosa

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Clarence T. Sasaki

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available PURPOSE: Bile-containing gastroesophageal reflux may promote cancer at extraesophageal sites. Acidic bile can accelerate NF-κB activation and molecular events, linked to premalignant changes in murine hypopharyngeal mucosa (HM. We hypothesize that short-term in vivo topical application of NF-κB inhibitor BAY 11-7082 can prevent acidic bile–induced early preneoplastic molecular events, suggesting its potential role in disease prevention. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We topically exposed HM (C57Bl/6j wild-type to a mixture of bile acids at pH 3.0 with and without BAY 11-7082 3 times/day for 7 days. We used immunofluorescence, Western blotting, immunohistochemistry, quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and polymerase chain reaction microarrays to identify NF-κB activation and its associated oncogenic mRNA and miRNA phenotypes, in murine hypopharyngeal cells in vitro and in murine HM in vivo. RESULTS: Short-term exposure of HM to acidic bile is a potent stimulus accelerating the expression of NF-κB signaling (70 out of 84 genes and oncogenic molecules. Topical application of BAY 11-7082 sufficiently blocks the effect of acidic bile. BAY 11-7082 eliminates NF-κB activation in regenerating basal cells of acidic bile–treated HM and prevents overexpression of molecules central to head and neck cancer, including bcl-2, STAT3, EGFR, TNF-α, and WNT5A. NF-κB inhibitor reverses the upregulated “oncomirs” miR-155 and miR-192 and the downregulated “tumor suppressors” miR-451a and miR-375 phenotypes in HM affected by acidic bile. CONCLUSION: There is novel evidence that acidic bile–induced NF-κB–related oncogenic mRNA and miRNA phenotypes are generated after short-term 7-day mucosal exposure and that topical mucosal application of BAY 11-7082 can prevent the acidic bile–induced molecular alterations associated with unregulated cell growth and proliferation of hypopharyngeal cells.

  19. Topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for the treatment of pain due to soft tissue injury: diclofenac epolamine topical patch

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David R Lionberger

    2010-11-01

    Full Text Available David R Lionberger1, Michael J Brennan21Southwest Orthopedic Group, Houston, TX, USA; 2Department of Medicine, Bridgeport Hospital, Bridgeport, CT, USAAbstract: The objective of this article is to review published clinical data on diclofenac epolamine topical patch 1.3% (DETP in the treatment of acute soft tissue injuries, such as strains, sprains, and contusions. Review of published literature on topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, diclofenac, and DETP in patients with acute soft tissue injuries was included. Relevant literature was identified on MEDLINE using the search terms topical NSAIDs, diclofenac, diclofenac epolamine, acute pain, sports injury, soft tissue injury, strain, sprain, and contusion, and from citations in retrieved articles covering the years 1978–2008. Review of published, randomized clinical trials and meta-analyses shows that topical NSAIDs are significantly more effective than placebo in relieving acute pain; the pooled average relative benefit was 1.7 (95% confidence interval, 1.5–1.9. In a limited number of comparisons, topical and oral NSAIDs provided comparable pain relief, but the use of topical agents produced lower plasma drug concentrations and fewer systemic adverse events (AEs. The physical–chemical properties of diclofenac epolamine make it well suited for topical use. In patients with acute soft tissue injuries treated with DETP, clinical data report an analgesic benefit within hours of the first application, and significant pain relief relative to placebo within 3 days. Moreover, DETP displayed tolerability comparable with placebo; the most common AEs were pruritus and other application site reactions. Review of published literature suggests that DETP is generally safe and well tolerated, clinically efficacious, and a rational treatment option for patients experiencing acute pain associated with strains, sprains, and contusions, and other localized painful conditions

  20. Clinical Assessment of Immediate and Long-Term Effects of a Two-Step Topical Hyaluronic Acid Lip Treatment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Makino, Elizabeth T; Tan, Priscilla; Qian, Kun; Babcock, Michael; Mehta, Rahul C

    2017-04-01

    Key features of lip aging include loss of volume, color, and definition as well as increases in lines/wrinkles and uneven skin texture. A single-center, open-label clinical study was conducted to assess the efficacy and tolerability of a novel, topical two-step lip treatment (HA5 LS) in female subjects presenting with mild to moderate lip dryness and mild to severe lip condition. Subjects were instructed to apply HA5 LS at least three times a day to ensure coverage 8 hours a day for four weeks. Clinical assessments for efficacy and tolerability were conducted at baseline, baseline post-application, week 2, and week 4. Standardized digital photography, subject self-assessment questionnaires, and instrumentation measurements for skin hydration (corneometer) and lip plumpness (digital caliper) were also conducted. Thirty-six female subjects aged 22-40 years enrolled in the study. HA5 LS provided instant and long term effects, achieving significant improvements in all clinical grading parameters including lip texture, color, definition/contour, scaling, cupping, lines/wrinkles, lip plumpness, and overall lip condition from baseline post-application to week 4 (all P less than equal to .001; Wilcoxon signed-rank test). Instrumentation measurements for hydration and digital caliper at weeks 2 and 4 were also significant (all P less than equal to .032; paired t-test). HA5 LS was also well-tolerated and highly-rated by subjects throughout the study duration. Results from this study suggest that HA5 LS addresses the key features of lip aging, providing both instant and long-term benefits. J Drugs Dermatol. 2017;16(4):366-371..

  1. Topic prominence in Chinese EFL learners’ interlanguage

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shaopeng Li

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The present study aims to investigate the general characteristics of topicprominent typological interlanguage development of Chinese learners of English in terms of acquiring subject-prominent English structures from a discourse perspective. Topic structures mainly appear in Chinese discourse in the form of topic chains (Wang, 2002; 2004. The research target are the topic chain, which is the main topic-prominent structure in Chinese discourse, and zero anaphora, which is the most common topic anaphora in the topic chain. Two important findings emerged from the present study. First, the characteristics of Chinese topic chains are transferrable to the interlanguage of Chinese EFL learners, thus resulting in overgeneralization of the zero anaphora. Second, the interlanguage discourse of Chinese EFL learners reflects a change of the second language acquisition process from topic-prominence to subject-prominence, thus lending support to the discourse transfer hypothesis.

  2. Topical ganciclovir in the treatment of acute herpetic keratitis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khalid F Tabbara

    2010-08-01

    Full Text Available Khalid F Tabbara1,2,3, Noorjehan Al Balushi11The Eye Center and The Eye Foundation for Research in Ophthalmology, Riyadh, 2Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; 3The Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USAAbstract: Herpetic keratitis is caused by herpes simplex virus (HSV and is a common cause of corneal blindness. Following a primary ocular herpetic infection, latency of the virus occurs, followed by subsequent recurrences of herpetic keratitis. Such recurrences may lead to structural damage of the cornea. Recurrent herpetic keratitis is a common indication for corneal transplantation. Recurrences of herpetic keratitis in the corneal graft may lead to corneal graft rejection. Several antiviral agents for HSV are available, including the thymidine analogs. Prolonged use of thymidine analogs may lead to toxicity of the ocular surface, including epithelial keratitis, corneal ulcers, follicular conjunctivitis, and punctal occlusions. Availability of topical antiviral agents that are safe and effective in the treatment and prophylaxis of herpetic keratitis is highly desirable. Ganciclovir is a potent inhibitor of members of the herpes virus family. The drug has been used systemically for the treatment of cytomegalovirus (CMV retinitis. Its hematologic toxicity secondary to systemic administration led to its limited use in herpetic infections. On the other hand, topical ganciclovir has been shown to be as safe and effective as acyclovir in the treatment of herpetic epithelial keratitis. Furthermore, topical ganciclovir can reach therapeutic levels in the cornea and aqueous humor following topical application. Several clinical trials have shown that topical ganciclovir 0.15% ophthalmic gel is safe and effective in the treatment and prophylaxis of herpetic epithelial disease. Long-term use of ganciclovir ophthalmic

  3. Topic Prominence in Chinese EFL Learners' Interlanguage

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Shaopeng; Yang, Lianrui

    2014-01-01

    The present study aims to investigate the general characteristics of topicprominent typological interlanguage development of Chinese learners of English in terms of acquiring subject-prominent English structures from a discourse perspective. Topic structures mainly appear in Chinese discourse in the form of topic chains (Wang, 2002; 2004). The…

  4. Recent Advances In Topical Therapy In Dermatology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohan Thappa Devinder

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available With changing times various newer topical agents are introduced in the field of dermatology. Tacrolimus and pimecrolimus are immunisuppressants, which are effective topically and are tried in the management of atopic dermatitis as well as other disorders including allergic contact dermatitis, atrophic lichen planus, pyoderma gangrenosum. Imiquimod, an immune response modifier, is presently in use for genital warts but has potentials as anti- tumour agent and in various other dermatological conditions when used topically. Tazarotene is a newer addition to the list of topical reginoids, which is effective in psoriasis and has better effect in combination with calcipotriene, phototherapy and topical costicosteroids. Tazarotene and adapelene are also effective in inflammatory acne. Calcipotriol, a vitamin D analogue has been introduced as a topical agent in the treatment of psoriasis. Steroid components are also developed recently which will be devoid of the side effects but having adequate anti-inflammatory effect. Topical photodynamic therapy has also a wide range of use in dermatology. Newer topical agents including cidofovir, capsaicin, topical sensitizers, topical antifungal agents for onychomycosis are also of use in clinical practice. Other promising developments include skin substitutes and growth factors for wound care.

  5. Evaluation of the influence of family and friends, and the Internet on patient perceptions of long-term topical corticosteroid use.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Saxon D; Farrugia, Lisa L; Harris, Victoria; Lee, Andrew; Carter, Stephen R; Blaszczynski, Alex; Fischer, Gayle

    2017-11-01

    Topical corticosteroids (TCS) are key to managing chronic inflammatory dermatoses (CID). Parents/patients cite TCS phobia as an impediment to treatment adherence. Family/friends and the Internet are a source of misinformation on TCS which can negatively impact perceptions of TCS safety. To assess information from family/friends and the Internet, as related to and reported by patients/parents using long-term TCS. A multicenter cross-sectional survey of patients (aged >18 years) and parents of patients (aged friends and the Internet. A total of 123 patients and 78 parents completed the survey (n = 201). Parents/patients were more likely to be informed by the Internet "[having] my [child's] skin condition means that [I/he/she] will need to use topical corticosteroids" (p friends were more likely to recommend parents/patients "try non-prescription creams/ointments before resorting to the use of prescription topical corticosteroids" (p = .014). High rates of messages about TCS "risk" from family/friends and the Internet may affect patient/parent understanding about TCS safety. This may contribute to treatment non-adherence.

  6. Long-term management of moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis with dupilumab and concomitant topical corticosteroids (LIBERTY AD CHRONOS): a 1-year, randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blauvelt, Andrew; de Bruin-Weller, Marjolein; Gooderham, Melinda; Cather, Jennifer C; Weisman, Jamie; Pariser, David; Simpson, Eric L; Papp, Kim A; Hong, H Chih-Ho; Rubel, Diana; Foley, Peter; Prens, Errol; Griffiths, Christopher E M; Etoh, Takafumi; Pinto, Pedro Herranz; Pujol, Ramon M; Szepietowski, Jacek C; Ettler, Karel; Kemény, Lajos; Zhu, Xiaoping; Akinlade, Bolanle; Hultsch, Thomas; Mastey, Vera; Gadkari, Abhijit; Eckert, Laurent; Amin, Nikhil; Graham, Neil M H; Pirozzi, Gianluca; Stahl, Neil; Yancopoulos, George D; Shumel, Brad

    2017-06-10

    Dupilumab (an anti-interleukin-4-receptor-α monoclonal antibody) blocks signalling of interleukin 4 and interleukin 13, type 2/Th2 cytokines implicated in numerous allergic diseases ranging from asthma to atopic dermatitis. Previous 16-week monotherapy studies showed that dupilumab substantially improved signs and symptoms of moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis with acceptable safety, validating the crucial role of interleukin 4 and interleukin 13 in atopic dermatitis pathogenesis. We aimed to evaluate the long-term efficacy and safety of dupilumab with medium-potency topical corticosteroids versus placebo with topical corticosteroids in adults with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis. In this 1-year, randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, phase 3 study (LIBERTY AD CHRONOS), adults with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis and inadequate response to topical corticosteroids were enrolled at 161 hospitals, clinics, and academic institutions in 14 countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and North America. Patients were randomly assigned (3:1:3) to subcutaneous dupilumab 300 mg once weekly (qw), dupilumab 300 mg every 2 weeks (q2w), or placebo via a central interactive voice/web response system, stratified by severity and global region. All three groups were given concomitant topical corticosteroids with or without topical calcineurin inhibitors where inadvisable for topical corticosteroids. Topical corticosteroids could be tapered, stopped, or restarted on the basis of disease activity. Coprimary endpoints were patients (%) achieving Investigator's Global Assessment (IGA) 0/1 and 2-point or higher improvement from baseline, and Eczema Area and Severity Index 75% improvement from baseline (EASI-75) at week 16. Week 16 efficacy and week 52 safety analyses included all randomised patients; week 52 efficacy included patients who completed treatment by US regulatory submission cutoff. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02260986. Between Oct 3, 2014

  7. Machine Learning-Based Classification of 38 Years of Spine-Related Literature Into 100 Research Topics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sing, David C; Metz, Lionel N; Dudli, Stefan

    2017-06-01

    Retrospective review. To identify the top 100 spine research topics. Recent advances in "machine learning," or computers learning without explicit instructions, have yielded broad technological advances. Topic modeling algorithms can be applied to large volumes of text to discover quantifiable themes and trends. Abstracts were extracted from the National Library of Medicine PubMed database from five prominent peer-reviewed spine journals (European Spine Journal [ESJ], The Spine Journal [SpineJ], Spine, Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques [JSDT], Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine [JNS]). Each abstract was entered into a latent Dirichlet allocation model specified to discover 100 topics, resulting in each abstract being assigned a probability of belonging in a topic. Topics were named using the five most frequently appearing terms within that topic. Significance of increasing ("hot") or decreasing ("cold") topic popularity over time was evaluated with simple linear regression. From 1978 to 2015, 25,805 spine-related research articles were extracted and classified into 100 topics. Top two most published topics included "clinical, surgeons, guidelines, information, care" (n = 496 articles) and "pain, back, low, treatment, chronic" (424). Top two hot trends included "disc, cervical, replacement, level, arthroplasty" (+0.05%/yr, P < 0.001), and "minimally, invasive, approach, technique" (+0.05%/yr, P < 0.001). By journal, the most published topics were ESJ-"operative, surgery, postoperative, underwent, preoperative"; SpineJ-"clinical, surgeons, guidelines, information, care"; Spine-"pain, back, low, treatment, chronic"; JNS- "tumor, lesions, rare, present, diagnosis"; JSDT-"cervical, anterior, plate, fusion, ACDF." Topics discovered through latent Dirichlet allocation modeling represent unbiased meaningful themes relevant to spine care. Topic dynamics can provide historical context and direction for future research for aspiring investigators and trainees

  8. Numerical simulation on the screw pinch by 2-D MHD pinch code 'topics' including impurities and neutrals effects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nagata, A.; Ashida, H.; Okamoto, M.; Hirano, K.

    1981-03-01

    Two dimentional fluid simulation code ''TOPICS'' is developed for the STP-2, the shock heated screw pinch at Nagoya. It involves the effects of impurity ions and neutral atoms. In order to estimate the radiation losses, the impurity continuity equations with ionizations and recombinations are solved simultaneously with the plasma fluid equations. The results are compared with the coronal equilibrium model. It is found that the coronal equilibrium model underestimates the radiation losses from shock heated pinch plasmas in its initial dynamic phase. The present calculations including impurities and neutrals show the importance of the radiation losses from the plasma of the STP-2. Introducing the anomalous resistivity caused by the ion acoustic instability, the observed magnetic field penetration is explained fairly well. (author)

  9. Analgesic effect of topical oral capsaicin gel in burning mouth syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jørgensen, Mette Rose; Pedersen, Anne Marie Lynge

    2017-03-01

    To investigate the effectiveness of repeated topical application of oral capsaicin gel in two different concentrations for relief of burning/stinging sensations in patients with burning mouth syndrome (BMS). This randomized double-blind cross-over study included 22 female patients with BMS. The patients were randomized for topical application of either 0.01% or 0.025% oral capsaicin gel on the dorsal part of tongue three times daily for 14 days, followed by 14 days wash-out period, and finally treatment with the other concentration of oral gel three times daily for 14 days. A visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to assess the severity of pain five times during the intervention period. 18 patients completed the intervention. Their VAS score at baseline was 5.5 ± 0.6 cm (mean ± SD). Treatment with the two concentrations of capsaicin gels significantly improved the burning/stinging symptoms assessed on VAS compared with baseline (p = 0.002). There was no statistically significant difference between the two concentrations of the gels on relieving symptoms. Four patients dropped out during the intervention period due to gastrointestinal side-effects. Topical capsaicin might be an alternative for the short-term treatment of BMS. However, further studies are needed to investigate especially the gastro-intestinal side-effects which may limit its long-term use.

  10. Dictionary of weighing terms a guide to the terminology of weighing

    CERN Document Server

    Nater, Roland; Reichmuth, Arthur; Schwartz, Roman; Zervos, Panagiotis

    2009-01-01

    This book explains over 1,000 terms from weighing technology and includes many illustrations. Terms used relate to the following topics: Fundamentals of Weighing, Using Scales, International Norms and Legal Requirements for Weighing, and Precision in Weighing.

  11. Topics and topic prominence in two sign languages

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kimmelman, V.

    2015-01-01

    In this paper we describe topic marking in Russian Sign Language (RSL) and Sign Language of the Netherlands (NGT) and discuss whether these languages should be considered topic prominent. The formal markers of topics in RSL are sentence-initial position, a prosodic break following the topic, and

  12. Aerodynamics of wind turbines emerging topics

    CERN Document Server

    Amano, R S

    2014-01-01

    Focusing on Aerodynamics of Wind Turbines with topics ranging from Fundamental to Application of horizontal axis wind turbines, this book presents advanced topics including: Basic Theory for Wind turbine Blade Aerodynamics, Computational Methods, and Special Structural Reinforcement Technique for Wind Turbine Blades.

  13. Learning From Short Text Streams With Topic Drifts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Peipei; He, Lu; Wang, Haiyan; Hu, Xuegang; Zhang, Yuhong; Li, Lei; Wu, Xindong

    2017-09-18

    Short text streams such as search snippets and micro blogs have been popular on the Web with the emergence of social media. Unlike traditional normal text streams, these data present the characteristics of short length, weak signal, high volume, high velocity, topic drift, etc. Short text stream classification is hence a very challenging and significant task. However, this challenge has received little attention from the research community. Therefore, a new feature extension approach is proposed for short text stream classification with the help of a large-scale semantic network obtained from a Web corpus. It is built on an incremental ensemble classification model for efficiency. First, more semantic contexts based on the senses of terms in short texts are introduced to make up of the data sparsity using the open semantic network, in which all terms are disambiguated by their semantics to reduce the noise impact. Second, a concept cluster-based topic drifting detection method is proposed to effectively track hidden topic drifts. Finally, extensive studies demonstrate that as compared to several well-known concept drifting detection methods in data stream, our approach can detect topic drifts effectively, and it enables handling short text streams effectively while maintaining the efficiency as compared to several state-of-the-art short text classification approaches.

  14. Graph-based Techniques for Topic Classification of Tweets in Spanish

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hector Cordobés

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Topic classification of texts is one of the most interesting challenges in Natural Language Processing (NLP. Topic classifiers commonly use a bag-of-words approach, in which the classifier uses (and is trained with selected terms from the input texts. In this work we present techniques based on graph similarity to classify short texts by topic. In our classifier we build graphs from the input texts, and then use properties of these graphs to classify them. We have tested the resulting algorithm by classifying Twitter messages in Spanish among a predefined set of topics, achieving more than 70% accuracy.

  15. Additional EIPC Study Analysis: Interim Report on High Priority Topics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hadley, Stanton W [ORNL

    2013-11-01

    Between 2010 and 2012 the Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative (EIPC) conducted a major long-term resource and transmission study of the Eastern Interconnection (EI). With guidance from a Stakeholder Steering Committee (SSC) that included representatives from the Eastern Interconnection States Planning Council (EISPC) among others, the project was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 involved a long-term capacity expansion analysis that involved creation of eight major futures plus 72 sensitivities. Three scenarios were selected for more extensive transmission- focused evaluation in Phase 2. Five power flow analyses, nine production cost model runs (including six sensitivities), and three capital cost estimations were developed during this second phase. The results from Phase 1 and 2 provided a wealth of data that could be examined further to address energy-related questions. A list of 13 topics was developed for further analysis; this paper discusses the first five.

  16. A systematic review of the evidence for topical use of ginger.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ding, Mingshuang; Leach, Matthew J; Bradley, Helen

    2013-01-01

    The use of ginger as a topical intervention is widely advocated in the popular media. However, there has been no attempt to date to synthesize the evidence for topically administered ginger. To systematically review and synthesize the best available evidence of effectiveness for topical ginger in any condition. CAM on PubMed, CINAHL, Google Scholar, MEDLINE, National Library of Australia, The Cochrane Library, TRIP, pertinent texts, and bibliographies of relevant papers. Data sources were systematically searched for studies investigating the clinical effectiveness of topical ginger, in any form and for any condition, regardless of study design. Studies were limited to those published between 1980 and 2010, and published in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, or Taiwanese. Data were extracted by two authors, independently, using standardized templates. Four studies met the inclusion criteria, including three randomized controlled trials and one non-randomized controlled trial. All studies differed in terms of study population, outcome measures, comparative interventions, and dose and form of ginger used, and thus, were not amenable to meta-analysis. Findings from all trials favored usage of ginger for most outcomes. However, the small sample sizes and inadequate methodological reporting indicate a high risk of bias and the need for caution when interpreting these results. Few studies have investigated the effectiveness of topically administered ginger for any condition. Until the findings of these studies are corroborated by more robust research, and the safety of ginger is adequately established, clinicians should remain cautious about using topical ginger in clinical practice. © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  17. Topical minoxidil: cardiac effects in bald man.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leenen, F H; Smith, D L; Unger, W P

    1988-01-01

    Systemic cardiovascular effects during chronic treatment with topical minoxidil vs placebo were evaluated using a double-blind, randomized design for two parallel groups (n = 20 for minoxidil, n = 15 for placebo). During 6 months of follow-up, blood pressure did not change, whereas minoxidil increased heart rate by 3-5 beats min-1. Compared with placebo, topical minoxidil caused significant increases in LV end-diastolic volume, in cardiac output (by 0.751 min-1) and in LV mass (by 5 g m-2). We conclude that in healthy subjects short-term use of topical minoxidil is likely not to be detrimental. However, safety needs to be established regarding ischaemic symptoms in patients with coronary artery disease as well as for the possible development of LV hypertrophy in healthy subjects during years of therapy. PMID:3191000

  18. Reduction of serum TARC levels in atopic dermatitis by topical anti-inflammatory treatments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yasukochi, Yumi; Nakahara, Takeshi; Abe, Takeru; Kido-Nakahara, Makiko; Kohda, Futoshi; Takeuchi, Satoshi; Hagihara, Akihito; Furue, Masutaka

    2014-09-01

    Serum thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC) levels are associated with the disease activity of patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) and sensitively reflect short-term changes in skin conditions. The main treatment for AD is topical agent application. This study investigated the relationship between serum TARC levels and the dosage of topical agents, including corticosteroids and/or tacrolimus, in patients with AD. The serum TARC levels of 56 AD patients and the amounts of topical agents prescribed to them were investigated retrospectively. The weekly reduction in serum TARC levels and weekly dosage of topical agents among AD patients were compared and their associations were evaluated. The dosage of topical agents was closely related to serum TARC levels. One gram of strong rank steroid or the equivalent amount of steroid/tacrolimus is required to reduce serum TARC levels by 9.94 pg/mL weekly in moderate to severe AD patients. Higher initial TARC levels require more topical agent, which results in a more rapid decrease in TARC levels. The serum TARC levels and eosinophil numbers in peripheral blood are significantly correlated. Serum TARC level improvement and topical agent dosage are strongly correlated. TARC and eosinophil numbers are significantly correlated, but the wider range of TARC levels seems to be clinically more useful for monitoring AD severity. The serum TARC level is a very sensitive biomarker for monitoring the severity and treatment response in AD.

  19. Topical Antibacterials and Global Challenges on Resistance ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    skin infections can be easily treated with topical antibacterial medication that is available over the counter or by ... infection in minor cut or burn, eyes and ear infection [5]. .... Sensitive/dry skin ... includes both oral and topical antibiotics, but.

  20. A Discourse Perspective of Topic-prominence in Chinese EFL Learners’ Interlanguage

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shaopeng Li

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available The present study aims to investigate the general characteristics of topic-prominent typological interlanguage development of Chinese learners of English in terms of acquiring subject-prominent English structures from the discourse perspective. We have selected as the research target “topic chain” which is the main topic-prominent structure in Chinese discourse and “zero anaphora” which is the most common topic anaphor of topic chain. Topic structures mainly appear in Chinese discourse in the form of “topic chain” (Wang, 2002; 2004. Actually, in the event of a topic chain, research on topic structures should go into the typical range of discourse. Two important findings were yielded by the present study. First, the characteristics of Chinese topic chain are transferrable to the interlanguage of Chinese EFL learners, thus resulting in overgeneralization of zero anaphora; second, interlanguage discourse of Chinese EFL learners reflects the characteristics of a second language acquisition process from topic-prominence to subject-prominence, thus lending support to the discourse transfer hypothesis.

  1. Topical treatments of skin pain: a general review with a focus on hidradenitis suppurativa with topical agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scheinfeld, Noah

    2014-07-15

    Hidradenitis Supprurativa (HS) is a painful chronic follicular disease. Few papers have addressed pain control for this debilitating condition. Possible topical agents include tricyclic antidepressants, opioids, anticonvulsants, NSAIDs, NMDA receptor antagonists, local anesthetics and other agents. The first line agents for the topical treatment of the cutaneous pain of HS are diclonefac gel 1% and liposomal xylocaine 4% and 5% cream or 5% ointment. The chief advantage of topical xylocaine is that is quick acting i.e. immediate however with a limited duration of effect 1-2 hours. The use of topical ketamine, which blocks n-methyl-D-aspartate receptors in a non-competitive fashion, might be a useful tool for the treatment of HS pain. Topical doxepin, which available in a 5% commercially preparation (Zonalon®) , makes patients drowsy and is not useful for controlling the pain of HS . Doxepin is available in a 3% or 3.3% concentration (which causes less drowsiness) from compounding pharmacies and can be used in compounded analgesic preparations with positive effect. Topical doxepin is preferred over use of topical amitriptyline because topical doxepin is more effective. Nevertheless, topical amitriptyline increase of the tactile and mechanical nociceptive thresholds and can be used for topical pain control in compound mixture of analgesics . Gabapentin and pregablin can also be used compounded with other agents in topical analgesic preparations with positive topical anesthetic effect. Capsaicin is not useful for topical treatment of the pain of HS. Sometimes compounded of anesthetics medications such as ketamine 10%, bupivacaine 1%, diclofenac 3%, doxepin 3% or 3.3%, and gabapentin 6% can extend the duration of effect so that medication only needs to be used 2 or 3 times a day. Still in my experience the easiest to get and most patient requested agent is topical diclonefac 1% gel.

  2. Strategy and issues for the LHC upgrades and fair, including longer-term prospects

    CERN Document Server

    Zimmermann, F

    2013-01-01

    This report discusses the time line, goals and key ingredients for the next ten years of LHC operation, including injector upgrade, for the following High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), and for the FAIR project. Results from pertinent EuCARD-WP4 workshops on optics, space charge, crab cavities, crystal collimation, and electron cloud are summarized in this context. A Large Hadron electron Collider, LHeC, would be an additional upgrade, further expanding the physics scope of the LHC, to eventually include both ep and γγ Higgs factories (LHeC-HF and SAPPHiRE). Results from relevant topical WP4 workshops are highlighted. The development of magnet and cable technology based on Nb$_{3}$Sn, and HTS, for the HL-LHC prepares the ground for a future higher-energy hadron collider, either in the LHC tunnel, “HELHC” (33 TeV c.m.), or in a new 80- or 100-km tunnel, “VHE-LHC” (100 TeV c.m.). A large new tunnel could also host an ultimate highest-precision e+e- Higgs factory collider, “TLEP,” exhibiting many synergi...

  3. Topics in modern differential geometry

    CERN Document Server

    Verstraelen, Leopold

    2017-01-01

    A variety of introductory articles is provided on a wide range of topics, including variational problems on curves and surfaces with anisotropic curvature. Experts in the fields of Riemannian, Lorentzian and contact geometry present state-of-the-art reviews of their topics. The contributions are written on a graduate level and contain extended bibliographies. The ten chapters are the result of various doctoral courses which were held in 2009 and 2010 at universities in Leuven, Serbia, Romania and Spain.

  4. Key Topics in Sports Medicine

    OpenAIRE

    2006-01-01

    Key Topics in Sports Medicine is a single quick reference source for sports and exercise medicine. It presents the essential information from across relevant topic areas, and includes both the core and emerging issues in this rapidly developing field. It covers: 1) Sports injuries, rehabilitation and injury prevention, 2) Exercise physiology, fitness testing and training, 3) Drugs in sport, 4) Exercise and health promotion, 5) Sport and exercise for special and clinical populations, 6) The ps...

  5. Topics in Bioethics: A Development of Student Perspectives

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Keith A. Johnson

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Exposing students to current biotechnological and medical issues is eye-opening for many students in a way that is not always achieved through lecture-based learning. Lecture or investigative teaching styles provide a tremendous knowledge base for the students, but sometimes these teaching styles do not allow the student to fully develop, especially personal attitudes to issues in bioethics. Through online videos, Hollywood movies, guided readings and classroom discussions, students in this course are informed of some bioethical topics, encouraged to learn about other topics, and use this gained knowledge to develop personal positions regarding the value and/or risk of the issues. This course has been well-received by previous students as a favorite in terms of both topics covered and style.

  6. Antimicrobial topical agents used in the vagina.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frey Tirri, Brigitte

    2011-01-01

    Vaginally applied antimicrobial agents are widely used in the vagina in women with lower genital tract infections. An 'antimicrobial' is a general term that refers to a group of drugs that are effective against bacteria, fungi, viruses and protozoa. Topical treatments can be prescribed for a wide variety of vaginal infections. Many bacterial infections, such as bacterial vaginosis, desquamative inflammatory vaginitis or, as some European authors call it, aerobic vaginitis as well as infection with Staphylococcus aureus or group A streptococci, may be treated in this way. Candida vulvovaginitis is a fungal infection that is very amenable to topical treatment. The most common viral infections which can be treated with topical medications are condylomata acuminata and herpes simplex. The most often encountered protozoal vaginitis, which is caused by Trichomonas vaginalis, may be susceptible to topical medications, although this infection is treated systemically. This chapter covers the wide variety of commonly used topical antimicrobial agents for these diseases and focuses on the individual therapeutic agents and their clinical efficacy. In addition, potential difficulties that can occur in practice, as well as the usage of these medications in the special setting of pregnancy, are described in this chapter. Copyright © 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel.

  7. Development and Evaluation of Topical Gabapentin Formulations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alcock, Natalie; Hiom, Sarah; Birchall, James C.

    2017-01-01

    Topical delivery of gabapentin is desirable to treat peripheral neuropathic pain conditions whilst avoiding systemic side effects. To date, reports of topical gabapentin delivery in vitro have been variable and dependent on the skin model employed, primarily involving rodent and porcine models. In this study a variety of topical gabapentin formulations were investigated, including Carbopol® hydrogels containing various permeation enhancers, and a range of proprietary bases including a compounded Lipoderm® formulation; furthermore microneedle facilitated delivery was used as a positive control. Critically, permeation of gabapentin across a human epidermal membrane in vitro was assessed using Franz-type diffusion cells. Subsequently this data was contextualised within the wider scope of the literature. Although reports of topical gabapentin delivery have been shown to vary, largely dependent upon the skin model used, this study demonstrated that 6% (w/w) gabapentin 0.75% (w/w) Carbopol® hydrogels containing 5% (w/w) DMSO or 70% (w/w) ethanol and a compounded 10% (w/w) gabapentin Lipoderm® formulation were able to facilitate permeation of the molecule across human skin. Further pre-clinical and clinical studies are required to investigate the topical delivery performance and pharmacodynamic actions of prospective formulations. PMID:28867811

  8. Topics in quantum theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yuille, A.L.

    1980-11-01

    Topics in the Yang-Mills theories of strong interactions and the quantum theories of gravity are examined, using the path integral approach, including; Yang-Mills instantons in curved spacetimes, Israel-Wilson metrics, Kaehler spacetimes, instantons and anti-instantons. (U.K.)

  9. Retrospective Evaluation of Topical Bimatoprost and Iris Pigmentation Change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaleski-Larsen, Lisa A; Ruth, Nadine H; Fabi, Sabrina G

    2017-12-01

    Topical bimatoprost is a topical prostaglandin analog originally used to treat glaucoma and more recently used to cosmetically induce hypertrichosis of the eyelashes. Iris pigmentation change has been noted in the treatment of glaucoma but has not been assessed with the cosmetic periorbital application of bimatoprost. To evaluate for iris pigmentation change with the long-term cosmetic use of topical bimatoprost. A retrospective chart review in a cosmetic dermatology practice of women (N = 50) who consistently purchased topical bimatoprost over an average of 4.59 years was compared with that of age-matched non-bimatoprost patients (N = 50). A blinded evaluator assessed each patient for iris pigmentary change. No iris pigmentation change was noted with the cutaneous application of bimatoprost. The cutaneous application of bimatoprost appears to be safe with minimal risk for iris pigmentation change.

  10. Multi-topic assignment for exploratory navigation of consumer health information in NetWellness using formal concept analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cui, Licong; Xu, Rong; Luo, Zhihui; Wentz, Susan; Scarberry, Kyle; Zhang, Guo-Qiang

    2014-08-03

    Finding quality consumer health information online can effectively bring important public health benefits to the general population. It can empower people with timely and current knowledge for managing their health and promoting wellbeing. Despite a popular belief that search engines such as Google can solve all information access problems, recent studies show that using search engines and simple search terms is not sufficient. Our objective is to provide an approach to organizing consumer health information for navigational exploration, complementing keyword-based direct search. Multi-topic assignment to health information, such as online questions, is a fundamental step for navigational exploration. We introduce a new multi-topic assignment method combining semantic annotation using UMLS concepts (CUIs) and Formal Concept Analysis (FCA). Each question was tagged with CUIs identified by MetaMap. The CUIs were filtered with term-frequency and a new term-strength index to construct a CUI-question context. The CUI-question context and a topic-subject context were used for multi-topic assignment, resulting in a topic-question context. The topic-question context was then directly used for constructing a prototype navigational exploration interface. Experimental evaluation was performed on the task of automatic multi-topic assignment of 99 predefined topics for about 60,000 consumer health questions from NetWellness. Using example-based metrics, suitable for multi-topic assignment problems, our method achieved a precision of 0.849, recall of 0.774, and F₁ measure of 0.782, using a reference standard of 278 questions with manually assigned topics. Compared to NetWellness' original topic assignment, a 36.5% increase in recall is achieved with virtually no sacrifice in precision. Enhancing the recall of multi-topic assignment without sacrificing precision is a prerequisite for achieving the benefits of navigational exploration. Our new multi-topic assignment method

  11. ELA-max: A new topical lidocaine formulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldman, Ran D

    2004-05-01

    To evaluate the role of a new formulation of lidocaine (ELA-max) in local anesthesia in children and compare it with the eutectic mixture of local anesthetics (EMLA). Relevant literature was identified by a MEDLINE search (1966-November 2003) using the search terms ELA-max and EMLA. Bibliographies of selected articles were also examined to include all relevant investigations. The product manufacturer was contacted for inclusion of the most recent data available. Topical anesthesia in children is clinically challenging. ELA-max has been shown to be as effective as EMLA for venipuncture in children, but with faster onset. Adverse effects, such as transient blanching with redness and erythema, have been reported. Further investigation is needed to determine the effectiveness of ELA-max on other painful procedures in children, as well as its safety.

  12. Link-topic model for biomedical abbreviation disambiguation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Seonho; Yoon, Juntae

    2015-02-01

    The ambiguity of biomedical abbreviations is one of the challenges in biomedical text mining systems. In particular, the handling of term variants and abbreviations without nearby definitions is a critical issue. In this study, we adopt the concepts of topic of document and word link to disambiguate biomedical abbreviations. We newly suggest the link topic model inspired by the latent Dirichlet allocation model, in which each document is perceived as a random mixture of topics, where each topic is characterized by a distribution over words. Thus, the most probable expansions with respect to abbreviations of a given abstract are determined by word-topic, document-topic, and word-link distributions estimated from a document collection through the link topic model. The model allows two distinct modes of word generation to incorporate semantic dependencies among words, particularly long form words of abbreviations and their sentential co-occurring words; a word can be generated either dependently on the long form of the abbreviation or independently. The semantic dependency between two words is defined as a link and a new random parameter for the link is assigned to each word as well as a topic parameter. Because the link status indicates whether the word constitutes a link with a given specific long form, it has the effect of determining whether a word forms a unigram or a skipping/consecutive bigram with respect to the long form. Furthermore, we place a constraint on the model so that a word has the same topic as a specific long form if it is generated in reference to the long form. Consequently, documents are generated from the two hidden parameters, i.e. topic and link, and the most probable expansion of a specific abbreviation is estimated from the parameters. Our model relaxes the bag-of-words assumption of the standard topic model in which the word order is neglected, and it captures a richer structure of text than does the standard topic model by considering

  13. Topical tags vs non-topical tags : Towards a bipartite classification?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Basile, Valerio; Peroni, Silvio; Tamburini, Fabio; Vitali, Fabio

    2015-01-01

    In this paper we investigate whether it is possible to create a computational approach that allows us to distinguish topical tags (i.e. talking about the topic of a resource) and non-topical tags (i.e. describing aspects of a resource that are not related to its topic) in folksonomies, in a way that

  14. Efficacy and short-term safety of topical Dwarf Elder (Sambucus ebulus L.) versus diclofenac for knee osteoarthritis: A randomized, double-blind, active-controlled trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jabbari, Marzie; Hashempur, Mohammad Hashem; Razavi, Seyede Zahra Emami; Shahraki, Hadi Raeisi; Kamalinejad, Mohammad; Emtiazy, Majid

    2016-07-21

    Sambucus ebulus L. (S. ebulus) has had long-standing application in Traditional Persian Medicine for joint pain and for a variety of bone and joint disorders. According to traditional use of S. ebulus and its relevant pharmacologic properties, this study was designed to evaluate the efficacy and short-term safety of topical use of S. ebulus in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA). Seventy nine patients with knee OA were randomly enrolled in 2 parallel arms of a pilot randomized, double-blind, active-controlled clinical trial. The patients were treated by topical S. ebulus gel or 1% diclofenac gel, three times a day, as much as a fingertip unit for 4 weeks. Patients were assessed prior to enrollment and, then, 2 and 4 weeks subsequent to the intervention, in terms of scores of visual analogue scale (VAS) for self-grading of their knee joint pain, and according to 3 different domains of Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) questionnaire. Any observed adverse effects were also scrutinized. The mean values of WOMAC pain score, total WOMAC score and VAS score for pain of the S. ebulus group were significantly lower compared with the diclofenac group (P=0.004, P=0.04, and P<0.001, respectively). In addition, no serious adverse effect was reported. This pilot study showed that topical treatment with S. ebulus gel can be recommended for alleviating symptoms of patients with knee OA. However, longer trials involving larger samples size, are needed for achieving a comprehensive understanding about the efficacy and safety of S. ebulus in knee OA. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

  15. Topics in millimeter wave technology

    CERN Document Server

    Button, Kenneth

    1988-01-01

    Topics in Millimeter Wave Technology, Volume 1 presents topics related to millimeter wave technology, including fin-lines and passive components realized in fin-lines, suspended striplines, suspended substrate microstrips, and modal power exchange in multimode fibers. A miniaturized monopulse assembly constructed in planar waveguide with multimode scalar horn feeds is also described. This volume is comprised of five chapters; the first of which deals with the analysis and synthesis techniques for fin-lines as well as the various passive components realized in fin-line. Tapers, discontinuities,

  16. Quantum mechanics II advanced topics

    CERN Document Server

    Rajasekar, S

    2015-01-01

    Quantum Mechanics II: Advanced Topics uses more than a decade of research and the authors’ own teaching experience to expound on some of the more advanced topics and current research in quantum mechanics. A follow-up to the authors introductory book Quantum Mechanics I: The Fundamentals, this book begins with a chapter on quantum field theory, and goes on to present basic principles, key features, and applications. It outlines recent quantum technologies and phenomena, and introduces growing topics of interest in quantum mechanics. The authors describe promising applications that include ghost imaging, detection of weak amplitude objects, entangled two-photon microscopy, detection of small displacements, lithography, metrology, and teleportation of optical images. They also present worked-out examples and provide numerous problems at the end of each chapter.

  17. An Overview of Short-term Statistical Forecasting Methods

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Elias, Russell J.; Montgomery, Douglas C.; Kulahci, Murat

    2006-01-01

    An overview of statistical forecasting methodology is given, focusing on techniques appropriate to short- and medium-term forecasts. Topics include basic definitions and terminology, smoothing methods, ARIMA models, regression methods, dynamic regression models, and transfer functions. Techniques...... for evaluating and monitoring forecast performance are also summarized....

  18. Topical Treatment for Stevens - Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis: A Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Schandra Purnamawati

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Background: Stevens - Johnson syndrome (SJS and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN are currently regarded to be same disease entity which differs only in the extent and severity of epidermal sloughing. Both are potentially life-threatening mucocutaneous immunologic reaction, which are most frequently induced by drug consumption. The epithelial destruction of skin and mucosal membrane can cause both acute as well as chronic/ long term outcomes in term of  late sequelae during the course of the disease. Sequelae often occur during the late phase of SJS/TEN and become a significant problem due its chronicity and severe degree of impairment, which leads to deterioration of quality of life for the patients. This may prevented or decreased in terms of intensity if the patient’s received prompt and sufficient topical therapy, particularly in managing lesions on the mucosa of the eye, oral, and genital. Objective : This review underlines topical therapies which could be delivered for management of mucocutaneous lesions from SJS/ TEN, aimed to prevent late sequelae due to SJS – TEN in order to improve the life quality of SJS – TEN survivors. Conclusion: SJS/ TEN frequently lead to late sequeale which includes skin, ocular, oral, and genital involvement. These sequelaes are often severe and chonic. Thus, may cause significant decrease in quality of life of SJS/TEN survivors. It is therefore most important to detect them early in order to manage them adequately. To date, we still have an impression that the specific sequelae of SJS – TEN are often late diagnosed and insufficiently treated. Finally, we want to emphasize that for mucosal involvement in particular, such as ocular, genital and oral involvement, a careful topical treatment have to be taken into special consideration in order to prevent severe late sequelae. 

  19. Link between Research, Development and Demonstration (RD and D) and Stakeholder Confidence: the Specific Aspect of Long-term Safety. Proceedings of a Topical Session, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France 6-8 June 2007

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2008-01-01

    The Forum on Stakeholder Confidence (FSC) was created under a mandate from the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency's Radioactive Waste Management Committee (RWMC) to facilitate the sharing of international experience in addressing the societal dimension of radioactive waste management. It explores means of ensuring an effective dialogue with the public, and considers ways to strengthen confidence in decision-making processes. NEA member countries nominate participants. The FSC today includes representatives of national regulators, implementing agencies, policy makers, and R and D scientists from 16 OECD countries and two international organisations. Each has experience in and/or responsibility for stakeholder interaction. The Forum was launched in August 2000, in Paris, and convenes a series of alternating regular meetings and workshops. The FSC is expected to identify specific issues of interest on which stakeholders can learn from one another and provide a platform for discussing and exchanging those issues. This topical session's emphasis on long-term safety is meant to complement the Programme of Work of the RWMC in this area and to create a bridge between the FSC and the more technically oriented groups of the RWMC, e.g., the Integration Group for the Safety Case (IGSC) and the Regulators' Forum. These Proceedings are meant to provide a record that can be used by a wide spectrum of stakeholders and decision-makers. They include: a) An executive summary of the topical presentations, and of the discussion they sparked within the FSC; b) Texts and Power Point presentations provided by the speakers at the Topical Session

  20. Development and Evaluation of Topical Gabapentin Formulations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christopher J. Martin

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Topical delivery of gabapentin is desirable to treat peripheral neuropathic pain conditions whilst avoiding systemic side effects. To date, reports of topical gabapentin delivery in vitro have been variable and dependent on the skin model employed, primarily involving rodent and porcine models. In this study a variety of topical gabapentin formulations were investigated, including Carbopol® hydrogels containing various permeation enhancers, and a range of proprietary bases including a compounded Lipoderm® formulation; furthermore microneedle facilitated delivery was used as a positive control. Critically, permeation of gabapentin across a human epidermal membrane in vitro was assessed using Franz-type diffusion cells. Subsequently this data was contextualised within the wider scope of the literature. Although reports of topical gabapentin delivery have been shown to vary, largely dependent upon the skin model used, this study demonstrated that 6% (w/w gabapentin 0.75% (w/w Carbopol® hydrogels containing 5% (w/w DMSO or 70% (w/w ethanol and a compounded 10% (w/w gabapentin Lipoderm® formulation were able to facilitate permeation of the molecule across human skin. Further pre-clinical and clinical studies are required to investigate the topical delivery performance and pharmacodynamic actions of prospective formulations.

  1. Randomised controlled trial evaluating the short-term analgesic effect of topical diclofenac on chronic Achilles tendon pain: a pilot study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bussin, Erin Rebecca; Cairns, Brian; Bovard, Jim; Scott, Alexander

    2017-05-04

    To determine if a topically applied non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (diclofenac) can provide short-term pain relief for chronic Achilles tendinopathy (CAT), in order to inform the development of a new rehabilitation protocol. Pilot double-blind, cross-over randomised controlled trial providing participants with tertiary care. The study was conducted at a single research centre in Vancouver, BC. Sixteen adults with unilateral CAT and three adults with bilateral CAT participated. Participants received two successive treatments (10% diclofenac gel or placebo gel) in random order over a 3-day period. There was a 1-week washout period between the treatments. Allocation was by simple randomisation, and the participants as well as the assessing/treating researcher were blinded to treatment allocation. The primary outcome measure was pain level (0-10) during tendon loading (hopping). Secondary outcome measures included pain at rest, pressure pain threshold of the Achilles tendon and symptom improvement. Nineteen adults participated in the study, and all were included in the analysis. Diclofenac gel significantly reduced the average pain during tendon loading (pdiclofenac. Pain at rest was decreased and pressure pain threshold increased with diclofenac treatment, but not with placebo gel. There were no observed or reported side effects of either treatment. In this small, short-term study, diclofenac was able to improve symptoms and reduce pain during tendon loading in participants with CAT, whereas placebo gel was not. A future study of diclofenac as a supplement to rehabilitation, with longer follow-up and powered to detect a difference between diclofenac and placebo, is indicated. ISRCTN60151284, http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN60151284 ETHICS: UBC Clinical Research Ethics Board approval was obtained for this research. The certificate number of the ethics certificate of approval to conduct research is H15-00999. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise

  2. Managment of superficial infantile capillary hemangiomas with topical timolol maleate solution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rizvi, Syed Ali Raza; Yusuf, Faraz; Sharma, Rajeev; Rizvi, Syed Wajahat Ali

    2015-01-01

    Capillary hemangioma is the most common benign tumor of eyelids and orbit in children. Recently, a topical beta blocker has been reported as an effective treatment for superficial capillary hemangiomas. We present a case report of two children having large capillary hemangiomas who responded well to topical treatment by 0.5% timolol maleate solution. After 12 months of treatment, the lesion has significantly reduced in size, thickness, and color in both cases. Thus, we conclude that long-term use of topical 0.5% timolol maleate solution is safe and effective in treating superficial capillary hemangiomas.

  3. Common Core: Teaching Optimum Topic Exploration (TOTE)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karge, Belinda Dunnick; Moore, Roxane Kushner

    2015-01-01

    The Common Core has become a household term and yet many educators do not understand what it means. This article explains the historical perspectives of the Common Core and gives guidance to teachers in application of Teaching Optimum Topic Exploration (TOTE) necessary for full implementation of the Common Core State Standards. An effective…

  4. Task-Driven Comparison of Topic Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alexander, Eric; Gleicher, Michael

    2016-01-01

    Topic modeling, a method of statistically extracting thematic content from a large collection of texts, is used for a wide variety of tasks within text analysis. Though there are a growing number of tools and techniques for exploring single models, comparisons between models are generally reduced to a small set of numerical metrics. These metrics may or may not reflect a model's performance on the analyst's intended task, and can therefore be insufficient to diagnose what causes differences between models. In this paper, we explore task-centric topic model comparison, considering how we can both provide detail for a more nuanced understanding of differences and address the wealth of tasks for which topic models are used. We derive comparison tasks from single-model uses of topic models, which predominantly fall into the categories of understanding topics, understanding similarity, and understanding change. Finally, we provide several visualization techniques that facilitate these tasks, including buddy plots, which combine color and position encodings to allow analysts to readily view changes in document similarity.

  5. Topical cyclosporine for atopic keratoconjunctivitis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    González-López, Julio J; López-Alcalde, Jesús; Morcillo Laiz, Rafael; Fernández Buenaga, Roberto; Rebolleda Fernández, Gema

    2012-09-12

    Ophthalmologica Europaea from 2005 to July 2011. We included randomised controlled trials only. Two review authors independently extracted data. Due to the small number of studies and the diversity of outcome measures, interventions and participants, we presented results narratively. We found three RCTs with a total of 58 participants that were eligible for inclusion. There was significant variability between the trials in interventions, methodology and outcome measures and therefore we did not perform meta-analysis.One study reported on the use of 2% CsA in maize oil and two on the use of a commercial emulsion of 0.05% CsA. Of these three studies, one showed a beneficial effect of topical CsA in controlling signs and symptoms of AKC, one in controlling signs of AKC and one did not show evidence of an improvement. Only two studies analysed the effect of topical CsA in reducing topical steroid use; one showed a significant reduction in topical steroid use with CsA, but the other did not show evidence of this improvement. No serious adverse events were reported in the trials. This systematic review highlights the relative scarcity of controlled clinical trials assessing the efficacy of topical CsA therapy in AKC and suggests that evidence on the efficacy and safety of topical CsA treatment in patients with CsA remains limited. However, the data suggest that topical CsA may provide clinical and symptomatic relief in AKC and may help to reduce topical steroid use in patients with steroid-dependent or steroid-resistant AKC. No serious adverse events were reported. Reported adverse events in patients treated with topical CsA include intense stinging and eyelid skin maceration. One patient in the placebo group developed a severe allergic response to maize antigens. However, the total number of patients in the trials was too small to assess the safety of this treatment.Additional well-designed and powered RCTs of topical CsA in AKC are needed. Ideal study designs should include adequate

  6. Knowledge-Based Topic Model for Unsupervised Object Discovery and Localization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niu, Zhenxing; Hua, Gang; Wang, Le; Gao, Xinbo

    Unsupervised object discovery and localization is to discover some dominant object classes and localize all of object instances from a given image collection without any supervision. Previous work has attempted to tackle this problem with vanilla topic models, such as latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA). However, in those methods no prior knowledge for the given image collection is exploited to facilitate object discovery. On the other hand, the topic models used in those methods suffer from the topic coherence issue-some inferred topics do not have clear meaning, which limits the final performance of object discovery. In this paper, prior knowledge in terms of the so-called must-links are exploited from Web images on the Internet. Furthermore, a novel knowledge-based topic model, called LDA with mixture of Dirichlet trees, is proposed to incorporate the must-links into topic modeling for object discovery. In particular, to better deal with the polysemy phenomenon of visual words, the must-link is re-defined as that one must-link only constrains one or some topic(s) instead of all topics, which leads to significantly improved topic coherence. Moreover, the must-links are built and grouped with respect to specific object classes, thus the must-links in our approach are semantic-specific , which allows to more efficiently exploit discriminative prior knowledge from Web images. Extensive experiments validated the efficiency of our proposed approach on several data sets. It is shown that our method significantly improves topic coherence and outperforms the unsupervised methods for object discovery and localization. In addition, compared with discriminative methods, the naturally existing object classes in the given image collection can be subtly discovered, which makes our approach well suited for realistic applications of unsupervised object discovery.Unsupervised object discovery and localization is to discover some dominant object classes and localize all of object

  7. Influence of number of topics, topic duration, and curricular focus on biology achievement of Population 3 TIMSS countries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hodges, Eddie Louis

    The purposes of this study were to determine if a relationship exists between biology achievement and (1) number of topics, (2) topic duration, (3) curricular focus, and (4) science achievement using TIMSS data from Population 3---the final year of secondary school. Students included in this study were subsets of the 55,675 students from 22 countries who participated in the science literacy portion of TIMSS at the Population 3 level (IEA, 1997). The sample included in this study for the four research questions were comprised of between (1) 17,769 and 37,794 students from 15 countries, (2) 17,769 and 37,794 students from 15 countries, (3) 21,715 and 46,458 students from 18 countries, and (4) 19,518 and 46,458 students from 18 countries, respectively. A Pearson's product moment correlation was used to determine whether a relationship exists between the number of biology topics addressed by intended national science curricula and mean student achievement on selected items by country. No statistically significant correlation was found by country between biology achievement and number of topics. To determine whether a relationship exists between the topic duration of biology topics addressed by released, biology-oriented, Population 3 Science Literacy items and student achievement on those items, a Pearson's product moment correlation was also used. A statistically significant correlation between biology achievement and topic duration for only one topic (Interdependence of Life) was found at the .05 level of significance. A possible relationship between the degree of curricular focus of Population 3 TIMSS countries and student achievement on selected items by country was evaluated using a Pearson's product moment correlation. No statistically significant correlation by country between biology achievement and degree of curricular focus was found. A Pearson's product moment correlation was used to determine whether a relationship exists between science literacy

  8. Selected topics in e+e- physics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sau Lan Wu

    1981-01-01

    Selected topics of recent experimental results from the high-energy electron-positron storage rings are presented. The topics include some of the tau and charm physics from SPEAR, the upsilon physics from DORIS and CESR, and the γγ physics and quark and gluon physics from the PLUTO and TASSO Collaborations at PETRA. Related data from the JADE and MARK J Collaborations at PETRA are discussed in separated papers at this school. (orig.)

  9. SETI: A good introductory physics topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hobson, Art

    1997-04-01

    If America is to achieve the science literacy that is essential to industrialized democracy, all students must study such topics as scientific methodology, pseudoscience, ozone depletion, and global warming. My large-enrollment liberal-arts physics course covers the great principles of physics along with several such philosophical and societal topics. It is easy to include the interdisciplinary context of physics in courses for non-scientists, because these courses are flexible, conceptual, and taught to students whose interests span a broad range. Students find these topics relevant and fascinating, leading to large enrollments by non-scientists even in courses labeled ''physics.'' I will discuss my approach to teaching the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI), a topic with lots of good physics and with connections to scientific methodology and pseudoscience. A textbook for this kind of course has been published, Physics: Concepts and Connections (Prentice-Hall, 1995).

  10. Topical phenytoin for treating pressure ulcers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hao, Xiang Yong; Li, Hong Ling; Su, He; Cai, Hui; Guo, Tian Kang; Liu, Ruifeng; Jiang, Lei; Shen, Yan Fei

    2017-02-22

    Pressure ulcers are common in clinical practice and pose a significant health problem worldwide. Apart from causing suffering to patients, they also result in longer hospital stays and increase the cost of health care. A variety of methods are used for treating pressure ulcers, including pressure relief, patient repositioning, biophysical strategies, nutritional supplementation, debridement, topical negative pressure, and local treatments including dressings, ointments and creams such as bacitracin, silver sulphadiazine, neomycin, and phenytoin. Phenytoin is a drug more commonly used in the treatment of epilepsy, but may play an important role in accelerating ulcer healing. To assess the effects of topical phenytoin on the rate of healing of pressure ulcers of any grade, in any care setting. In September 2016, we searched the following electronic databases to identify relevant randomized clinical trials: the Cochrane Wounds Specialised Register; the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL; the Cochrane Library); Ovid MEDLINE; Ovid Embase; and EBSCO CINAHL Plus. We handsearched conference proceedings from the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel, European Wound Management Association and the Tissue Viability Society for all available years. We searched the references of the retrieved trials to identify further relevant trials. We also searched clinical trials registries to identify ongoing and unpublished studies. There were no restrictions with respect to language, date of publication or study setting. We included all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) addressing the effects (both benefits and harms) of topical phenytoin on the healing of pressure ulcers of any grade compared with placebo or alternative treatments or no therapy, irrespective of blinding, language, and publication status. Two review authors independently selected studies, extracted information on participants, interventions, methods and results and assessed risk of bias using

  11. Changing the Topic. Topic Position in Ancient Greek Word Order

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Allan, R.J.

    2014-01-01

    Ancient Greek, topics can be expressed as intra-clausal constituents but they can also precede or follow the main clause as extra-clausal constituents. Together, these various topic expressions constitute a coherent system of complementary pragmatic functions. For a comprehensive account of topic

  12. Armenian media coverage of science topics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mkhitaryan, Marie

    2016-12-01

    The article discusses features and issues of Armenian media coverage on scientific topics and provides recommendations on how to promote scientific topics in media. The media is more interested in social or public reaction rather than in scientific information itself. Medical science has a large share of the global media coverage. It is followed by articles about environment, space, technology, physics and other areas. Armenian media mainly tends to focus on a scientific topic if at first sight it contains something revolutionary. Media primarily reviews whether that scientific study can affect the Armenian economy and only then decides to refer to it. Unfortunately, nowadays the perception of science is a little distorted in media. We can often see headlines of news where is mentioned that the scientist has made "an invention". Nowadays it is hard to see the border between a scientist and an inventor. In fact, the technological term "invention" attracts the media by making illusionary sensation and ensuring large audience. The report also addresses the "Gitamard" ("A science-man") special project started in 2016 in Mediamax that tells about scientists and their motivations.

  13. Ten badly explained topics in most corporate finance books

    OpenAIRE

    Fernandez, Pablo

    2012-01-01

    This paper addresses 10 corporate finance topics that are not well treated (or not treated at all) in many Corporate Finance Books. The topics are: 1. Where does the WACC equation come from? 2. The WACC is not a cost. 3. What is the WACC equation when the value of the debt is not equal to its nominal value? 4. The term equity premium is used to designate four different concepts. 5. Textbooks differ a lot on their recommendations regarding the equity premium. 6. Which Equity Premium is used by...

  14. Use of topical tranexamic acid or aminocaproic acid to prevent bleeding after major surgical procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ipema, Heather J; Tanzi, Maria G

    2012-01-01

    To evaluate the literature describing topical use of tranexamic acid or aminocaproic acid for prevention of postoperative bleeding after major surgical procedures. Literature was retrieved through MEDLINE (1946-September 2011) and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (1970-September 2011) using the terms tranexamic acid, aminocaproic acid, antifibrinolytic, topical, and surgical. In addition, reference citations from publications identified were reviewed. All identified articles in English were evaluated. Clinical trials, case reports, and meta-analyses describing topical use of tranexamic acid or aminocaproic acid to prevent postoperative bleeding were included. A total of 16 publications in the setting of major surgical procedures were included; the majority of data were for tranexamic acid. For cardiac surgery, 4 trials used solutions containing tranexamic acid (1-2.5 g in 100-250 mL of 0.9% NaCl), and 1 trial assessed a solution containing aminocaproic acid (24 g in 250 mL of 0.9% NaCl). These solutions were poured into the chest cavity before sternotomy closure. For orthopedic procedures, all of the data were for topical irrigation solutions containing tranexamic acid (500 mg-3 g in 50-100 mL of 0.9% NaCl) or for intraarticular injections of tranexamic acid (250 mg to 2 g in 20-50 mL of 0.9% sodium chloride, with or without carbazochrome sodium sulfate). Overall, use of topical tranexamic acid or aminocaproic acid reduced postoperative blood loss; however, few studies reported a significant reduction in the number of packed red blood cell transfusions or units given, intensive care unit stay, or length of hospitalization. Topical application of tranexamic acid and aminocaproic acid to decrease postsurgical bleeding after major surgical procedures is a promising strategy. Further data are needed regarding the safety of this hemostatic approach.

  15. Topics in field theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Velasco, E.S.

    1986-01-01

    This dissertation deals with several topics of field theory. Chapter I is a brief outline of the work presented in the next chapters. In chapter II, the Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem for manifolds with boundary is computed using the path integral representation of the Witten index for supersymmetric quantum mechanical systems. In chapter III the action of N = 2 (Poincare) supergravity is obtained in terms of N = 1 superfields. In chapter IV, N = 2 supergravity coupled to the (abelian) vector multiplet is projected into N - 1 superspace. There, the resulting set of constraints is solved in terms of unconstrained prepotential and the action in terms of N = 1 superfields is constructed. In chapter V the set of constraints for N = 2 conformal supergravity is projected into N = 1 superspace and solved in terms of N = 1 conformal supergravity fields a d matter prepotentials. In chapter VI the role of magnetic monopoles in the phase structure of the change one fixed length abelian Higgs model ins the latticer is investigated using analytic and numerical methods. The technique of monopole suppression is used to determine the phase transition lines that are monopole driven. Finally in chapter VII, the role of the charge of the Higgs field in the abelian Higgs model in the lattice is investigated

  16. Photocarcinogenicity of selected topically applied dermatological drugs: calcineurin inhibitors, corticosteroids, and vitamin D analogs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catharina Margrethe Lerche

    2010-09-01

    Full Text Available Topical therapies constitute the mainstay of dermatological treatments for skin disorders, such as atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis, psoriasis, or acne. Since some of these diseases are often chronic, treatment duration may last for years and may even last the patient’s entire lifetime. Obviously, such long-term therapy may raise safety concerns, which also include the potential photocarcinogenic effect. Most patients are exposed to ultraviolet radiation (UVR during leisure, work, vacations, or in tanning beds. Additionally, the patients may receive UVR via UVB phototherapy or psoralens plus UVA radiation (PUVA. The use of immunosuppressant’s, such as corticosteroids and calcineurin inhibitors, has markedly increased. Patients with skin diseases have benefited from both systemic and topical treatment of both new and established drugs. The issue of a black box warning by the US Food and Drug Administration has increased concerns about photocarcinogenesis, which raises the question: “Are these drugs safe?” This review focuses on the mechanism of action and photocarcinogenic potential of commonly used topical treatments, such as corticosteroids, calcineurin inhibitors, and vitamin D analogs.

  17. Topical herbal remedies for treatment of joint pain according to Iranian Traditional Medicine

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Ziaei

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Joint pain is one of the most common complaints with many possible causes.Some medicines used for joint pain relief such as NSAIDs have substantial and frequent side effects. Topical route possibly reduces adverse reactions by maximizing local delivery and minimizing systemic toxicity. Throughout history, plants have been the most important sources of medicines for human health and Iranian Traditional Medicine (ITM is well known for its extensive use of herbal medicines to treat diseases accompanied with joint pain for centuries. In the present study, the plants used topically for relieving joint pain in ITM were searched. Moreover, their pharmacological effectiveness in modern medicine was reviewed. The terms “Waja mafasil” (joint pain, “Waja-ol-mafasil” (joint pain, “Irq-on-nasa” (sciatica, “Waja-ol-warik” (coxalgia, ‘Waja-ol-zahr” (back pain, “Waja-ol-rakbah” (knee pain and “Niqris” (gout were searched in three important Iranian traditional books including “Canon”, “Al-Hawi” and “Tohfat al-mu’minin” and topical preparations introduced as “Tela” and “Zemad” were selected. The scientific literatures were searched for their effectiveness related to the analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities. Thirty five plants were selected on the basis of their topical use to relief joint pain. Among these plants, 22 species have been found to exhibit anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities.

  18. Summary record of the topical session of 12. Meeting of the IGSC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bailey, Lucy; Hunt, N.

    2010-01-01

    The objectives for this topical session were: - Explore issues of optimisation - what does it mean in practice? - Can we clarify the principles of optimisation? - To what extent is the process of optimisation more important than the end results? - Learn from experience in national programs; - Case studies from programs at different stages; - How have optimisation principles been applied in real program decisions? - How are optimisation arguments presented in safety cases? - Are there any optimisation issues that could benefit from further IGSC work? Key topics discussed in the opening remarks included: - Balance: this includes long-term safety versus near-term operational safety and the issue of safety versus cost; - Integration: this relates to how optimisation is implemented at different program stages, the implications of site selection (i.e., volunteer site versus 'best' site) and stakeholder acceptability; - Regulatory Perspective: this considers how different factors (such as dose, risk, cost, robustness, etc.) should be weighted and the optimisation arguments that regulators are expecting; - Process: the 'who', 'what' and 'when' of optimisation. Presentations from selected national programs provided case studies in optimisation for a range of situations: NEA: Optimisation of the System of Decommissioning Waste Production through Disposal; UK: NDA Approach on Upstream and Disposal System Optioneering; Germany: Methods to Support Comparison of Sites for Deep Geological Disposal of Radioactive Waste; France: Presentation on Optimisation in Siting Decisions; Finland: Comparison and Evaluation of KBS-3 Horizontal and Vertical Options; USA: Optimisation at WIPP Based on 11 Years of Operational Experience. Following the presentations, the floor was opened to discussion around the following topics: What are the key issues? Which would benefit from IGSC attention? What further work is warranted by the IGSC and on what time frame? The discussion was widely ranging and

  19. COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TOPICAL MOMETASONE FUROATE 0.1%, TOPICAL 0.03% TACROLIMUS, TOPICAL BASIC FIBROBLAST GROWTH FACTOR (bFGF IN CHILDHOOD VITILIGO

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kavitha S. B

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND Vitiligo, the commonest of all pigmentary disorders, is an idiopathic, acquired cutaneous achromia, characterised by circumscribed, chalky white macules. It may also involve the pigment epithelium of the eyes, the inner ear and the leptomeninges. Although, vitiligo can begin at any age, it develops before the age of 20 years in 50% of the patients and before the age of 10 years in 25% of patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was conducted for a period of one year with 6 months active intervention. A group of 60 consecutive children attending the outpatient Department of Dermatology were included in this study. The same patients were acting as controls. RESULTS Grade 4 response was seen in 12 cases (60% who were on mometasone (VV-20%, focal-30%, segmental-10%, in 10 cases (50% on tacrolimus (VV-20%, focal-30% and in 4 cases (20% on bFGF (focal. Lesions on the face and neck showed grade 4 response in 16 cases (mometasone-8, tacrolimus-6 and bFGF-2, extremities in 6 cases. On the whole grade, 4 response was observed more with mometasone (60% followed by tacrolimus (50%. Grade 3 response was observed with bFGF (30%. CONCLUSION Topical mometasone was very effective among the 3 drugs used in childhood vitiligo showing grade 4 repigmentation in all types of vitiligo except mucosal vitiligo. Tacrolimus proved almost as effective as mometasone to restore skin colour in lesions of vitiligo in children. Because it does not produce atrophy or other adverse effects, tacrolimus may be very useful for younger patients, and for sensitive areas of the skin such as eyelids, it should be considered in other skin disorders currently treated with topical steroids for prolonged periods. Topical basic fibroblast growth factor though less effective than mometasone and tacrolimus, but can be tried as initial therapy in resistant cases such as segmental vitiligo as initial therapy of small vitiligo patches when physicians may not like to initiate high risk

  20. InfoPoems: Various Topics | | South African Family Practice

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Topics: 1.Medications help passage of kidney stones. 2.Limited data on probiotics to prevent antibiotic induced diarrhea in kids. 3.Best way to perform lumbar puncture and analyze results. 4.Acupuncture effective for long-term back pain relief. InfoPOEMs® keep you current and answers your clinical medicine questions at ...

  1. Topical antifungal agents: an update.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Diehl, K B

    1996-10-01

    So many topical antifungal agents have been introduced that it has become very difficult to select the proper agent for a given infection. Nonspecific agents have been available for many years, and they are still effective in many situations. These agents include Whitfield's ointment, Castellani paint, gentian violet, potassium permanganate, undecylenic acid and selenium sulfide. Specific antifungal agents include, among others, the polyenes (nystatin, amphotericin B), the imidazoles (metronidazole, clotrimazole) and the allylamines (terbinafine, naftifine). Although the choice of an antifungal agent should be based on an accurate diagnosis, many clinicians believe that topical miconazole is a relatively effective agent for the treatment of most mycotic infections. Terbinafine and other newer drugs have primary fungicidal effects. Compared with older antifungal agents, these newer drugs can be used in lower concentrations and shorter therapeutic courses. Studies are needed to evaluate the clinical efficacies and cost advantages of both newer and traditional agents.

  2. An overview of topical treatment for atopic eczema | Motswaledi ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... on the elbows and knees in younger children, and the cubital and popliteal fossae in older children and adults. Treatment modalities include emollients, topical corticosteroids, calcineurin inhibitors, phototherapy and immunosuppressive therapy. This article provides a brief overview of topical treatments for atopic eczema.

  3. Intravenous versus topical tranexamic acid administration in primary total knee arthroplasty: a meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shin, Young-Soo; Yoon, Jung-Ro; Lee, Hoon-Nyun; Park, Se-Hwan; Lee, Dae-Hee

    2017-11-01

    This meta-analysis was designed to compare the effectiveness and safety of intravenous (IV) versus topical administration of tranexamic acid (TXA) in patients undergoing primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) by evaluating the need for allogenic blood transfusion, incidence of postoperative complications, volume of postoperative blood loss, and change in haemoglobin levels. Studies were included in this meta-analysis to check whether they assessed the allogenic blood transfusion rate, postoperative complications including pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) or deep vein thrombosis (DVT), volume of postoperative blood loss via drainage, estimated blood loss, total blood loss, and change in haemoglobin levels before and after surgery in primary TKA with TXA administered through both the IV and topical routes. Ten studies were included in this meta-analysis. The proportion of patients requiring allogenic blood transfusion (OR 1.34, 95 % CI 0.63-2.81; n.s.) and the proportion of patients who developed postoperative complications including PTE or DVT (OR 0.85, 95 % CI 0.41 to 1.77; n.s.) did not significantly differ between the two groups. There was 52.3 mL less blood loss via drainage (95 % CI -50.74 to 185.66 mL; n.s.), 52.1 mL greater estimated blood loss (95 % CI -155.27 to 51.03 mL; n.s.), and 51.4 mL greater total blood loss (95 % CI -208.16 to 105.31 mL; n.s.) in the topical TXA group as compared to the IV TXA group. The two groups were also similar in terms of the change in haemoglobin levels (0.02 g/dL, 95 % CI -0.36 to 0.39 g/dL; n.s.). In primary TKA, there are no significant differences in the transfusion requirement, postoperative complications, blood loss, and change in haemoglobin levels between the IV and topical administration of TXA. In addition, results from subgroup analysis evaluating the effect of the times of TXA administration through the IV route suggested that double IV dose of TXA is more effective than single dose in terms of the

  4. Treatment of ocular rosacea:comparative study of topical cyclosporine and oral doxycycline

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aysegul Arman

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available AIM:To compare the effectiveness of topical cyclosporine A emulsion with that of oral doxycycline for rosacea associated ocular changes and dry eye complaints.METHODS:One hundred and ten patients with rosacea were screened. Thirty-eight patients having rosacea associated eyelid and ocular surface changes and dry eye complaints were included in the study. Patients were randomly divided into two groups:nineteen patients were given topical cyclosporine twice daily and nineteen patients were given oral doxycycline 100 mg twice daily for the first month and once daily for the following two months. Symptom and sign scores, ocular surface disease index questionnarie and tear function tests were evaluated at baseline and monthly for 3mo. Three months after results were compared with that of baseline.RESULTS:Mean values of symptom, eyelid sign and corneal/conjunctival sign scores of each treatment group at baseline and 3mo after treatments were compared and both drugs were found to be effective on rosacea associated ocular changes (P<0.001. Cyclosporine was more effective in symptomatic relief and in the treatment of eyelid signs (P=0.01. There was statistically significant increase in the mean Schirmer score with anesthesia and tear break up time scores in the cyclosporine treatment group compared to the doxycycline treatment group (P<0.05.CONCLUSION:Cyclosporine as a topical drug can be used in the treatment of rosacea associated ocular complications because it is more effective than doxycycline. In addition ocular rosacea as a chronic disease requires long term treatment and doxycycline has various side effects limiting its long term usage.

  5. Topical thrombin preparations and their use in cardiac surgery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brianne L Dunn

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available Brianne L Dunn1, Walter E Uber1, John S Ikonomidis21Department of Pharmacy Services and 2Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, USAAbstract: Coagulopathic bleeding may lead to increased morbidity and mortality after cardiac surgery. Topical bovine thrombin has been used to promote hemostasis after surgical procedures for over 60 years and is used frequently as a topical hemostatic agent in cardiac surgery. Recently, use of bovine thrombin has been reported to be associated with increased risk for anaphylaxis, thrombosis, and immune-mediated coagulopathy thought secondary to the production of antifactor V and antithrombin antibodies. In patients who develop bovine thrombin-induced immune-mediated coagulopathy, clinical manifestations may range from asymptomatic alterations in coagulation tests to severe hemorrhage and death. Patients undergoing cardiac surgical procedures may be at increased risk for development of antibodies to bovine thrombin products and associated complications. This adverse immunologic profile has led to the development of alternative preparations including a human and a recombinant thrombin which have been shown to be equally efficacious to bovine thrombin and have reduced antigenicity. However, the potential benefit associated with reduced antigenicity is not truly known secondary to the lack of long-term experience with these products. Given the potentially higher margin of safety and less stringent storage concerns compared to human thrombin, recombinant thrombin may be the most reasonable approach in cardiac surgery.Keywords: bovine thrombin, human thrombin, recombinant thrombin, immune-mediated coagulopathy, topical hemostatic agents, thrombin 

  6. Radiation risks -a possible teaching topic

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Howes, R.W.

    1975-01-01

    Radiation risks has been the subject of hot debate since 1969 due in main to the energy crisis and the switch to nuclear power. Topics of this debate including; the controversy concerned with the late radiobiological effects of low level radiation, the social responsibility of modern scientists, the sometimes acrimonious discussion which has taken place over many years concerning radiation standards, and present day misgivings over the environmental aspect of the nuclear power programme, are discussed and suggestions are made of ways in which the topics could be introduced into teaching courses. (U.K.)

  7. Sentiment topic mining based on comment tags

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Daohai; Liu, Xue; Li, Juan; Fan, Mingyue

    2018-03-01

    With the development of e-commerce, various comments based on tags are generated, how to extract valuable information from these comment tags has become an important content of business management decisions. This study takes HUAWEI mobile phone tags as an example using the sentiment analysis and topic LDA mining method. The first step is data preprocessing and classification of comment tag topic mining. And then make the sentiment classification for comment tags. Finally, mine the comments again and analyze the emotional theme distribution under different sentiment classification. The results show that HUAWEI mobile phone has a good user experience in terms of fluency, cost performance, appearance, etc. Meanwhile, it should pay more attention to independent research and development, product design and development. In addition, battery and speed performance should be enhanced.

  8. Strategies of persuasion in offers to participate in cancer clinical trials I: Topic placement and topic framing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barton, Ellen; Eggly, Susan; Winckles, Andrew; Albrecht, Terrance L

    2014-01-01

    Clinical trials are the gold standard in medical research evaluating new treatments in cancer care; however, in the United States, too few patients enroll in trials, especially patients from minority groups. Offering patients the option of a clinical trial is an ethically-charged communicative event for oncologists. One particularly vexed ethical issue is the use of persuasion in trial offers. Based on a corpus of 22 oncology encounters with Caucasian-American (n = 11) and African-American (n = 11) patients, this discourse analysis describes oncologists' use of two persuasive strategies related to the linguistic structure of trial offers: topic placement and topic framing. Findings are presented in total and by patient race, and discussed in terms of whether these strategies may constitute ethical or unethical persuasion, particularly with respect to the ethical issue of undue influence and the social issue of underrepresentation of minorities in cancer clinical trials.

  9. Gastrointestinal Bleeding: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... are many possible causes of GI bleeding, including hemorrhoids , peptic ulcers , tears or inflammation in the esophagus, ... blood Show More Show Less Related Health Topics Hemorrhoids Peptic Ulcer National Institutes of Health The primary ...

  10. Evaluating topic models with stability

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    De Waal, A

    2008-11-01

    Full Text Available Topic models are unsupervised techniques that extract likely topics from text corpora, by creating probabilistic word-topic and topic-document associations. Evaluation of topic models is a challenge because (a) topic models are often employed...

  11. Topical tacrolimus for the treatment of severe allergic keratoconjunctivitis in children

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vera Lucia Liendo

    Full Text Available ABSTRACT Purpose: Administration of eye drops containing antihistamines or sodium cromoglycate and its derivatives for the treatment of allergic keratoconjunctivitis is often insufficient and usually requires the addition of corticosteroids. However, the risk of complications, such as glaucoma and cataract, limits the use of corticosteroids to short courses, resulting in inadequate long-term treatment response. Immunosuppressive drugs have been considered as a valid alternative to steroids for atopic keratoconjunctivitis and vernal keratoconjunctivitis. This study aimed to evaluate the use of topical tacrolimus (TCL in improving the clinical signs of severe allergic keratoconjuctivitis in children. Methods: Patients with severe allergic keratoconjunctivitis associated with corneal epitheliopathy, gelatinous limbal infiltrates, and/or papillary reaction, along with a history of recurrences and resistance to conventional topical anti-allergy agents, were included in this open clinical trial. Patients were treated with 0.03% TCL ointment for ocular use. A severity score ranging from 0 to 9, with 9 being the highest and 0 being the lowest, was assigned based on signs observed on biomicroscopy prior to and following TCL treatment. Results: Analyses included 66 eyes of 33 patients. After a mean follow-up period of 13 months (range, 12-29 months, TCL treatment significantly decreased the mean symptom score severity for the right (from 5.56 ± 1.18 to 2.76 ± 1.5; p<0.001 and left (from 5.94 ± 1.16 to 2.86 ± 1.64; p<0.001. Conclusion: Topical TCL was effective and significantly improved the clinical signs of allergic keratoconjuctivitis in children. Thus, it is a potential new option for severe and challenging cases of ocular allergy.

  12. Topical report review status

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1997-08-01

    This report provides industry with procedures for submitting topical reports, guidance on how the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) processes and responds to topical report submittals, and an accounting, with review schedules, of all topical reports currently accepted for review schedules, of all topical reports currently accepted for review by the NRC. This report will be published annually. Each sponsoring organization with one or more topical reports accepted for review copies

  13. eHealth Technologies as an intervention to improve adherence to topical antipsoriatics: a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Svendsen, Mathias Tiedemann; Andersen, Flemming; Andersen, Klaus Ejner

    2018-03-01

    Topical antipsoriatics are recommended first-line treatment of psoriasis, but rates of adherence are low. Patient support by use of electronic health (eHealth) services is suggested to improve medical adherence. To review randomised controlled trials (RCTs) testing eHealth interventions designed to improve adherence to topical antipsoriatics and to review applications for smartphones (apps) incorporating the word psoriasis. Literature review: Medline, Embase, Cochrane, PsycINFO and Web of Science were searched using search terms for eHealth, psoriasis and topical antipsoriatics. General analysis of apps: The operating systems (OS) for smartphones, iOS, Google Play, Microsoft Store, Symbian OS and Blackberry OS were searched for apps containing the word psoriasis. Literature review: Only one RCT was included, reporting on psoriasis patients' Internet reporting their status of psoriasis over a 12-month period. The rate of adherence was measured by Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS ® ). An improvement in medical adherence and reduction of severity of psoriasis were reported. General analysis of apps: A total 184 apps contained the word psoriasis. There is a critical need for high-quality RCTs testing if the ubiquitous eHealth technologies, for example, some of the numerous apps, can improve psoriasis patients' rates of adherence to topical antipsoriatics.

  14. Photobiology, photodermatology and sunscreens: a comprehensive overview. Part 2: topical and systemic photoprotection.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Celleno, L; Calzavara-Pinton, P; Sala, R; Arisi, M C; Bussoletti, C

    2013-02-01

    Sun exposure of the skin triggers several inflammatory pathways via a multitude of photochemical and photobiological effects. Furthermore, local and systemic immune suppression develops. The main clinical effects of UV exposure can be classified schematically into immediate, including sunburn, tanning, vitamin D production and exacerbation of inherited and acquired photosensitive skin disorders and long-term, including solar ageing and skin cancer. The protection against solar radiation is afforded by a healthy behavior of reasonable sun avoidance and the use of topical sunscreens as well as topical and oral antioxidants. However, users of sunscreen products should be able to choose correctly the most convenient product according to their needs. In Europe, the sun protection factor (SPF) and the UVA-protection factor (UVA-PF) are labeled to indicate the degree of protection against UVB and UVA, respectively. However, dermatologists must be aware that the present knowledge of UV effects on human skin needs to be clarified and several regulatory issues of photo-protection remain to be clarified and standardized. Finally, much work is needed to improve water resistance, spreadability, transparency and homogeneity of the sunscreen agents.

  15. Topics in field theory

    CERN Document Server

    Karpilovsky, G

    1989-01-01

    This monograph gives a systematic account of certain important topics pertaining to field theory, including the central ideas, basic results and fundamental methods.Avoiding excessive technical detail, the book is intended for the student who has completed the equivalent of a standard first-year graduate algebra course. Thus it is assumed that the reader is familiar with basic ring-theoretic and group-theoretic concepts. A chapter on algebraic preliminaries is included, as well as a fairly large bibliography of works which are either directly relevant to the text or offer supplementary material of interest.

  16. Treatment of ocular rosacea: comparative study of topical cyclosporine and oral doxycycline.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arman, Aysegul; Demirseren, Duriye Deniz; Takmaz, Tamer

    2015-01-01

    To compare the effectiveness of topical cyclosporine A emulsion with that of oral doxycycline for rosacea associated ocular changes and dry eye complaints. One hundred and ten patients with rosacea were screened. Thirty-eight patients having rosacea associated eyelid and ocular surface changes and dry eye complaints were included in the study. Patients were randomly divided into two groups: nineteen patients were given topical cyclosporine twice daily and nineteen patients were given oral doxycycline 100 mg twice daily for the first month and once daily for the following two months. Symptom and sign scores, ocular surface disease index questionnarie and tear function tests were evaluated at baseline and monthly for 3mo. Three months after results were compared with that of baseline. Mean values of symptom, eyelid sign and corneal/conjunctival sign scores of each treatment group at baseline and 3mo after treatments were compared and both drugs were found to be effective on rosacea associated ocular changes (Ptreatment of eyelid signs (P=0.01). There was statistically significant increase in the mean Schirmer score with anesthesia and tear break up time scores in the cyclosporine treatment group compared to the doxycycline treatment group (Ptreatment of rosacea associated ocular complications because it is more effective than doxycycline. In addition ocular rosacea as a chronic disease requires long term treatment and doxycycline has various side effects limiting its long term usage.

  17. Recent advances and perspectives in topical oral anesthesia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Franz-Montan, Michelle; Ribeiro, Lígia Nunes de Morais; Volpato, Maria Cristina; Cereda, Cintia Maria Saia; Groppo, Francisco Carlos; Tofoli, Giovana Randomille; de Araújo, Daniele Ribeiro; Santi, Patrizia; Padula, Cristina; de Paula, Eneida

    2017-05-01

    Topical anesthesia is widely used in dentistry to reduce pain caused by needle insertion and injection of the anesthetic. However, successful anesthesia is not always achieved using the formulations that are currently commercially available. As a result, local anesthesia is still one of the procedures that is most feared by dental patients. Drug delivery systems (DDSs) provide ways of improving the efficacy of topical agents. Areas covered: An overview of the structure and permeability of oral mucosa is given, followed by a review of DDSs designed for dental topical anesthesia and their related clinical trials. Chemical approaches to enhance permeation and anesthesia efficacy, or to promote superficial anesthesia, include nanostructured carriers (liposomes, cyclodextrins, polymeric nanoparticle systems, solid lipid nanoparticles, and nanostructured lipid carriers) and different pharmaceutical dosage forms (patches, bio- and mucoadhesive systems, and hydrogels). Physical methods include pre-cooling, vibration, iontophoresis, and microneedle arrays. Expert opinion: The combination of different chemical and physical methods is an attractive option for effective topical anesthesia in oral mucosa. This comprehensive review should provide the readers with the most relevant options currently available to assist pain-free dental anesthesia. The findings should be considered for future clinical trials.

  18. Syntacticized topics in Kurmuk

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Torben

    2015-01-01

    This article argues that Kurmuk, a little-described Western Nilotic language, is characterized by a syntacticized topic whose grammatical relation is variable. In this language, declarative clauses have as topic an obligatory preverbal NP which is either a subject, an object or an adjunct....... The grammatical relation of the topic is expressed by a voice-like inflection of the verb, here called orientation. While subject-orientation is morphologically unmarked, object-oriented and adjunct-oriented verbs are marked by a subject suffix or by a suffix indicating that the topic is not subject, and adjunct......-orientation differs from object-orientation by a marked tone pattern. Topic choice largely reflects information structure by indicating topic continuity. The topic also plays a crucial role in relative clauses and in clauses with contrastive constituent focus, in that objects and adjuncts can only be relativized...

  19. Health-related hot topic detection in online communities using text clustering.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yingjie Lu

    Full Text Available Recently, health-related social media services, especially online health communities, have rapidly emerged. Patients with various health conditions participate in online health communities to share their experiences and exchange healthcare knowledge. Exploring hot topics in online health communities helps us better understand patients' needs and interest in health-related knowledge. However, the statistical topic analysis employed in previous studies is becoming impractical for processing the rapidly increasing amount of online data. Automatic topic detection based on document clustering is an alternative approach for extracting health-related hot topics in online communities. In addition to the keyword-based features used in traditional text clustering, we integrate medical domain-specific features to represent the messages posted in online health communities. Three disease discussion boards, including boards devoted to lung cancer, breast cancer and diabetes, from an online health community are used to test the effectiveness of topic detection. Experiment results demonstrate that health-related hot topics primarily include symptoms, examinations, drugs, procedures and complications. Further analysis reveals that there also exist some significant differences among the hot topics discussed on different types of disease discussion boards.

  20. Eigenspace-based fuzzy c-means for sensing trending topics in Twitter

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muliawati, T.; Murfi, H.

    2017-07-01

    As the information and communication technology are developed, the fulfillment of information can be obtained through social media, like Twitter. The enormous number of internet users has triggered fast and large data flow, thus making the manual analysis is difficult or even impossible. An automated methods for data analysis is needed, one of which is the topic detection and tracking. An alternative method other than latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) is a soft clustering approach using Fuzzy C-Means (FCM). FCM meets the assumption that a document may consist of several topics. However, FCM works well in low-dimensional data but fails in high-dimensional data. Therefore, we propose an approach where FCM works on low-dimensional data by reducing the data using singular value decomposition (SVD). Our simulations show that this approach gives better accuracies in term of topic recall than LDA for sensing trending topic in Twitter about an event.

  1. Topical Session on Materials Management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2002-01-01

    At its second meeting, in Paris, 5-7 December 2001, the WPDD held two topical sessions on the D and D Safety Case and on the Management of Materials from D and D, respectively. This report documents the topical session on the management of materials. Presentations during the topical session covered key aspects of the management of materials and meant to provide an exchange of information and experience, including: Experience and lessons learnt from VLLW and non-radioactive material management in Spain and Germany with special attention to recycling (How specific solutions came about? Are there 'generic' examples for wider adoption?); Risk assessment of recycling and non-recycling: a CPD study; Waste acceptance issues within different national contexts (What constraints are there on the waste receiving body and what flexibility can the latter have? What constraints does this impose on D and D implementers? What about wastes are without current solution? What needs to be done? What about large items and 'difficult' waste in general?); Radiological characterisation of materials during decommissioning, particularly difficult situations - large volumes, large items,.. wastes, heterogeneous streams (What examples of established practice? What are the approaches or aspects that set the regulatory requirements? How can the flow rates be large but the answers acceptable? How much is needed to be known for later action, e. g., disposal, release, protection of worker, etc.); Radiological characterisation of buildings as they stand, in order to allow conventional demolition (What are strategies for optimisation of characterisation? How much needs to be known to take action later? e.g. for storage, disposal, release, cost estimation and ALARA? What needs to be done in advance and after decommissioning/dismantling?). At the end of each presentation time was allotted for discussion of the paper. Integral to the Topical Session was a facilitated plenary discussion on the topical

  2. Conference on Stochastic Analysis and Related Topics

    CERN Document Server

    Peterson, Jonathon

    2017-01-01

    The articles in this collection are a sampling of some of the research presented during the conference “Stochastic Analysis and Related Topics”, held in May of 2015 at Purdue University in honor of the 60th birthday of Rodrigo Bañuelos. A wide variety of topics in probability theory is covered in these proceedings, including heat kernel estimates, Malliavin calculus, rough paths differential equations, Lévy processes, Brownian motion on manifolds, and spin glasses, among other topics.

  3. Expansion of the relativistic Fokker-Planck equation including non-linear terms and a non-Maxwellian background

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shkarofsky, I.P.

    1997-01-01

    The relativistic Fokker-Planck collision term in Braams and Karney [Phys. Fluids B 1, 1355 (1989)] is expanded using Cartesian tensors (equivalent to associated Legendre spherical harmonics) retaining all non-linear terms and an arbitrary zeroth order distribution background. Expressions are given for collision terms between all harmonics and the background distribution in terms of the j and y functions in Braams and Karney. The results reduce to Braams and Karney for the first order harmonic term with a Maxwellian background and to those given by Shkarofsky [Can. J. Phys. 41, 1753 (1963)] in the non-relativistic limit. Expressions for the energy and momentum transfer associated with relativistic Coulomb collisions are given. The fast two dimensional Fokker-Planck solver in Shoucri and Shkarofsky [Comput. Phys. Commun. 82, 287 (1994)] has been extended to include the second order harmonic term. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics

  4. Nuclear Winter: Uncertainties Surround the Long-Term Effects of Nuclear War. Report to the Congress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    General Accounting Office, Washington, DC.

    Nuclear winter, a term used to describe potential long-term climate and environmental effects of nuclear war, has been a subject of debate and controversy. This report examines and presents scientific and policy implications of nuclear winter. Contents include: (1) an executive summary (highlighting previous and current studies on the topic); (2)…

  5. Topical Drugs for Pain Relief

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anjali Srinivasan

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Topical therapy helps patients with oral and perioral pain problems such as ulcers, burning mouth syndrome, temporomandibular disorders, neuromas, neuropathies and neuralgias. Topical drugs used in the field of dentistry are topical anaesthetics, topical analgesics, topical antibiotics and topical corticosteroids. It provides symptomatic/curative effect. Topical drugs are easy to apply, avoids hepatic first pass metabolism and more sites specific. But it can only be used for medications that require low plasma concentrations to achieve a therapeutic effect.

  6. Periorbital muscle atrophy associated with topical bimatoprost therapy

    OpenAIRE

    Wang, Priscilla Xinhui; Koh, Victor Teck Chang; Cheng, Jin Fong

    2014-01-01

    Priscilla Xinhui Wang, Victor Teck Chang Koh, Jin Fong ChengDepartment of Ophthalmology, National University Health System, SingaporeAbstract: Topical Bimatoprost is a common and popular prostaglandin analog used as an ocular hypotensive agent in the treatment of glaucoma. Side effects include ocular hyperaemia, ocular pruritus, and periocular and iris pigmentary changes. Perioribital lipodystrophy is another well-documented outcome associated with chronic use of topical bimatoprost, which re...

  7. EMaCC: FY-1978 topical area report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1979-04-01

    Materials research and development in the energy program are briefly described. Topics reviewed include joining of materials, elastomers, catalysts and catalytic effect, radiation effects, superconductivity, cement, concrete, and alternate materials

  8. Global health ethics: an introduction to prominent theories and relevant topics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stapleton, Greg; Schröder-Bäck, Peter; Laaser, Ulrich; Meershoek, Agnes; Popa, Daniela

    2014-01-01

    Global health ethics is a relatively new term that is used to conceptualize the process of applying moral value to health issues that are typically characterized by a global level effect or require action coordinated at a global level. It is important to acknowledge that this account of global health ethics takes a predominantly geographic approach and may infer that the subject relates primarily to macro-level health phenomena. However, global health ethics could alternatively be thought of as another branch of health ethics. It may then relate to specific topics in themselves, which might also include micro-level health phenomena. In its broadest sense, global health ethics is a normative project that is best characterized by the challenge of developing common values and universal norms for responding to global health threats. Consequently, many subjects fall within its scope. Whilst several accounts of global health ethics have been conceptualized in the literature, a concise demarcation of the paradigm is still needed. Through means of a literature review, this paper presents a two-part introduction to global health ethics. First, the framework of 'borrowed' ethics that currently form the core of global health ethics is discussed in relation to two essential ethical considerations: 1) what is the moral significance of health and 2) what is the moral significance of boundaries? Second, a selection of exemplar ethical topics is presented to illustrate the range of topics within global health ethics.

  9. Global health ethics: an introduction to prominent theories and relevant topics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stapleton, Greg; Schröder-Bäck, Peter; Laaser, Ulrich; Meershoek, Agnes; Popa, Daniela

    2014-01-01

    Global health ethics is a relatively new term that is used to conceptualize the process of applying moral value to health issues that are typically characterized by a global level effect or require action coordinated at a global level. It is important to acknowledge that this account of global health ethics takes a predominantly geographic approach and may infer that the subject relates primarily to macro-level health phenomena. However, global health ethics could alternatively be thought of as another branch of health ethics. It may then relate to specific topics in themselves, which might also include micro-level health phenomena. In its broadest sense, global health ethics is a normative project that is best characterized by the challenge of developing common values and universal norms for responding to global health threats. Consequently, many subjects fall within its scope. Whilst several accounts of global health ethics have been conceptualized in the literature, a concise demarcation of the paradigm is still needed. Through means of a literature review, this paper presents a two-part introduction to global health ethics. First, the framework of ‘borrowed’ ethics that currently form the core of global health ethics is discussed in relation to two essential ethical considerations: 1) what is the moral significance of health and 2) what is the moral significance of boundaries? Second, a selection of exemplar ethical topics is presented to illustrate the range of topics within global health ethics. PMID:24560262

  10. Topical report review status

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1982-08-01

    A Topical Report Review Status is scheduled to be published semi-annually. The primary purpose of this document is to provide periodic progress reports of on-going topical report reviews, to identify those topical reports for which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff review has been completed and, to the extent practicable, to provide NRC management with sufficient information regarding the conduct of the topical report program to permit taking whatever actions deemed necessary or appropriate. This document is also intended to be a source of information to NRC Licensing Project Managers and other NRC personnel regarding the status of topical reports which may be referenced in applications for which they have responsibility. This status report is published primarily for internal NRC use in managing the topical report program, but is also used by NRC to advise the industry of report review status

  11. Topical report review status

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1983-01-01

    A Topical Report Review Status is scheduled to be published semi-annually. The primary purpose of this document is to provide periodic progress reports of on-going topical report reviews, to identify those topical reports for which the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff review has been completed and, to the extent practicable, to provide NRC management with sufficient information regarding the conduct of the topical report program to permit taking whatever actions deemed necessary or appropriate. This document is also intended to be a source of information to NRC Licensing Project Managers and other NRC personnel regarding the status of topical reports which may be referenced in applications for which they have responsibility. This status report is published primarily for internal NRC use in managing the topical report program, but is also used by NRC to advise the industry of report review status

  12. Long term wet spent nuclear fuel storage

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1987-04-01

    The meeting showed that there is continuing confidence in the use of wet storage for spent nuclear fuel and that long-term wet storage of fuel clad in zirconium alloys can be readily achieved. The importance of maintaining good water chemistry has been identified. The long-term wet storage behaviour of sensitized stainless steel clad fuel involves, as yet, some uncertainties. However, great reliance will be placed on long-term wet storage of spent fuel into the future. The following topics were treated to some extent: Oxidation of the external surface of fuel clad, rod consolidation, radiation protection, optimum methods of treating spent fuel storage water, physical radiation effects, and the behaviour of spent fuel assemblies of long-term wet storage conditions. A number of papers on national experience are included

  13. 75 FR 26647 - Ophthalmic and Topical Dosage Form New Animal Drugs; Ivermectin Topical Solution

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-05-12

    .... FDA-2010-N-0002] Ophthalmic and Topical Dosage Form New Animal Drugs; Ivermectin Topical Solution... are treated with a topical solution of ivermectin. DATES: This rule is effective May 12, 2010. FOR... ANADA 200-340 for PRIVERMECTIN (ivermectin), a topical solution used on cattle to control infestations...

  14. eHealth Technologies as an Intervention to Improve Adherence to Topical Antipsoriatics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Svendsen, Mathias Tiedemann; Andersen, Flemming; Andersen, Klaus Ejner

    2018-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Topical antipsoriatics are recommended first-line treatment of psoriasis, but rates of adherence are low. Patient support by use of electronic health (eHealth) services is suggested to improve medical adherence. OBJECTIVE: To review randomised controlled trials (RCTs) testing eHealth...... interventions designed to improve adherence to topical antipsoriatics and to review applications for smartphones (apps) incorporating the word psoriasis. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Literature review: Medline, Embase, Cochrane, PsycINFO, and Web of Science were searched using search terms for eHealth, psoriasis....... CONCLUSION: There is a critical need for high-quality RCTs testing if the ubiquitous eHealth technologies, e.g. some of the numerous apps, can improve psoriasis patients' rates of adherence to topical antipsoriatics....

  15. Selected Topics in MicroNano-robotics for Biomedical Applications

    CERN Document Server

    2013-01-01

    Selected Topics in Micro/Nano-robotics for Biomedical Applications features a system approach and incorporates modern methodologies in autonomous mobile robots for programmable and controllable micro/nano-robots aiming at biomedical applications. The book provides chapters of instructional materials and cutting-edge research results in micro/nanorobotics for biomedical applications. The book presents new sensing technology on nanofibers, new power supply techniques including miniature fuel cells and energy harvesting devices, and manipulation techniques including AFM-based nano-robotic manipulation, robot-aided optical tweezers, and robot-assisted catheter surgery systems. It also contains case studies on using micro/nano-robots in biomedical environments and in biomedicine, as well as a design example to conceptually develop a Vitamin-pill sized robot to enter human’s gastrointestinal tract. Each chapter covers a different topic of the highly interdisciplinary area. Bring together the selected topics into ...

  16. Women's Health Topics

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Information by Audience For Women Women's Health Topics Women's Health Topics Share Tweet Linkedin Pin it More sharing options Linkedin Pin it Email Print National Women's Health Week May 13 - 19, 2018 Join us ...

  17. COGITA network has constructed a glossary of diagnostic reasoning terms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barais, Marie; Hauswaldt, Johannes; Dinant, Geert-Jan; van de Wiel, Margje; Stolper, C F Erik; Van Royen, Paul

    2017-12-01

    The role of gut feelings in diagnostic reasoning is recognized by most GPs throughout Europe, and probably throughout the world. Studies on this topic have emerged from different countries but there is the risk that authors will use different terms for similar concepts. The European Expert Group on Cognitive and Interactive Processes in Diagnosis and Management in General Practice, COGITA for short, was founded in 2008 to conduct cross-border research in the area of non-analytical diagnostic reasoning. Academic GPs, PhD students, psychologists, linguists and students meet once a year to share their experiences, exchange results and initiate new studies on the topic. A milestone in their research is this publication of a short glossary of diagnostic reasoning terms relating to the gut feelings research topic. It was constructed by the COGITA group members following a literature review, which aimed to define salient terms used in their publications. They described the terms, cross-reviewed the wording and reached consensus within the group. Two sections were created: (1) a diagnostic reasoning section that describes concepts such as analytical and non-analytical reasoning, clinical mind lines, and intuition, and (2) a research methods section describing concepts such as linguistic validity and saturation. The glossary, including relevant literature, has been published on the website http://www.gutfeelingsingeneralpractice.eu . In the future, the glossary will be modified if necessary and completed by members of the COGITA group. [Box: see text].

  18. Ring Keratitis Associated With Topical Abuse of a Dilute Anesthetic After Refractive Surgery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu-Chih Hou

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Anesthetic toxic keratitis is rare and presents as a ring keratitis, which is often misdiagnosed as Acanthamoeba keratitis. Here, we report an unusual case of toxic keratitis caused by topical abuse of a dilute anesthetic. A 26-year-old woman presented with bilateral corneal edema, ring infiltrates, pigmented keratic precipitate, Descemet's membrane folding, and strong anterior chamber reactions 2 weeks after laser subepithelial keratomileusis surgery. Tracing back her medical history, topical dilute 0.1% proparacaine was prescribed and frequently used for 1 month. Toxic keratitis was suspected. After discontinuation of the topical anesthetic and initiation of treatment with topical 20% autologous serum, complete corneal epithelialization was achieved within 1 week. Corneal infiltrates and anterior chamber reaction gradually subsided. Vision improved from finger counting to 20/20 in the right eye and 20/25 in the left eye, but confocal microscopy showed decreased corneal endothelial cells. Topical abuse of a dilute topical anesthetic can cause severe toxic keratitis and endothelial cell loss. The physician must be aware of the signs of topical anesthetic abuse and should not prescribe even a dilute anesthetic for long-term use. Autologous serum can help in the recovery of toxic keratitis.

  19. Topicality and Complexity in the Acquisition of Norwegian Object Shift

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderssen, Merete; Bentzen, Kristine; Rodina, Yulia

    2012-01-01

    This article investigates the acquisition of object shift in Norwegian child language. We show that object shift is complex derivationally, distributionally, and referentially, and propose a new analysis in terms of IP-internal topicalization. The results of an elicited production study with 27 monolingual Norwegian-speaking children (ages…

  20. COMET strongly supported the development and implementation of medium-term topical research roadmaps consistent with the ALLIANCE Strategic Research Agenda.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garnier-Laplace, J; Vandenhove, H; Beresford, N; Muikku, M; Real, A

    2018-03-01

    The ALLIANCE 6 Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) initiated by the STAR 7 Network of Excellence and integrated in the research strategy implemented by the COMET consortium, defines a long-term vision of the needs for, and implementation of, research in radioecology. This reference document, reflecting views from many stakeholders groups and researchers, serves as an input to those responsible for defining EU research call topics through the ALLIANCE SRA statement delivered each year to the EJP-CONCERT 8 (2015-2020). This statement highlights a focused number of priorities for funding. Research in radioecology and related sciences is justified by various drivers, such as policy changes, scientific advances and knowledge gaps, radiological risk perception by the public, and a growing awareness of interconnections between human and ecosystem health. The SRA is being complemented by topical roadmaps that have been initiated by the COMET 9 EC-funded project, with the help and endorsement of the ALLIANCE. The strategy underlying roadmap development is driven by the need for improved mechanistic understanding across radioecology. By meeting this need, we can provide fit-for-purpose human and environmental impact/risk assessments in support of the protection of man and the environment in interaction with society and for the three exposure situations defined by the ICRP (i.e., planned, existing and emergency). Within the framework of the EJP-CONCERT the development of a joint roadmap is under discussion among all the European research platforms and will highlight the major research needs for the whole radiation protection field and how these are likely to be addressed by 2030.

  1. Identifying biological concepts from a protein-related corpus with a probabilistic topic model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lu Xinghua

    2006-02-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Biomedical literature, e.g., MEDLINE, contains a wealth of knowledge regarding functions of proteins. Major recurring biological concepts within such text corpora represent the domains of this body of knowledge. The goal of this research is to identify the major biological topics/concepts from a corpus of protein-related MEDLINE© titles and abstracts by applying a probabilistic topic model. Results The latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA model was applied to the corpus. Based on the Bayesian model selection, 300 major topics were extracted from the corpus. The majority of identified topics/concepts was found to be semantically coherent and most represented biological objects or concepts. The identified topics/concepts were further mapped to the controlled vocabulary of the Gene Ontology (GO terms based on mutual information. Conclusion The major and recurring biological concepts within a collection of MEDLINE documents can be extracted by the LDA model. The identified topics/concepts provide parsimonious and semantically-enriched representation of the texts in a semantic space with reduced dimensionality and can be used to index text.

  2. Topical herbal therapies for treating osteoarthritis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cameron, Melainie; Chrubasik, Sigrun

    2013-05-31

    Before extraction and synthetic chemistry were invented, musculoskeletal complaints were treated with preparations from medicinal plants. They were either administered orally or topically. In contrast to the oral medicinal plant products, topicals act in part as counterirritants or are toxic when given orally. To update the previous Cochrane review of herbal therapy for osteoarthritis from 2000 by evaluating the evidence on effectiveness for topical medicinal plant products. Databases for mainstream and complementary medicine were searched using terms to include all forms of arthritis combined with medicinal plant products. We searched electronic databases (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE, AMED, CINAHL, ISI Web of Science, World Health Organization Clinical Trials Registry Platform) to February 2013, unrestricted by language. We also searched the reference lists from retrieved trials. Randomised controlled trials of herbal interventions used topically, compared with inert (placebo) or active controls, in people with osteoarthritis were included. Two review authors independently selected trials for inclusion, assessed the risk of bias of included studies and extracted data. Seven studies (six different medicinal plant interventions; 785 participants) were included. Single studies (five studies) and non-comparable studies (two studies) precluded pooling of results.Moderate evidence from a single study of 174 people with hand osteoarthritis indicated that treatment with Arnica extract gel probably results in similar benefits as treatment with ibuprofen (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug) with a similar number of adverse events. Mean pain in the ibuprofen group was 44.2 points on a 100 point scale; treatment with Arnica gel reduced the pain by 4 points after three weeks: mean difference (MD) -3.8 points (95% confidence intervals (CI) -10.1 to 2.5), absolute reduction 4% (10% reduction to 3% increase). Hand function was 7

  3. Web-Scale Discovery Services Retrieve Relevant Results in Health Sciences Topics Including MEDLINE Content

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elizabeth Margaret Stovold

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available A Review of: Hanneke, R., & O’Brien, K. K. (2016. Comparison of three web-scale discovery services for health sciences research. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 104(2, 109-117. http://dx.doi.org/10.3163/1536-5050.104.2.004 Abstract Objective – To compare the results of health sciences search queries in three web-scale discovery (WSD services for relevance, duplicate detection, and retrieval of MEDLINE content. Design – Comparative evaluation and bibliometric study. Setting – Six university libraries in the United States of America. Subjects – Three commercial WSD services: Primo, Summon, and EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS. Methods – The authors collected data at six universities, including their own. They tested each of the three WSDs at two data collection sites. However, since one of the sites was using a legacy version of Summon that was due to be upgraded, data collected for Summon at this site were considered obsolete and excluded from the analysis. The authors generated three questions for each of six major health disciplines, then designed simple keyword searches to mimic typical student search behaviours. They captured the first 20 results from each query run at each test site, to represent the first “page” of results, giving a total of 2,086 total search results. These were independently assessed for relevance to the topic. Authors resolved disagreements by discussion, and calculated a kappa inter-observer score. They retained duplicate records within the results so that the duplicate detection by the WSDs could be compared. They assessed MEDLINE coverage by the WSDs in several ways. Using precise strategies to generate a relevant set of articles, they conducted one search from each of the six disciplines in PubMed so that they could compare retrieval of MEDLINE content. These results were cross-checked against the first 20 results from the corresponding query in the WSDs. To aid investigation of overall

  4. Air Quality and Heart Health: An Emerging Topic for Heart Month

    Science.gov (United States)

    Air Quality and Heart Health: An Emerging Topic for Heart Month: Ambient air particle pollution increases short- and long-term cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Older-people, those with pre-existing heart disease and lung disease and diabetes are at higher risk. Mechanism...

  5. Quark-gluon plasma (Selected Topics)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zakharov, V. I.

    2012-01-01

    Introductory lectures to the theory of (strongly interacting) quark-gluon plasma given at the Winter School of Physics of ITEP (Moscow, February 2010). We emphasize theoretical issues highlighted by the discovery of the low viscosity of the plasma. The topics include relativistic hydrodynamics, manifestations of chiral anomaly in hydrodynamics, superfluidity, relativistic superfluid hydrodynamics, effective stringy scalars, holographic models of Yang-Mills theories.

  6. Selected topics from classical bacterial genetics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raleigh, Elisabeth A; Elbing, Karen; Brent, Roger

    2002-08-01

    Current cloning technology exploits many facts learned from classical bacterial genetics. This unit covers those that are critical to understanding the techniques described in this book. Topics include antibiotics, the LAC operon, the F factor, nonsense suppressors, genetic markers, genotype and phenotype, DNA restriction, modification and methylation and recombination.

  7. Google Trends terms reporting rhinitis and related topics differ in European countries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bousquet, J; Agache, I; Anto, J M; Bergmann, K C; Bachert, C; Annesi-Maesano, I; Bousquet, P J; D'Amato, G; Demoly, P; De Vries, G; Eller, E; Fokkens, W J; Fonseca, J; Haahtela, T; Hellings, P W; Just, J; Keil, T; Klimek, L; Kuna, P; Lodrup Carlsen, K C; Mösges, R; Murray, R; Nekam, K; Onorato, G; Papadopoulos, N G; Samolinski, B; Schmid-Grendelmeier, P; Thibaudon, M; Tomazic, P; Triggiani, M; Valiulis, A; Valovirta, E; Van Eerd, M; Wickman, M; Zuberbier, T; Sheikh, A

    2017-08-01

    Google Trends (GT) searches trends of specific queries in Google and reflects the real-life epidemiology of allergic rhinitis. We compared Google Trends terms related to allergy and rhinitis in all European Union countries, Norway and Switzerland from 1 January 2011 to 20 December 2016. The aim was to assess whether the same terms could be used to report the seasonal variations of allergic diseases. Using the Google Trend 5-year graph, an annual and clear seasonality of queries was found in all countries apart from Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta. Different terms were found to demonstrate seasonality depending on the country - namely 'hay fever', 'allergy' and 'pollen' - showing cultural differences. A single set of terms cannot be used across all European countries, but allergy seasonality can be compared across Europe providing the above three terms are used. Using longitudinal data in different countries and multiple terms, we identified an awareness-related spike of searches (December 2016). © 2017 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  8. Topical therapy for facial allergic dermatoses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Y. S. Kondratyeva

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The research goal is to assess clinical dynamics and morphofunctional skin parameters of patients with facial allergic dermatoses on the background of combined topical therapy. Materials and methods. 45 patients with various facial allergic dermatoses in dry and sensitive skin took part in the research. The methods included anamnesis taking, poll, objective examination and assessment of morphofunctional parameters of skin, as well as estimation of life quality dynamic index (LQDI. Main results. After a course of treatment with 0,05% solution of alclometasone dipropionate inflammation of dermatosis ceased in 45 (100% patients, itching and pains in 39 (86,7% patients, but complaints about dryness and peeling of facial skin remained in 41 (91,1% and 40 (88,8% patients respectively. On the background of therapy including emollient Aflocream the above mentioned symptoms did not appear in 43 (95,6% patients, wherein maximum effect was achieved in patients with allergic contact dermatitis - 14 (93,3%. After a course of topical therapy all patients showed statistically significant increase of epidermal moisture level, alongside with reduction of skin relief and degree of keratinization. During the assessment of LQDI a tendency to reduction of proportion of patients on whom the disease has a strong and extremely strong impact was noted in 10 patients (i.e. 22,2%, moderate influence - in 5 of them (11,45%, insignificant influence or its absence - in 30 (66,7% people. Conclusion. Combined therapy including the use of a topical corticosteroid Afloderm and an emollient Aflocream showed good clinical efficiency in patients with facial allergic dermatoses. The efficiency is also confirmed with improvements in morphofunctional characteristics of patients’ skin on the background of therapy.

  9. Topics in computational linear optimization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hultberg, Tim Helge

    2000-01-01

    Linear optimization has been an active area of research ever since the pioneering work of G. Dantzig more than 50 years ago. This research has produced a long sequence of practical as well as theoretical improvements of the solution techniques avilable for solving linear optimization problems...... of high quality solvers and the use of algebraic modelling systems to handle the communication between the modeller and the solver. This dissertation features four topics in computational linear optimization: A) automatic reformulation of mixed 0/1 linear programs, B) direct solution of sparse unsymmetric...... systems of linear equations, C) reduction of linear programs and D) integration of algebraic modelling of linear optimization problems in C++. Each of these topics is treated in a separate paper included in this dissertation. The efficiency of solving mixed 0-1 linear programs by linear programming based...

  10. Short-term effect of topical antiglaucoma medication on tear-film stability, tear secretion, and corneal sensitivity in healthy subjects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Terai, Naim; Müller-Holz, Matthias; Spoerl, Eberhard; Pillunat, Lutz E

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the short-term effect of topical antiglaucoma medication on tear-film stability, tear secretion, and corneal sensitivity in healthy subjects. In this prospective, double-blind crossover trial, break-up time and basal secretion (Jones test) were measured 60 minutes before, and 30, 60, and 90 minutes after topical antiglaucoma drop application in 30 healthy subjects. Corneal sensitivity was measured 60 minutes before, and five, 10, and 15 minutes after drop application using a Cochet-Bonnet esthesiometer. Reduction of break-up time in the latanoprost group was -23.8% after 30 minutes (P = 0.21), -26.7% after 60 minutes (P = 0.03) and -51.4% after 90 minutes (P ≤ 0.003), which was statistically significant. Reduction of break-up time in all other treatment groups was not statistically significant. The Jones test revealed a significant reduction of basal secretion after application of brimonidine (-17.8%, P = 0.002; -22.5%, P < 0.001; -30.5%, P < 0.001), followed by apraclonidine (-10%, P = 0.06; -20.1%, P = 0.02; -22.1%, P = 0.002), latanoprost (-2.4%, P = 0.64; -18.6%, P = 0.001; -20.1%, P = 0.001) and dorzolamide (-0.5%, P = 0.9; 14.3%, P = 0.018; -17.3%, P = 0.004) at 30, 60, and 90 minutes after drop application. Reduction of basal secretion in all other treatment groups was not statistically significant. Latanoprost showed the most statistically significant reduction in break-up time, and brimonidine showed the most significant reduction in basal secretion of all the glaucoma medications used in this study. In conclusion, our data may be helpful for treatment decisions in glaucoma patients who also suffer from ocular surface problems.

  11. Topic Visualization and Survival Analysis

    OpenAIRE

    Wang, Ping Jr

    2017-01-01

    Latent semantic structure in a text collection is called a topic. In this thesis, we aim to visualize topics in the scientific literature and detect active or inactive research areas based on their lifetime. Topics were extracted from over 1 million abstracts from the arXiv.org database using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). Hellinger distance measures similarity between two topics. Topics are determined to be relevant if their pairwise distances are smaller than the threshold of Hellinger ...

  12. Topical capsaicin for pain in osteoarthritis: A literature review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guedes, Vânia; Castro, João Paulo; Brito, Iva

    Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disorder worldwide. The predominant symptom, pain, is usually treated with acetaminophen or oral non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, although they are associated with a significant risk of side effects. Topical capsaicin may represent an effective and safe alternative. The aim of this review is to examine the evidence for the efficacy and safety profile of topical capsaicin in the management of pain caused by osteoarthritis. Databases were searched for articles published between 2004 and 2016, in Portuguese, English or Spanish, using the search terms "capsaicin" and "osteoarthritis". When compared to placebo, it was found that topical capsaicin has a good safety profile and efficacy in reducing osteoarthritis pain of the hand, knee, hip or shoulder. However, the studies have significant limitations, the most important the difficulty of blinding. It is attributed to this review the strength of recommendation B. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier España, S.L.U. and Sociedad Española de Reumatología y Colegio Mexicano de Reumatología. All rights reserved.

  13. Efficacy, tolerability and consumer acceptability of terbinafine topical spray versus terbinafine topical solution: a phase IIa, randomised, observer-blind, comparative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, Marc; Evans, Charles; Muddle, Andrew; Turner, Rob; Lim, Sian; Reed, Jessica; Traynor, Matt

    2013-10-01

    Tinea pedis is one of the world's most prevalent dermatophyte infections. MedSpray™ tinea pedis 1 % w/w (topical spray) is a novel, easy-to-use propellant-based spray formulation containing 1 % w/w terbinafine, requiring no manipulation at the site of infection. This is in contrast to the only formulation currently approved in Europe for single application (none are approved in the USA for single use), which is Lamisil(®) Once 1 % w/w (topical solution), containing 1 % w/w terbinafine hydrochloride, which requires manipulation on the affected area. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy, tolerability and consumer acceptability of a topical spray versus a topical solution in the treatment of tinea pedis. This study is a phase IIa, randomised, observer-blind, non-inferiority comparative study of the topical spray compared with the topical solution over a 12-week study period. The study was conducted at Bioskin GmbH, Hamburg and Berlin. Patients (n = 120) who presented with the presence of interdigital tinea pedis caused by dermatophytes on one or both feet were enrolled in the study. Patients were randomly assigned between the two treatment groups. Either the topical spray or the topical solution was administered by the study nurse and consisted of a single application (equivalent to 20 mg of terbinafine per foot) on day 1 of the study. No further applications were made for the duration of the study. The hypothesis formulated before commencement of the study was that the topical spray would prove to be non-inferior to the topical solution. Efficacy assessments, including clinical signs and symptoms, mycology and microscopy were performed at baseline and 1, 6 and 12 weeks after treatment. The rate of mycological cure at week 1 was statistically equivalent for both treatments. There was a significant reduction in the overall clinical score as assessed by the Physician's Global Assessment of signs and symptoms for both treatment groups. The topical

  14. Advanced nonlinear theory: Long-term stability at the SSC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heifets, S.

    1987-01-01

    This paper discussed the long-term stability of the particle beams in the Superconducting Super Collider. In particular the dynamics of a single particle beam is considered in depth. The topics of this paper include: the Hamiltonian of this particle approach, perturbation theory, canonical transformations, interaction of the resonances, structure of the phase space, synchro-Betatron oscillations, modulation diffusion and noise-resonance interaction. 36 refs

  15. GeneTopics - interpretation of gene sets via literature-driven topic models

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-01

    Background Annotation of a set of genes is often accomplished through comparison to a library of labelled gene sets such as biological processes or canonical pathways. However, this approach might fail if the employed libraries are not up to date with the latest research, don't capture relevant biological themes or are curated at a different level of granularity than is required to appropriately analyze the input gene set. At the same time, the vast biomedical literature offers an unstructured repository of the latest research findings that can be tapped to provide thematic sub-groupings for any input gene set. Methods Our proposed method relies on a gene-specific text corpus and extracts commonalities between documents in an unsupervised manner using a topic model approach. We automatically determine the number of topics summarizing the corpus and calculate a gene relevancy score for each topic allowing us to eliminate non-specific topics. As a result we obtain a set of literature topics in which each topic is associated with a subset of the input genes providing directly interpretable keywords and corresponding documents for literature research. Results We validate our method based on labelled gene sets from the KEGG metabolic pathway collection and the genetic association database (GAD) and show that the approach is able to detect topics consistent with the labelled annotation. Furthermore, we discuss the results on three different types of experimentally derived gene sets, (1) differentially expressed genes from a cardiac hypertrophy experiment in mice, (2) altered transcript abundance in human pancreatic beta cells, and (3) genes implicated by GWA studies to be associated with metabolite levels in a healthy population. In all three cases, we are able to replicate findings from the original papers in a quick and semi-automated manner. Conclusions Our approach provides a novel way of automatically generating meaningful annotations for gene sets that are directly

  16. The role of quantum information in thermodynamics—a topical review

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goold, John; Huber, Marcus; Riera, Arnau; Skrzypczyk, Paul; Rio, Lídia del

    2016-01-01

    This topical review article gives an overview of the interplay between quantum information theory and thermodynamics of quantum systems. We focus on several trending topics including the foundations of statistical mechanics, resource theories, entanglement in thermodynamic settings, fluctuation theorems and thermal machines. This is not a comprehensive review of the diverse field of quantum thermodynamics; rather, it is a convenient entry point for the thermo-curious information theorist. Furthermore this review should facilitate the unification and understanding of different interdisciplinary approaches emerging in research groups around the world. (topical review)

  17. Proper balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid supplements with topical cyclosporine attenuated contact lens-related dry eye syndrome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Ling; Chen, Xi; Hao, Jingfang; Yang, Lu

    2016-12-01

    Essential fatty acids had been applied in the treatment of dry eye syndrome (DES), but the effects of different combinations of fatty acids have not been investigated. 360 long-term contact lens wearers were included in this double-blinded study. Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids were combined in different ratios and supplied to the participants that were randomly divided into six groups, and the effects of different essential fatty acids mixture on DES with or without topical cyclosporine were investigated. More than half of long-term contact lens wearers suffered from DES, which were found to be attenuated by oral supplement of properly balanced O3FA and O6FA fatty acid. The topical cyclosporine treatment considerably inhibited the production of cytokines compared to the cyclosporine negative groups, which further relieved DES. Proper balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid combination significantly alleviated contact lens-related DES.

  18. Topical and transdermal drug delivery: principles and practice

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Benson, Heather A. E; Watkinson, Adam C

    2012-01-01

    .... Providing an overview of the current science in drug and cosmetic application to and through the skin, Topical and Transdermal Drug Delivery includes treatment of skin conditions, skin permeation...

  19. Topical carbonic anhydrase inhibitors and visual function in glaucoma and ocular hypertension.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gugleta, Konstantin

    2010-06-01

    Dorzolamide and brinzolamide are topical carbonic anhydrase inhibitors (CAI) indicated for patients with glaucoma and ocular hypertension. An evidence-based review of clinical trials of dorzolamide and brinzolamide was undertaken to determine an effect of these medications on visual function (primarily visual field) in open-angle glaucoma and ocular hypertension. Using the keywords 'dorzolamide' and 'brinzolamide', all articles describing trials of these medications reporting on visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and visual field from September 1966 to July 2009 were found in MEDLINE and EMBASE databases. No information from other sources was included in this review. A relatively modest number of trials was identified, where impact of therapy on one or more of the visual function modes was reported. In the studies of less than 1 year duration (3 days to 1 year, 23 studies) in all but three studies treatment with topical CAIs did not influence visual function, in two studies with dorzolamide some improvement in the contrast sensitivity was observed and in one open-label retrospective no-control-group study with dorzolamide visual field indices improved significantly. A different picture was seen in long-term studies, which were designed and powered to detect changes in visual field. One large study (European Glaucoma Prevention Study) with dorzolamide versus placebo failed to detect significant protective effect of the drug on glaucoma occurrence in ocular hypertensives. Several interesting aspects of this study are discussed in detail. The other two long-term studies reported on the superiority of adding dorzolamide over timolol therapy alone, and the superiority of the combination of dorzolamide and timolol over brinzolamide and timolol in terms of improving ocular blood flow (retrobulbar Color Doppler Imaging--CDI parameters) as well as in terms of visual field preservation in glaucoma patients over 4 to 5 years. For the first time one study could demonstrate

  20. Topical Session on the Decommissioning and Dismantling Safety Case

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2002-01-01

    Set up by the Radioactive Waste Management Committee (RWMC), the WPDD brings together senior representatives of national organisations who have a broad overview of Decommissioning and Dismantling (D and D) issues through their work as regulators, implementers, R and D experts or policy makers. These include representatives from regulatory authorities, industrial decommissioners from the NEA Cooperative Programme on Exchange of Scientific and Technical Information on Nuclear Installation Decommissioning Projects (CPD), and cross-representation from the NEA Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities, the Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health, and the RWMC. The EC is a member of the WPDD and the IAEA also participates. This ensures co-ordination amongst activities in these international programmes. Participation from civil society organisations is considered on a case by case basis, and has already taken place through the active involvement of the Group of Municipalities with Nuclear Installations at the first meeting of the WPDD At its second meeting, in Paris, 5-7 December 2001, the WPDD held two topical sessions on the D and D Safety Case and on the Management of Materials from D and D, respectively. This report documents the topical session on the safety case. The topical session was meant to provide an exchange of information and experience on the following issues: What topics should be included in a safety case? Of what should it consist? Is there sufficient and complete guidance nationally and internationally? How do practices differ internationally? Main boundary condition to this session was that it would deal with plants where spent fuel has been removed. Also the topical sessions was kept at a level that makes the most of the varied constituency of the WPDD. Namely, interface issues are important, and issue-identification and discussion was the immediate goal. There was less interest in examining areas where variability amongst national

  1. Topical review of the Finnish forest sector 1996

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kuuluvainen, K.

    1996-01-01

    The present report is e review of the Finnish forest sector, made by several authors. The topics reviewed are: Economic trends of forest sector; The operational conditions of the forest sector; Development of the forest sector; Conjuncture reviews; Special topics including the certification of the forests, the forest reserves in Finland, the financial support forest economy, export prices of sawn timber and cellulose, raw-wood markets, forests and forest industry shares as targets for investments, recreational use of the state owned areas. (8 refs.)

  2. Tendencies in translation of sport terms from English into Lithuanian

    OpenAIRE

    Trakšelis, Arnoldas

    2018-01-01

    Novelty of the topic – this topic is relatively new because there is no Lithuanian author who has analysed the translation of sport terms from English into Lithuanian in particular. Only some works produced by foreign writers can be found in which the translation of a specific sport branch is analysed more briefly. Relevancy of the topic – sport was started thousands of years BCE and along came a related terminology. During the years the terms of popular sport branches were translated fro...

  3. Incorporating Topic Assignment Constraint and Topic Correlation Limitation into Clinical Goal Discovering for Clinical Pathway Mining

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiao Xu

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Clinical pathways are widely used around the world for providing quality medical treatment and controlling healthcare cost. However, the expert-designed clinical pathways can hardly deal with the variances among hospitals and patients. It calls for more dynamic and adaptive process, which is derived from various clinical data. Topic-based clinical pathway mining is an effective approach to discover a concise process model. Through this approach, the latent topics found by latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA represent the clinical goals. And process mining methods are used to extract the temporal relations between these topics. However, the topic quality is usually not desirable due to the low performance of the LDA in clinical data. In this paper, we incorporate topic assignment constraint and topic correlation limitation into the LDA to enhance the ability of discovering high-quality topics. Two real-world datasets are used to evaluate the proposed method. The results show that the topics discovered by our method are with higher coherence, informativeness, and coverage than the original LDA. These quality topics are suitable to represent the clinical goals. Also, we illustrate that our method is effective in generating a comprehensive topic-based clinical pathway model.

  4. Investigating drug repositioning opportunities in FDA drug labels through topic modeling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bisgin, Halil; Liu, Zhichao; Kelly, Reagan; Fang, Hong; Xu, Xiaowei; Tong, Weida

    2012-01-01

    Drug repositioning offers an opportunity to revitalize the slowing drug discovery pipeline by finding new uses for currently existing drugs. Our hypothesis is that drugs sharing similar side effect profiles are likely to be effective for the same disease, and thus repositioning opportunities can be identified by finding drug pairs with similar side effects documented in U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drug labels. The safety information in the drug labels is usually obtained in the clinical trial and augmented with the observations in the post-market use of the drug. Therefore, our drug repositioning approach can take the advantage of more comprehensive safety information comparing with conventional de novo approach. A probabilistic topic model was constructed based on the terms in the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) that appeared in the Boxed Warning, Warnings and Precautions, and Adverse Reactions sections of the labels of 870 drugs. Fifty-two unique topics, each containing a set of terms, were identified by using topic modeling. The resulting probabilistic topic associations were used to measure the distance (similarity) between drugs. The success of the proposed model was evaluated by comparing a drug and its nearest neighbor (i.e., a drug pair) for common indications found in the Indications and Usage Section of the drug labels. Given a drug with more than three indications, the model yielded a 75% recall, meaning 75% of drug pairs shared one or more common indications. This is significantly higher than the 22% recall rate achieved by random selection. Additionally, the recall rate grows rapidly as the number of drug indications increases and reaches 84% for drugs with 11 indications. The analysis also demonstrated that 65 drugs with a Boxed Warning, which indicates significant risk of serious and possibly life-threatening adverse effects, might be replaced with safer alternatives that do not have a Boxed Warning. In

  5. In vivo Raman spectroscopy detects increased epidermal antioxidative potential with topically applied carotenoids

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lademann, J; Richter, H; Patzelt, A; Darvin, M; Sterry, W; Fluhr, J W; Caspers, P J; Van der Pol, A; Zastrow, L

    2009-01-01

    In the present study, the distribution of the carotenoids as a marker for the complete antioxidative potential in human skin was investigated before and after the topical application of carotenoids by in vivo Raman spectroscopy with an excitation wavelength of 785 nm. The carotenoid profile was assessed after a short term topical application in 4 healthy volunteers. In the untreated skin, the highest concentration of natural carotenoids was detected in different layers of the stratum corneum (SC) close to the skin surface. After topical application of carotenoids, an increase in the antioxidative potential in the skin could be observed. Topically applied carotenoids penetrate deep into the epidermis down to approximately 24 μm. This study supports the hypothesis that antioxidative substances are secreted via eccrine sweat glands and/or sebaceous glands to the skin surface. Subsequently they penetrate into the different layers of the SC

  6. Solid-State Lighting 2017 Suggested Research Topics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    None, None

    2017-09-29

    A 2017 update to the Solid-State Lighting R&D Plan that is divided into two documents. The first document describes a list of suggested SSL priority research topics and the second document provides context and background, including information drawn from technical, market, and economic studies. Widely referenced by industry and government both here and abroad, these documents reflect SSL stakeholder inputs on key R&D topics that will improve efficacy, reduce cost, remove barriers to adoption, and add value for LED and OLED lighting solutions over the next three to five years, and discuss those applications that drive and prioritize the specific R&D.

  7. Near-term hybrid vehicle program, phase 1

    Science.gov (United States)

    1979-01-01

    The preliminary design of a hybrid vehicle which fully meets or exceeds the requirements set forth in the Near Term Hybrid Vehicle Program is documented. Topics addressed include the general layout and styling, the power train specifications with discussion of each major component, vehicle weight and weight breakdown, vehicle performance, measures of energy consumption, and initial cost and ownership cost. Alternative design options considered and their relationship to the design adopted, computer simulation used, and maintenance and reliability considerations are also discussed.

  8. Health Topic XML File Description

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... this page: https://medlineplus.gov/xmldescription.html Health Topic XML File Description: MedlinePlus To use the sharing ... information categories assigned. Example of a Full Health Topic Record A record for a MedlinePlus health topic ...

  9. Topical medication instillation techniques for glaucoma.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Li; Wang, Xuemei; Wu, Meijing

    2017-02-20

    Glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide and the second most common cause of blindness after cataracts. The primary treatment for glaucoma aims to lower intraocular pressure (IOP) with the use of topical medicines. Topical medication instillation techniques, such as eyelid closure and nasolacrimal occlusion when instilling drops, have been proposed as potential methods to increase ocular absorption and decrease systemic absorption of the drops. To investigate the effectiveness of topical medication instillation techniques compared with usual care or another method of instillation of topical medication in the management of glaucoma or ocular hypertension. We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (which contains the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Trials Register) (2016, Issue 12), MEDLINE Ovid (1946 to 8 December 2016), Embase Ovid (1947 to 8 December 2016), PubMed (1948 to 8 December 2016), LILACS (Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature Database) (1982 to 8 December 2016), International Pharmaceutical Abstracts Database (1970 to 8 December 2016), the metaRegister of Controlled Trials (mRCT) (www.controlled-trials.com) (last searched 13 May 2013), ClinicalTrials.gov (www.clinicaltrials.gov) (searched 8 December 2016) and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) (www.who.int/ictrp/search/en) (searched 8 December 2016). We did not use any date or language restrictions in the electronic searches for trials. We included randomized controlled trials which had compared any topical medication instillation technique with usual care or a different method of instillation of topical medication. Two review authors independently screened records from the searches for eligibility, assessed the risk of bias, and extracted data. We followed methods recommended by Cochrane. We identified two trials (122 eyes of 61 participants) that had evaluated a topical medication instillation technique. We

  10. Selected papers on analysis and related topics

    CERN Document Server

    2008-01-01

    This volume contains translations of papers that originally appeared in the Japanese journal Sūgaku. The papers range over a variety of topics, including operator algebras, analysis, and statistics. This volume is suitable for graduate students and research mathematicians interested in analysis and its applications.

  11. Topics in Finance: Part II--Financial Analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laux, Judy

    2010-01-01

    The second article in a series designed to supplement the introductory financial management course, this essay addresses financial statement analysis, including its impact on stock valuation, disclosure, and managerial behavior. [For "Topics in Finance Part I--Introduction and Stockholder Wealth Maximization," see EJ1060345.

  12. Comparing the Document Representations of Two IR-Systems: CLARIT and TOPIC.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paijmans, Hans

    1993-01-01

    Compares two information retrieval systems, CLARIT and TOPIC, in terms of assigned versus derived and precoordinate versus postcoordinate indexing. Models of information retrieval systems are discussed, and a test of the systems using a demonstration database of full-text articles from the "Wall Street Journal" is described. (Contains 21…

  13. Identifying Topics in Microblogs Using Wikipedia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yıldırım, Ahmet; Üsküdarlı, Suzan; Özgür, Arzucan

    2016-01-01

    Twitter is an extremely high volume platform for user generated contributions regarding any topic. The wealth of content created at real-time in massive quantities calls for automated approaches to identify the topics of the contributions. Such topics can be utilized in numerous ways, such as public opinion mining, marketing, entertainment, and disaster management. Towards this end, approaches to relate single or partial posts to knowledge base items have been proposed. However, in microblogging systems like Twitter, topics emerge from the culmination of a large number of contributions. Therefore, identifying topics based on collections of posts, where individual posts contribute to some aspect of the greater topic is necessary. Models, such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), propose algorithms for relating collections of posts to sets of keywords that represent underlying topics. In these approaches, figuring out what the specific topic(s) the keyword sets represent remains as a separate task. Another issue in topic detection is the scope, which is often limited to specific domain, such as health. This work proposes an approach for identifying domain-independent specific topics related to sets of posts. In this approach, individual posts are processed and then aggregated to identify key tokens, which are then mapped to specific topics. Wikipedia article titles are selected to represent topics, since they are up to date, user-generated, sophisticated articles that span topics of human interest. This paper describes the proposed approach, a prototype implementation, and a case study based on data gathered during the heavily contributed periods corresponding to the four US election debates in 2012. The manually evaluated results (0.96 precision) and other observations from the study are discussed in detail.

  14. Diclofenac epolamine topical patch relieves pain associated with ankle sprain

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David R Lionberger

    2011-03-01

    Full Text Available David R Lionberger1, Eric Joussellin2, Arturo Lanzarotti3, Jillmarie Yanchick4, Merrell Magelli5 1Southwest Orthopedic Group, LLP, Houston, Texas, USA; 2Institut National du Sport, Paris, France; 3Institut Biochimique SA, Pambionoranco, Switzerland; 4Alpharma Pharmaceuticals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of King Pharmaceuticals®, Inc, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA; 5GTx, Inc, Memphis, Tennessee, USABackground: Sports-related injuries, such as sprains and strains, commonly occur during exercise and athletic events. Current therapy includes nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, which have a high incidence of upper gastrointestinal side effects. The present study assessed the efficacy and safety of the diclofenac epolamine topical patch (DETP, 1.3%, a topical NSAID for the treatment of acute minor sprains and strains.Methods: This multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical study enrolled adult patients (n = 134 with acute ankle pain (due to a minor sprain occurring less than 48 hours prior to entering the study. Patients were treated with either the DETP or a placebo topical patch daily for seven days. Pain intensity was evaluated during the first six hours after application of the patch, and on treatment days 1, 2, 3, and 7.Results: Patients treated with the DETP experienced a significantly greater reduction in pain associated with their ankle injury compared with placebo, beginning four hours after the first patch application (P = 0.02. The DETP was well tolerated and was comparable with placebo in terms of safety.Conclusion: Overall, the results of this study demonstrate that the DETP is an effective analgesic for local treatment of pain in mild acute ankle sprain.Keywords: soft tissue injury, acute pain, visual analog scale, efficacy, tolerability 

  15. Hot Topics/New Initiatives | Drinking Water in New England ...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-07-06

    Information on Drinking Water in New England. Major Topics covered include: Conservation, Private Wells, Preventing Contamination, Drinking Water Sources, Consumer Confidence Reports, and Drinking Water Awards.

  16. Impact of Long-Term Care on Retirement Wellness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rappaport, Anna M

    2015-01-01

    Retirement wellness is the result of retiring at an appropriate age, saving enough and managing risks appropriately. One of the major risks that often is not addressed effectively is the long-term care (LTC) risk, i.e., the risk of needing help due to physical or cognitive limitations. In 2014, the Society of Actuaries issued a call for papers on the link between LTC and retirement security. This article will discuss the topic of LTC and retirement security broadly, drawing from several of the papers. Some of the topics include the impact of LTC on the individual, family members and caregivers; modeling results showing the impact of LTC on assets needed for a secure retirement; alternative methods of financing LTC; the link between housing decisions and LTC; and some ideas for the future.

  17. Identifying Topics in Microblogs Using Wikipedia.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ahmet Yıldırım

    Full Text Available Twitter is an extremely high volume platform for user generated contributions regarding any topic. The wealth of content created at real-time in massive quantities calls for automated approaches to identify the topics of the contributions. Such topics can be utilized in numerous ways, such as public opinion mining, marketing, entertainment, and disaster management. Towards this end, approaches to relate single or partial posts to knowledge base items have been proposed. However, in microblogging systems like Twitter, topics emerge from the culmination of a large number of contributions. Therefore, identifying topics based on collections of posts, where individual posts contribute to some aspect of the greater topic is necessary. Models, such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA, propose algorithms for relating collections of posts to sets of keywords that represent underlying topics. In these approaches, figuring out what the specific topic(s the keyword sets represent remains as a separate task. Another issue in topic detection is the scope, which is often limited to specific domain, such as health. This work proposes an approach for identifying domain-independent specific topics related to sets of posts. In this approach, individual posts are processed and then aggregated to identify key tokens, which are then mapped to specific topics. Wikipedia article titles are selected to represent topics, since they are up to date, user-generated, sophisticated articles that span topics of human interest. This paper describes the proposed approach, a prototype implementation, and a case study based on data gathered during the heavily contributed periods corresponding to the four US election debates in 2012. The manually evaluated results (0.96 precision and other observations from the study are discussed in detail.

  18. Automatic topic identification of health-related messages in online health community using text classification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Yingjie

    2013-01-01

    To facilitate patient involvement in online health community and obtain informative support and emotional support they need, a topic identification approach was proposed in this paper for identifying automatically topics of the health-related messages in online health community, thus assisting patients in reaching the most relevant messages for their queries efficiently. Feature-based classification framework was presented for automatic topic identification in our study. We first collected the messages related to some predefined topics in a online health community. Then we combined three different types of features, n-gram-based features, domain-specific features and sentiment features to build four feature sets for health-related text representation. Finally, three different text classification techniques, C4.5, Naïve Bayes and SVM were adopted to evaluate our topic classification model. By comparing different feature sets and different classification techniques, we found that n-gram-based features, domain-specific features and sentiment features were all considered to be effective in distinguishing different types of health-related topics. In addition, feature reduction technique based on information gain was also effective to improve the topic classification performance. In terms of classification techniques, SVM outperformed C4.5 and Naïve Bayes significantly. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed approach could identify the topics of online health-related messages efficiently.

  19. Novel alginate-based nanocarriers as a strategy to include high concentrations of hydrophobic compounds in hydrogels for topical application

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nguyen, H T P; Munnier, E; Souce, M; Perse, X; David, S; Bonnier, F; Cohen-Jonathan, S; Chourpa, I; Vial, F; Yvergnaux, F; Perrier, T

    2015-01-01

    The cutaneous penetration of hydrophobic active molecules is of foremost concern in the dermatology and cosmetic formulation fields. The poor solubility in water of those molecules limits their use in hydrophilic forms such as gels, which are favored by patients with chronic skin disease. The aim of this work is to design a novel nanocarrier of hydrophobic active molecules and to determine its potential as an ingredient of a topical form. The nanocarrier consists of an oily core surrounded by a protective shell of alginate, a natural polysaccharide isolated from brown algae. These calcium alginate-based nanocarriers (CaANCs) were prepared at room temperature and without the use of organic solvent by an accelerated nanoemulsification-polymer crosslinking method. The size (hydrodynamic diameter ∼200 nm) and surface charge (zeta potential ∼ − 30 mV) of the CaANCs are both compatible with their application on skin. CaANCs loaded with a fluorescent label were stable in model hydrophilic galenic forms under different storage conditions. Curcumin was encapsulated in CaANCs with an efficiency of ∼95%, fully retaining its antioxidant activity. The application of the curcumin-loaded CaANCs on excised human skin led to a significant accumulation of the active molecules in the upper layers of the skin, asserting the potential of these nanocarriers in active pharmaceutical and cosmetic ingredients topical delivery. (paper)

  20. Novel alginate-based nanocarriers as a strategy to include high concentrations of hydrophobic compounds in hydrogels for topical application

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nguyen, H. T. P.; Munnier, E.; Souce, M.; Perse, X.; David, S.; Bonnier, F.; Vial, F.; Yvergnaux, F.; Perrier, T.; Cohen-Jonathan, S.; Chourpa, I.

    2015-06-01

    The cutaneous penetration of hydrophobic active molecules is of foremost concern in the dermatology and cosmetic formulation fields. The poor solubility in water of those molecules limits their use in hydrophilic forms such as gels, which are favored by patients with chronic skin disease. The aim of this work is to design a novel nanocarrier of hydrophobic active molecules and to determine its potential as an ingredient of a topical form. The nanocarrier consists of an oily core surrounded by a protective shell of alginate, a natural polysaccharide isolated from brown algae. These calcium alginate-based nanocarriers (CaANCs) were prepared at room temperature and without the use of organic solvent by an accelerated nanoemulsification-polymer crosslinking method. The size (hydrodynamic diameter ˜200 nm) and surface charge (zeta potential ˜ - 30 mV) of the CaANCs are both compatible with their application on skin. CaANCs loaded with a fluorescent label were stable in model hydrophilic galenic forms under different storage conditions. Curcumin was encapsulated in CaANCs with an efficiency of ˜95%, fully retaining its antioxidant activity. The application of the curcumin-loaded CaANCs on excised human skin led to a significant accumulation of the active molecules in the upper layers of the skin, asserting the potential of these nanocarriers in active pharmaceutical and cosmetic ingredients topical delivery.

  1. Differential Topic Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Changyou; Buntine, Wray; Ding, Nan; Xie, Lexing; Du, Lan

    2015-02-01

    In applications we may want to compare different document collections: they could have shared content but also different and unique aspects in particular collections. This task has been called comparative text mining or cross-collection modeling. We present a differential topic model for this application that models both topic differences and similarities. For this we use hierarchical Bayesian nonparametric models. Moreover, we found it was important to properly model power-law phenomena in topic-word distributions and thus we used the full Pitman-Yor process rather than just a Dirichlet process. Furthermore, we propose the transformed Pitman-Yor process (TPYP) to incorporate prior knowledge such as vocabulary variations in different collections into the model. To deal with the non-conjugate issue between model prior and likelihood in the TPYP, we thus propose an efficient sampling algorithm using a data augmentation technique based on the multinomial theorem. Experimental results show the model discovers interesting aspects of different collections. We also show the proposed MCMC based algorithm achieves a dramatically reduced test perplexity compared to some existing topic models. Finally, we show our model outperforms the state-of-the-art for document classification/ideology prediction on a number of text collections.

  2. Topic Model for Graph Mining.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xuan, Junyu; Lu, Jie; Zhang, Guangquan; Luo, Xiangfeng

    2015-12-01

    Graph mining has been a popular research area because of its numerous application scenarios. Many unstructured and structured data can be represented as graphs, such as, documents, chemical molecular structures, and images. However, an issue in relation to current research on graphs is that they cannot adequately discover the topics hidden in graph-structured data which can be beneficial for both the unsupervised learning and supervised learning of the graphs. Although topic models have proved to be very successful in discovering latent topics, the standard topic models cannot be directly applied to graph-structured data due to the "bag-of-word" assumption. In this paper, an innovative graph topic model (GTM) is proposed to address this issue, which uses Bernoulli distributions to model the edges between nodes in a graph. It can, therefore, make the edges in a graph contribute to latent topic discovery and further improve the accuracy of the supervised and unsupervised learning of graphs. The experimental results on two different types of graph datasets show that the proposed GTM outperforms the latent Dirichlet allocation on classification by using the unveiled topics of these two models to represent graphs.

  3. Mapping epidemiology's past to inform its future: metaknowledge analysis of epidemiologic topics in leading journals, 1974-2013.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trinquart, Ludovic; Galea, Sandro

    2015-07-15

    An empiric perspective on what epidemiology has studied over time might inform discussions about future directions for the discipline. We aimed to identify the main areas of epidemiologic inquiry and determine how they evolved over time in 5 high-impact epidemiologic journals. We analyzed the titles and abstracts of 20,895 articles that were published between 1974 and 2013. In 5 time periods that reflected approximately equal numbers of articles, we identified the main topics by clustering terms based on co-occurrence. Infectious disease and cardiovascular disease epidemiology were the prevailing topics over the 5 periods. Cancer epidemiology was a major topic from 1974 to 2001 but disappeared thereafter. Nutritional epidemiology gained relative importance from 1974 to 2013. Environmental epidemiology appeared during 1996-2001 and continued to be important, whereas 2 clusters related to methodology and meta-analysis in genetics appeared during 2008-2013. Several areas of epidemiology, including injury or psychiatric epidemiology, did not make an appearance as major topics at any time. In an ancillary analysis of 6 high-impact general medicine journals, we found patterns of epidemiologic articles that were overall consistent with the findings in epidemiologic journals. This metaknowledge investigation allowed identification of the dominant topics in and conversely those that were absent from 5 major epidemiologic journals. We discuss implications for the field. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  4. Analyses of Research Topics in the Field of Informetrics Based on the Method of Topic Modeling

    OpenAIRE

    Sung-Chien Lin

    2014-01-01

    In this study, we used the approach of topic modeling to uncover the possible structure of research topics in the field of Informetrics, to explore the distribution of the topics over years, and to compare the core journals. In order to infer the structure of the topics in the field, the data of the papers published in the Journal of Informetricsand Scientometrics during 2007 to 2013 are retrieved from the database of the Web of Science as input of the approach of topic modeling. The results ...

  5. Topics in the Foundations of General Relativity and Newtonian Gravitation Theory

    CERN Document Server

    Malament, David B

    2012-01-01

    In Topics in the Foundations of General Relativity and Newtonian Gravitation Theory, David B. Malament presents the basic logical-mathematical structure of general relativity and considers a number of special topics concerning the foundations of general relativity and its relation to Newtonian gravitation theory. These special topics include the geometrized formulation of Newtonian theory (also known as Newton-Cartan theory), the concept of rotation in general relativity, and Gödel spacetime. One of the highlights of the book is a no-go theorem that can be understood to show that there is

  6. Analyses of Research Topics in the Field of Informetrics Based on the Method of Topic Modeling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sung-Chien Lin

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available In this study, we used the approach of topic modeling to uncover the possible structure of research topics in the field of Informetrics, to explore the distribution of the topics over years, and to compare the core journals. In order to infer the structure of the topics in the field, the data of the papers published in the Journal of Informetricsand Scientometrics during 2007 to 2013 are retrieved from the database of the Web of Science as input of the approach of topic modeling. The results of this study show that when the number of topics was set to 10, the topic model has the smallest perplexity. Although data scopes and analysis methodsare different to previous studies, the generating topics of this study are consistent with those results produced by analyses of experts. Empirical case studies and measurements of bibliometric indicators were concerned important in every year during the whole analytic period, and the field was increasing stability. Both the two core journals broadly paid more attention to all of the topics in the field of Informetrics. The Journal of Informetricsput particular emphasis on construction and applications ofbibliometric indicators and Scientometrics focused on the evaluation and the factors of productivity of countries, institutions, domains, and journals.

  7. Topical tacrolimus solution in autoimmune polyglandular syndrome-1-associated keratitis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shoughy, Samir S; Tabbara, Khalid F

    2017-09-01

    To evaluate the efficacy of topical tacrloimus eye drops in the treatment of keratitis associated with autoimmune polyglandular syndrome (APS)-1. This is a retrospective review of 10 patients with APS-1. The patients were treated with topical tacrolimus 0.01% solution at The Eye Center, between 1 March 2012 and 30 April 2016. The outcome measures included improvement in visual acuity, photophobia and keratitis following treatment. Clinical assessment was carried out before, during and on the last visit following initiation of therapy. A total of 10 patients were included. There were five male and five female patients. The mean age was 11 years with age range of 3-42 years. The mean duration of treatment with topical tacrolimus was 26 months (range 8-46 months). There was improvement of photophobia in 7 out of 10 patients following therapy with topical tacrolimus. In three patients, the photophobia was persistent. There was no clinically detectable improvement in the severity of keratitis in all patients. The mean best corrected visual acuity was 0.1 before and following therapy. Topical tacrolimus is effective in reducing the photophobia in patients with APS-1-associated keratitis, but showed no effects on the severity of keratitis. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  8. The European source-term evaluation code ASTEC: status and applications, including CANDU plant applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Dorsselaere, J.P.; Giordano, P.; Kissane, M.P.; Montanelli, T.; Schwinges, B.; Ganju, S.; Dickson, L.

    2004-01-01

    Research on light-water reactor severe accidents (SA) is still required in a limited number of areas in order to confirm accident-management plans. Thus, 49 European organizations have linked their SA research in a durable way through SARNET (Severe Accident Research and management NETwork), part of the European 6th Framework Programme. One goal of SARNET is to consolidate the integral code ASTEC (Accident Source Term Evaluation Code, developed by IRSN and GRS) as the European reference tool for safety studies; SARNET efforts include extending the application scope to reactor types other than PWR (including VVER) such as BWR and CANDU. ASTEC is used in IRSN's Probabilistic Safety Analysis level 2 of 900 MWe French PWRs. An earlier version of ASTEC's SOPHAEROS module, including improvements by AECL, is being validated as the Canadian Industry Standard Toolset code for FP-transport analysis in the CANDU Heat Transport System. Work with ASTEC has also been performed by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, on IPHWR containment thermal hydraulics. (author)

  9. User Participation and Participatory Design: Topics in Computing Education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kautz, Karlheinz

    1996-01-01

    Discusses user participation and participatory design in the context of formal education for computing professionals. Topics include the current curriculum debate; mathematical- and engineering-based education; traditional system-development training; and an example of a course program that includes computers and society, and prototyping. (53…

  10. Change of Oral to Topical Corticosteroid Therapy Exacerbated Glucose Tolerance in a Patient with Plaque Psoriasis

    OpenAIRE

    Hongo, Yui; Ashida, Kenji; Ohe, Kenji; Enjoji, Munechika; Yamaguchi, Miyuki; Kurata, Tsuyoshi; Emoto, Akiko; Yamanouchi, Hiroko; Takagi, Satoko; Mori, Hitoe; Kawata, Nozomi; Hisata, Yoshio; Sakanishi, Yuta; Izumi, Kenichi; Sugioka, Takashi

    2017-01-01

    Patient: Male, 80 Final Diagnosis: Plaque psoriasis• drug induced diabetes Symptoms: Hyperglycemia• adrenocortical dysfunction Medication: Oral steroid• Topical steroid• Insulin Clinical Procedure: Changing route and strength of steroid administration Specialty: Endocrinology• Dermatology Objective: Rare disease Background: Psoriasis is known as the most frequent disease treated by long-term topical steroids. It is also known that patients with thick, chronic plaques require the highest poten...

  11. Topical Application of Tranexamic Acid Reduces Postoperative Bleeding in Open-Heart Surgery: Myth or Fact

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shah, M. U. A.; Asghar, M. I.; Cahaudhri, M. S.; Janjua, A. M.; Iqbal, A.

    2015-01-01

    Objective: To determine the efficacy of topical application of Tranexamic acid in controlling postoperative bleeding in open-heart surgery. Study Design: Double blind randomized control trial. Place and Duration of Study: Departments of Cardiac Surgery and Intensive Care of Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology and National Institute of Heart Diseases (AFIC-NIHD), Rawalpindi, Pakistan, from May to October 2011. Methodology: A total of 100 consecutive adult patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria undergoing elective on-pump cardiac surgeries were randomly divided in groups A and B. A study solution that contained 2.5 g of Tranexamic acid in 250 ml normal saline in group-A and equal amount of normal saline (placebo) in group-B was poured in the pericardial cavity over the mediastinal tissues before sternal closure. Postoperative bleeding was measured in both groups for 24 hours in the cardiac surgical ICU. Efficacy of Topical Tranexamic Acid / Placebo was measured in terms of mean postoperative bleeding in ml. Kindly again include these lines which seem to have been omitted in the final proof. Results: There was significant difference in the mean postoperative bleeding within 24 hours among the two groups 340.1 ± 112.4 ml in Tranexamic acid group vs. 665 ± 187.28 ml in placebo group (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Patients who did not have topical Tranexamic acid before chest closure had a significantly higher postoperative bleeding. Topical Tranexamic acid application is an effective and economical way for controlling non-surgical bleeding in patients undergoing cardiac surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass. (author)

  12. Third party access to LNG terminals. GIIGNL - Commercial Study Group Topic 8

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2012-11-01

    This report has been elaborated in the context of the GIIGNL Commercial Study Group (CSG) activities, which include as one of its topics the 'Third Party Access to LNG terminals' (Topic 8), led by Enagas. The 2010 edition is the third update to the report presented during the meeting of the GIIGNL Commercial Study Group in Tokyo, Japan, in September 2007. - Section 1 includes a review of the regulatory TPA regimes of LNG terminals in operation in Europe. The existing regime in each country, or for each terminal, is reviewed following a number of subsections. Each subsection follows the same structure in order to better understand the different arrangements and facilitate comparisons. - Section 2 shows data on effective usage and TPA access to each LNG terminal since 2000. Three main data are shown where available: number of cargoes delivered, volumes unloaded / sent-out, and the part of these cargoes/volumes that correspond to third parties. - Section 3 includes a tariff comparison for TPA to LNG terminals in Europe, taking into account the terms and conditions in force as of July 2010. - A description of the regulatory situation in the US in Sections 4. Access conditions to the three terminals under regulated TPA have been included for the first time: Lake Charles, Cove Point and Elba Island. An overview of Mexico and Canada is also reported. - An overview of the regulatory situation in Japan is provided in Section 5. The information required for the elaboration of this report has been collected from official web sites (LNG operators, regulatory authorities and industry associations), public reports and industry and statistical data Enagas deems to be reliable. For the adoption of certain hypothesis in Section 3 Enagas has also relied in information directly provided by operators

  13. Topical anti-infective sinonasal irrigations: update and literature review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Jivianne T; Chiu, Alexander G

    2014-01-01

    Sinonasal anti-infective irrigations have emerged as a promising therapeutic modality in the comprehensive management of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), particularly in the context of recalcitrant disease. The purpose of this article was to delineate the current spectrum of topical anti-infective therapies available and evaluate their role in the treatment of CRS. A systematic literature review was performed on all studies investigating the use of topical antimicrobial solutions in the medical therapy of CRS. Anti-infective irrigations were stratified into topical antibacterial, antifungal, and additive preparations according to their composition and respective microbicidal properties. The use of topical antibiotic irrigations has been supported by low-level studies in the treatment of refractory CRS, with optimal results achieved in patients who have undergone prior functional endoscopic sinus surgery and received culture-directed therapy. Multiple evidence-based reviews have not established any clinical benefit with the administration of topical antifungals, and their use is not currently recommended in the management of routine CRS. Topical additives including surfactants may be beneficial as adjunctive treatment for recalcitrant CRS, but additional research is needed to investigate their efficacy in comparison with other agents and establish safety profiles. Topical anti-infective solutions are not recommended as first-line therapy for routine CRS but may be considered as a potential option for patients with refractory CRS who have failed traditional medical and surgical intervention. Additional research is necessary to determine which patient populations would derive the most benefit from each respective irrigation regimen and identify potential toxicities associated with prolonged use.

  14. Sub-Tenon's anaesthesia versus topical anaesthesia for cataract surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guay, Joanne; Sales, Karl

    2015-08-27

    Local anaesthesia for cataract surgery can be provided by sub-Tenon's or topical anaesthesia. Both techniques offer possible advantages. This review, which originally was published in 2007 and was updated in 2014, was undertaken to compare these two anaesthetic techniques. Our objectives were to compare the effectiveness of topical anaesthesia (with or without intracameral local anaesthetic) versus sub-Tenon's anaesthesia in providing pain relief during cataract surgery. We reviewed pain during administration of anaesthesia, postoperative pain, surgical satisfaction with operating conditions and patient satisfaction with pain relief provided, and we looked at associated complications. We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE and EMBASE (last search in November 2014) and the reference lists of published articles. We looked for conferences abstracts and trials in progress and placed no constraints on language or publication status. We included all randomized studies that compared sub-Tenon's anaesthesia versus topical anaesthesia for cataract surgery. We assessed trial quality and extracted data in the format allowing maximal data inclusion. We included eight studies in this updated review but could retain in the analysis only seven studies on 742 operated eyes of 617 participants. Two cross-over trials included 125 participants, and five parallel trials included 492 participants. These studies were published between 1997 and 2005. The mean age of participants varied from 71.5 years to 83.5 years. The female proportion of participants varied from 54% to 76%. Compared with sub-Tenon's anaesthesia, topical anaesthesia (with or without intracameral injection) for cataract surgery increases intraoperative pain but decreases postoperative pain at 24 hours. The amplitude of the effect (equivalent to 1.1 on a score from 0 to 10 for intraoperative pain, and to 0.2 on the same scale for postoperative pain at 24 hours), although statistically

  15. Probabilistic analysis and related topics

    CERN Document Server

    Bharucha-Reid, A T

    1983-01-01

    Probabilistic Analysis and Related Topics, Volume 3 focuses on the continuity, integrability, and differentiability of random functions, including operator theory, measure theory, and functional and numerical analysis. The selection first offers information on the qualitative theory of stochastic systems and Langevin equations with multiplicative noise. Discussions focus on phase-space evolution via direct integration, phase-space evolution, linear and nonlinear systems, linearization, and generalizations. The text then ponders on the stability theory of stochastic difference systems and Marko

  16. Topical steroid-damaged skin

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anil Abraham

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Topical steroids, commonly used for a wide range of skin disorders, are associated with side effects both systemic and cutaneous. This article aims at bringing awareness among practitioners, about the cutaneous side effects of easily available, over the counter, topical steroids. This makes it important for us as dermatologists to weigh the usefulness of topical steroids versus their side effects, and to make an informed decision regarding their use in each individual based on other factors such as age, site involved and type of skin disorder.

  17. Advanced verification topics

    CERN Document Server

    Bhattacharya, Bishnupriya; Hall, Gary; Heaton, Nick; Kashai, Yaron; Khan Neyaz; Kirshenbaum, Zeev; Shneydor, Efrat

    2011-01-01

    The Accellera Universal Verification Methodology (UVM) standard is architected to scale, but verification is growing and in more than just the digital design dimension. It is growing in the SoC dimension to include low-power and mixed-signal and the system integration dimension to include multi-language support and acceleration. These items and others all contribute to the quality of the SOC so the Metric-Driven Verification (MDV) methodology is needed to unify it all into a coherent verification plan. This book is for verification engineers and managers familiar with the UVM and the benefits it brings to digital verification but who also need to tackle specialized tasks. It is also written for the SoC project manager that is tasked with building an efficient worldwide team. While the task continues to become more complex, Advanced Verification Topics describes methodologies outside of the Accellera UVM standard, but that build on it, to provide a way for SoC teams to stay productive and profitable.

  18. Investigating Online Destination Images Using a Topic-Based Sentiment Analysis Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gang Ren

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available With the development of Web 2.0, many studies have tried to analyze tourist behavior utilizing user-generated contents. The primary purpose of this study is to propose a topic-based sentiment analysis approach, including a polarity classification and an emotion classification. We use the Latent Dirichlet Allocation model to extract topics from online travel review data and analyze the sentiments and emotions for each topic with our proposed approach. The top frequent words are extracted for each topic from online reviews on Ctrip.com. By comparing the relative importance of each topic, we conclude that many tourists prefer to provide “suggestion” reviews. In particular, we propose a new approach to classify the emotions of online reviews at the topic level utilizing an emotion lexicon, focusing on specific emotions to analyze customer complaints. The results reveal that attraction “management” obtains most complaints. These findings may provide useful insights for the development of attractions and the measurement of online destination image. Our proposed method can be used to analyze reviews from many online platforms and domains.

  19. Trends in gel dosimetry: Preliminary bibliometric overview of active growth areas, research trends and hot topics from Gore’s 1984 paper onwards

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baldock, C

    2017-01-01

    John Gore’s seminal 1984 paper on gel dosimetry spawned a vibrant research field ranging from fundamental science through to clinical applications. A preliminary bibliometric study was undertaken of the gel dosimetry family of publications inspired by, and resulting from, Gore’s original 1984 paper to determine active growth areas, research trends and hot topics from Gore’s paper up to and including 2016. Themes and trends of the gel dosimetry research field were bibliometrically explored by way of co-occurrence term maps using the titles and abstracts text corpora from the Web of Science database for all relevant papers from 1984 to 2016. Visualisation of similarities was used by way of the VOSviewer visualisation tool to generate cluster maps of gel dosimetry knowledge domains and the associated citation impact of topics within the domains. Heat maps were then generated to assist in the understanding of active growth areas, research trends, and emerging and hot topics in gel dosimetry. (paper)

  20. The role of topical antibiotics used as prophylaxis in surgical site infection prevention.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    McHugh, S M

    2011-04-01

    Compared with systemic antibiotic therapy, the topical or local delivery of an antibiotic has many potential advantages. However, local antibiotics at the surgical site have received very limited approval in any of the surgical prophylaxis consensus guidelines that we are aware of. A review of the literature was carried out through searches of peer-reviewed publications in PubMed in the English language over a 30 year period between January 1980 and May 2010. Both retrospective and prospective studies were included, as well as meta-analyses. With regard to defining \\'topical\\' or \\'local\\' antibiotic application, the application of an antibiotic solution to the surgical site intraoperatively or immediately post-operatively was included. A number of surgical procedures have been shown to significantly benefit from perioperative topical prophylaxis, e.g. joint arthroplasty, cataract surgery and, possibly, breast augmentation. In obese patients undergoing abdominal surgery, topical surgical prophylaxis is also proven to be beneficial. The selective use of topical antibiotics as surgical prophylaxis is justified for specific procedures, such as joint arthroplasty, cataract surgery and, possibly, breast augmentation. In selective cases, such as obese patients undergoing abdominal surgery, topical surgical prophylaxis is also proven to be beneficial. Apart from these specific indications, the evidence for use of topical antibiotics in surgery is lacking in conclusive randomized controlled trials.

  1. The role of topical antibiotics used as prophylaxis in surgical site infection prevention.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    McHugh, S M

    2012-02-01

    Compared with systemic antibiotic therapy, the topical or local delivery of an antibiotic has many potential advantages. However, local antibiotics at the surgical site have received very limited approval in any of the surgical prophylaxis consensus guidelines that we are aware of. A review of the literature was carried out through searches of peer-reviewed publications in PubMed in the English language over a 30 year period between January 1980 and May 2010. Both retrospective and prospective studies were included, as well as meta-analyses. With regard to defining \\'topical\\' or \\'local\\' antibiotic application, the application of an antibiotic solution to the surgical site intraoperatively or immediately post-operatively was included. A number of surgical procedures have been shown to significantly benefit from perioperative topical prophylaxis, e.g. joint arthroplasty, cataract surgery and, possibly, breast augmentation. In obese patients undergoing abdominal surgery, topical surgical prophylaxis is also proven to be beneficial. The selective use of topical antibiotics as surgical prophylaxis is justified for specific procedures, such as joint arthroplasty, cataract surgery and, possibly, breast augmentation. In selective cases, such as obese patients undergoing abdominal surgery, topical surgical prophylaxis is also proven to be beneficial. Apart from these specific indications, the evidence for use of topical antibiotics in surgery is lacking in conclusive randomized controlled trials.

  2. Exposure to topical chloramphenicol during pregnancy and the risk of congenital malformations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thomseth, Vilde; Cejvanovic, Vanja; Jimenez-Solem, Espen

    2015-01-01

    PURPOSE: To investigate whether exposure to topical chloramphenicol in the first trimester of pregnancy is associated with congenital malformations. METHODS: The authors conducted a nationwide cohort study including all women giving live birth between 1997 and 2011 in Denmark. All women redeeming...... included. A total of 6024 women were exposed to topical chloramphenicol in the first trimester. The rate of congenital malformations was 3.50% among offspring of exposed mothers and 3.49% among unexposed. Exposure to topical chloramphenicol in the first trimester was not associated with major congenital...... of chloramphenicol eye drops or eye ointment in the first trimester of pregnancy and major congenital malformations. This is in accordance with a previous study analysing the risk of systemic chloramphenicol....

  3. Remifentanil: A help in topical strabismus surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sánchez-Guillén, I; López, R; Calle, M A; Diez-Lobo, A B

    2017-12-01

    To analyze the analgesic effect of remifentanil, side effects and complications in topical strabismus surgery. To study the results of strabismus surgery with this type of anesthesia. Retrospective descriptive study. We included 39 patients undergoing strabismus surgery with topical anesthesia and analgesia-based sedation with remifentanil. The data of the anesthetic and surgical technique, surgical results and stability of the deviation angle were analyzed. Thirty nine patients (54% women) were included, the average age was 37,4years old. The mean follow-up was 24,5months. The preoperative diagnoses were exotropia (21 patients), esotropia (12), paresis strabismus (4) and Duane's Syndrome (2). 15% patients had preoperative diplopia and 13 had received previous treatments. The dose range of remifentanil used was 0.05 to 0.2μg/kg/min. The side effects presented were 2 cases of vomit and one of bad collaboration during the intraoperative adjustment, one of the patient reported pain and one case of thoracic rigidity was reported. 79% of the patients obtained a good surgical result and 82% reported being satisfied with the results. The reintervention rate was 5%. Analgesia-based sedation with remifentanil is an useful complement to topical strabismus surgery because it reduces pain during surgery and allows the patient to collaborate during intraoperative adjustment due to its pharmacokinetic characteristics. Copyright © 2017 Sociedad Española de Oftalmología. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

  4. Capture gamma-ray spectroscopy and related topics, 1984. AIP conference proceedings No. 125

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Raman, S.

    1985-01-01

    The main topics discussed at the symposium were nuclear models and theory, photon-induced reactions, neutron-induced reactions, charged-particle-induced reactions, applications, including nucleosynthesis, and related topics. Separate entries were prepared for the data base for the papers presented

  5. LDA-Based Unified Topic Modeling for Similar TV User Grouping and TV Program Recommendation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pyo, Shinjee; Kim, Eunhui; Kim, Munchurl

    2015-08-01

    prediction precision was 79.6%. Also, we showed the superiority of our proposed model in terms of both topic modeling performance and recommendation performance compared to two related topic models such as polylingual topic model and bilingual topic model.

  6. Correlated Topic Vector for Scene Classification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wei, Pengxu; Qin, Fei; Wan, Fang; Zhu, Yi; Jiao, Jianbin; Ye, Qixiang

    2017-07-01

    Scene images usually involve semantic correlations, particularly when considering large-scale image data sets. This paper proposes a novel generative image representation, correlated topic vector, to model such semantic correlations. Oriented from the correlated topic model, correlated topic vector intends to naturally utilize the correlations among topics, which are seldom considered in the conventional feature encoding, e.g., Fisher vector, but do exist in scene images. It is expected that the involvement of correlations can increase the discriminative capability of the learned generative model and consequently improve the recognition accuracy. Incorporated with the Fisher kernel method, correlated topic vector inherits the advantages of Fisher vector. The contributions to the topics of visual words have been further employed by incorporating the Fisher kernel framework to indicate the differences among scenes. Combined with the deep convolutional neural network (CNN) features and Gibbs sampling solution, correlated topic vector shows great potential when processing large-scale and complex scene image data sets. Experiments on two scene image data sets demonstrate that correlated topic vector improves significantly the deep CNN features, and outperforms existing Fisher kernel-based features.

  7. Proceedings of the topical session on stakeholder involvement in decommissioning projects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Santiago, Juan Luis; Chandler, Steve; Metcalfe, Doug; Le Bars, Yves

    2006-01-01

    Set up by the Radioactive Waste Management Committee (RWMC), the WPDD brings together senior representatives of national organisations who have a broad overview of Decommissioning and Dismantling (D and D) issues through their work as regulators, implementers, R and D experts or policy makers. These include representatives from regulatory authorities, industrial decommissioners from the NEA Co-operative Programme on Exchange of Scientific and Technical Information on Nuclear Installation Decommissioning Projects (CPD), and cross-representation from the other NEA Committees. The EC is a member of the WPDD and the IAEA is participating as an observer. This broad participation provides good possibilities for the co-ordination efforts amongst activities in the international programmes. At its sixth meeting, in Paris, 14-16 November 2005, the WPDD held a topical session on the 'Stakeholder Involvement in Decommissioning Projects'. The topical session was jointly planned and run with members of the NEA Forum on Stakeholder Confidence (FSC). This report documents the topical session. The main text summarises the lessons learnt and includes the rapporteurs reports. Appendix 1 and 2 provide the agenda of the topical session and all contributed papers respectively. The Topical session also provided a stimuli to review all the contributions in the area of stakeholder involvement that the WPDD has received since its inception. A list of references is provided in Appendix 3. The topical session was meant to provide an exchange of information and experience on the following issues: - Views from Stakeholders Regarding Stakeholder Involvement and Their Own Role. - Case Studies on Stakeholders Confidence. At the end of each session time was allotted for a plenary discussion. The Rapporteur reviewed the main points and the lessons learnt at the end of the whole Topical Session. (authors)

  8. Skin penetration and tissue permeation after topical administration of diclofenac.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hagen, Martina; Baker, Mark

    2017-09-01

    Topical delivery of drugs is an alternative to oral administration, often with similar efficacy but potentially a more favorable tolerability profile. However, topical formulations need to be able to penetrate the skin and permeate to the target areas in quantities sufficient to exert a therapeutic effect. Many factors can affect this process, including the physicochemical properties of the drug, the formulation used, and the site and mode of application. It is believed that measurement of drug concentrations at the sites of action may be an indicator of their likely efficacy. This review addresses these issues, with reference to topically administered diclofenac in osteoarthritis. Articles relevant to this review were identified after a systematic search of Medline and Embase, using the key words "diclofenac", "topical administration" and "osteoarthritis" in the search strategy. The sparse data available indicate that topical diclofenac can penetrate and permeate to deeper tissues, with a lower plasma to tissue ratio than oral diclofenac. The tissue diclofenac levels after topical delivery are sustained over time (at least several hours). However, there is not enough data to establish how diclofenac levels in the joint compare with IC 50 levels (50% of the maximum inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis) established following oral administration. After topical application, diclofenac can penetrate the skin and permeate to deeper tissues, where it reaches a concentration that appears to be sufficient to exert a therapeutic effect. More robust methods are required for in vivo characterization to better estimate the clinical efficacy of topically applied drugs.

  9. Topical treatment of psoriasis: questionnaire results on topical therapy accessibility and influence of body surface area on usage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iversen, L; Lange, M M; Bissonette, R; Carvalho, A V E; van de Kerkhof, P C; Kirby, B; Kleyn, C E; Lynde, C W; van der Walt, J M; Wu, J J

    2017-07-01

    Topical treatment of mild to moderate psoriasis is first-line treatment and exhibits varying degrees of success across patient groups. Key factors influencing treatment success are physician topical treatment choice (high efficacy, low adverse events) and strict patient adherence. Currently, no formalized, international consensus guidelines exist to direct optimal topical treatment, although many countries have national guidelines. To describe and analyse cross-regional variations in the use and access of psoriasis topical therapies. The study was conducted as an observational cross-sectional study. A survey was distributed to dermatologists from the International Psoriasis Council (IPC) to assess topical therapy accessibility in 26 countries and to understand how body surface area (BSA) categories guide clinical decisions on topical use. Variation in the availability of tars, topical retinoids, dithranol and balneotherapy was reported. The vast majority of respondents (100% and 88.4%) used topical therapy as first-line monotherapy in situations with BSA 10%, the number of respondents who prescribe topical therapy decreased considerably. In addition, combination therapy of a topical drug and a systemic drug was frequently reported when BSA measured >10%. This physician survey provides new evidence on topical access and the influence of disease severity on topical usage in an effort to improve treatment strategies on a global level. © 2017 European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.

  10. Advanced topics in the arithmetic of elliptic curves

    CERN Document Server

    Silverman, Joseph H

    1994-01-01

    In the introduction to the first volume of The Arithmetic of Elliptic Curves (Springer-Verlag, 1986), I observed that "the theory of elliptic curves is rich, varied, and amazingly vast," and as a consequence, "many important topics had to be omitted." I included a brief introduction to ten additional topics as an appendix to the first volume, with the tacit understanding that eventually there might be a second volume containing the details. You are now holding that second volume. it turned out that even those ten topics would not fit Unfortunately, into a single book, so I was forced to make some choices. The following material is covered in this book: I. Elliptic and modular functions for the full modular group. II. Elliptic curves with complex multiplication. III. Elliptic surfaces and specialization theorems. IV. Neron models, Kodaira-Neron classification of special fibers, Tate's algorithm, and Ogg's conductor-discriminant formula. V. Tate's theory of q-curves over p-adic fields. VI. Neron's theory of can...

  11. Topical bioavailability of diclofenac from locally-acting, dermatological formulations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cordery, S F; Pensado, A; Chiu, W S; Shehab, M Z; Bunge, A L; Delgado-Charro, M B; Guy, R H

    2017-08-30

    Assessment of the bioavailability of topically applied drugs designed to act within or beneath the skin is a challenging objective. A number of different, but potentially complementary, techniques are under evaluation. The objective of this work was to evaluate in vitro skin penetration and stratum corneum tape-stripping in vivo as tools with which to measure topical diclofenac bioavailability from three approved and commercialized products (two gels and one solution). Drug uptake into, and its subsequent clearance from, the stratum corneum of human volunteers was used to estimate the input rate of diclofenac into the viable skin layers. This flux was compared to that measured across excised porcine skin in conventional diffusion cells. Both techniques clearly demonstrated (a) the superiority in terms of drug delivery from the solution, and (b) that the two gels performed similarly. There was qualitative and, importantly, quantitative agreement between the in vitro and in vivo measurements of drug flux into and beyond the viable skin. Evidence is therefore presented to support an in vivo - in vitro correlation between methods to assess topical drug bioavailability. The potential value of the stratum corneum tape-stripping technique to quantify drug delivery into (epi)dermal and subcutaneous tissue beneath the barrier is demonstrated. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. Comparison of topical versus intravenous tranexamic acid in primary total knee arthroplasty: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled and prospective cohort trials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Hao; Shen, Bin; Zeng, Yi

    2014-12-01

    There has been much debate and controversy about the optimal regimen of tranexamic acid in primary total knee arthroplasty. The purpose of this study was to undertake a meta-analysis to compare the efficacy of topical and intravenous regimen of tranexamic acid in primary total knee arthroplasty. A systematic review of the electronic databases PubMed, CENTRAL, Web of Science, and Embase was undertaken. All randomized controlled trials and prospective cohort studies evaluating the effectiveness of topical and intravenous tranexamic acid during primary total knee arthroplasty were included. The focus of the analysis was on the outcomes of blood loss, transfusion rate, and thromboembolic complications. Subgroup analysis was performed when possible. Of 328 papers identified, six trials were eligible for data extraction and meta-analysis comprising 679 patients (739 knees). We found no statistically significant difference between topical and intravenous administration of tranexamic acid in terms of blood loss, transfusion requirements and thromboembolic complications. Topical tranexamic acid has a similar efficacy to intravenous tranexamic acid in reducing both blood loss and transfusion rate without sacrificing safety in primary total knee arthroplasty. II. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Atomic Processes in Plasmas: Tenth Topical Conference. Proceedings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Osterheld, A.L.; Goldstein, W.H.

    1997-01-01

    These proceedings contain the papers presented at the 10th topical conference on atomic processes in plasmas held in San Francisco, California. This conference series provides a forum for those whose research overlaps atomic and plasma physics. The topics discussed included tokamak plasmas, x-ray sources and x-ray lasers, dense plasmas, laser plasmas, radiative opacity and atomic databases. Among the sponsors of this conference were the Office of Fusion Energy and the Office of Energy Research of the U.S. department of Energy and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. There were 30 papers presented and 28 have been abstracted for the Energy Science and Technology database

  14. Topics on Japanese aseismic design for nuclear installations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nakamura, Masahiko

    2002-01-01

    Major items of of Japanese anti-seismic design for nuclear installations involve three topics: earthquakes and ground motion; seismic design and safety evaluation. The first topic deal with: improvement of geological survey technology, evaluation of ground motion from active faults, and characterisation of earthquake from individual faults. Seismic design involves: evaluation of design ground motion (spectra), classification of structures, systems and components (SSCs) based on the seismic importance, and seismic design criteria and critical loads. Safety evaluation of seismic PSA is dependent on the consistency of the the two previous items. Seismic hazard evaluation methodology, database and examples of analysis are described. Analysis method using fault model is included

  15. Topical botulinum toxin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Collins, Ashley; Nasir, Adnan

    2010-03-01

    Nanotechnology is a rapidly growing discipline that capitalizes on the unique properties of matter engineered on the nanoscale. Vehicles incorporating nanotechnology have led to great strides in drug delivery, allowing for increased active ingredient stability, bioavailability, and site-specific targeting. Botulinum toxin has historically been used for the correction of neurological and neuromuscular disorders, such as torticollis, blepharospasm, and strabismus. Recent dermatological indications have been for the management of axillary hyperhydrosis and facial rhytides. Traditional methods of botulinum toxin delivery have been needle-based. These have been associated with increased pain and cost. Newer methods of botulinum toxin formulation have yielded topical preparations that are bioactive in small pilot clinical studies. While there are some risks associated with topical delivery, the refinement and standardization of delivery systems and techniques for the topical administration of botulinum toxin using nanotechnology is anticipated in the near future.

  16. Topical methotrexate pretreatment enhances the therapeutic effect of topical 5-aminolevulinic acid-mediated photodynamic therapy on hamster buccal pouch precancers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Deng-Fu; Lee, Jeng-Woei; Chen, Hsin-Ming; Hsu, Yih-Chih

    2014-09-01

    Topical 5-aminolevulinic acid-mediated photodynamic therapy (ALA-PDT) is effective for treatment of human oral precancerous lesions. This animal study aimed to assess whether topical methotrexate (MTX) pretreatment could enhance the therapeutic effect of topical ALA-PDT on hamster buccal pouch precancerous lesions. Twenty hamster buccal pouch precancerous lesions were treated with either topical ALA-PDT with topical MTX pretreatment (topical MTX-ALA-PDT group, n = 10) or topical ALA-PDT alone (topical ALA-PDT group, n = 10). The intracellular protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) level in another 12 precancerous lesions (n = 6 for either the topical MTX-ALA or topical ALA group) was monitored by fluorescence spectroscopy. The intracellular PpIX reached its peak level in precancerous lesions 6.5 hours and 2.5 hours after topical ALA application for the topical MTX-ALA group (5.63-fold higher in the lesion than in the normal mucosa) and topical ALA group (2.42-fold higher in the lesion than in the normal mucosa), respectively. The complete response rate of precancerous lesions was 80% for the topical MTX-ALA-PDT group and 70% for the topical ALA-PDT group. In addition, the topical MTX-ALA-PDT group required a significantly lower mean treatment number (2.1 ± 0.6) to achieve complete response than the topical ALA-PDT group (4.4 ± 1.3, p topical MTX-ALA-PDT group had a lower recurrence rate (12.5%) than the topical ALA-PDT group (28.6%). We conclude that topical MTX-pretreatment can increase intracellular PpIX production in hamster buccal pouch precancerous lesions and significantly improves the outcomes of the precancerous lesions treated with topical ALA-PDT. Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  17. Mining FDA drug labels using an unsupervised learning technique--topic modeling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bisgin, Halil; Liu, Zhichao; Fang, Hong; Xu, Xiaowei; Tong, Weida

    2011-10-18

    The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drug labels contain a broad array of information, ranging from adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to drug efficacy, risk-benefit consideration, and more. However, the labeling language used to describe these information is free text often containing ambiguous semantic descriptions, which poses a great challenge in retrieving useful information from the labeling text in a consistent and accurate fashion for comparative analysis across drugs. Consequently, this task has largely relied on the manual reading of the full text by experts, which is time consuming and labor intensive. In this study, a novel text mining method with unsupervised learning in nature, called topic modeling, was applied to the drug labeling with a goal of discovering "topics" that group drugs with similar safety concerns and/or therapeutic uses together. A total of 794 FDA-approved drug labels were used in this study. First, the three labeling sections (i.e., Boxed Warning, Warnings and Precautions, Adverse Reactions) of each drug label were processed by the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) to convert the free text of each label to the standard ADR terms. Next, the topic modeling approach with latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) was applied to generate 100 topics, each associated with a set of drugs grouped together based on the probability analysis. Lastly, the efficacy of the topic modeling was evaluated based on known information about the therapeutic uses and safety data of drugs. The results demonstrate that drugs grouped by topics are associated with the same safety concerns and/or therapeutic uses with statistical significance (P<0.05). The identified topics have distinct context that can be directly linked to specific adverse events (e.g., liver injury or kidney injury) or therapeutic application (e.g., antiinfectives for systemic use). We were also able to identify potential adverse events that might arise from specific

  18. Dressings and topical agents for preventing pressure ulcers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Zena E H; Webster, Joan

    2013-08-18

    Pressure ulcers, which are localised injury to the skin, or underlying tissue or both, occur when people are unable to reposition themselves to relieve pressure on bony prominences. Pressure ulcers are often difficult to heal, painful and impact negatively on the individual's quality of life. The cost implications of pressure ulcer treatment are considerable, compounding the challenges in providing cost effective, efficient health services. Efforts to prevent the development of pressure ulcers have focused on nutritional support, pressure redistributing devices, turning regimes and the application of various topical agents and dressings designed to maintain healthy skin, relieve pressure and prevent shearing forces. Although products aimed at preventing pressure ulcers are widely used, it remains unclear which, if any, of these approaches are effective in preventing the development of pressure ulcers. To evaluate the effects of dressings and topical agents on the prevention of pressure ulcers, in people of any age without existing pressure ulcers, but considered to be at risk of developing a pressure ulcer, in any healthcare setting. In February 2013 we searched the following electronic databases to identify reports of relevant randomised clinical trials (RCTs): the Cochrane Wounds Group Specialised Register; the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library); Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (The Cochrane Library); Ovid MEDLINE; Ovid MEDLINE (In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations); Ovid EMBASE; and EBSCO CINAHL. We included RCTs evaluating the use of dressings, topical agents, or topical agents with dressings, compared with a different dressing, topical agent, or combined topical agent and dressing, or no intervention or standard care, with the aim of preventing the development of a pressure ulcer. We assessed trials for their appropriateness for inclusion and for their risk of bias. This was done by two review

  19. Central chorioretinopathy associated with topical use of minoxidil 2% for treatment of baldness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scarinci, Fabio; Mezzana, Paolo; Pasquini, Paola; Colletti, Michelle; Cacciamani, Andrea

    2012-06-01

    Minoxidil is one of the drugs approved for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia. This article presents a case of central serous chorioretinopathy after application of topical minoxidil solution. We examined a 37-year-old man who complained of a positive relative scotoma, metamorphopsia and impaired dark adaptation involving the right eye. The patient reported an 8 month history of daily topical use but denied previous treatment with other drugs. Dilated fundus examination of right eye revealed central swelling located over the macula. Optical coherence tomography showed the presence of subretinal fluid. Fluorescein angiography disclosed one focal hyperfluorescent spot in the foveal area with minimal pigmentary changes limitated to that area. The patient was diagnosed with central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) potentially related to an 8 month topical minoxidil solution administration. One month after the drug was discontinued, normal findings were found upon reexamination. The patient reported no previous episode of CSC. Major systemic side effects from topical solution of minoxidil are rare. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a central serous chorioretinopathy associated with long-term use of this drug.

  20. Topical corticosteroids as adjunctive therapy for bacterial keratitis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Herretes, Samantha; Wang, Xue; Reyes, Johann MG

    2014-01-01

    Background Bacterial keratitis is a serious ocular infectious disease that can lead to severe visual disability. Risk factors for bacterial corneal infection include contact lens wear, ocular surface disease, corneal trauma, and previous ocular or eyelid surgery. Topical antibiotics constitute the mainstay of treatment in cases of bacterial keratitis, whereas the use of topical corticosteroids as an adjunctive therapy to antibiotics remains controversial. Topical corticosteroids are usually used to control inflammation using the smallest amount of the drug. Their use requires optimal timing, concomitant antibiotics, and careful follow-up. Objectives The objective of the review was to assess the effectiveness and safety of corticosteroids as adjunctive therapy for bacterial keratitis. Secondary objectives included evaluation of health economic outcomes and quality of life outcomes. Search methods We searched CENTRAL (which contains the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Group Trials Register) (2014, Issue 6), Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid MEDLINE In-Process and Other Non-Indexed Citations, Ovid MEDLINE Daily, Ovid OLDMEDLINE (January 1946 to July 2014), EMBASE (January 1980 to July 2014), Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature Database (LILACS) (January 1982 to July 2014), the metaRegister of Controlled Trials (mRCT) (www.controlled-trials.com), ClinicalTrials.gov (www.clinicaltrials.gov) and the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) (www.who.int/ictrp/search/en). We did not use any date or language restrictions in the electronic searches for trials. We last searched the electronic databases on 14 July 2014. We also searched the Science Citation Index to identify additional studies that had cited the only trial included in the original version of this review, reference lists of included trials, earlier reviews, and the American Academy of Ophthalmology guidelines. We also contacted experts to identify any unpublished and

  1. Correlation between MCAT biology content specifications and topic scope and sequence of general education college biology textbooks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rissing, Steven W

    2013-01-01

    Most American colleges and universities offer gateway biology courses to meet the needs of three undergraduate audiences: biology and related science majors, many of whom will become biomedical researchers; premedical students meeting medical school requirements and preparing for the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT); and students completing general education (GE) graduation requirements. Biology textbooks for these three audiences present a topic scope and sequence that correlates with the topic scope and importance ratings of the biology content specifications for the MCAT regardless of the intended audience. Texts for "nonmajors," GE courses appear derived directly from their publisher's majors text. Topic scope and sequence of GE texts reflect those of "their" majors text and, indirectly, the MCAT. MCAT term density of GE texts equals or exceeds that of their corresponding majors text. Most American universities require a GE curriculum to promote a core level of academic understanding among their graduates. This includes civic scientific literacy, recognized as an essential competence for the development of public policies in an increasingly scientific and technological world. Deriving GE biology and related science texts from majors texts designed to meet very different learning objectives may defeat the scientific literacy goals of most schools' GE curricula.

  2. Correlation between MCAT Biology Content Specifications and Topic Scope and Sequence of General Education College Biology Textbooks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rissing, Steven W.

    2013-01-01

    Most American colleges and universities offer gateway biology courses to meet the needs of three undergraduate audiences: biology and related science majors, many of whom will become biomedical researchers; premedical students meeting medical school requirements and preparing for the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT); and students completing general education (GE) graduation requirements. Biology textbooks for these three audiences present a topic scope and sequence that correlates with the topic scope and importance ratings of the biology content specifications for the MCAT regardless of the intended audience. Texts for “nonmajors,” GE courses appear derived directly from their publisher's majors text. Topic scope and sequence of GE texts reflect those of “their” majors text and, indirectly, the MCAT. MCAT term density of GE texts equals or exceeds that of their corresponding majors text. Most American universities require a GE curriculum to promote a core level of academic understanding among their graduates. This includes civic scientific literacy, recognized as an essential competence for the development of public policies in an increasingly scientific and technological world. Deriving GE biology and related science texts from majors texts designed to meet very different learning objectives may defeat the scientific literacy goals of most schools’ GE curricula. PMID:24006392

  3. Texasgulf solar cogeneration program. Mid-term topical report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1981-02-01

    The status of technical activities of the Texasgulf Solar Cogeneration Program at the Comanche Creek Sulfur Mine is described. The program efforts reported focus on preparation of a system specification, selection of a site-specific configuration, conceptual design, and facility performance. Trade-off studies performed to select the site-specific cogeneration facility configuration that would be the basis for the conceptual design efforts are described. Study areas included solar system size, thermal energy storage, and field piping. The conceptual design status is described for the various subsystems of the Comanche Creek cogeneration facility. The subsystems include the collector, receiver, master control, fossil energy, energy storage, superheat boiler, electric power generation, and process heat subsystems. Computer models for insolation and performance are also briefly discussed. Appended is the system specification. (LEW)

  4. Systemic vs. Topical Therapy for the Treatment of Vulvovaginal Candidiasis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sebastian Faro

    1994-01-01

    Full Text Available It is estimated that 75% of all women will experience at least 1 episode of vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC during their lifetimes. Most patients with acute VVC can be treated with short-term regimens that optimize compliance. Since current topical and oral antifungals have shown comparably high efficacy rates, other issues should be considered in determining the most appropriate therapy. It is possible that the use of short-duration narrow-spectrum agents may increase selection of more resistant organisms which will result in an increase of recurrent VVC (RVVC. Women who are known or suspected to be pregnant and women of childbearing age who are not using a reliable means of contraception should receive topical therapy, as should those who are breast-feeding or receiving drugs that can interact with an oral azole and those who have previously experienced adverse effects during azole therapy. Because of the potential risks associated with systemic treatment, topical therapy with a broad-spectrum agent should be the method of choice for VVC, whereas systemic therapy should be reserved for either RVVC or cases where the benefits outweigh any possible adverse reactions.

  5. On the Presentation of Pre-Calculus and Calculus Topics: An Alternate View

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davydov, Aleksandr; Sturm-Beiss, Rachel

    2008-01-01

    The orders of presentation of pre-calculus and calculus topics, and the notation used, deserve careful study as they affect clarity and ultimately students' level of understanding. We introduce an alternate approach to some of the topics included in this sequence. The suggested alternative is based on years of teaching in colleges within and…

  6. The Effect of Testosterone Topical Solution in Hypogonadal Men With Suboptimal Response to a Topical Testosterone Gel.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burns, Patrick R; Kim, Edward D; Ruff, Dustin D; Seftel, Allen D

    2018-05-01

    This study evaluated the effect of axillary administration of a 2% testosterone solution (Axiron ® ) in hypogonadal (HGN) men who had had a suboptimal response to treatment with a commercially available topical testosterone gel. HGN men averaging 57 years old, with a mean body mass index of 31.9 kg/m 2 and median baseline testosterone level (T-level) of 185.2 ng/dL, who had failed to reach normal T-levels with a topical testosterone gel (Androgel 1.62%, Androgel, Testim, or Fortesta) were treated with a 2% testosterone solution until T-levels reached a normal range (from ≥300 to ≤1,050 ng/dL) or for up to 9 weeks. Outcomes included the cumulative percentage of men with a serum T-level in the normal range during treatment with Axiron and improvement in symptoms of low energy level and low sexual drive. During the study, 95% of HGN men (72/78) attained a T-level in the normal range. The median T-level at endpoint was 495.7 ng/dL, a threefold increase over baseline, p levels within the first 2 weeks of treatment. In a post hoc analysis, all subjects with baseline body mass indexes >35 kg/m 2 ( n = 19) achieved T-levels in the normal range. Prior to treatment, over 61% of subjects (48/78) reported impairment in either energy level or sexual drive. After treatment (or testosterone normalization), energy level improved in 75% of subjects and sexual drive improved in 70%. Topical 2% testosterone solution is a safe and effective treatment for HGN men who have had a suboptimal response to previous treatment with topical testosterone gels.

  7. Chemistry {ampersand} Materials Science progress report summary of selected research and development topics, FY97

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Newkirk, L.

    1997-12-01

    This report contains summaries of research performed in the Chemistry and Materials Science division. Topics include Metals and Ceramics, High Explosives, Organic Synthesis, Instrument Development, and other topics.

  8. Topics in mathematical biology

    CERN Document Server

    Hadeler, Karl Peter

    2017-01-01

    This book analyzes the impact of quiescent phases on biological models. Quiescence arises, for example, when moving individuals stop moving, hunting predators take a rest, infected individuals are isolated, or cells enter the quiescent compartment of the cell cycle. In the first chapter of Topics in Mathematical Biology general principles about coupled and quiescent systems are derived, including results on shrinking periodic orbits and stabilization of oscillations via quiescence. In subsequent chapters classical biological models are presented in detail and challenged by the introduction of quiescence. These models include delay equations, demographic models, age structured models, Lotka-Volterra systems, replicator systems, genetic models, game theory, Nash equilibria, evolutionary stable strategies, ecological models, epidemiological models, random walks and reaction-diffusion models. In each case we find new and interesting results such as stability of fixed points and/or periodic orbits, excitability...

  9. Evolving guidelines in the use of topical nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in the treatment of osteoarthritis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balmaceda, Casilda M

    2014-01-21

    Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are a standard treatment for osteoarthritis (OA), but the use of oral NSAIDs has been linked to an elevated risk for cardiovascular and gastrointestinal adverse events and renal toxicity. Topical NSAIDs are thought to afford efficacy that is comparable to oral formulations while reducing widespread systemic drug exposure, which may provide a benefit in terms of safety and tolerability. As a result, European treatment guidelines have, for many years, recommended the use of topical NSAIDs as a safe and effective treatment option for OA. Following the recent approval of several topical NSAID formulations by the US Food and Drug Administration, US treatment guidelines are increasingly recommending the use of topical NSAIDs as an alternative therapy and, in some cases, as a first-line option for OA. This commentary summarizes OA treatment guidelines that are currently available and discusses their potential evolution with regard to the increased inclusion of topical NSAIDs.

  10. Change of Oral to Topical Corticosteroid Therapy Exacerbated Glucose Tolerance in a Patient with Plaque Psoriasis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hongo, Yui; Ashida, Kenji; Ohe, Kenji; Enjoji, Munechika; Yamaguchi, Miyuki; Kurata, Tsuyoshi; Emoto, Akiko; Yamanouchi, Hiroko; Takagi, Satoko; Mori, Hitoe; Kawata, Nozomi; Hisata, Yoshio; Sakanishi, Yuta; Izumi, Kenichi; Sugioka, Takashi; Anzai, Keizo

    2017-11-13

    BACKGROUND Psoriasis is known as the most frequent disease treated by long-term topical steroids. It is also known that patients with thick, chronic plaques require the highest potency topical steroids. However, the treatment is limited to up to four weeks due to risk of systemic absorption. CASE REPORT An 80-year-old man was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes 16 years before, and was being administered insulin combined with alpha glucosidase inhibitor. He was diagnosed with plaque psoriasis and his oral steroid treatment was switched to topical steroid treatment due to lack of improvement and poorly controlled blood glucose level. The hypoglycemic events improved after the psoriatic lesions improved. CONCLUSIONS Control of blood glucose level is difficult at the very beginning of topical steroid treatment for psoriasis especially if a patient is receiving insulin treatment. Intense monitoring of blood glucose level during initiation of topical steroid treatment is necessary to prevent unfavorable complications.

  11. Recent advances in topical anesthesia

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-01-01

    Topical anesthetics act on the peripheral nerves and reduce the sensation of pain at the site of application. In dentistry, they are used to control local pain caused by needling, placement of orthodontic bands, the vomiting reflex, oral mucositis, and rubber-dam clamp placement. Traditional topical anesthetics contain lidocaine or benzocaine as active ingredients and are used in the form of solutions, creams, gels, and sprays. Eutectic mixtures of local anesthesia cream, a mixture of various topical anesthetics, has been reported to be more potent than other anesthetics. Recently, new products with modified ingredients and application methods have been introduced into the market. These products may be used for mild pain during periodontal treatment, such as scaling. Dentists should be aware that topical anesthetics, although rare, might induce allergic reactions or side effects as a result of an overdose. Topical anesthetics are useful aids during dental treatment, as they reduce dental phobia, especially in children, by mitigating discomfort and pain. PMID:28879311

  12. Google Search Queries About Neurosurgical Topics: Are They a Suitable Guide for Neurosurgeons?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lawson McLean, Anna C; Lawson McLean, Aaron; Kalff, Rolf; Walter, Jan

    2016-06-01

    Google is the most popular search engine, with about 100 billion searches per month. Google Trends is an integrated tool that allows users to obtain Google's search popularity statistics from the last decade. Our aim was to evaluate whether Google Trends is a useful tool to assess the public's interest in specific neurosurgical topics. We evaluated Google Trends statistics for the neurosurgical search topic areas "hydrocephalus," "spinal stenosis," "concussion," "vestibular schwannoma," and "cerebral arteriovenous malformation." We compared these with bibliometric data from PubMed and epidemiologic data from the German Federal Monitoring Agency. In addition, we assessed Google users' search behavior for the search terms "glioblastoma" and "meningioma." Over the last 10 years, there has been an increasing interest in the topic "concussion" from Internet users in general and scientists. "Spinal stenosis," "concussion," and "vestibular schwannoma" are topics that are of special interest in high-income countries (eg, Germany), whereas "hydrocephalus" is a popular topic in low- and middle-income countries. The Google-defined top searches within these topic areas revealed more detail about people's interests (eg, "normal pressure hydrocephalus" or "football concussion" ranked among the most popular search queries within the corresponding topics). There was a similar volume of queries for "glioblastoma" and "meningioma." Google Trends is a useful source to elicit information about general trends in peoples' health interests and the role of different diseases across the world. The Internet presence of neurosurgical units and surgeons can be guided by online users' interests to achieve high-quality, professional-endorsed patient education. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Discriminative Relational Topic Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Ning; Zhu, Jun; Xia, Fei; Zhang, Bo

    2015-05-01

    Relational topic models (RTMs) provide a probabilistic generative process to describe both the link structure and document contents for document networks, and they have shown promise on predicting network structures and discovering latent topic representations. However, existing RTMs have limitations in both the restricted model expressiveness and incapability of dealing with imbalanced network data. To expand the scope and improve the inference accuracy of RTMs, this paper presents three extensions: 1) unlike the common link likelihood with a diagonal weight matrix that allows the-same-topic interactions only, we generalize it to use a full weight matrix that captures all pairwise topic interactions and is applicable to asymmetric networks; 2) instead of doing standard Bayesian inference, we perform regularized Bayesian inference (RegBayes) with a regularization parameter to deal with the imbalanced link structure issue in real networks and improve the discriminative ability of learned latent representations; and 3) instead of doing variational approximation with strict mean-field assumptions, we present collapsed Gibbs sampling algorithms for the generalized relational topic models by exploring data augmentation without making restricting assumptions. Under the generic RegBayes framework, we carefully investigate two popular discriminative loss functions, namely, the logistic log-loss and the max-margin hinge loss. Experimental results on several real network datasets demonstrate the significance of these extensions on improving prediction performance.

  14. Topical anesthesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mritunjay Kumar

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Topical anesthetics are being widely used in numerous medical and surgical sub-specialties such as anesthesia, ophthalmology, otorhinolaryngology, dentistry, urology, and aesthetic surgery. They cause superficial loss of pain sensation after direct application. Their delivery and effectiveness can be enhanced by using free bases; by increasing the drug concentration, lowering the melting point; by using physical and chemical permeation enhancers and lipid delivery vesicles. Various topical anesthetic agents available for use are eutectic mixture of local anesthetics, ELA-max, lidocaine, epinephrine, tetracaine, bupivanor, 4% tetracaine, benzocaine, proparacaine, Betacaine-LA, topicaine, lidoderm, S-caine patch™ and local anesthetic peel. While using them, careful attention must be paid to their pharmacology, area and duration of application, age and weight of the patients and possible side-effects.

  15. Problematic topic transitions in dysarthric conversation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bloch, Steven; Saldert, Charlotta; Ferm, Ulrika

    2015-01-01

    This study examined the nature of topic transition problems associated with acquired progressive dysarthric speech in the everyday conversation of people with motor neurone disease. Using conversation analytic methods, a video collection of five naturally occurring problematic topic transitions was identified, transcribed and analysed. These were extracted from a main collection of over 200 other-initiated repair sequences and a sub-set of 15 problematic topic transition sequences. The sequences were analysed with reference to how the participants both identified and resolved the problems. Analysis revealed that topic transition by people with dysarthria can prove problematic. Conversation partners may find transitions problematic not only because of speech intelligibility but also because of a sequential disjuncture between the dysarthric speech turn and whatever topic has come prior. In addition the treatment of problematic topic transition as a complaint reveals the potential vulnerability of people with dysarthria to judgements of competence. These findings have implications for how dysarthria is conceptualized and how specific actions in conversation, such as topic transition, might be suitable targets for clinical intervention.

  16. Traditional Persian topical medications for gastrointestinal diseases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laleh Dehghani Tafti

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Drug delivery across the skin is used for several millennia to ease gastrointestinal (GI ailments in Traditional Persian Medicine (TPM. TPM topical remedies are generally being applied on the stomach, lower abdomen, lower back and liver to alleviate GI illnesses such as dyspepsia, gastritis, GI ulcers, inflammatory bowel disease, intestinal worms and infections. The aim of the present study is to survey the topical GI remedies and plant species used as ingredients for these remedies in TPM. In addition, pharmacological activities of the mentioned plants have been discussed. For this, we searched major TPM textbooks to find plants used to cure GI problems in topical use. Additionally, scientific databases were searched to obtain pharmacological data supporting the use of TPM plants in GI diseases. Rosa × damascena, Pistacia lentiscus, Malus domestica, Olea europaea and Artemisia absinthium are among the most frequently mentioned ingredients of TPM remedies. β-asarone, amygdalin, boswellic acids, guggulsterone, crocin, crocetin, isomasticadienolic acid, and cyclotides are the most important phytochemicals present in TPM plants with GI-protective activities. Pharmacological studies demonstrated GI activities for TPM plants supporting their extensive traditional use. These plants play pivotal role in alleviating GI disorders through exhibiting numerous activities including antispasmodic, anti-ulcer, anti-secretory, anti-colitis, anti-diarrheal, antibacterial and anthelmintic properties. Several mechanisms underlie these activities including the alleviation of oxidative stress, exhibiting cytoprotective activity, down-regulation of the inflammatory cytokines, suppression of the cellular signaling pathways of inflammatory responses, improving re-epithelialization and angiogenesis, down-regulation of anti-angiogenic factors, blocking activity of acetylcholine, etc.

  17. 76 FR 81806 - Ophthalmic and Topical Dosage Form New Animal Drugs; Ivermectin Topical Solution

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-12-29

    .... FDA-2011-N-0003] Ophthalmic and Topical Dosage Form New Animal Drugs; Ivermectin Topical Solution... solution of ivermectin. DATES: This rule is effective December 29, 2011. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT... ANADA 200-318 for [[Page 81807

  18. Conclusion from the fifth topic

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gin, St.; Advocat, Th.

    1997-01-01

    The topic ''mechanics and alteration kinetics of glasses'' is a crucial point for the understanding of the long-term behaviour of nuclear glasses. Kinetic models used in simulation are based on the works made by Grambow who imputes the control of the alteration kinetics of borosilicate glasses to the desorption of the ortho-silica acid produced at the reactive interface. The ensuing kinetics law requires the existence of an equilibrium of the silica at the interface glass/gel and the existence of a linear concentration gradient dissolved in the interstitial gel solution. The role of the gel needs further studies to be well understood. The difficulty lies in the fact that the composition and the structure of the gel varies with time, space (anisotropy) and with the conditions of alteration (temperature, pH, flowrate...). (A.C.)

  19. Optical systems for synchrotron radiation. Lecture 1. Introductory topics. Revision

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Howells, M.R.

    1986-02-01

    Various fundamental topics are considered which underlie the design and use of optical systems for synchrotron radiation. The point of view of linear system theory is chosen which acts as a unifying concept throughout the series. In this context the important optical quantities usually appear as either impulse response functions (Green's functions) or frequency transfer functions (Fourier Transforms of the Green's functions). Topics include the damped harmonic oscillator, free-space optical field propagation, optical properties of materials, dispersion, and the Kramers-Kronig relations

  20. Topical methotrexate pretreatment enhances the therapeutic effect of topical 5-aminolevulinic acid-mediated photodynamic therapy on hamster buccal pouch precancers

    OpenAIRE

    Deng-Fu Yang; Jeng-Woei Lee; Hsin-Ming Chen; Yih-Chih Hsu

    2014-01-01

    Topical 5-aminolevulinic acid-mediated photodynamic therapy (ALA-PDT) is effective for treatment of human oral precancerous lesions. This animal study aimed to assess whether topical methotrexate (MTX) pretreatment could enhance the therapeutic effect of topical ALA-PDT on hamster buccal pouch precancerous lesions. Methods: Twenty hamster buccal pouch precancerous lesions were treated with either topical ALA-PDT with topical MTX pretreatment (topical MTX-ALA-PDT group, n = 10) or topical A...

  1. Topical vs. systemic treatments for acute otitis media.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thornton, Kathy; Parrish, Francie; Swords, Christine

    2011-01-01

    Acute otitis media (AOM) is a common condition in children that is often treated with systemic antibiotic therapy; however, research suggests that non-complicated AOM will resolve spontaneously using only eardrops. To determine best practice for the use of systematic antibiotics compared to topical treatment of AOM, a systematic review of evidence was conducted. Cochrane, Medline, CINAHL, and other databases were searched. Inclusion criteria were studies published from 1995-2010 that included children with AOM and were randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Five systematic reviews and five RCTs were included in the review. Current evidence recommends using topical and other alternative approaches for treating non-complicated AOM in children 2 years of age or older; however, many practitioners are not currently following these recommendations for various reasons. Additional research to address these reasons may help determine how to improve practitioner adherence to best practice evidence and guidelines to help reduce the unnecessary use of systemic antibiotics.

  2. A review of three stand-alone topical thrombins for surgical hemostasis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheng, Christine M; Meyer-Massetti, Carla; Kayser, Steven R

    2009-01-01

    Topical thrombins are active hemostatic agents that can be used to minimize blood loss during surgery. Before 2007, the only topical thrombins available were derived from bovine plasma. Antibody formation to bovine thrombin and/or factor V, with subsequent risk of cross-reactivity with human factor V, and hemorrhagic complications associated with human factor-V deficiencies have been described in case reports of surgeries in which bovine thrombins were used. This risk is now included in the boxed warning section of the bovine thrombin prescribing information. In 2007 and 2008, 2 new topical thrombins from nonbovine sources received approval for use from the US Food and Drug Administration. The 3 active topical thrombins that are currently marketed are bovine plasma-derived thrombin, human plasma-derived thrombin, and human recombinant thrombin. The purpose of this review was to evaluate the literature on the efficacy and safety of topical thrombins and discuss the pharmacoeconomic considerations associated with their use. PubMed, EMBASE, and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts were searched for relevant papers published in English through October 10,2008, using the terms thrombin, human recombinant thrombin, bovine thrombin, plasma derived thrombin, and topical thrombin. Manufacturer-provided materials were also reviewed. Abstracts and unpublished data, as well as evaluations of sealants, adhesives, glues, and other hemostats that contain thrombin mixed with fibrinogen and other clotting factors, were excluded. Four randomized, double-blind studies involving the active, stand-alone topical thrombins were found. The bovine thrombin involved in these studies was the predecessor to the currently marketed, highly purified bovine formulation. No studies comparing the human products, studies involving the highly purified bovine preparation, or placebo-controlled studies involving bovine thrombin were found. In a Phase III comparison of human recombinant thrombin and

  3. Topical immunomodulators in dermatology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Khandpur Sujay

    2004-04-01

    Full Text Available Topical immunomodulators are agents that regulate the local immune response of the skin. They are now emerging as the therapy of choice for several immune-mediated dermatoses such as atopic dermatitis, contact allergic dermatitis, alopecia areata, psoriasis, vitiligo, connective tissue disorders such as morphea and lupus erythematosus, disorders of keratinization and several benign and malignant skin tumours, because of their comparable efficacy, ease of application and greater safety than their systemic counterparts. They can be used on a domiciliary basis for longer periods without aggressive monitoring. In this article, we have discussed the mechanism of action, common indications and side-effects of the commonly used topical immunomodulators, excluding topical steroids. Moreover, newer agents, which are still in the experimental stages, have also been described. A MEDLINE search was undertaken using the key words "topical immunomodulators, dermatology" and related articles were also searched. In addition, a manual search for many Indian articles, which are not indexed, was also carried out. Wherever possible, the full article was reviewed. If the full article could not be traced, the abstract was used.

  4. Sharing health information online in South Korea: motives, topics, and antecedents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kye, S Y; Shim, M; Kim, Y C; Park, K

    2017-10-11

    This study aimed to examine the motives, topics and antecedents for sharing health information online among Korean Internet users. Eight hundred adults completed a web-based survey exploring the motives; topics; physical, cognitive, affective and environmental factors; and experiences relating to sharing health information online. The motives for not sharing information included information absence and inappropriateness. The most preferred topic was disease. Good subjective health was significantly associated with frequent information sharing while individuals with a history of disease involving themselves or family members were more likely to share health information than were those without such a history. Further, a higher level of depressed mood was related to a higher level of sharing. Internet-related self-efficacy and trust in information delivery channels were positively related to sharing. Future research could extend the factors related to information sharing to include the evaluation of shared information. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  5. Examination of the Topic-Specific Nature of Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Teaching Electrochemical Cells and Nuclear Reactions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aydin, Sevgi; Friedrichsen, Patricia M.; Boz, Yezdan; Hanuscin, Deborah L.

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to examine experienced chemistry teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for two different topics in chemistry to better understand how PCK is specific to topic, including whether all components of PCK are topic-specific and to what degree. To explore the topic-specific nature of PCK, we examined two experienced…

  6. Topics from the theory of numbers

    CERN Document Server

    Grosswald, Emil

    1984-01-01

    Many of the important and creative developments in modern mathematics resulted from attempts to solve questions that originate in number theory. The publication of Emil Grosswald’s classic text presents an illuminating introduction to number theory. Combining the historical developments with the analytical approach, Topics from the Theory of Numbers offers the reader a diverse range of subjects to investigate, including: * divisibility * congruences * the Riemann zeta function * Diophantine equations and Fermat’s conjecture * the theory of partitions Comprehensive in nature, Topics from the Theory of Numbers is an ideal text for advanced undergraduates and graduate students alike. "In my opinion it is excellent. It is carefully written and represents clearly a work of a scholar who loves and understands his subject. One can only wish more authors would take such pains and would be as good and honest expositors as Grosswald." — Marc Kac "This book is designed for use in a first course in number theory at...

  7. Topics in theoretical and applied statistics

    CERN Document Server

    Giommi, Andrea

    2016-01-01

    This book highlights the latest research findings from the 46th International Meeting of the Italian Statistical Society (SIS) in Rome, during which both methodological and applied statistical research was discussed. This selection of fully peer-reviewed papers, originally presented at the meeting, addresses a broad range of topics, including the theory of statistical inference; data mining and multivariate statistical analysis; survey methodologies; analysis of social, demographic and health data; and economic statistics and econometrics.

  8. Topic Modeling of Hierarchical Corpora /

    OpenAIRE

    Kim, Do-kyum

    2014-01-01

    The sizes of modern digital libraries have grown beyond our capacity to comprehend manually. Thus we need new tools to help us in organizing and browsing large corpora of text that do not require manually examining each document. To this end, machine learning researchers have developed topic models, statistical learning algorithms for automatic comprehension of large collections of text. Topic models provide both global and local views of a corpus; they discover topics that run through the co...

  9. [Multicenter study comparing the efficacy and tolerance of topical ciprofloxacin (0.3%) versus topical gentamicin (0.3%) in the treatment of simple, non-cholesteatomaous chronic otitis media in the suppurative phase].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lorente, J; Sabater, F; Maristany, M; Jiménez, R; Menem, J; Viñas, J; Quesada, P; Traserra, J; Dicenta, M; Abelló, P

    1995-01-01

    A multicentre double-blind randomized study was carried out to compare topical ciprofloxacin and topical gentamicin in the treatment of simple non-cholesteatomatous purulent chronic otitis media. Three hundred and eight patients were included in the study, 159 treated with ciprofloxacin and 149 treated with gentamicin. The percentage of clinical success (elimination of otorrhoea) was 95% with ciprofloxacin and 94% with gentamicin (ns). Likewise, the percentage of bacteriological erradication was 96% with ciprofloxacin and 93% with gentamicin. Both drugs were well tolerated, without changes in the audiometric values. In these patients, topical ciprofloxacin shows the same efficacy as topical gentamicin without any potential ototoxic effect.

  10. Testosterone Topical

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... not apply any testosterone topical products to your penis or scrotum or to skin that has sores, ... are severe or do not go away: breast enlargement and/or pain decreased sexual desire acne depression ...

  11. Credibility improves topical blog post retrieval

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Weerkamp, W.; de Rijke, M.

    2008-01-01

    Topical blog post retrieval is the task of ranking blog posts with respect to their relevance for a given topic. To improve topical blog post retrieval we incorporate textual credibility indicators in the retrieval process. We consider two groups of indicators: post level (determined using

  12. The latest results from source term research. Overview and outlook

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Herranz, Luis E. [Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas Medio Ambientales y Tecnologica (CIEMAT), Madrid (Spain); Haste, Tim [Centre d' Etudes de Cadarache, Paul-Lez-Durance (France). Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire (IRSN); Kaerkelae, Teemu [VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Espoo (Finland)

    2016-12-15

    Source term research has continued internationally for more than 30 years, increasing confidence in calculations of the potential radioactive release to the environment after a severe reactor accident. Important experimental data have been obtained, mainly under international frameworks such as OECD/NEA and EURATOM. Specifically, Phebus FP provides major insights into fission product release and transport. Results are included in severe accident analysis codes. Data from international projects are being interpreted with a view to further improvements in these codes. This paper synthesizes the recent main outcomes from source term research on these topics, and on source term mitigation. It highlights knowledge gaps remaining and discusses ways to proceed. Aside from this further knowledge-driven research, there is consensus on the need to assess the source term predictive ability of current system codes, taking account of scale-up from experiment to reactor conditions.

  13. In touch with psoriasis: topical treatments and current guidelines.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Murphy, G

    2012-02-01

    This article describes topical therapies and treatment guidelines for psoriasis and is based on a presentation given by the authors at a satellite symposium held during the 19th Congress of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, 6-10 October, 2010, in Gothenburg, Sweden. The highly variable nature of psoriasis and its individual presentation in patients can make it difficult to choose the most appropriate treatment. There are many treatment options, from topical treatment with emollients for very mild psoriasis, to systemic therapy with fumaric acid esters, methotrexate or biologics for severe disease. For the treatment of mild-to-moderate psoriasis, topical therapy is generally the most appropriate and a variety of options, both historical and recent, are available. Newer therapies offer greater convenience and fewer side-effects. Of the more recently available therapies, vitamin D analogues and topical corticosteroids are the two with the greatest proven efficacy in randomized clinical trials. A recent Cochrane review showed the highest efficacy overall with the fixed combination vitamin D analogue (calcipotriol) and corticosteroid (betamethasone dipropionate). Indeed, clinical trials have shown that two-compound calcipotriol\\/betamethasone dipropionate ointment has higher efficacy than calcipotriol or betamethasone dipropionate alone. With regard to safety, two-compound calcipotriol\\/betamethasone dipropionate was shown to be suitable for intermittent long-term treatment of mild-to-moderate psoriasis. The findings of the Cochrane review are reflected in the current treatment guidelines from the USA and Germany regarding the treatment of mild-to-moderate psoriasis. In both these guidelines, which will be discussed in this article, the recommended treatments for this patient group are vitamin D analogues and corticosteroids, particularly when used in combination.

  14. In touch with psoriasis: topical treatments and current guidelines.

    LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

    Murphy, G

    2011-06-01

    This article describes topical therapies and treatment guidelines for psoriasis and is based on a presentation given by the authors at a satellite symposium held during the 19th Congress of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, 6-10 October, 2010, in Gothenburg, Sweden. The highly variable nature of psoriasis and its individual presentation in patients can make it difficult to choose the most appropriate treatment. There are many treatment options, from topical treatment with emollients for very mild psoriasis, to systemic therapy with fumaric acid esters, methotrexate or biologics for severe disease. For the treatment of mild-to-moderate psoriasis, topical therapy is generally the most appropriate and a variety of options, both historical and recent, are available. Newer therapies offer greater convenience and fewer side-effects. Of the more recently available therapies, vitamin D analogues and topical corticosteroids are the two with the greatest proven efficacy in randomized clinical trials. A recent Cochrane review showed the highest efficacy overall with the fixed combination vitamin D analogue (calcipotriol) and corticosteroid (betamethasone dipropionate). Indeed, clinical trials have shown that two-compound calcipotriol\\/betamethasone dipropionate ointment has higher efficacy than calcipotriol or betamethasone dipropionate alone. With regard to safety, two-compound calcipotriol\\/betamethasone dipropionate was shown to be suitable for intermittent long-term treatment of mild-to-moderate psoriasis. The findings of the Cochrane review are reflected in the current treatment guidelines from the USA and Germany regarding the treatment of mild-to-moderate psoriasis. In both these guidelines, which will be discussed in this article, the recommended treatments for this patient group are vitamin D analogues and corticosteroids, particularly when used in combination.

  15. Mining FDA drug labels using an unsupervised learning technique - topic modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-01

    Background The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drug labels contain a broad array of information, ranging from adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to drug efficacy, risk-benefit consideration, and more. However, the labeling language used to describe these information is free text often containing ambiguous semantic descriptions, which poses a great challenge in retrieving useful information from the labeling text in a consistent and accurate fashion for comparative analysis across drugs. Consequently, this task has largely relied on the manual reading of the full text by experts, which is time consuming and labor intensive. Method In this study, a novel text mining method with unsupervised learning in nature, called topic modeling, was applied to the drug labeling with a goal of discovering “topics” that group drugs with similar safety concerns and/or therapeutic uses together. A total of 794 FDA-approved drug labels were used in this study. First, the three labeling sections (i.e., Boxed Warning, Warnings and Precautions, Adverse Reactions) of each drug label were processed by the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) to convert the free text of each label to the standard ADR terms. Next, the topic modeling approach with latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) was applied to generate 100 topics, each associated with a set of drugs grouped together based on the probability analysis. Lastly, the efficacy of the topic modeling was evaluated based on known information about the therapeutic uses and safety data of drugs. Results The results demonstrate that drugs grouped by topics are associated with the same safety concerns and/or therapeutic uses with statistical significance (P<0.05). The identified topics have distinct context that can be directly linked to specific adverse events (e.g., liver injury or kidney injury) or therapeutic application (e.g., antiinfectives for systemic use). We were also able to identify potential adverse events that

  16. Pseudospin symmetry in the relativistic Manning-Rosen potential including a Pekeris-type approximation to the pseudo-centrifugal term

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wei Gaofeng; Dong Shihai

    2010-01-01

    Based on the Sturm-Liouville theorem and shape invariance formalism, we study by applying a Pekeris-type approximation to the pseudo-centrifugal term the pseudospin symmetry of a Dirac nucleon subjected to scalar and vector Manning-Rosen potentials including the spin-orbit coupling term. A quartic energy equation and spinor wave functions with arbitrary spin-orbit coupling quantum number k are presented. The bound states are calculated numerically. The relativistic Manning-Rosen potential could not trap a Dirac nucleon in the limit case β→∞.

  17. Topical corticosteroid-induced rosacea-like dermatitis: A clinical study of 110 cases

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sanjay K Rathi

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Prolonged and continuous use of topical steroids leads to rosacea-like dermatitis with variable clinical presentations. Aims: To study the various clinical presentations of patients with topical corticosteroid-induced rosacea-like dermatitis (TCIRD, who had a history of prolonged and repeated use of topical steroids for reasons other than the known disease entities. Methods: A total of 110 patients were enrolled for the study over a period of 2 years, excluding all those with the known disease entity in which topical steroids were commonly used. Detailed history which also included the source and the type of topical steroid use was taken along with clinical examination. Results: There were 12 males and 98 females with their age ranging from 18 to 54 years. The duration of topical steroid use ranged from 4 months to 20 years. The most common clinical presentation was diffuse erythema of the face. Most of the patients had rebound phenomenon on discontinuation of the steroid. The most common topical steroid used was Betamethasone valerate, which could be due to its easy availability and low cost. Conclusion: Varied clinical presentations are seen with prolonged and continuous use of topical steroids. The treatment of this dermatitis is difficult, requiring complete cessation of the offending steroid, usually done in a tapering fashion.

  18. Topical report review status: Volume 10

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1996-03-01

    This report provides industry with procedures for submitting topical reports, guidance on how the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) processes and responds to topical report submittals, and an accounting, with review schedules, of all topical reports currently accepted for review by the NRC. This report is published annually

  19. Chiropractic: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... for back pain (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Chiropractic updates by ... ENCYCLOPEDIA Chiropractic care for back pain Related Health Topics Back Pain Complementary and Integrative Medicine National Institutes ...

  20. Diets: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Spanish Mediterranean diet (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Diets updates by ... foods Diet-busting foods Mediterranean diet Related Health Topics Child Nutrition DASH Eating Plan Diabetic Diet Nutrition ...

  1. Colonoscopy: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Spanish Virtual colonoscopy (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Colonoscopy updates by ... Colonoscopy Colonoscopy discharge Sigmoidoscopy Virtual colonoscopy Related Health Topics Colonic Diseases Colonic Polyps Colorectal Cancer National Institutes ...

  2. Dialysis: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... access for hemodialysis (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Dialysis updates by ... for hemodialysis Show More Show Less Related Health Topics Creatinine Kidney Cysts Kidney Failure Peritoneal Disorders National ...

  3. Menopause: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Spanish What is Menopause? (National Institute on Aging) Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Menopause updates by ... test Menopause Types of hormone therapy Related Health Topics Hormone Replacement Therapy Menstruation Premature Ovarian Failure National ...

  4. Vaginitis: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Spanish Vulvovaginitis - overview (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Vaginitis updates by ... Vaginitis test - wet mount Vulvovaginitis - overview Related Health Topics Trichomoniasis Vaginal Diseases Yeast Infections Other Languages Find ...

  5. "Two Cultures" Topics for General Studies Science Courses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larson, James H.

    1982-01-01

    Theses proposed in C. P. Snow's book "The Two Cultures," including uncommunicative scientific and literary groups, gap between rich and poor, overpopulation, and nuclear war remain viable topics. Discusses the scientific and literary cultural gap and what can be done in general studies science courses to ameliorate the condition.…

  6. Topical amitriptyline and ketamine for the treatment of neuropathic pain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mercadante, Sebastiano

    2015-01-01

    A neuropathy is a disturbance of function or pathological change in nerves. In some cases, peripheral neuropathic pain may occur due to a lesion or disease of the peripheral somatosensory nervous system. Efficacy of different agents for peripheral neuropathic pain conditions is less than optimal. The administration of topical analgesics might be an option, due to the potential of reduced adverse effects and increased patient compliance. There is major interest in compounding topical analgesics for peripheral neuropathic pain, but several challenges remain for this approach. Topical analgesics have the potential to be a valuable additional approach for the management of peripheral neuropathic pain. Topical amitriptyline-ketamine combination (AK) is a promising agent for peripheral neuropathic pain conditions. Some studies have shown its efficacy in neuropathic pain conditions. However, this data was not uniformely obtained and its role remains still controversial. Efficacy may depend on many factors, including the choice of the vehicle, the concentration, the pain site, and specific diseases. More studies are necessary to support the use of AK in clinical practice.

  7. Topical Acne Treatments and Pregnancy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Topical Acne Treatments In every pregnancy, a woman starts out with a 3-5% chance of having a baby ... This sheet talks about whether exposure to topical acne treatments may increase the risk for birth defects ...

  8. Symbiosis: Rich, Exciting, Neglected Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rowland, Jane Thomas

    1974-01-01

    Argues that the topic of symbiosis has been greatly neglected and underemphasized in general-biology textbooks. Discusses many types and examples of symbiosis, and provides an extensive bibliography of the literature related to this topic. (JR)

  9. Constructing topic models of Internet of Things for information processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xin, Jie; Cui, Zhiming; Zhang, Shukui; He, Tianxu; Li, Chunhua; Huang, Haojing

    2014-01-01

    Internet of Things (IoT) is regarded as a remarkable development of the modern information technology. There is abundant digital products data on the IoT, linking with multiple types of objects/entities. Those associated entities carry rich information and usually in the form of query records. Therefore, constructing high quality topic hierarchies that can capture the term distribution of each product record enables us to better understand users' search intent and benefits tasks such as taxonomy construction, recommendation systems, and other communications solutions for the future IoT. In this paper, we propose a novel record entity topic model (RETM) for IoT environment that is associated with a set of entities and records and a Gibbs sampling-based algorithm is proposed to learn the model. We conduct extensive experiments on real-world datasets and compare our approach with existing methods to demonstrate the advantage of our approach.

  10. Constructing Topic Models of Internet of Things for Information Processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xin, Jie; Cui, Zhiming; Zhang, Shukui; He, Tianxu; Li, Chunhua; Huang, Haojing

    2014-01-01

    Internet of Things (IoT) is regarded as a remarkable development of the modern information technology. There is abundant digital products data on the IoT, linking with multiple types of objects/entities. Those associated entities carry rich information and usually in the form of query records. Therefore, constructing high quality topic hierarchies that can capture the term distribution of each product record enables us to better understand users' search intent and benefits tasks such as taxonomy construction, recommendation systems, and other communications solutions for the future IoT. In this paper, we propose a novel record entity topic model (RETM) for IoT environment that is associated with a set of entities and records and a Gibbs sampling-based algorithm is proposed to learn the model. We conduct extensive experiments on real-world datasets and compare our approach with existing methods to demonstrate the advantage of our approach. PMID:25110737

  11. Comparison of topical capsaicin and topical turpentine oil for treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Musharraf, M.U.; Ahmed, Z.

    2017-01-01

    Background: Diabetes Mellitus is a pandemic of the modern era owing to our rapidly deteriorating lifestyle. Painful diabetic neuropathy is one of the costliest and disabling complications of diabetes mellitus. No single treatment exists to prevent or reverse neuropathic changes or to provide total pain relief. Topical Capsaicin and Turpentine Oil are found to be effective in treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy. Methods: Patients of either gender with ages between 18 and 70 years having painful diabetic neuropathy already taking one oral drug for painful neuropathy and treatment for diabetes mellitus and an HbA1C less than 8.5% were included while Pregnant or lactating mothers, patients with chronic liver disease and patients with renal insufficiency (creatinine >3.0 mg/dl) and peripheral arterial disease were excluded from study. Patients were randomly divided into two groups (A and B) using computer generated random number table. Group A was given topical application of capsaicin while Group B was given topical application of commercially available turpentine oil over painful site on feet. Results: 300 patients were equally divided in two groups. The patients in group A had a Visual Analog Pain Score of 7.91±5.10 at baseline and 5.10±1.343 after 3 months of treatment (p-value 0.0001). The patients in group B had a Visual Analog Pain Score of 7.83±1.012 at baseline and 5.20±1.187 after 3 months of treatment (p-value 0.0001). Chi Square test was applied to compare efficacy of both groups. It was noted that 71 (53%) had efficacy in group A and 63 (47%) had efficacy in the group B but the difference was not statistically significant. (p-value=0.399). Conclusion: It has been concluded that turpentine oil is effective in managing diabetic neuropathic pain similar to capsaicin cream.

  12. Prediabetes:MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... in Spanish Prediabetes (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Prediabetes updates by ... Glucose tolerance test - non-pregnant Prediabetes Related Health Topics A1C Diabetes Diabetes in Children and Teens Diabetes ...

  13. Diabetes: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... High blood sugar (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Diabetes updates by ... ketones test Show More Show Less Related Health Topics A1C Blood Sugar Diabetes and Pregnancy Diabetes Complications ...

  14. A nonlinear model for fluid flow in a multiple-zone composite reservoir including the quadratic gradient term

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Xiao-Lu; Fan, Xiang-Yu; Nie, Ren-Shi; Huang, Quan-Hua; He, Yong-Ming

    2013-01-01

    Based on material balance and Darcy's law, the governing equation with the quadratic pressure gradient term was deduced. Then the nonlinear model for fluid flow in a multiple-zone composite reservoir including the quadratic gradient term was established and solved using a Laplace transform. A series of standard log–log type curves of 1-zone (homogeneous), 2-zone and 3-zone reservoirs were plotted and nonlinear flow characteristics were analysed. The type curves governed by the coefficient of the quadratic gradient term (β) gradually deviate from those of a linear model with time elapsing. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were implemented to compare the solutions of the linear and nonlinear models. The results showed that differences of pressure transients between the linear and nonlinear models increase with elapsed time and β. At the end, a successful application of the theoretical model data against the field data shows that the nonlinear model will be a good tool to evaluate formation parameters more accurately. (paper)

  15. [Topic identification for cross-sectoral quality assurance in stroke and TIA treatment].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyer, Sven; Willms, Gerald; Broge, Björn; Szecsenyi, Joachim

    2016-10-01

    The development of cross-sectoral quality assurance programs usually requires extensive topic identification. Illustrated by the complex processes of care for stroke and transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), a method for comprehensive topic identification is presented. The first step involves a thorough literature search in terms of systematic reviews, health technology assessments, guidelines, studies into healthcare delivery and the use of specific instruments. Routine data as well as epidemiologic studies are used to analyze the reality of service provision. In addition, experts are consulted to gain expertise concerning deficits of care, approaches to quality assurance and experience with existing quality assurance programs. Furthermore individual patient experiences are collected to add the patients' perceptions of care. Because of the limitation on the regulatory scope of Book V of the German Social Code, which, in this case, was necessary, another source of information was the legal framework and its impact on rescue chain, acute treatment and rehabilitation. Existent quality management systems, accreditations and quality assurance programs in prevention, acute treatment and rehabilitation have been searched in order to avoid any overlap with existing measures. After identifying a total of 71 quality targets according to deficits of care, recommendations for care and expert opinions in primary and secondary prevention, rescue chain, acute treatment, rehabilitation and supply of assistive equipment and therapies, respectively, the usability of instruments was tested. These instruments included case documentation, patient surveys and routine data. 14 quality targets proved to be reproducible by these instruments and were included in the recommendations for a cross-sectoral quality assurance program for stroke and TIA. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

  16. Tracking topic birth and death in LDA.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wilson, Andrew T.; Robinson, David Gerald

    2011-09-01

    Most topic modeling algorithms that address the evolution of documents over time use the same number of topics at all times. This obscures the common occurrence in the data where new subjects arise and old ones diminish or disappear entirely. We propose an algorithm to model the birth and death of topics within an LDA-like framework. The user selects an initial number of topics, after which new topics are created and retired without further supervision. Our approach also accommodates many of the acceleration and parallelization schemes developed in recent years for standard LDA. In recent years, topic modeling algorithms such as latent semantic analysis (LSA)[17], latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA)[10] and their descendants have offered a powerful way to explore and interrogate corpora far too large for any human to grasp without assistance. Using such algorithms we are able to search for similar documents, model and track the volume of topics over time, search for correlated topics or model them with a hierarchy. Most of these algorithms are intended for use with static corpora where the number of documents and the size of the vocabulary are known in advance. Moreover, almost all current topic modeling algorithms fix the number of topics as one of the input parameters and keep it fixed across the entire corpus. While this is appropriate for static corpora, it becomes a serious handicap when analyzing time-varying data sets where topics come and go as a matter of course. This is doubly true for online algorithms that may not have the option of revising earlier results in light of new data. To be sure, these algorithms will account for changing data one way or another, but without the ability to adapt to structural changes such as entirely new topics they may do so in counterintuitive ways.

  17. Hot topics in Modern Cosmology - SW9 - Slides of the presentations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Berezhiani, Z.; Sigl, G.; Biondi, R.; Volkov, M.; Noller, J.; Starobinsky, A.; Toporensky, A.; Renaux, S.; Pilo, L.; Comelli, D.; Slagter, R.; Novello, M.; Padilla, A.; Antunes, V.; Kamenshchik, A.; Vernieri, D.; Kaloper, N.; Denkiewics, T.; Gohar, H.; Zahariade, G.; Frusciante, N.; Von Strauss, M.

    2016-01-01

    This 9. Spontaneous Workshop (SW9) brought together specialists on recent insights in Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology. The aim was to stimulate debate on common topics in views of providing us with innovating ideas. SW9 topics includes: 1) Cosmological parameters - Anomalies in CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background); 2) Dark matter and neutrinos; 3) Gravity - Dark energy; 4) Singular universes; and 5) Cosmological Large Scale Structures - Magnetic Fields; This document is made up of the slides of the presentations

  18. Evaluation of Topical Gel Bases Formulated with Various Essential ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Evaluation of Topical Gel Bases Formulated with Various Essential Oils for Antibacterial Activity against Methicillin- Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus. ... Lemon grass and thyme oils were chosen for further studies, including analysis of their composition by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Gels were ...

  19. Topics in b-physics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bjorken, J.D.

    1988-09-01

    We discuss a few issues in the burgeoning field of physics of hadrons containing the b-quark. These include: A simple parameterization of the Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix featuring a triangle in the complex plane, a review of B/sub s/ and B/sub d/ mixing with special attention given to width-mixing and the CP-violating same-sign dilepton asymmetry, a discussion of the CP-violating decay B/sub d/ → /psi/π + π/sup /minus//, and a discussion of Cp-violating rate asymmetries in the two-body decays Λ/sub b/ → pπ/sup /minus// and Λ/sub b/ → pK/sup /minus//. The concluding discussion concerns generalizations beyond these specific topics. 22 refs., 6 figs

  20. Topics in lightwave transmission systems

    CERN Document Server

    Li, Tingye

    1991-01-01

    Topics in Lightwave Transmission Systems is a second volume of a treatise on optical fiber communications that is devoted to the science, engineering, and application of information transmission via optical fibers. The first volume, published in 1985, dealt exclusively with fiber fabrication. The present volume contains topics that pertain to subsystems and systems. The book contains five chapters and begins with discussions of transmitters and receivers, which are basic to systems now operating in the field. Subsequent chapters cover topics relating to coherent systems: frequency and phase m

  1. Non-adherence to topical treatments for actinic keratosis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shergill B

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Bav Shergill,1 Simon Zokaie,2 Alison J Carr3 1Department of Dermatology, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals, Elm Grove, Brighton, UK; 2Leo Pharma, Princes Risborough, 3Hamell, London, UK Background: There is limited information on the patterns of use, adherence rates, and factors that impact adherence with topical treatments for actinic keratosis (AK. Objectives: To establish patterns of use and adherence with topical treatments for AK and to identify treatment-related factors that impact on adherence. Methods: A community-based, cross-sectional study was performed using a standardized questionnaire completed online or via telephone interview. Patients were stratified according to the presence of AK lesions on the scalp and/or other extremities; and presence of scarring resulting from treatment. Results: This study included 305 patients with AK who were currently using a patient-applied topical therapy for AK or had used one within the previous 12 months. In total, 88% (n = 268/305 of patients were either non-adherent, non-persistent or both non-adherent and non-persistent to topical therapy. Duration of treatment was associated with increasing rates of non-adherence (adjusted odds ratio [OR]; for treatment durations greater than 4 weeks, 2.2, P < 0.01: 52% of patients were non-adherent with 3–4 week treatment duration; 69% of patients with 4–8 week treatment duration; and 71% of patients with 6–12 week treatment duration. There were similar increases in non-persistence with increasing treatment duration (adjusted OR; for treatment durations greater than 4 weeks, 2.1, P < 0.05. Conclusion: This study found high rates of non-adherence and non-persistence in patients with AK. Duration of treatment was a significant factor contributing to non-adherence and non-persistence to topical treatments. Patient-applied topical therapies that require less frequent application and have shorter treatment duration may be associated with improved

  2. Extending the Seductive Allure of Neuroscience Explanations Effect to Popular Articles about Educational Topics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Im, Soo-hyun; Varma, Keisha; Varma, Sashank

    2017-01-01

    Background: The "seductive allure of neuroscience explanations" (SANE) is the finding that people overweight psychological arguments when framed in terms of neuroscience findings. Aim: This study extended this finding to arguments concerning the application of psychological findings to educational topics. Sample Participants (n = 320)…

  3. International Conference on Advances of Fractals and Related Topics

    CERN Document Server

    Lau, Ka-Sing

    2014-01-01

    This volume collects thirteen expository or survey articles on topics including Fractal Geometry, Analysis of Fractals, Multifractal Analysis, Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems, Probability and Stochastic Analysis, written by the leading experts in their respective fields. The articles are based on papers presented at the International Conference on Advances on Fractals and Related Topics, held on December 10-14, 2012 at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The volume offers insights into a number of exciting, cutting-edge developments in the area of fractals, which has close ties to and applications in other areas such as analysis, geometry, number theory, probability and mathematical physics.   

  4. Topics in statistical mechanics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Elser, V.

    1984-05-01

    This thesis deals with four independent topics in statistical mechanics: (1) the dimer problem is solved exactly for a hexagonal lattice with general boundary using a known generating function from the theory of partitions. It is shown that the leading term in the entropy depends on the shape of the boundary; (2) continuum models of percolation and self-avoiding walks are introduced with the property that their series expansions are sums over linear graphs with intrinsic combinatorial weights and explicit dimension dependence; (3) a constrained SOS model is used to describe the edge of a simple cubic crystal. Low and high temperature results are derived as well as the detailed behavior near the crystal facet; (4) the microscopic model of the lambda-transition involving atomic permutation cycles is reexamined. In particular, a new derivation of the two-component field theory model of the critical behavior is presented. Results for a lattice model originally proposed by Kikuchi are extended with a high temperature series expansion and Monte Carlo simulation. 30 references

  5. Role of topical use of insulin in healing of chronic ulcer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gaurav Goenka

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Background : Chronic wounds, especially non-healing types, are one of the most common surgical conditions a surgeon comes across. The peculiarity of a chronic wound is that, whatever management you give, they refuse to heal, especially the pressure ulcers or bed sores. Many therapeutic methods are available to effect wound healing such as topical application of insulin, growth factors, negative pressure-assisted wound closure, oxidized regenerated cellulose/collagen, hyaluronic acid conjugated with glycidyl methacrylate or gelatin dressings. A less clinically and economically complicated approach to healing chronic wounds seems necessary. Objectives: To study the efficacy of topical use of insulin in wound healing in following terms:-(1 rate of wound healing; (2 safety evaluation; (3 hospital stay. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective study carried out in a tertiary health centre from July 2010 to September 2012 in 50 patients after taking an informed and written consent of the patients having chronic ulcer. All the patients who were satisfying inclusion/exclusion criteria patient were randomized into two groups, Group A and Group B. Each group was again sub-divided into 1 and 2 i.e. sub-group A1, A2 and sub-group B1, B2. Patients with diabetes were grouped as A1 and B1 and non-diabetic patients were grouped as A2 and B2. Group A patients were treated with insulin dressings and Group B patient′s ulcers were treated with normal saline dressings. Ulcer size and healing was recorded on weekly basis. Strict glycemic control was maintained in all diabetic patients. Results were compared at complete healing or at the end of 12 weeks which ever was earlier. Results: Our study included both diabetic and non-diabetic patients. There was no significant change in BSL(R values after use of insulin on wounds. The number of days required for wound healing in Group A patients in both subgroups (A1 and A2 was significantly less as compared to Group B

  6. Update on the Systemic Risks of Superpotent Topical Steroids.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakamura, Mio; Abrouk, Michael; Zhu, Henry; Farahnik, Benjamin; Koo, John; Bhutani, Tina

    2017-07-01

    INTRODUCTION: The potential for systemic effects due to percutaneous absorption of superpotent topical steroids has been a longstanding concern. The Food and Drug Administration currently recommends limiting the use of superpotent topical steroids to 50g per week for 2 or 4 consecutive weeks depending on the formulation, which is mostly based on the exact duration with which phase 3 clinical trials were allowed to be conducted per the FDA. This article reviews all published clinical incidence of adrenal adverse effects in the medical literature, specifically Cushing's syndrome (CS) and pathologic adrenal suppression (PAAS), to try to ascertain a more realistic limit for the safe use of superpotent topical steroids as it pertains to its potential systemic effects. METHODS: Literature search was conducted using PubMed. Only cases of CS and PAAS secondary to the use of Class I superpotent topical steroids were included. Pediatric cases and full articles unavailable in English were excluded. RESULTS: There were a total of 14 cases of CS and 5 cases of subsequent PAAS found in the current literature. DISCUSSION: From our review of these cases, if the amount used per week is within FDA guidelines, it appears that patients needed to use superpotent topical steroids for far greater than 2 or 4 weeks to develop CS or PAAS. CS did not necessarily predict occurrence of PAAS, but in all cases CS appeared to be a prerequisite for developing PAAS. All cases of CS and all but one case of PAAS were reversible. If excessive amount of greater than 50g per week is avoided, it appears that superpotent topical steroids may be safe to use consecutively for months, perhaps even years, without causing systemic effects. J Drugs Dermatol. 2017;16(7):643-648..

  7. 42 CFR 137.410 - For the purposes of section 110 of the Act [25 U.S.C. 450m-1] does the term contract include...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ....C. 450m-1] does the term contract include compacts, funding agreements, and construction project... the term contract include compacts, funding agreements, and construction project agreements entered into under Title V? Yes, for the purposes of section 110 of the Act [25 U.S.C. 450m-1] the term...

  8. Manual small incision cataract surgery under topical anesthesia with intracameral lignocaine: Study on pain evaluation and surgical outcome

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gupta Sanjiv

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available The authors here describe manual small incision cataract surgery (MSICS by using topical anesthesia with intracameral 0.5% lignocaine, which eliminates the hazards of local anesthesia, cuts down cost and time taken for the administration of local anesthesia. Aims: To evaluate the patients′ and surgeons′ experience in MSICS using topical anesthesia with intracameral lignocaine in terms of pain, surgical complications, and outcome. Settings and Design: Prospective interventional case series. Materials and Methods: Ninety-six patients of senile cataract were operated by MSICS under topical anesthesia with intracameral lignocaine using "fish hook technique." The patients and the single operating surgeon were given a questionnaire to evaluate their experience in terms of pain, surgical experience, and complications. Statistical Analysis Used: Statistical analysis software "Analyseit." Results: There were 96 patients enrolled in the study. The mean pain score was 0.7 (SD ± 0.97, range 0-5, median 0.0, and mode 0.0. Fifty-one patients (53% had pain score of zero, that is, no pain. Ninety-one patients (~95% had a score of less than 3, that is, mild pain to none. All the surgeries were complication-free except one and the surgeon′s experience was favorable in terms of patient′s cooperation, anterior chamber stability, difficulty, and complications. The ocular movements were not affected, and hence, the eye patch could be removed immediately following the surgery. Conclusions: MSICS can be performed under topical anesthesia with intracameral lignocaine, which makes the surgery patient friendly, without compromising the outcome.

  9. Preliminary stop of the TOPical Imiquimod treatment of high-grade Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (TOPIC) trial

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Koeneman, M. M.; Kruse, Arnold-Jan; Kooreman, L. F. S.; zur Hausen, Axel; Hopman, Anton H N; Sep, S. J. S.; Van Gorp, T.; Slangen, B. F. M.; van Beekhuizen, H. J.; de Sande, Michiel A. J. van; Gerestein, Cornelis G.; Nijman, H. W.; Kruitwagen, R. F. M. P.

    2017-01-01

    The "TOPical Imiquimod treatment of high-grade Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia" (TOPIC) trial was stopped preliminary, due to lagging inclusions. This study aimed to evaluate the treatment efficacy and clinical applicability of imiquimod 5% cream in high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia

  10. Topical Nano and Microemulsions for Skin Delivery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christofori M. R. R. Nastiti

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Nanosystems such as microemulsions (ME and nanoemulsions (NE offer considerable opportunities for targeted drug delivery to and via the skin. ME and NE are stable colloidal systems composed of oil and water, stabilised by a mixture of surfactants and cosurfactants, that have received particular interest as topical skin delivery systems. There is considerable scope to manipulate the formulation components and characteristics to achieve optimal bioavailability and minimal skin irritancy. This includes the incorporation of established chemical penetration enhancers to fluidize the stratum corneum lipid bilayers, thus reducing the primary skin barrier and increasing permeation. This review discusses nanosystems with utility in skin delivery and focuses on the composition and characterization of ME and NE for topical and transdermal delivery. The mechanism of skin delivery across the stratum corneum and via hair follicles is reviewed with particular focus on the influence of formulation.

  11. Deep Unfolding for Topic Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chien, Jen-Tzung; Lee, Chao-Hsi

    2018-02-01

    Deep unfolding provides an approach to integrate the probabilistic generative models and the deterministic neural networks. Such an approach is benefited by deep representation, easy interpretation, flexible learning and stochastic modeling. This study develops the unsupervised and supervised learning of deep unfolded topic models for document representation and classification. Conventionally, the unsupervised and supervised topic models are inferred via the variational inference algorithm where the model parameters are estimated by maximizing the lower bound of logarithm of marginal likelihood using input documents without and with class labels, respectively. The representation capability or classification accuracy is constrained by the variational lower bound and the tied model parameters across inference procedure. This paper aims to relax these constraints by directly maximizing the end performance criterion and continuously untying the parameters in learning process via deep unfolding inference (DUI). The inference procedure is treated as the layer-wise learning in a deep neural network. The end performance is iteratively improved by using the estimated topic parameters according to the exponentiated updates. Deep learning of topic models is therefore implemented through a back-propagation procedure. Experimental results show the merits of DUI with increasing number of layers compared with variational inference in unsupervised as well as supervised topic models.

  12. Topical diclofenac in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Niklas Schuelert

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available Niklas Schuelert, Fiona A Russell, Jason J McDougallDepartment of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, CanadaAbstract: Osteoarthritis (OA is a common disease that affects millions of people worldwide. As there is no cure for OA, drug treatment to relieve symptoms is the main form of management. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs such as diclofenac are the most commonly used drugs to treat knee OA pain. Unfortunately, these agents are associated with gastrointestinal and cardiovascular risks, which limit their chronic use. Topical NSAIDs are emerging as a viable alternative for managing OA pain. Because a pharmacologically effective dose can be restricted to the site of pain, there is superfluous systemic absorption, and the risk of related adverse effects is minimized. This article reviews the currently available preclinical and clinical information on topical diclofenac for the treatment of OA pain, including data from recently published randomized controlled trials regarding the efficacy and safety of topical diclofenac. Most studies confirm topical diclofenac to be as effective as oral diclofenac with significantly reduced side effects; however, the efficacy of NSAIDs is far from optimal, and more research needs to be done to investigate the underlying mechanisms of OA in order to improve treatment options, especially for patients with NSAID-resistant OA pain.Keywords: osteoarthritis, topical diclofenac, NSAID, joint pain 

  13. Bimatoprost Topical

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... not use a cotton swab or any other brush or applicator to apply topical bimatoprost.To use the solution, follow these steps: Wash your hands and face thoroughly with soap and water. Be sure that all makeup is removed. Do not let the tip of ...

  14. Treatment of vitiligo with the topical Janus kinase inhibitor ruxolitinib.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rothstein, Brooke; Joshipura, Deep; Saraiya, Ami; Abdat, Rana; Ashkar, Huda; Turkowski, Yana; Sheth, Vaneeta; Huang, Victor; Au, Shiu Chung; Kachuk, Courtney; Dumont, Nicole; Gottlieb, Alice B; Rosmarin, David

    2017-06-01

    Existing therapies for vitiligo are limited in efficacy and can be associated with undesirable side effects. Topical Janus kinase inhibitors may offer a new therapeutic option for vitiligo. We sought to assess the role of topical ruxolitinib 1.5% cream, a Janus kinase inhibitor, in vitiligo treatment. This 20-week, open-label, proof-of-concept trial of twice-daily topical ruxolitinib 1.5% cream was conducted in 12 patients with a minimum of 1% affected body surface area of vitiligo. The primary outcome was percent improvement in Vitiligo Area Scoring Index from baseline to week 20. Of 12 patients screened, 11 were enrolled and 9 completed the study (54.5% men; mean age, 52 years). Four patients with significant facial involvement at baseline had a 76% improvement in facial Vitiligo Area Scoring Index scores at week 20 (95% confidence interval, 53-99%; P = .001). A 23% improvement in overall Vitiligo Area Scoring Index scores was observed in all enrolled patients at week 20 (95% confidence interval, 4-43%; P = .02). Three of 8 patients responded on body surfaces and 1 of 8 patients responded on acral surfaces. Adverse events were minor, including erythema, hyperpigmentation, and transient acne. Limitations of the study include the small sample size and open-label study design. Topical ruxolitinib 1.5% cream provided significant repigmentation in facial vitiligo and may offer a valuable new treatment for vitiligo. Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Dermatology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Topical study on IRS events involving foreign material intrusion in plant systems. First issue. Report of a consultants meeting. Working material

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1997-01-01

    Recent exchange of operational safety experience among countries, within the framework of the IRS, revealed a noticeable increase in incidents involving foreign material intrusion (FMI) in nuclear power plant systems. These incidents appeared to have safety impact, sometimes widespread, on many systems and components, including the reactor core, control rods, the secondary side, and other support systems such as the electrical, air, and water systems. Notwithstanding the economic penalties and the operational problems that can arise from the FMI, many events indicated severe component damages, challenges to safety systems and to fuel integrity. Difficulties encountered with the removal of foreign material present further challenges due to the long term effects of such material remaining in the system and interacting with either fuel cladding, with the potential of releasing fission products in coolant systems, or with the system pressure boundary with the potential for material wear and sudden failure of the pressure boundary. The FMI topic was, therefore, one of a number of topics that was recommended by the TCM in 1996 for investigation. A consultant meeting was held at the IAEA during the period 14-18 April 1997 to address this topic. Figs

  16. Topics in quantum field theory

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dams, C.J.F.

    2006-01-01

    In this PhD-thesis some topics in quantum field theory are considered. The first chapter gives a background to these topics. The second chapter discusses renormalization. In particular it is shown how loop calculations can be performed when using the axial gauge fixing. Fermion creation and

  17. Fifth topical meeting on the technology of fusion energy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1983-04-01

    Abstracts are presented of the approximately 250 papers that were presented at the conference. Some of the main topics included the following: (1) next-generation devices, (2) tritium, (3) hybrids, (4) alternate fuels, (5) materials engineering, (6) blanket and first wall engineering, and (7) inertial confinement

  18. Performance on Interdisciplinary Topics in an Integrated Pharmacy Course

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joie Rowles

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Objectives: Many colleges and schools of Pharmacy combine interdisciplinary topics such as pathophysiology, pharmacology, medicinal chemistry and therapeutics into one integrated course. Our main aim for this study is to determine if students pass integrated courses and yet fail to pass interdisciplinary sections of those courses. Methods: Two representative integrated sequence courses were evaluated without any study-imposed intervention. Individual student examination scores (~140 students were evaluated for overall performance as well as for performance on the interdisciplinary topics of pathophysiology/pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, and therapeutics. The degree of difficulty of the examination questions, as well as the test item discrimination, were also measured. Results: There were students that passed the course but failed one, or more, of the interdisciplinary topics. Combining data from both courses, medicinal chemistry was the most frequently failed discipline (29 students, followed closely by pharmacology (22 students, and distantly by therapeutics (1 student. The examination questions for medicinal chemistry were not more difficult nor more discriminatory than the questions for the other disciplines. Conclusions: These data indicate that students pass integrated courses, but fail to pass interdisciplinary sections of those courses, especially the pharmaceutical sciences. It is not known if these results are consistent, nor what long-term adverse consequences may result. These results inform curricular and assessment aspects of the pharmacy academy as pertains to establishing the scientific foundation required by the CAPE 2013 Educational Outcomes.   Type: Original Research

  19. Theoretical topics in B-physics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bjorken, J.D.

    1990-12-01

    The bottom quark should need no introduction. Other than the undiscovered top quark, it is by far the most fashionable of the six. There is good reason for this. It is bottom-quark behavior which holds out the most hope of measuring and understanding some of the most hope of measuring and understanding some of the most fundamental and delicate parameters of the standard model -- those having to do with the origin of electroweak mixing -- and thereby in all probability also the origin of quark mass. Also interwoven into this is the subject of CP violation, and its proposed interpretation in terms of electroweak mixing. In this section we shall review the basics of electroweak mixing and how it is impacted by the study of b-quark properties. There are by now many lecture series and workshop proceedings devoted to this topic, so I will not try to be comprehensive, but only hit some highlights. 28 refs., 14 figs., 4 tabs

  20. Topical electrophilic nitro-fatty acids potentiate cutaneous inflammation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mathers, Alicia R; Carey, Cara D; Killeen, Meaghan E; Salvatore, Sonia R; Ferris, Laura K; Freeman, Bruce A; Schopfer, Francisco J; Falo, Louis D

    2018-02-01

    Endogenous electrophilic fatty acids mediate anti-inflammatory responses by modulating metabolic and inflammatory signal transduction and gene expression. Nitro-fatty acids and other electrophilic fatty acids may thus be useful for the prevention and treatment of immune-mediated diseases, including inflammatory skin disorders. In this regard, subcutaneous (SC) injections of nitro oleic acid (OA-NO 2 ), an exemplary nitro-fatty acid, inhibit skin inflammation in a model of allergic contact dermatitis (ACD). Given the nitration of unsaturated fatty acids during metabolic and inflammatory processes and the growing use of fatty acids in topical formulations, we sought to further study the effect of nitro-fatty acids on cutaneous inflammation. To accomplish this, the effect of topically applied OA-NO 2 on skin inflammation was evaluated using established murine models of contact hypersensitivity (CHS). In contrast to the effects of subcutaneously injected OA-NO 2 , topical OA-NO 2 potentiated hapten-dependent inflammation inducing a sustained neutrophil-dependent inflammatory response characterized by psoriasiform histological features, increased angiogenesis, and an inflammatory infiltrate that included neutrophils, inflammatory monocytes, and γδ T cells. Consistent with these results, HPLC-MS/MS analysis of skin from psoriasis patients displayed a 56% increase in nitro-conjugated linoleic acid (CLA-NO 2 ) levels in lesional skin compared to non-lesional skin. These results suggest that nitro-fatty acids in the skin microenvironment are products of cutaneous inflammatory responses and, in high local concentrations, may exacerbate inflammatory skin diseases. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Linear algebra and matrices topics for a second course

    CERN Document Server

    Shapiro, Helene

    2015-01-01

    Linear algebra and matrix theory are fundamental tools for almost every area of mathematics, both pure and applied. This book combines coverage of core topics with an introduction to some areas in which linear algebra plays a key role, for example, block designs, directed graphs, error correcting codes, and linear dynamical systems. Notable features include a discussion of the Weyr characteristic and Weyr canonical forms, and their relationship to the better-known Jordan canonical form; the use of block cyclic matrices and directed graphs to prove Frobenius's theorem on the structure of the eigenvalues of a nonnegative, irreducible matrix; and the inclusion of such combinatorial topics as BIBDs, Hadamard matrices, and strongly regular graphs. Also included are McCoy's theorem about matrices with property P, the Bruck-Ryser-Chowla theorem on the existence of block designs, and an introduction to Markov chains. This book is intended for those who are familiar with the linear algebra covered in a typical first c...

  2. Selected topics in the quantum theory of solids: collective excitations and linear response

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Balakrishnan, V.

    1977-08-01

    This report is based on the lecture notes of a course given at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, during the period January-April 1976 for M.Sc. students. The emphasis is on the concept of elementary excitations in many-body systems, and on the technique of linear response theory. Various topics are covered in 7 sections. The second section following the introductory section is on 'second quantization' and includes discussion on creation and destruction operators, multiparticle states, time-dependent operators etc. Section 3 deals with the 'electron gas' and includes discussion on non-interacting Fermi gas, Coulomb interaction and exchange energy, the two-electron correlation function etc. Section 4 deals with the dielectric response analysis of the electron gas and includes discussion on Coulomb interaction in terms of density fluctuations, self-consistent field dielectric function etc. In section 5 the 'linear response theory' is explained. The Liouville operator, Boltzmann's superposition integral, dispersion relations etc. are explained. Quasiparticles and plasmous are discussed in the Section 6. Section 7 deals with 'lattice dynamics and phonons'. In the last section 8, spin waves are explained. The Heisenberg exchange hamiltonian, Green Function for noninteracting magnons etc. are discussed. (author)

  3. Learning topic models by belief propagation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeng, Jia; Cheung, William K; Liu, Jiming

    2013-05-01

    Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) is an important hierarchical Bayesian model for probabilistic topic modeling, which attracts worldwide interest and touches on many important applications in text mining, computer vision and computational biology. This paper represents the collapsed LDA as a factor graph, which enables the classic loopy belief propagation (BP) algorithm for approximate inference and parameter estimation. Although two commonly used approximate inference methods, such as variational Bayes (VB) and collapsed Gibbs sampling (GS), have gained great success in learning LDA, the proposed BP is competitive in both speed and accuracy, as validated by encouraging experimental results on four large-scale document datasets. Furthermore, the BP algorithm has the potential to become a generic scheme for learning variants of LDA-based topic models in the collapsed space. To this end, we show how to learn two typical variants of LDA-based topic models, such as author-topic models (ATM) and relational topic models (RTM), using BP based on the factor graph representations.

  4. Daily life activity routine discovery in hemiparetic rehabilitation patients using topic models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seiter, J; Derungs, A; Schuster-Amft, C; Amft, O; Tröster, G

    2015-01-01

    Monitoring natural behavior and activity routines of hemiparetic rehabilitation patients across the day can provide valuable progress information for therapists and patients and contribute to an optimized rehabilitation process. In particular, continuous patient monitoring could add type, frequency and duration of daily life activity routines and hence complement standard clinical scores that are assessed for particular tasks only. Machine learning methods have been applied to infer activity routines from sensor data. However, supervised methods require activity annotations to build recognition models and thus require extensive patient supervision. Discovery methods, including topic models could provide patient routine information and deal with variability in activity and movement performance across patients. Topic models have been used to discover characteristic activity routine patterns of healthy individuals using activity primitives recognized from supervised sensor data. Yet, the applicability of topic models for hemiparetic rehabilitation patients and techniques to derive activity primitives without supervision needs to be addressed. We investigate, 1) whether a topic model-based activity routine discovery framework can infer activity routines of rehabilitation patients from wearable motion sensor data. 2) We compare the performance of our topic model-based activity routine discovery using rule-based and clustering-based activity vocabulary. We analyze the activity routine discovery in a dataset recorded with 11 hemiparetic rehabilitation patients during up to ten full recording days per individual in an ambulatory daycare rehabilitation center using wearable motion sensors attached to both wrists and the non-affected thigh. We introduce and compare rule-based and clustering-based activity vocabulary to process statistical and frequency acceleration features to activity words. Activity words were used for activity routine pattern discovery using topic models

  5. Current and Emerging Topical Antibacterials and Antiseptics: Agents, Action, and Resistance Patterns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williamson, Deborah A; Carter, Glen P; Howden, Benjamin P

    2017-07-01

    Bacterial skin infections represent some of the most common infectious diseases globally. Prevention and treatment of skin infections can involve application of a topical antimicrobial, which may be an antibiotic (such as mupirocin or fusidic acid) or an antiseptic (such as chlorhexidine or alcohol). However, there is limited evidence to support the widespread prophylactic or therapeutic use of topical agents. Challenges involved in the use of topical antimicrobials include increasing rates of bacterial resistance, local hypersensitivity reactions (particularly to older agents, such as bacitracin), and concerns about the indiscriminate use of antiseptics potentially coselecting for antibiotic resistance. We review the evidence for the major clinical uses of topical antibiotics and antiseptics. In addition, we review the mechanisms of action of common topical agents and define the clinical and molecular epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance in these agents. Moreover, we review the potential use of newer and emerging agents, such as retapamulin and ebselen, and discuss the role of antiseptic agents in preventing bacterial skin infections. A comprehensive understanding of the clinical efficacy and drivers of resistance to topical agents will inform the optimal use of these agents to preserve their activity in the future. Copyright © 2017 American Society for Microbiology.

  6. Evaluation of contact sensitivity to topical drugs in patients with contact dermatitis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bilge Bülbül Şen

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Background and Design: Topical drugs are an important group of contact allergens. The present study aimed to evaluate contact sensitivity to topical drugs in patients with contact dermatitis. Materials and Methods: Between 2003 and 2008, 129 patients were followed up at the Department of Dermatology at Ankara University School of Medicine with clinically suspected contact sensitivity to topical drugs. In this study, the patch test reactions to the European Standard Battery and topical drugs used by the patients and medicament patch test results were evaluated. Results: Positive patch test reaction to one or more allergens was found in 80 (62.0% of 129 patients included in the study. Sixty-one of the 80 patients (61/129, 47.3% had positive patch test reaction to medicaments. Medicament sensitivity was detected in 37.9% (49/129 of subjects. Nitrofurazone was found to be the most common allergen (18.6%. Discussion: The present study showed that topical drugs are a frequent cause of allergic contact dermatitis. Therefore, the probability of contact sensitivity to topical drugs should also be considered in patients with the clinical diagnosis of allergic contact dermatitis and, suspected cases should be evaluated further with patch testing in order to find the responsible allergens.

  7. Geotechnical support and topical studies for nuclear waste geologic repositories

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1989-01-01

    The present report lists the technical reviews and comments made during the fiscal year 1988 and summarizes the technical progress of the topical studies. In the area of technical assistance, there were numerous activities detailed in the next section. These included 24 geotechnical support activities, including reviews of 6 Study Plans (SP) and participation in 6 SP Review Workshops, review of one whole document Site Characterization Plan (SCP) and participation in the Assembled Document SCP Review Workshops by 6 LBL reviewers; the hosting of a DOE program review, the rewriting of the project statement of work, 2 trips to technical and planning meetings; preparation of proposed work statements for two new topics for DOE, and 5 instances of technical assistance to DOE. These activities are described in a Table in the following section entitled ''Geoscience Technical Support for Nuclear Waste Geologic Repositories.''

  8. A Topic Space Oriented User Group Discovering Scheme in Social Network: A Trust Chain Based Interest Measuring Perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang Dong

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Currently, user group has become an effective platform for information sharing and communicating among users in social network sites. In present work, we propose a single topic user group discovering scheme, which includes three phases: topic impact evaluation, interest degree measurement, and trust chain based discovering, to enable selecting influential topic and discovering users into a topic oriented group. Our main works include (1 an overview of proposed scheme and its related definitions; (2 topic space construction method based on topic relatedness clustering and its impact (influence degree and popularity degree evaluation; (3 a trust chain model to take user relation network topological information into account with a strength classification perspective; (4 an interest degree (user explicit and implicit interest degree evaluation method based on trust chain among users; and (5 a topic space oriented user group discovering method to group core users according to their explicit interest degrees and to predict ordinary users under implicit interest and user trust chain. Finally, experimental results are given to explain effectiveness and feasibility of our scheme.

  9. Resources for Topics in Architecture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Van Noate, Judith, Comp.

    This guide for conducting library research on topics in architecture or on the work of a particular architect presents suggestions for utilizing four categories of resources: books, dictionaries and encyclopedias, indexes, and a periodicals and series list (PASL). Two topics are researched as examples: the contemporary architect Richard Meier, and…

  10. Web directories as topical context

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kaptein, R.; Kamps, J.; Aly, R.; Hauff, C.; den Hamer, I.; Hiemstra, D.; Huibers, T.; de Jong, F.

    2009-01-01

    In this paper we explore whether the Open Directory (or DMOZ) can be used to classify queries into topical categories on different levels and whether we can use this topical context to improve retrieval performance. We have set up a user study to let test persons explicitly classify queries into

  11. Aqueous Humor Antimicrobial Activity: In Vitro Analysis after Topical 0.5% Chloramphenicol Application.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cagini, Carlo; Dragoni, Annalisa; Orsolini, Giampaolo; Fiore, Tito; Beccasio, Alfredo; Spadea, Leopoldo; Moretti, Amedeo; Mencacci, Antonella

    2017-06-01

    To assess aqueous humor antimicrobial activity in vitro after topical 0.5% chloramphenicol application. This investigation included 63 eyes from 65 cataract surgery patients. The study group of 48 eyes received preoperatively four topical applications of 0.5% chloramphenicol. The control group of 15 eyes was given no topical applications. Aqueous humor samples were collected for in vitro antimicrobial analysis using Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Moraxella catarrhalis, and Pasteurella multocida organisms by means of disk diffusion test. No inhibition halo was observed around all aqueous humor samples from all chloramphenicol-treated patients, irrespective of the sample quantity added to the paper disks, with no significant difference from aqueous humor from untreated control patients. Aqueous humor displayed no bactericidal effect against any of the microorganisms evaluated after topical 0.5% chloramphenicol application.

  12. Topical Botanical Agents for the Treatment of Psoriasis: A Systematic Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Farahnik, Benjamin; Sharma, Divya; Alban, Joseph; Sivamani, Raja K

    2017-08-01

    Patients with psoriasis often enquire about the use of numerous botanical therapeutics. It is important for dermatologists to be aware of the current evidence regarding these agents. We conducted a systematic literature search using the PubMed, MEDLINE, and EMBASE databases for controlled and uncontrolled clinical trials that assessed the use of topical botanical therapeutics for psoriasis. The search included the following keywords: 'psoriasis' and 'plant' or 'herbal' or 'botanical'. We also reviewed citations within articles to identify additional relevant sources. We then further refined the results by route of administration and the topical botanical agents are reviewed herein. A total of 27 controlled and uncontrolled clinical trials addressing the use of topical botanical agents for psoriasis were assessed in this review. We found that the most highly studied and most efficacious topical botanical therapeutics were Mahonia aquifolium, indigo naturalis, aloe vera, and, to a lesser degree, capsaicin. The most commonly reported adverse effects were local skin irritation, erythema, pruritus, burning, and pain. However, the overall evidence for these therapeutics remains limited in quantity and quality. The literature addresses a large number of studies in regard to botanicals for the treatment of psoriasis. While most agents appear to be safe, further research is necessary before topical botanical agents can be consistently recommended to patients.

  13. Unsupervised topic discovery by anomaly detection

    OpenAIRE

    Cheng, Leon

    2013-01-01

    Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited With the vast amount of information and public comment available online, it is of increasing interest to understand what is being said and what topics are trending online. Government agencies, for example, want to know what policies concern the public without having to look through thousands of comments manually. Topic detection provides automatic identification of topics in documents based on the information content and enhances many ...

  14. 21 CFR 868.5170 - Laryngotracheal topical anesthesia applicator.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Laryngotracheal topical anesthesia applicator. 868... topical anesthesia applicator. (a) Identification. A laryngotracheal topical anesthesia applicator is a device used to apply topical anesthetics to a patient's laryngotracheal area. (b) Classification. Class...

  15. Short-term energy outlook, annual supplement 1994

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1994-08-01

    The Short-Term Energy Outlook Annual Supplement (Supplement) is published once a year as a complement to the Short-Term Energy Outlook (Outlook), Quarterly Projections. The purpose of the Supplement is to review the accuracy of the forecasts published in the Outlook, make comparisons with other independent energy forecasts, and examine current energy topics that affect the forecasts

  16. Short-term energy outlook annual supplement, 1993

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1993-08-06

    The Short-Term Energy Outlook Annual Supplement (supplement) is published once a year as a complement to the Short-Term Energy Outlook (Outlook), Quarterly Projections. The purpose of the Supplement is to review the accuracy of the forecasts published in the Outlook, make comparisons with other independent energy forecasts, and examine current energy topics that affect the forecasts.

  17. Topical therapy of atopic dermatitis: controversies from Hippocrates to topical immunomodulators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tilles, Gérard; Wallach, Daniel; Taïeb, Alain

    2007-02-01

    Although atopic dermatitis can be treated efficiently, there is still much controversy about the risk/benefit ratio of both topical corticosteroids and topical immunomodulators. Conflicting data may be found about the usefulness of bathing, diet regulation, and other therapeutic interventions. These controversies result in part from the persistence of Hippocratic doctrines in modern medical thinking. Humoralist and diathetic doctrines, as they pertain to eczema, are reviewed. The paradoxical worsening of oozing and the deadly hazards of hospitalization before the era of antibiotics are brought to mind. We hope that this historical review will improve the understanding of current controversies and help dermatologists to manage patients with atopic dermatitis and other chronic skin diseases.

  18. KEY TOPICS IN SPORTS MEDICINE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amir Ali Narvani

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available Key Topics in Sports Medicine is a single quick reference source for sports and exercise medicine. It presents the essential information from across relevant topic areas, and includes both the core and emerging issues in this rapidly developing field. It covers: 1 Sports injuries, rehabilitation and injury prevention, 2 Exercise physiology, fitness testing and training, 3 Drugs in sport, 4 Exercise and health promotion, 5 Sport and exercise for special and clinical populations, 6 The psychology of performance and injury. PURPOSE The Key Topics format provides extensive, concise information in an accessible, easy-to-follow manner. AUDIENCE The book is targeted the students and specialists in sports medicine and rehabilitation, athletic training, physiotherapy and orthopaedic surgery. The editors are authorities in their respective fields and this handbook depends on their extensive experience and knowledge accumulated over the years. FEATURES The book contains the information for clinical guidance, rapid access to concise details and facts. It is composed of 99 topics which present the information in an order that is considered logical and progressive as in most texts. Chapter headings are: 1. Functional Anatomy, 2. Training Principles / Development of Strength and Power, 3. Biomechanical Principles, 4. Biomechanical Analysis, 5. Physiology of Training, 6. Monitoring of Training Progress, 7. Nutrition, 8. Hot and Cold Climates, 9. Altitude, 10. Sport and Travelling, 11. Principles of Sport Injury Diagnosis, 12. Principles of Sport and Soft Tissue Management, 13. Principles of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, 14. Principles of Sport Injury Prevention, 15. Sports Psychology, 16. Team Sports, 17. Psychological Aspects of Injury in Sport, 18. Injury Repair Process, 19. Basic Biomechanics of Tissue Injury, 20. Plain Film Radiography in Sport, 21. Nuclear Medicine, 22. Diagnostic Ultrasound, 23. MRI Scan, 24. Other Imaging, 5. Head Injury, 26. Eye

  19. Topic Time Series Analysis of Microblogs

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-10-01

    may be distributed more globally. Tweets on a specific topic that cluster spatially, temporally or both might be of interest to analysts, marketers ...of $ and @, with the latter only in the case that it is the only character in the token (the @ symbol is significant in its usage by Instagram in...is generated by Instagram . Topic 80, Distance: 143.2101 Top words: 1. rawr 2. ˆ0ˆ 3. kill 4. jurassic 5. dinosaur Analysis: This topic is quite

  20. Tools and Processes for Handling of Transfer of Burdens, Knowledge and Responsibility: Preparing Future Generations and Empowering Local Communities. Proceedings of a Topical Session

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2008-01-01

    Radioactive waste management (RWM) is a humane activity that may span several generations in an active phase and involves a very long time in a more or less sleeping phase so it is important to find the solution adequate for the short and the very long term and to prepare next generations. The Topical Session was composed of two parts: Part A: Preparing future generations; Part B: Empowering local communities and improving decision making. Regulatory case studies were heard from Sweden and the US in the first part. In the second part, the Transparency Programme of KASAM (Sweden) was presented. The present report documents the topical session. Its summary and lessons learnt capture both the oral presentations and the discussions that took place in the audience. The experiences reported suggest that the following issues are important for radioactive waste management: -) Careful consideration of impacts on future generations including the opportunities and burdens we pass on to them; -) Forward planning to enable long-term issues to be adequately addressed, on technical, regulatory, financial and societal aspects; -) Listening to and involving communities who live close to facilities; -) Recognising that communities feel more confident if they are part of the discussions about the long-term implications of RWM and that they want to be involved in the discussions and the plans; -) Exploring the long-term role of local communities and how this should be supported; -) Recognising our own limitations and putting in place mechanisms to deal with these; -) Ensuring transparency throughout the process; and -) Developing clear roles and responsibilities in the short and long term

  1. Classical mechanics including an introduction to the theory of elasticity

    CERN Document Server

    Hentschke, Reinhard

    2017-01-01

    This textbook teaches classical mechanics as one of the foundations of physics. It describes the mechanical stability and motion in physical systems ranging from the molecular to the galactic scale. Aside from the standard topics of mechanics in the physics curriculum, this book includes an introduction to the theory of elasticity and its use in selected modern engineering applications, e.g. dynamic mechanical analysis of viscoelastic materials. The text also covers many aspects of numerical mechanics, ranging from the solution of ordinary differential equations, including molecular dynamics simulation of many particle systems, to the finite element method. Attendant Mathematica programs or parts thereof are provided in conjunction with selected examples. Numerous links allow the reader to connect to related subjects and research topics. Among others this includes statistical mechanics (separate chapter), quantum mechanics, space flight, galactic dynamics, friction, and vibration spectroscopy. An introductory...

  2. Topic modelling in the information warfare domain

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    De Waal, A

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available for interesting and relevant topics. The objectives of this paper is to describe topic modelling, put it in context as a useful IW technique and illustrate its use with two examples. They discuss several applications of topic modelling in the safety and security...

  3. Addition of topical pimecrolimus to once-daily mid-potent steroid confers no short-term therapeutic benefit in the treatment of severe atopic dermatitis; a randomized controlled trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spergel, J M; Boguniewicz, M; Paller, A S; Hebert, A A; Gallagher, P R; McCormick, C; Parneix-Spake, A; Hultsch, T

    2007-08-01

    Combination therapy with pimecrolimus cream 1%, a topical calcineurin inhibitor (TCI), and fluticasone propionate cream 0.05% (FP), a mid-potency topical corticosteroid, may have a synergistic effect for treatment of atopic dermatitis (AD) because their mechanism of action differs. To assess the efficacy of concomitant pimecrolimus twice daily/FP once daily vs. vehicle twice daily/FP once daily in patients with severe AD. An exploratory, 2-week, double-blind, randomized, within-patient study was conducted (n = 45). Two target areas of similar severity, size and location were assessed. Assessments included the modified Eczema Area and Severity Index (0-12 scale) (primary variable), localized investigator global assessment (0-4 scale) and Patients' Self-Assessment of Disease Severity (0-4 scale). Data for all variables were similar for the TCI/FP and vehicle/FP treatments. The efficacy observed for treatment of severe AD flares with this TCI/FP combination regimen was equivalent to that of vehicle/FP.

  4. US Support Program Topical Meetings 1999 to 2008

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pepper,S.

    2008-06-10

    In 1999, the International Safeguards Project Office began organizing topical workshops to explore technical issues facing the International Atomic Energy Agency's Department of Safeguards. Representatives from IAEA member states including the United States, national laboratories and companies were invited to the workshops to discuss the technical issues. In some cases professional facilitators were hired to lead the discussions and in some cases business gaming techniques were employed. Since 1999, the following topics have been addressed Data Communication Technologies (1999), Information Security (2000), Design and Testing for High Reliability (2001), Standardization and Integration of Unattended and Remote Monitoring Systems (2002), Roadmapping: Surveillance (2003), IAEA Seals Technology Roadmapping Workshop (2004), Turning Information Into Knowledge (2004), Safeguards Tools of the Future (2005), and Advanced Sensors for Safeguards (2007). This paper will review the scope of the workshops and summarize their results.

  5. Topical steroid addiction in atopic dermatitis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fukaya M

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Mototsugu Fukaya,1 Kenji Sato,2 Mitsuko Sato,3 Hajime Kimata,4 Shigeki Fujisawa,5 Haruhiko Dozono,6 Jun Yoshizawa,7 Satoko Minaguchi8 1Tsurumai Kouen Clinic, Nagoya, 2Department of Dermatology, Hannan Chuo Hospital, Osaka, 3Sato Pediatric Clinic, Osaka, 4Kimata Hajime Clinic, Osaka, 5Fujisawa Dermatology Clinic, Tokyo, 6Dozono Medical House, Kagoshima, 7Yoshizawa Dermatology Clinic, Yokohama, 8Department of Dermatology, Kounosu Kyousei Hospital, Saitama, Japan Abstract: The American Academy of Dermatology published a new guideline regarding topical therapy in atopic dermatitis in May 2014. Although topical steroid addiction or red burning skin syndrome had been mentioned as possible side effects of topical steroids in a 2006 review article in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, no statement was made regarding this illness in the new guidelines. This suggests that there are still controversies regarding this illness. Here, we describe the clinical features of topical steroid addiction or red burning skin syndrome, based on the treatment of many cases of the illness. Because there have been few articles in the medical literature regarding this illness, the description in this article will be of some benefit to better understand the illness and to spur discussion regarding topical steroid addiction or red burning skin syndrome. Keywords: topical steroid addiction, atopic dermatitis, red burning skin syndrome, rebound, corticosteroid, eczema

  6. Modelling the long-term consequences of a hypothetical dispersal of radioactivity in an urban area including remediation alternatives

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thiessen, K.M.; Andersson, K.G.; Batandjieva, B.; Cheng, J.-J.; Hwang, W.T.; Kaiser, J.C.; Kamboj, S.; Steiner, M.; Tomas, J.; Trifunovic, D.; Yu, C.

    2009-01-01

    The Urban Remediation Working Group of the International Atomic Energy Agency's EMRAS (Environmental Modelling for Radiation Safety) program was organized to address issues of remediation assessment modelling for urban areas contaminated with dispersed radionuclides. The present paper describes the second of two modelling exercises. This exercise was based on a hypothetical dispersal of radioactivity in an urban area from a radiological dispersal device, with reference surface contamination at selected sites used as the primary input information. Modelling endpoints for the exercise included radionuclide concentrations and external dose rates at specified locations, contributions to the dose rates from individual surfaces, and annual and cumulative external doses to specified reference individuals. Model predictions were performed for a 'no action' situation (with no remedial measures) and for selected countermeasures. The exercise provided an opportunity for comparison of three modelling approaches, as well as a comparison of the predicted effectiveness of various countermeasures in terms of their short-term and long-term effects on predicted doses to humans.

  7. Topics in supersymmetric theories

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nemeschansky, D.D.

    1984-01-01

    This thesis discusses four different topics in supersymmetric theories. In the first part models in which supersymmetry is broken by the Fayet-Iliopoulos mechanism are considered. The possibility that scalar quark and lepton masses might arise radiatively in such theories is explored. In the second part supersymmetric grand unified models with a sliding singlet are considered. The author reviews the argument that the sliding singlet does not work in models with large supersymmetry breaking. Then he considers the possibility of using a sliding singlet with low energy supersymmetry breaking. The third part of the thesis deals with the entropy problem of supersymmetric theories. Most supersymmetric models possess a decoupled particle with mass of order 100 GeV which is copiously produced in the early universe and whose decay produces huge amounts of entropy. The author shows how this problem can be avoided in theories in which the hidden sector contains several light fields. In the fourth part effective Lagrangians for supersymmetric theories are studied. The anomalous pion interaction for supersymmetric theories is written down. General properties of this term are studied both on compact and non-compact manifolds

  8. A mathematics sampler topics for the liberal arts

    CERN Document Server

    Berlinghoff, William P; Skrien, Dale

    2001-01-01

    Now in its fifth edition, A Mathematics Sampler presents mathematics as both science and art, focusing on the historical role of mathematics in our culture. It uses selected topics from modern mathematics-including computers, perfect numbers, and four-dimensional geometry-to exemplify the distinctive features of mathematics as an intellectual endeavor, a problem-solving tool, and a way of thinking about the rapidly changing world in which we live. A Mathematics Sampler also includes unique LINK sections throughout the book, each of which connects mathematical concepts with areas of interest th

  9. New Computer Terms in Bloggers’ Language

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vilija Celiešienė

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available The article presents an analysis of new words in computer terminology that make their way to blogs and analyzes how the official neologisms and computer terms, especially the equivalents to barbarisms, are employed in everyday use. The article also discusses the ways of including the new computer terms into texts. The blogs on topics of information technology are the objects of the research. The analysis of the aforementioned blogs allowed highlighting certain trends in the use of new computer terms. An observation was made that even though the authors of the blogs could freely choose their writing style, they were not bound by the standards of literary language. Thus, their language was full of non-standard vocabulary; however, self-control regarding the language used could still be noticed. An interest in novelties of computer terminology and the tendency to accept some of the suggested new Lithuanian and loaned computer terms were noticed. When using the new words the bloggers frequently employed specific graphical elements and (or comments. The graphical elements were often chosen by bloggers to express their feelings of doubt regarding the suitability of the use of the suggested loanword. Attempting to explain the meaning of the new word to the readers the bloggers tended to post comments about the new computer terms.

  10. Eye Wear: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... When You Exercise (National Institute on Aging) - PDF Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Eye Wear updates by email What's this? GO Related Health Topics Refractive Errors National Institutes of Health The primary ...

  11. 21 CFR 524.1193 - Ivermectin topical solution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 21 Food and Drugs 6 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Ivermectin topical solution. 524.1193 Section 524...) ANIMAL DRUGS, FEEDS, AND RELATED PRODUCTS OPHTHALMIC AND TOPICAL DOSAGE FORM NEW ANIMAL DRUGS § 524.1193 Ivermectin topical solution. (a) Specifications. Each milliliter (mL) of solution contains 5 milligrams of...

  12. [The Development of an Intelligent Long-Term Care Services System That Integrates Innovative Information and Communication Technologies].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Ean-Wen; Chiou, Shwu-Fen; Pan, Mei-Lien; Wu, Hua-Huan; Jiang, Jia-Rong; Lu, Yi-De

    2017-08-01

    Rapid progress in information and communication technologies and the increasing popularity of healthcare-related applications has increased interest in the topic of intelligent medical care. This topic emphasizes the use of information and communication technologies to collect and analyze a variety of data in order to provide physicians and other healthcare professionals with clinical decision support. At present, so-called smart hospitals are the focal point of most intelligent-systems development activity, with little attention currently being focused on long-term care needs. The present article discusses the application of intelligent systems in the field of long-term care, especially in community and home-based models of care. System-implementation components such as the data entry interface components of mobile devices, the data transmission and synchronization components between the mobile device and file server, the data presentation, and the statistics analysis components are also introduced. These components have been used to develop long-term care service-related applications, including home health nursing, home-care services, meals on wheels, and assistive devices rental. We believe that the findings will be useful for the promotion of innovative long-term care services as well as the improvement of healthcare quality and efficiency.

  13. Selected source term topics. Report to CSNI by an OECD/NEA Group of experts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1987-04-01

    CSNI Report 136 summarizes the results of the work performed by the Group of Experts on the Source Term and Environmental Consequences (PWG4) during the period extending from 1983 and 1986. This report is complementary to Part 1, 'Technical Status of the Source Term' of CSNI Report 135, 'Report to CSNI on Source Term Assessment, Containment atmosphere control systems, and accident consequences'; it considers in detail a number of very specific issues thought to be important in the source term area. It consists of: an executive summary (prepared by the Chairman of the Group), a section on conclusions and recommendations, and five technical chapters (fission product chemistry in the primary circuit of a LWR during severe accidents; resuspension/re-entrainment of aerosols in LWRs following a meltdown accident; iodine chemistry under severe accident conditions; effects of combustion, steam explosions and pressurized melt ejection on fission product behaviour; radionuclide removal by pool scrubbing), a technical annex and two appendices

  14. A study of topics for distance education-A survey of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ratz, Joan M.; Schuster, Rudy M.; Marcy, Ann H.

    2011-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to identify training topics and distance education technologies preferred by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees. This study was conducted on behalf of the National Conservation Training Center to support their distance education strategy planning and implementation. When selecting survey recipients, we focused on employees in positions involving conservation and environmental education and outreach programming. We conducted the study in two phases. First, we surveyed 72 employees to identify useful training topics. The response rate was 61 percent; respondents were from all regions and included supervisors and nonsupervisors. Five topics for training were identified: creating and maintaining partnerships (partnerships), technology, program planning and development (program planning), outreach methods to engage the community (outreach methods), and evaluation methods. In the second phase, we surveyed 1,488 employees to assess preferences for training among the five topics identified in the first survey and preferences among six distance education technologies: satellite television, video conferencing, audio conferencing, computer mediated training, written resources, and audio resources. Two types of instructor-led training were included on the survey to compare to the technology options. Respondents were asked what types of information, such as basic facts or problem solving skills, were needed for each of the five topics. The adjusted response rate was 64 percent; respondents were from all regions and included supervisors and nonsupervisors. The results indicated clear preferences among respondents for certain training topics and technologies. All five training topics were valued, but the topics of partnerships and technology were given equal value and were valued more than the other three topics. Respondents indicated a desire for training on the topics of partnerships, technology, program planning, and outreach methods. For

  15. Eosinophilic Esophagitis: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Esophagitis (EoE) (American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology) Also in Spanish Latest News Eosinophilic Esophagitis May ... Pediatric and Adolescent Patients (American College of Gastroenterology) Topic Image Related Health Topics Eosinophilic Disorders Esophagus Disorders ...

  16. Female Infertility: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Prolactin blood test (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Female Infertility updates ... Serum progesterone Show More Show Less Related Health Topics Assisted Reproductive Technology Infertility Male Infertility National Institutes ...

  17. Mobility Aids: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Mobility Problems (AGS Foundation for Health in Aging) Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Mobility Aids updates ... standing and walking Using a cane Related Health Topics Assistive Devices Other Languages Find health information in ...

  18. Genetic Testing: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Your Family's Health (National Institutes of Health) - PDF Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Genetic Testing updates ... testing and your cancer risk Karyotyping Related Health Topics Birth Defects Genetic Counseling Genetic Disorders Newborn Screening ...

  19. Folic Acid: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... acid in diet (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Folic Acid updates ... acid - test Folic acid in diet Related Health Topics Vitamins National Institutes of Health The primary NIH ...

  20. Pneumococcal Infections: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Prevention, Immunization Action Coalition) - PDF Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Pneumococcal Infections updates ... ray Meningitis - pneumococcal Sputum gram stain Related Health Topics Meningitis Pneumonia Sepsis Sinusitis Streptococcal Infections National Institutes ...

  1. Wilms' Tumor: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Spanish Wilms tumor (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Wilms Tumor updates ... ENCYCLOPEDIA After chemotherapy - discharge Wilms tumor Related Health Topics Kidney Cancer National Institutes of Health The primary ...

  2. Child Safety: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... injuries in children (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Child Safety updates ... safety Preventing head injuries in children Related Health Topics Infant and Newborn Care Internet Safety Motor Vehicle ...

  3. Pneumocystis Infections: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Pneumocystis Infections updates ... GO MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA Pneumocystis jiroveci pneumonia Related Health Topics HIV/AIDS HIV/AIDS and Infections Pneumonia National ...

  4. Collapsed Lung: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Spanish Pneumothorax - infants (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Collapsed Lung updates ... Lung surgery Pneumothorax - slideshow Pneumothorax - infants Related Health Topics Chest Injuries and Disorders Lung Diseases Pleural Disorders ...

  5. Male Infertility: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Spanish Testicular biopsy (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Male Infertility updates ... analysis Sperm release pathway Testicular biopsy Related Health Topics Assisted Reproductive Technology Female Infertility Infertility National Institutes ...

  6. Healthy Aging: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Aging National Institute on Aging Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Healthy Aging updates ... 65 Health screening - women - over 65 Related Health Topics Exercise for Seniors Nutrition for Seniors Seniors' Health ...

  7. Psoriatic Arthritis: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Handouts Psoriatic arthritis (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Psoriatic Arthritis updates ... this? GO MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA Psoriatic arthritis Related Health Topics Arthritis Psoriasis National Institutes of Health The primary ...

  8. Hip Replacement: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... invasive hip replacement (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Hip Replacement updates ... replacement - precautions Minimally invasive hip replacement Related Health Topics Hip Injuries and Disorders National Institutes of Health ...

  9. Platelet Disorders: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Thromobocytopenia - drug-induced (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Platelet Disorders updates ... Willebrand disease Show More Show Less Related Health Topics Bleeding Disorders Blood Clots Blood Count Tests Blood ...

  10. Cardiac Rehabilitation: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... in Spanish Electrocardiogram (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Cardiac Rehabilitation updates ... How to take your pulse Pulse Related Health Topics Heart Attack Heart Diseases How to Prevent Heart ...

  11. Cardiac Arrest: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Handouts Cardiac arrest (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Cardiac Arrest updates ... this? GO MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA Cardiac arrest Related Health Topics Arrhythmia CPR Pacemakers and Implantable Defibrillators National Institutes ...

  12. Kawasaki Disease: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Spanish Kawasaki disease (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Kawasaki Disease updates ... GO MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA Electrocardiogram Kawasaki disease Related Health Topics Vasculitis National Institutes of Health The primary NIH ...

  13. Diabetic Diet: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Sweeteners - sugar substitutes (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Diabetic Diet updates ... you have diabetes Sweeteners - sugar substitutes Related Health Topics Blood Sugar Diabetes Diabetes in Children and Teens ...

  14. Infection Control: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Staph infections - hospital (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Infection Control updates ... infections when visiting Staph infections - hospital Related Health Topics Hepatitis HIV/AIDS MRSA National Institutes of Health ...

  15. Hearing Aids: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... for hearing loss (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Hearing Aids updates ... MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA Devices for hearing loss Related Health Topics Cochlear Implants Hearing Disorders and Deafness National Institutes ...

  16. Kidney Tests: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Spanish Total protein (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Kidney Tests updates ... hour volume Show More Show Less Related Health Topics Kidney Cancer Kidney Diseases National Institutes of Health ...

  17. Ischemic Stroke: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Spanish Thrombolytic therapy (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Ischemic Stroke updates ... cardiogenic embolism Stroke - slideshow Thrombolytic therapy Related Health Topics Hemorrhagic Stroke Stroke Stroke Rehabilitation National Institutes of ...

  18. Pulmonary Rehabilitation: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Handouts Postural drainage (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Pulmonary Rehabilitation updates ... this? GO MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA Postural drainage Related Health Topics Lung Diseases National Institutes of Health The primary ...

  19. Topical diclofenac therapy for osteoarthritis: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deng, Zhen-Han; Zeng, Chao; Yang, Ye; Li, Yu-Sheng; Wei, Jie; Yang, Tuo; Li, Hui; Lei, Guang-Hua

    2016-05-01

    The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of topical diclofenac therapy for osteoarthritis (OA). A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials was conducted. A comprehensive literature search, covering the databases of Medline, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and EMBASE, was conducted in September 2014 to identify the randomized controlled trials which adopted the topical diclofenac therapy for OA. A total of nine papers were included in this meta-analysis. Topical diclofenac appears to be effective in both pain relief (standard mean differences (SMD) = 0.40; 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.19 to 0.62; P = 0.0003) and function improvement (SMD = 0.23; 95 % CI 0.03 to 0.43; P = 0.03) when compared with the control group. The sensitivity analysis and subgroup analysis showed that the result of pain intensity was stable and reliable, while the result of physical function improvement was vague. With respect to safety, topical diclofenac demonstrated a higher incidence of adverse events such as dry skin, rash, dermatitis, neck pain, and withdrawal. Topical diclofenac is effective in pain relief as a treatment of OA. It may also have a potential effect in function improvement, which needs further studies to be explored. Although, some adverse effects were observed in the application of topical diclofenac, none of them was serious.

  20. Topical oxygen therapy results in complete wound healing in diabetic foot ulcers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Janelle; Lu, Suzanne; McLaren, Ann-Marie; Perry, Julie A; Cross, Karen M

    2016-11-01

    Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are a significant problem in an aging population. Fifteen percent of diabetics develop a DFU over their lifetime, which can lead to potential amputation. The 5-year survival rate after amputation is 31%, which is greater than the lifetime risk of mortality from cancer. Topical oxygen is a promising technique for the adjunctive therapy of chronic wounds including DFUs, but few controlled studies exist to support its clinical adoption. The aim of this study was to compare a portable topical oxygen delivery system in patients with nonhealing DFUs to standard best practice. Twenty patients were randomized into a topical oxygen group (n = 10), and a nonplacebo control group with regular dressings and standard care (n = 10), and attended the diabetic foot clinic once weekly for 8 weeks. Ulcer surface area over time was analyzed using standardized digital imaging software. DFUs were present without healing for a mean duration of 76 weeks prior to the study. They found a significant difference in healing rate between patients receiving topical oxygen and those receiving standard care. Topical oxygen, therefore, represents a potentially exciting new technology to shorten healing time in patients with nonhealing DFUs. More prospective randomized and powered studies are needed to determine the benefits of topical oxygen, but our current results are very promising. © 2016 by the Wound Healing Society.

  1. Hot topics flashcards for passing the PMP and CAPM exams

    CERN Document Server

    Mulcahy, Rita

    2013-01-01

    If you are looking for a way to prepare for the PMP or the CAPM exam that fits into your busy schedule, these flashcards are it. Now you can study at the office, on a plane or even in your car with RMC's portable and extremely valuable Hot Topics Exam Flashcards-in hard copy or audio CD format. Over 300 of the most important and difficult to recall PMP® and CAPM® exam-related terms and concepts are now available for study as you drive, fly or take your lunch break. Order them both!

  2. Topology of real algebraic varieties and related topics

    CERN Document Server

    Kharlamov, V M; Polotovskiĭ, G M; Viro, Oleg Ya

    1996-01-01

    This volume is dedicated to the memory of the Russian mathematician D. A. Gudkov. It contains papers written by his friends, students, and collaborators and is devoted mainly to the areas where D. A. Gudkov made important contributions. The main topic is the topology of real algebraic varieties. Several papers include new results on the topology of real plane algebraic curves (the Hilbert 16th problem).

  3. Summary record of the topical session of 13. Meeting of the IGSC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Capouet, M.; Noseck, Ulrich

    2011-01-01

    Aims of the topical session were to gain understanding of the strategies (e.g. in terms of R and D, feasibility, optimization) put in place in national programs to address the issues and in particular the irreducible uncertainties associated to gas. Therefore, information on work in national programs was gathered by addressing the following key questions: 1. What are the regulatory requirements and what are their impacts? 2. What is the relevance of the gases for the long-term safety? 3. How are gases and the related uncertainties considered in the latest SA? 4. What are the remaining process uncertainties? 5. What is the strategy that has been put in place to treat the remaining issues? 6. Where do the organizations see potential to lower conservatism in the description of the gas pathway? 7. What multiple lines of arguments do you use to address the issue of gases in the safety case? 8. What are the strategic choices for the future? Presentations from eight countries addressing the issue for the three main host formations clay, granite and rock salt as well as a presentation about the on-going EC project FORGE were given. The major discussion topics and conclusions of the session are summarized in the this document

  4. Antibiotic Resistance: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... GO GO About MedlinePlus Site Map FAQs Customer Support Health Topics Drugs & Supplements Videos & Tools Español You Are Here: Home → Health Topics → Antibiotic Resistance URL of this page: https://medlineplus.gov/antibioticresistance. ...

  5. How are topics born? Understanding the research dynamics preceding the emergence of new areas

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Angelo A. Salatino

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available The ability to promptly recognise new research trends is strategic for many stakeholders, including universities, institutional funding bodies, academic publishers and companies. While the literature describes several approaches which aim to identify the emergence of new research topics early in their lifecycle, these rely on the assumption that the topic in question is already associated with a number of publications and consistently referred to by a community of researchers. Hence, detecting the emergence of a new research area at an embryonic stage, i.e., before the topic has been consistently labelled by a community of researchers and associated with a number of publications, is still an open challenge. In this paper, we begin to address this challenge by performing a study of the dynamics preceding the creation of new topics. This study indicates that the emergence of a new topic is anticipated by a significant increase in the pace of collaboration between relevant research areas, which can be seen as the ‘parents’ of the new topic. These initial findings (i confirm our hypothesis that it is possible in principle to detect the emergence of a new topic at the embryonic stage, (ii provide new empirical evidence supporting relevant theories in Philosophy of Science, and also (iii suggest that new topics tend to emerge in an environment in which weakly interconnected research areas begin to cross-fertilise.

  6. Use of a Latent Topic Model for Characteristic Extraction from Health Checkup Questionnaire Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hatakeyama, Y; Miyano, I; Kataoka, H; Nakajima, N; Watabe, T; Yasuda, N; Okuhara, Y

    2015-01-01

    When patients complete questionnaires during health checkups, many of their responses are subjective, making topic extraction difficult. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a model capable of extracting appropriate topics from subjective data in questionnaires conducted during health checkups. We employed a latent topic model to group the lifestyle habits of the study participants and represented their responses to items on health checkup questionnaires as a probability model. For the probability model, we used latent Dirichlet allocation to extract 30 topics from the questionnaires. According to the model parameters, a total of 4381 study participants were then divided into groups based on these topics. Results from laboratory tests, including blood glucose level, triglycerides, and estimated glomerular filtration rate, were compared between each group, and these results were then compared with those obtained by hierarchical clustering. If a significant (p topic model and hierarchical clustering grouping revealed that, in the latent topic model method, a small group of participants who reported having subjective signs of urinary disorder were allocated to a single group. The latent topic model is useful for extracting characteristics from a small number of groups from questionnaires with a large number of items. These results show that, in addition to chief complaints and history of past illness, questionnaire data obtained during medical checkups can serve as useful judgment criteria for assessing the conditions of patients.

  7. An Examination of Graduate Theses Related with Guitar in Terms of Methodology and Content: A Case of Turkey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yöndem, Sadik

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this study is to examine post-graduate thesis completed on guitar in Turkey. For this purpose, a total of 89 theses were investigated in terms of selected research topics, study participants, and methods for analysis. For the selection of the thesis included in this study three criteria were used; first, theses from 1990 (beginning time…

  8. Systemic and Topical Use of Tranexamic Acid in Spinal Surgery: A Systematic Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Winter, Sebastian F.; Santaguida, Carlo; Wong, Jean; Fehlings, Michael G.

    2015-01-01

    Study Design Combination of narrative and systematic literature reviews. Objectives Massive perioperative blood loss in complex spinal surgery often requires blood transfusions and can negatively affect patient outcome. Systemic use of the antifibrinolytic agent tranexamic acid (TXA) has become widely used in the management of surgical bleeding. We review the clinical evidence for the use of intravenous TXA as a hemostatic agent in spinal surgery and discuss the emerging role for its complementary use as a topical agent to reduce perioperative blood loss from the surgical site. Through a systematic review of published and ongoing investigations on topical TXA for spinal surgery, we wish to make spine practitioners aware of this option and to suggest opportunities for further investigation in the field. Methods A narrative review of systemic TXA in spinal surgery and topical TXA in surgery was conducted. Furthermore, a systematic search (using PRISMA guidelines) of PubMed (MEDLINE), EMBASE, and Cochrane CENTRAL databases as well as World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, ClinicalTrials.gov (National Institutes of Health), and International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number registries was conducted to identify both published literature and ongoing clinical trials on topical TXA in spinal surgery. Results Of 1,631 preliminary search results, 2 published studies were included in the systematic review. Out of 285 ongoing clinical trials matching the search criteria, a total of 4 relevant studies were included and reviewed. Conclusion Intravenous TXA is established as an efficacious hemostatic agent in spinal surgery. Use of topical TXA in surgery suggests similar hemostatic efficacy and potentially improved safety as compared with intravenous TXA. For spinal surgery, the literature on topical TXA is sparse but promising, warranting further clinical investigation and consideration as a clinical option in cases with

  9. Topical anesthetic versus lidocaine infiltration in arteriovenous fistula cannulation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anisha George

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: End stage renal disease (ESRD patients on maintenance hemodialysis undergo arterio-venous fistula (AVF cannulation prior to each hemodialysis session for blood access. Prior to cannulation lidocaine infiltration is done, which is often perceived as painful. Eutectic mixture of local anesthetic (EMLA has been found to significantly reduce pain associated with radial artery cannulation compared with lidocaine infiltration. Aims: To evaluate the efficacy of EMLA compared to infiltration of lidocaine in hemodialysis patients for AVF cannulation. Materials and Methods: A single-centre, crossover study of patients with an AVF on regular maintenance hemodialysis was performed in the dialysis unit of a tertiary care teaching hospital. The site of AVF, number of attempts for AVF cannulation and cannula insertion time were recorded. The patients were asked about the acceptability of application of the anesthetic, delay between anesthetic and cannulation and to score the pain on cannulation. Results: Fifty patients were included in the study. With the visual analog scale, pain score on infiltration was 4.8. Pain score on cannulation after topical application was 2.9 and after infiltration, 2.0. The number of attempts for cannulation and the cannula insertion time were similar. Anesthesia was more stressful in the injectable group rather than the topical group (P < 0.001. Delay between anesthetic and cannulation was unacceptable in the topical group (P < 0.001. Patient compliance was better during infiltration compared to topical (P < 0.005. Mean pain score during infiltration of anesthetic was significantly higher than cannulation pain after either anesthetic, although pain on cannulation was higher in the topical group (P < 0.001. Conclusions: EMLA offers a suitable alternative to lidocaine infiltration for patients using AVF for blood access.

  10. Atom probe field ion microscopy and related topics: A bibliography 1989

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Miller, M.K.; Hawkins, A.R.; Russell, K.F.

    1990-12-01

    This bibliography includes references related to the following topics: atom probe field ion microscopy (APFIM), field ion spectroscopy (FIM), field emission microscopy (FEM), liquid metal ion sources (LMIS), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and theory. Technique-orientated studies and applications are included. This bibliography covers the period 1989. The references contained in this document were compiled from a variety of sources including computer searches and personal lists of publications

  11. Characterization data on the topical carrier DDC642

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eline Desmet

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This article contains original data, figures and methods used in the characterization of the liposomal carrier ‘DDC642’ for topical applications, described in “An elastic liposomal formulation for RNAi-based topical treatment of skin disorders: proof-of-concept in the treatment of psoriasis” (Desmet et al., 2016 [1]. Several elastic liposomal formulations have been evaluated for their ability to encapsulate and deliver RNA interference (RNAi molecules to cultured primary skin cells. The efficiency and effectiveness of these liposomes were compared to that of our previously characterized liposomes, the ‘SECosomes’ (SEC (Geusens et al., 2010 [2]. After selection of a potential superior carrier, based on encapsulation and transfection efficiency data (Desmet et al., 2016 [1], the selected DDC642 liposomes were characterized more in-depth. Herein, a detailed characterization of the DDC642 liposome and RNAi-loaded lipoplexes is given, including the matching protocols.

  12. Large-Scale Topic Detection and Language Model Adaptation

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Seymore, Kristie

    1997-01-01

    .... We have developed a language model adaptation scheme that takes apiece of text, chooses the most similar topic clusters from a set of over 5000 elemental topics, and uses topic specific language...

  13. Topics in Bethe Ansatz

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Chunguang

    Integrable quantum spin chains have close connections to integrable quantum field. theories, modern condensed matter physics, string and Yang-Mills theories. Bethe. ansatz is one of the most important approaches for solving quantum integrable spin. chains. At the heart of the algebraic structure of integrable quantum spin chains is. the quantum Yang-Baxter equation and the boundary Yang-Baxter equation. This. thesis focuses on four topics in Bethe ansatz. The Bethe equations for the isotropic periodic spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain with N. sites have solutions containing ±i/2 that are singular: both the corresponding energy and the algebraic Bethe ansatz vector are divergent. Such solutions must be carefully regularized. We consider a regularization involving a parameter that can be. determined using a generalization of the Bethe equations. These generalized Bethe. equations provide a practical way of determining which singular solutions correspond. to eigenvectors of the model. The Bethe equations for the periodic XXX and XXZ spin chains admit singular. solutions, for which the corresponding eigenvalues and eigenvectors are ill-defined. We use a twist regularization to derive conditions for such singular solutions to bephysical, in which case they correspond to genuine eigenvalues and eigenvectors of. the Hamiltonian. We analyze the ground state of the open spin-1/2 isotropic quantum spin chain. with a non-diagonal boundary term using a recently proposed Bethe ansatz solution. As the coefficient of the non-diagonal boundary term tends to zero, the Bethe roots. split evenly into two sets: those that remain finite, and those that become infinite. We. argue that the former satisfy conventional Bethe equations, while the latter satisfy a. generalization of the Richardson-Gaudin equations. We derive an expression for the. leading correction to the boundary energy in terms of the boundary parameters. We argue that the Hamiltonians for A(2) 2n open quantum spin chains

  14. Topical application of hemostatic paste

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohammad Mizanur Rahman

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available As a measure to control minor surgical bleeding, surgeons usually depend on a number of hemostatic aids. Topical use of bovine thrombin is a widely used procedure to arrest such minor bleeding. A 35 year old male sergeant of Bangladesh Air Force presented with repeated development of hematoma in his left thigh without any history of trauma or previous history of bleeding. Critical analysis of the patient’s history, routine and sophisticated hematological investigations revealed that the patient developed anti-thrombin antibody following the application of hemostatic paste in the tooth socket five years back during minor dental procedure to stop ignorable bleeding episodes. Therefore, topical use of hemostatic glue/paste or bovine thrombin should be avoided to desist minor bleeding as recombinant human thrombin is now available for topical use.

  15. Google Trends terms reporting rhinitis and related topics differ in European countries

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bousquet, J.; Agache, I; Anto, J M

    2017-01-01

    Google Trends (GT) searches trends of specific queries in Google and reflects the real-life epidemiology of allergic rhinitis. We compared Google Trends terms related to allergy and rhinitis in all European Union countries, Norway and Switzerland from 1 January 2011 to 20 December 2016. The aim w...

  16. Quantum mechanics new approaches to selected topics

    CERN Document Server

    Lipkin, Harry Jeannot

    1973-01-01

    Acclaimed as ""excellent"" (Nature) and ""very original and refreshing"" (Physics Today), this collection of self-contained studies is geared toward advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Its broad selection of topics includes the Mössbauer effect, many-body quantum mechanics, scattering theory, Feynman diagrams, and relativistic quantum mechanics.Author Harry J. Lipkin, a well-known teacher at Israel's Weizmann Institute, takes an unusual approach by introducing many interesting physical problems and mathematical techniques at a much earlier point than in conventional texts. This meth

  17. Transport phenomena an introduction to advanced topics

    CERN Document Server

    Glasgow, Larry A

    2010-01-01

    Enables readers to apply transport phenomena principles to solve advanced problems in all areas of engineering and science This book helps readers elevate their understanding of, and their ability to apply, transport phenomena by introducing a broad range of advanced topics as well as analytical and numerical solution techniques. Readers gain the ability to solve complex problems generally not addressed in undergraduate-level courses, including nonlinear, multidimensional transport, and transient molecular and convective transport scenarios. Avoiding rote memorization, the author em

  18. Affinity between information retrieval system and search topic

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ebinuma, Yukio

    1979-01-01

    Ten search profiles are tested on the INIS system at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. The results are plotted on recall-precision chart ranging from 100% recall to 100% precision. The curves are not purely systems-dependent nor search-dependent, and are determined substantially by the ''affinity'' between the system and the search topic. The curves are named ''Affinity curves of search topics with information retrieval systems'', and hence retrieval affinity factors are derived. They are obtained not only for individual search topics but also for averages in the system. By such a quantitative examination, the difference of affinity among search topics in a given system, that of the same search topic among various systems, and that of systems to the same group of search topics can be compared reasonably. (author)

  19. Analyzing the history of Cognition using Topic Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cohen Priva, Uriel; Austerweil, Joseph L

    2015-02-01

    Very few articles have analyzed how cognitive science as a field has changed over the last six decades. We explore how Cognition changed over the last four decades using Topic Models. Topic Models assume that every word in every document is generated by one of a limited number of topics. Words that are likely to co-occur are likely to be generated by a single topic. We find a number of significant historical trends: the rise of moral cognition, eyetracking methods, and action, the fall of sentence processing, and the stability of development. We introduce the notion of framing topics, which frame content, rather than present the content itself. These framing topics suggest that over time Cognition turned from abstract theorizing to more experimental approaches. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Efficacy of Topical Alpha Ointment (Containing Natural Henna Compared to Topical Hydrocortisone (1% in the Healing of Radiation-Induced Dermatitis in Patients with Breast Cancer: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mansour Ansari

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Background: This two-arm, randomized clinical study aimed to compare efficacy between topical Alpha ointment and topical hydrocortisone cream (1% in the healing of radiation-induced dermatitis in breast cancer patients. Methods: The inclusion criteria comprised newly pathologically proven, locally advanced breast cancer (treated with modified radical mastectomy followed by sequential adjuvant treatments, including chest wall radiotherapy [45-50.4 Gy] and grade 2 and/or 3 chest wall dermatitis. The exclusion criteria were comprised of any underlying disease or medications interfering with the wound healing process, previous history of chest wall radiotherapy, and concurrent use of chemotherapy. Sixty eligible patients were randomly assigned to use either topical Alpha ointment (study arm, n=30 or topical hydrocortisone cream (1% (control arm, n=30 immediately after receiving a total dose of 45-50 Gy chest wall radiotherapy. Results: The mean radiation dose was 49.1 Gy in the control arm and 48.8 Gy in the study arm. The mean dermatitis area was 13.54 cm2 in the control arm and 17.02 cm2 in the study arm. Topical Alpha ointment was more effective on the healing of radiation-induced dermatitis than was topical hydrocortisone cream (1% (P=0.001. This effect was significant in the second week (P=0.007. In addition, Alpha ointment decreased the patients’ complaints such as pain (P<0.001, pruritus (P=0.009, and discharge (P=0.010 effectively and meaningfully. Conclusion: Topical Alpha ointment was more effective on the healing of radiation-induced dermatitis than was topical hydrocortisone cream (1% in our patients with breast cancer. Trial Registration Numbers: IRCT201206099979N1 ACTRN12612000837820

  1. Efficacy of topical alpha ointment (containing natural henna) compared to topical hydrocortisone (1%) in the healing of radiation-induced dermatitis in patients with breast cancer: a randomized controlled clinical trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ansari, Mansour; Farzin, Dehsara; Mosalaei, Ahmad; Omidvari, Shapour; Ahmadloo, Niloofar; Mohammadianpanah, Mohammad

    2013-12-01

    This two-arm, randomized clinical study aimed to compare efficacy between topical Alpha ointment and topical hydrocortisone cream (1%) in the healing of radiation-induced dermatitis in breast cancer patients. The inclusion criteria comprised newly pathologically proven, locally advanced breast cancer (treated with modified radical mastectomy followed by sequential adjuvant treatments, including chest wall radiotherapy [45-50.4 Gy]) and grade 2 and/or 3 chest wall dermatitis. The exclusion criteria were comprised of any underlying disease or medications interfering with the wound healing process, previous history of chest wall radiotherapy, and concurrent use of chemotherapy. Sixty eligible patients were randomly assigned to use either topical Alpha ointment (study arm, n=30) or topical hydrocortisone cream (1%) (control arm, n=30) immediately after receiving a total dose of 45-50 Gy chest wall radiotherapy. The mean radiation dose was 49.1 Gy in the control arm and 48.8 Gy in the study arm. The mean dermatitis area was 13.54 cm(2) in the control arm and 17.02 cm(2) in the study arm. Topical Alpha ointment was more effective on the healing of radiation-induced dermatitis than was topical hydrocortisone cream (1%) (P=0.001). This effect was significant in the second week (P=0.007). In addition, Alpha ointment decreased the patients' complaints such as pain (P<0.001), pruritus (P=0.009), and discharge (P=0.010) effectively and meaningfully. Topical Alpha ointment was more effective on the healing of radiation-induced dermatitis than was topical hydrocortisone cream (1%) in our patients with breast cancer. IRCT201206099979N1, ACTRN12612000837820.

  2. Topics of Bioengineering in Wikipedia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vassia Atanassova

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available The present report aims to give a snapshot of how topics from the field of bioengineering (bioinformatics, bioprocess systems, biomedical engineering, biotechnology, etc. are currently covered in the free electronic encyclopedia Wikipedia. It also offers insights and information about what Wikipedia is, how it functions, how and when to cite Wikipedian articles, if necessary. Several external wikis, devoted to topics of bioengineering, are also listed and reviewed.

  3. Updates of Topical and Local Anesthesia Agents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boyce, Ricardo A; Kirpalani, Tarun; Mohan, Naveen

    2016-04-01

    As described in this article, there are many advances in topical and local anesthesia. Topical and local anesthetics have played a great role in dentistry in alleviating the fears of patients, eliminating pain, and providing pain control. Many invasive procedures would not be performed without the use and advances of topical/local anesthetics. The modern-day dentist has the responsibility of knowing the variety of products on the market and should have at least references to access before, during, and after treatment. This practice ensures proper care with topical and local anesthetics for the masses of patients entering dental offices worldwide. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Anesthesia: A Topic for Interdisciplinary Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Labianca, Dominick A.; Reeves, William J.

    1977-01-01

    Describes an interdisciplinary approach for teaching the topic of anesthesia as one aspect of a chemistry-oriented course for nonscience majors which focuses on timely topics such as the energy crisis and drugs. Historical treatment with the examination of literature is emphasized in teaching. (HM)

  5. Assessment of the effectiveness of topical propranolol 4% gel for infantile hemangiomas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mashiah, Jacob; Kutz, Ana; Rabia, Smail Hadj; Ilan, Efrat Bar; Goldberg, Ilan; Sprecher, Eli; Harel, Avikam

    2017-02-01

    Infantile hemangiomas (IHs) are the most common vascular tumors in children. Because of their benign character and natural involution, the vast majority of IHs do not require any treatment. In the past few years, topical beta blockers have been reported to be an effective treatment of superficial IHs. We sought to evaluate the clinical effectiveness and safety profile of topical propranolol 4% gel for the treatment of IHs. A retrospective study of all cases of IHs treated with topical propranolol 4% gel between 2013 and 2015 was performed. All patients were evaluated in a pediatric dermatology unit of a tertiary medical center. Epidemiologic, clinical, and treatment data, including effectiveness score and safety, were reviewed. The study included 63 patients with a total of 75 IHs. Of the total number of IHs, 43 (57.3%) showed a good response to treatment, 19 (25.3%) a partial response, and 13 (17.33%) poor or no response, thus 62 (82.6%) had good or partial response to treatment. Age at treatment initiation, treatment time, thickness of the superficial component, and size of the lesions were shown to predict response to therapy. Out of the entire examined group, only two patients reported minor local side effects manifested by irritation, redness, and scaling of the treated area. No systemic adverse effects were reported. This is an uncontrolled retrospective study. Propranolol 4% gel is a safe and efficient topical therapy for IH. © 2017 The International Society of Dermatology.

  6. Analysis of the Cochrane Review: Topical Treatments for Scalp Psoriasis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016;2:CD009687.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Catarina Soares Queirós

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Regardless the psoriasis subtype, up to 79% of people with this skin condition present scalp involvement, which is often the first site to show symptoms of the disease. In addition to being itchy, the red and scaly lesions are usually easy to see, and may be embarrassing. Topical therapy is usually the first line of treatment; however the wide array of available interventions can make the choice difficult, and may even lead to an inadequate treatment. The objective of this review was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of topical treatments for scalp psoriasis. A systematic review was performed according to the methodology recommended by Cochrane in order to evaluate the clinical severity of psoriasis, quality of life, and adverse events that led to treatment discontinuation. To evaluate this, 59 studies were included, with a total of 11 561 participants, and 15 comparisons were made between the various drugs and application vehicles tested. The principal conclusion is that corticosteroids of high or very high potency are more effective than vitamin D. The combination of a corticosteroid with vitamin D has only a marginal benefit over corticosteroid monotherapy, but is superior to vitamin D alone. Given the similar safety profile and only marginal benefit of the combination of corticosteroid with vitamin D over the corticosteroid alone, topical corticosteroid monotherapy appears to be fully acceptable for short-term therapy of scalp psoriasis.

  7. An Analysis of Research Topics within a Community : the Example of Knowledge Science

    OpenAIRE

    NIE, Kun; JI, Zhe; NAKAMORI, Yoshiteru

    2007-01-01

    This Paper presents a new approach how to analyze research topics within a given research community. Under the guidance of the I-system methodology, this paper conducts both top-down and bottom-up analysis. For the bottom-up analysis, similarity measurement and hierarchical clustering are applied to obtain a tree-like dendrogram structure of research topics; for the top-down analysis, the experts' knowledge is included. Then resulting from the iterative dialogue between the above two stages o...

  8. Topical thrombin-related corneal calcification.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kiratli, Hayyam; Irkeç, Murat; Alaçal, Sibel; Söylemezoğlu, Figen

    2006-09-01

    To report a highly unusual case of corneal calcification after brief intraoperative use of topical thrombin. A 44-year-old man underwent sclerouvectomy for ciliochoroidal leiomyoma, during which 35 UNIH/mL lyophilized bovine thrombin mixed with 9 mL of diluent containing 1500 mmol/mL calcium chloride was used. From the first postoperative day, corneal and anterior lenticular capsule calcifications developed, and corneal involvement slightly enlarged thereafter. A year later, 2 corneal punch biopsies confirmed calcification mainly in the Bowman layer. Topical treatment with 1.5% ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid significantly restored corneal clarity. Six months later, a standard extracapsular cataract extraction with intraocular lens placement improved visual acuity to 20/60. This case suggests that topical thrombin drops with elevated calcium concentrations may cause acute corneal calcification in Bowman layer and on the anterior lens capsule.

  9. Multi Canister Overpack (MCO) Topical Report [SEC 1 THRU 6

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    GARVIN, L.J.

    2002-01-01

    In February 1995, the US. Department of Energy (DOE) approved the Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) Project's ''Path Forward'' recommendation for resolution of the safety and environmental concerns associated with the deteriorating SNF stored in the Hanford Site's K Basins (Hansen 1995). The recommendation included an aggressive series of projects to design, construct, and operate systems and facilities to permit the safe retrieval, packaging, transport, conditioning, and interim storage of the K Basins' SNF. The facilities are the Cold Vacuum Drying Facility (CVDF) in the 100 K Area of the Hanford Site and the Canister Storage Building (CSB) in the 200 East Area. The K Basins' SNF is to be cleaned, repackaged in multi-canister overpacks (MCOs), removed from the K Basins, and transported to the CVDF for drying. The MCOs would then be moved to the CSB and weld sealed (Loscoe 1996) for interim storage (about 40 years). One of the major tasks associated with the initial Path Forward activities is the development and maintenance of the safety documentation. In addition to meeting the construction needs for new structures, the safety documentation for each must be generated. A common thread that was identified among the structures was the MCO. Each structure exists for the specific purpose of treating or storing the MCO and its contents. Normally, an extensive amount of MCO-related documentation would be generated for each of the facility safety analysis reports. However, the expedited schedule for removing spent fuel from the K Basins requires that the documentation effort be minimized and repetitious activities be eliminated. Therefore, this topical report has been prepared to address those aspects of the MCO that will be common to the facilities. The MCO will be included in each facility's safety documentation by reference to this topical report. By capturing the design of the MCO and its safety evaluation in a single document, repetition, inconsistency, and duplication of

  10. Topics in the Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1963-2015.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oh, JungSu; Stewart, Alan E; Phelps, Rosemary E

    2017-11-01

    Historical trends in a scientific field should be apparent in the changing content of journal articles over time. Using a topic modeling approach, a statistical method for quantifying the thematic content of text, 70 topics were extracted from the abstracts of 3,603 articles published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology from 1963 to 2015. After examining interpretability of 70 topics derived from the model, 64 meaningful topics and their trends were named. In addition, the authors also classified some of the related topics into 4 categories-counseling process and outcome, multiculturalism, research methodology, and vocational psychology. Counseling process and outcome related topics have decreased recently, while topics relating to multiculturalism and diversity have shown increasing trends. The authors also discussed trends that were observed and tried to account for the changing frequencies of some important research topics within these categories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  11. Topics in Bayesian statistics and maximum entropy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mutihac, R.; Cicuttin, A.; Cerdeira, A.; Stanciulescu, C.

    1998-12-01

    Notions of Bayesian decision theory and maximum entropy methods are reviewed with particular emphasis on probabilistic inference and Bayesian modeling. The axiomatic approach is considered as the best justification of Bayesian analysis and maximum entropy principle applied in natural sciences. Particular emphasis is put on solving the inverse problem in digital image restoration and Bayesian modeling of neural networks. Further topics addressed briefly include language modeling, neutron scattering, multiuser detection and channel equalization in digital communications, genetic information, and Bayesian court decision-making. (author)

  12. Extracting Hot spots of Topics from Time Stamped Documents

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Wei; Chundi, Parvathi

    2011-01-01

    Identifying time periods with a burst of activities related to a topic has been an important problem in analyzing time-stamped documents. In this paper, we propose an approach to extract a hot spot of a given topic in a time-stamped document set. Topics can be basic, containing a simple list of keywords, or complex. Logical relationships such as and, or, and not are used to build complex topics from basic topics. A concept of presence measure of a topic based on fuzzy set theory is introduced to compute the amount of information related to the topic in the document set. Each interval in the time period of the document set is associated with a numeric value which we call the discrepancy score. A high discrepancy score indicates that the documents in the time interval are more focused on the topic than those outside of the time interval. A hot spot of a given topic is defined as a time interval with the highest discrepancy score. We first describe a naive implementation for extracting hot spots. We then construct an algorithm called EHE (Efficient Hot Spot Extraction) using several efficient strategies to improve performance. We also introduce the notion of a topic DAG to facilitate an efficient computation of presence measures of complex topics. The proposed approach is illustrated by several experiments on a subset of the TDT-Pilot Corpus and DBLP conference data set. The experiments show that the proposed EHE algorithm significantly outperforms the naive one, and the extracted hot spots of given topics are meaningful. PMID:21765568

  13. Topical Use of Olopatadine and Cyclosporine a in Treatment of Vernal Keratoconjunctivitis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zaure Knatova

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Aim: To compare the efficacy and safety of Olopatadine hydrochloride (0.1% with Cyclosporine A ophthalmic solution (0.05% in treating the signs and symptoms of VKC. Material and Method: Twenty-five patients with VKC were included in a prospective study. One eye of each patient was treated with Olopatadine while the other eye was treated with Cyclosporine A. Subjective symptoms of the patients such as itching, tearing, foreign body sensation, and mucus discharge were recorded and scored. The objective signs, such as the presence of giant papillae on the tarsal conjunctiva, bulbar conjunctival hyperemia, keratitis, limbal hypertrophy, corneal vascularization, and conjunctival cicatrization, were scored. Results: There was no significant difference between the Olopatadine group and the Cyclosporine A group regarding subjective symptoms at the 3rd, 6th, 12th, and 18th month. There was a significant improvement in the subjective symptoms of both groups. No significant difference was seen between the groups with regard to objective signs. A significant improvement was observed in the Cyclosporine group in the late period of the study. Discussion: In long-term therapy of VKC, similar effects were seen regarding improvement in the subjective symptoms during the use of topical Olopatadine and Cyclosporine A. In terms of improvement regarding the objective signs, Cyclosporine A was seen to be more effective in the late period.

  14. Topics in supergravity and string theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Eastaugh, A.G.

    1987-01-01

    The first topic covered in this dissertation concerns the harmonic expansion technique and its application to the dimensional compactification of higher dimensional supergravity. A simple example is given to explain the method and then the method is applied to the problem of obtaining the mass spectrum of the squashed seven-sphere compactification of eleven dimensional supergravity. The second topic concerns the application of Fujikawa's method of anomaly calculation to the calculation of the critical dimension of various string models. The third topic is a study and explicit calculation of the Fock space representation of the vertex in Witten's formulation of the interacting open bosonic string field theory

  15. On the Evolution of Library and Information Science Doctoral Dissertation Topics in North America (1960-2013)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shu, Fei; Larivière, Vincent; Mongeon, Philippe; Julien, Charles-Antoine; Piper, Andrew

    2016-01-01

    Since the 1960s, many scholars have questioned the relationship between library science and information science. This paper investigates LIS doctoral dissertations in terms of their topics and interdisciplinarity in the period 1960-2013. Results show that LIS is an interdisciplinary field in which library science and information science are…

  16. Variable Renewable Energy in Long-Term Planning Models: A Multi-Model Perspective

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cole, Wesley J. [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Frew, Bethany A. [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Mai, Trieu T. [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Sun, Yinong [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Bistline, John [Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States); Blanford, Geoffrey [Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States); Young, David [Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States); Marcy, Cara [Energy Information Administration, Washington, DC (United States); Namovicz, Chris [Energy Information Administration, Washington, DC (United States); Edelman, Risa [Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC (United States); Meroney, Bill [Environmental Protection Agency; Sims, Ryan [Environmental Protection Agency; Stenhouse, Jeb [Environmental Protection Agency; Donohoo-Vallett, Paul [U.S. Department of Energy

    2017-11-03

    Long-term capacity expansion models of the U.S. electricity sector have long been used to inform electric sector stakeholders and decision makers. With the recent surge in variable renewable energy (VRE) generators - primarily wind and solar photovoltaics - the need to appropriately represent VRE generators in these long-term models has increased. VRE generators are especially difficult to represent for a variety of reasons, including their variability, uncertainty, and spatial diversity. To assess current best practices, share methods and data, and identify future research needs for VRE representation in capacity expansion models, four capacity expansion modeling teams from the Electric Power Research Institute, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory conducted two workshops of VRE modeling for national-scale capacity expansion models. The workshops covered a wide range of VRE topics, including transmission and VRE resource data, VRE capacity value, dispatch and operational modeling, distributed generation, and temporal and spatial resolution. The objectives of the workshops were both to better understand these topics and to improve the representation of VRE across the suite of models. Given these goals, each team incorporated model updates and performed additional analyses between the first and second workshops. This report summarizes the analyses and model 'experiments' that were conducted as part of these workshops as well as the various methods for treating VRE among the four modeling teams. The report also reviews the findings and learnings from the two workshops. We emphasize the areas where there is still need for additional research and development on analysis tools to incorporate VRE into long-term planning and decision-making.

  17. The retrieval efficiency test of descriptors and free vocabulary terms in INIS on-line search

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ebinuma, Yukio; Takahashi, Satoko

    1981-01-01

    The test was done for 1) search topics with appropriate descriptors, 2) search topics with considerably broader descriptors, 3) search topics with no appropriate descriptors. As to (1) and (2) the retrieval efficiency was the same both on descriptor system and on keyword system (descriptors + free terms), and the search formulas were easily constructed. As to (3) the descriptor system ensured the recall ratio but decreased the precision ratio. On the other hand the keyword system made the construction of search formulas easy and resulted in good retrieval efficiency. The search system which is available both for full match method of descriptors and truncation method of keywords is desirable because each method can be selected according to the searcher's strategy and search topics. Free-term system seems unnecessary. (author)

  18. Salicylic Acid Topical

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... the package label for more information.Apply a small amount of the salicylic acid product to one or two small areas you want to treat for 3 days ... know that children and teenagers who have chicken pox or the flu should not use topical salicylic ...

  19. Efficacy and safety of combinations of first-line topical treatments in chronic plaque psoriasis: a systematic literature review

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hendriks, A.G.M.; Keijsers, R.R.M.C.; Jong, E.M.G.J. de; Seyger, M.M.B.; Kerkhof, P.C.M. van de

    2013-01-01

    Background Most psoriasis patients suffering from mild to moderate disease are treated with first-line topical treatments, including corticosteroids, vitamin D analogues, topical retinoids and calcineurin inhibitors. Although evidence-based guidelines on combinations are lacking, the majority of

  20. PERSIST: Physician's Evaluation of Restasis® Satisfaction in Second Trial of topical cyclosporine ophthalmic emulsion 0.05% for dry eye: a retrospective review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mah F

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Francis Mah,1 Mark Milner,2 Samuel Yiu,3 Eric Donnenfeld,4 Taryn M Conway,5 David A Hollander51University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 2The Eye Center, Hamden, CT, 3University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 4Ophthalmic Consultants of Long Island and Connecticut, Rockville Centre, New York, NY, 5Allergan Inc, Irvine, CA, USABackground: Chronic dry eye disease often requires long-term therapy. Tear film alterations in the setting of dry eye may include reduced tear volume as well as an increase in inflammatory cytokines and osmolarity. Topical cyclosporine ophthalmic emulsion 0.05% (Restasis®; Allergan Inc, Irvine, CA is indicated to increase tear production in patients with dry eye and reduced tear production presumed to be due to ocular inflammation. This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of a second trial of topical cyclosporine in patients with dry eye who were previously considered treatment failures.Materials and methods: This multicenter (three cornea practices retrospective chart review evaluated clinical outcomes in patients with dry eye who received a second trial of cyclosporine after a prior treatment failure, defined as prior discontinuation of topical cyclosporine after less than 12 weeks.Results: Thirty-five patients, most of whom were female (71.4% and Caucasian (62.9%, were identified. Prior discontinuation was most commonly due to burning/stinging (60%. The median duration of second treatment was 10 months (range 1 week to 45 months. Physician education was provided in the second trial in 97.1% of cases. At initiation of the second trial of cyclosporine, 10 (28.6% patients received courses of topical corticosteroids. Physicians reported on a questionnaire that 80% of patients achieved clinical benefit with a second trial of cyclosporine.Conclusion: A repeat trial with topical cyclosporine can achieve clinical success. Direct patient education via the physician and staff may be key to success. Proper patient

  1. The efficacy of topical tranexamic acid in total hip arthroplasty: a meta-analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Shubiao; Wu, Kezhou; Kong, Gengbin; Feng, Weili; Deng, Zhihua; Wang, Hu

    2016-02-16

    Topical tranexamic acid (TXA) has been shown to be effective in reducing blood loss and the need for transfusion after total knee arthroplasty. However, the effectiveness of topical TXA use in total hip arthroplasty (THA) still remains unclear. The purpose of this meta-analysis is to examine the safety and efficacy of topical use of TXA following THA. Topical TXA reduces blood loss and transfusion rates without increasing risk of deep vein thrombosis in patients with THA. An electronic literature search of PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Web of Science and Chinese Biomedical Database was performed, to identify studies published before February 2015. All randomized controlled trials and cohort studies evaluating the efficacy of topical TXA during THA were included. Two independent authors identified the eligible studies, assessed their methodological quality, and extracted data. The data were using fixed-effects or random-effects models with (standard) mean differences and risk ratios for continuous and dichotomous variables, respectively. Data were analysed using RevMan 5.3 software. Fourteen studies encompassing 2594 patients met the inclusion criteria for our meta-analysis. Our meta-analysis indicated that when compared with the placebo group, topical use of TXA significantly reduced total blood loss (MD = -297.65 ml, 95 % CI -371.68 ml, 116.08 ml; P level (SMD = -0.66, 95 % CI -0.91, -0.41; P Topical TXA could significantly reduce total blood loss, drainage loss, transfusion rates and decrease haemoglobin level following THA, without increasing risk of venous thromboembolisms.

  2. Topical report review status. Volume 9, No. 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1995-02-01

    This report provides industry with procedures for submitting topical reports, guidance on how the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) processes and responds to topical report submittals, and an accounting, with review schedules, of all topical reports currently accepted for review by the NRC. This report is published semiannually

  3. Topic models: A novel method for modeling couple and family text data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atkins, David C.; Rubin, Tim N.; Steyvers, Mark; Doeden, Michelle A.; Baucom, Brian R.; Christensen, Andrew

    2012-01-01

    Couple and family researchers often collect open-ended linguistic data – either through free response questionnaire items or transcripts of interviews or therapy sessions. Because participant's responses are not forced into a set number of categories, text-based data can be very rich and revealing of psychological processes. At the same time it is highly unstructured and challenging to analyze. Within family psychology analyzing text data typically means applying a coding system, which can quantify text data but also has several limitations, including the time needed for coding, difficulties with inter-rater reliability, and defining a priori what should be coded. The current article presents an alternative method for analyzing text data called topic models (Steyvers & Griffiths, 2006), which has not yet been applied within couple and family psychology. Topic models have similarities with factor analysis and cluster analysis in that topic models identify underlying clusters of words with semantic similarities (i.e., the “topics”). In the present article, a non-technical introduction to topic models is provided, highlighting how these models can be used for text exploration and indexing (e.g., quickly locating text passages that share semantic meaning) and how output from topic models can be used to predict behavioral codes or other types of outcomes. Throughout the article a collection of transcripts from a large couple therapy trial (Christensen et al., 2004) is used as example data to highlight potential applications. Practical resources for learning more about topic models and how to apply them are discussed. PMID:22888778

  4. Parent Refusal of Topical Fluoride for Their Children: Clinical Strategies and Future Research Priorities to Improve Evidence-Based Pediatric Dental Practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chi, Donald L

    2017-07-01

    A growing number of parents are refusing topical fluoride for their children during preventive dental and medical visits. This nascent clinical and public health problem warrants attention from dental professionals and the scientific community. Clinical and community-based strategies are available to improve fluoride-related communications with parents and the public. In terms of future research priorities, there is a need to develop screening tools to identify parents who are likely to refuse topical fluoride and diagnostic instruments to uncover the reasons for topical fluoride refusal. This knowledge will lead to evidence-based strategies that can be widely disseminated into clinical practice. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. Preface to Special Topic: Marine Renewable Energy

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Pinto, F. T.; Iglesias, G.; Santos, P. R.; Deng, Zhiqun

    2015-12-30

    Marine renewable energy (MRE) is generates from waves, currents, tides, and thermal resources in the ocean. MRE has been identified as a potential commercial-scale source of renewable energy. This special topic presents a compilation of works selected from the 3rd IAHR Europe Congress, held in Porto, Portugal, in 2014. It covers different subjects relevant to MRE, including resource assessment, marine energy sector policies, energy source comparisons based on levelized cost, proof-of-concept and new-technology development for wave and tidal energy exploitation, and assessment of possible inference between wave energy converters (WEC).

  6. Effect of Topical Estrogen in the Mangement of Traumatic Facial Wounds

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Seyed Amirhosein Ghazizadeh Hashemi

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction: Acute skin wound healing is a complicated process comprising various phases. Recent animal studies have shown that steroid sex hormones such as estrogen maybe helpful in the regulation of several pathophysiologic stages that are involved in wound healing. In this study we examined the effects of topical estrogen in the treatment of traumatic facial wounds.   Materials and Methods: Patients referred to Luqman Hospital, Tehran with traumatic wounds were enrolled in this case-control study into two groups of equal size. From the second week of the study, topical estrogen (0.625 mg conjugated topical estrogen ointment was administered in the case group, while the control group received a Eucerin dressing only. The two groups were then compared in terms of wound healing rate on Day 7,14, and 30.   Results: Thirty patients with mean age of 16.02+36.23 years were compared in the control and estrogen-treated groups. After treatment, no scars or keloids were observed in either group. The wound area in the estrogen group was lower than that in the control group on Day 14 and 30, but the difference was not significant (P>0.05. Healing rates in the control group on Day  14 (7.1+42.3 vs.50.3+4.9 mm2 and Day 30 (1.9+93.5 vs. + 97.3+0.6 mm2 (were lower than those in the estrogen group, but the differences were not significant (P>0.05. Findings show that the required time for wound healing in the estrogen-treated group was lower than that in the control group, but the difference was not significant (P>0.05.   Conclusion:  Based on this study, topical estrogen has no effect on the rate of wound healing or the rate of wound area .

  7. Effect of Topical Estrogen in the Mangement of Traumatic Facial Wounds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghazizadeh Hashemi, Seyed Amirhosein; Barati, Behrooz; Mohammadi, Hosein; Saeidi, Masumeh; Bahreini, Abbas; Kiani, Mohammad Ali

    2016-01-01

    Introduction: Acute skin wound healing is a complicated process comprising various phases. Recent animal studies have shown that steroid sex hormones such as estrogen maybe helpful in the regulation of several pathophysiologic stages that are involved in wound healing. In this study we examined the effects of topical estrogen in the treatment of traumatic facial wounds. Materials and Methods: Patients referred to Luqman Hospital, Tehran with traumatic wounds were enrolled in this case-control study into two groups of equal size. From the second week of the study, topical estrogen (0.625 mg conjugated topical estrogen ointment) was administered in the case group, while the control group received a Eucerin dressing only. The two groups were then compared in terms of wound healing rate on Day 7,14, and 30. Results: Thirty patients with mean age of 16.02+36.23 years were compared in the control and estrogen-treated groups. After treatment, no scars or keloids were observed in either group. The wound area in the estrogen group was lower than that in the control group on Day 14 and 30, but the difference was not significant (P>0.05). Healing rates in the control group on Day 14 (7.1+42.3 vs.50.3+4.9 mm2) and Day 30 (1.9+93.5 vs. + 97.3+0.6 mm2) (were lower than those in the estrogen group, but the differences were not significant (P>0.05). Findings show that the required time for wound healing in the estrogen-treated group was lower than that in the control group, but the difference was not significant (P>0.05). Conclusion: Based on this study, topical estrogen has no effect on the rate of wound healing or the rate of wound area. PMID:26878003

  8. Proceedings of the Topical Session on Applying Decommissioning Experience to the Design and Operation of New Nuclear Power Plants. Topical Session of the 9. Meeting of the WPDD Held in Senec, Slovak Republic 12-13 November 2008

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Noviello, Luigi; O'Sullivan, Patrick; Laurent, Gerard; Tuomisto, Harri; Metcalfe, Doug; Duncan, Allan

    2009-01-01

    At its ninth meeting, the WPDD held a topical session on Applying Decommissioning Experience to the Design and Operation of New Plants. In preparation for this, a survey was issued to reactor design organisations, electricity producers and safety authorities and responses were compiled into a summary report that provided a basis for discussion at the topical session. This report is in two parts: Part A documents the topical session, summarising the main points from the presentations and discussions and including the rapporteurs' reports. Part B provides a summary compilation of the responses received to the survey undertaken prior to the topical session. The topical session facilitated an exchange of information and experience between policy makers, regulators, electricity producers, design organisations and decommissioners on approaches and experiences to taking account of decommissioning considerations in the design of third generation reactor systems

  9. Topical treatment of psoriasis: questionnaire results on topical therapy accessibility and influence of body surface area on usage

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Iversen, L.; Lange, M.M. De; Bissonette, R.; Carvalho, A.V.E.; Kerkhof, P.C.M. van de; Kirby, B.; Kleyn, C.E.; Lynde, C.W.; Walt, J.M. van der; Wu, J.J.

    2017-01-01

    BACKGROUND: Topical treatment of mild to moderate psoriasis is first-line treatment and exhibits varying degrees of success across patient groups. Key factors influencing treatment success are physician topical treatment choice (high efficacy, low adverse events) and strict patient adherence.

  10. Hot topics: Signal processing in acoustics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gaumond, Charles F.

    2005-09-01

    Signal processing in acoustics is a multidisciplinary group of people that work in many areas of acoustics. We have chosen two areas that have shown exciting new applications of signal processing to acoustics or have shown exciting and important results from the use of signal processing. In this session, two hot topics are shown: the use of noiselike acoustic fields to determine sound propagation structure and the use of localization to determine animal behaviors. The first topic shows the application of correlation on geo-acoustic fields to determine the Greens function for propagation through the Earth. These results can then be further used to solve geo-acoustic inverse problems. The first topic also shows the application of correlation using oceanic noise fields to determine the Greens function through the ocean. These results also have utility for oceanic inverse problems. The second topic shows exciting results from the detection, localization, and tracking of marine mammals by two different groups. Results from detection and localization of bullfrogs are shown, too. Each of these studies contributed to the knowledge of animal behavior. [Work supported by ONR.

  11. Topical Valproate Solution for Hair Growth

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anil Kakunje

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Valproate is used regularly in the treatment of various seizure disorders, bipolar disorder, migraine prophylaxis and off label in many other conditions. Alopecia or hair loss is cosmetic side effect of oral valproate administration. Hair loss with valproate is diffused, non-scarring and dose related. A large number of drugs may interfere with the hair cycle and produce hair loss. We have only a few drugs like Minoxidil, Finasteride used for hair regeneration and both have its own side effects and limitations. In contrast to oral ingestions of valproate causing hair loss, early experiments with topical Valproic acid cream showed hair regeneration. Valproic acid cream is currently unavailable in the market, alternatively, we do have valproate and divalproex solutions available in various strengths which have a potential to be used topically for hair regeneration. The side effects and cost of topical valproate solution could be much less than the available options in the market. Valproate solution topically has the potential to be used for hair growth.

  12. The Role of the Biosphere in a Safety Case. IGSC topical session at the third IGSC Meeting

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Russell, Sean; Voinis, Sylvie; Alonso, Jesus; Van Luik, Abraham E.

    2002-01-01

    The safety case is a collection of arguments at a given stage of repository development in support of the long-term safety of the repository. The safety case comprises the findings of a safety assessment and a statement of confidence in these findings. The biosphere is one of the features of a geologic repository system for the long-term management of radioactive waste. The biosphere is important in a safety assessment since it is the place where humans and most organisms live and where regulations are made. Generally speaking, the biosphere is more dynamic than the geosphere and its evolution with time can significantly affect dose estimations and potential impacts of a geologic repository (e.g., climate change, glaciation, civilisation movement, etc.). That is, other parts of the repository system (vault, geosphere) are more robust or constant in time than the ever changing biosphere. Most of the variability associated with future events in the biosphere is driven by climate change. Climatic change and the characteristics of future societies are important sources of uncertainties Biosphere. Uncertainty can be addressed using reference or example biospheres, or alternative safety indicators such as radionuclide concentration or radionuclide flux from the geosphere to the surface biosphere (as indicated by the recent regulatory guidance in Finland), or by comparing predicted radionuclide concentrations from a repository with background levels in the environment. Thus, a Topical Session that focused on the 'Role of the Biosphere in a Safety Case' was organised in the framework of the 3. plenary meeting of the IGSC. This Topical Session reviewed the role of the biosphere in a safety case for geologic disposal of radioactive waste and discusses recent developments in international programs (IAEA Biomass, EC Bioclim), the views of regulators and the strategies being adopted by several implementers for incorporating the biosphere in their safety assessments

  13. Systemic and topical antibiotics for chronic rhinosinusitis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Head, Karen; Chong, Lee Yee; Piromchai, Patorn; Hopkins, Claire; Philpott, Carl; Schilder, Anne G M; Burton, Martin J

    2016-04-26

    This review is one of six looking at the primary medical management options for patients with chronic rhinosinusitis.Chronic rhinosinusitis is common and is characterised by inflammation of the lining of the nose and paranasal sinuses leading to nasal blockage, nasal discharge, facial pressure/pain and loss of sense of smell. The condition can occur with or without nasal polyps. Systemic and topical antibiotics are used with the aim of eliminating infection in the short term (and some to reduce inflammation in the long term), in order to normalise nasal mucus and improve symptoms. To assess the effects of systemic and topical antibiotics in people with chronic rhinosinusitis. The Cochrane ENT Information Specialist searched the Cochrane ENT Trials Register; CENTRAL (2015, Issue 8); MEDLINE; EMBASE; ClinicalTrials.gov; ICTRP and additional sources for published and unpublished trials. The date of the search was 29 September 2015. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) with a follow-up period of at least three months comparing systemic or topical antibiotic treatment to (a) placebo or (b) no treatment or (c) other pharmacological interventions. We used the standard methodological procedures expected by Cochrane. Our primary outcomes were disease-specific health-related quality of life (HRQL), patient-reported disease severity and the commonest adverse event - gastrointestinal disturbance. Secondary outcomes included general HRQL, endoscopic nasal polyp score, computerised tomography (CT) scan score and the adverse events of suspected allergic reaction (rash or skin irritation) and anaphylaxis or other very serious reactions. We used GRADE to assess the quality of the evidence for each outcome; this is indicated in italics. We included five RCTs (293 participants), all of which compared systemic antibiotics with placebo or another pharmacological intervention.The varying study characteristics made comparison difficult. Four studies recruited only adults and one only

  14. Evaluating topic model interpretability from a primary care physician perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arnold, Corey W; Oh, Andrea; Chen, Shawn; Speier, William

    2016-02-01

    Probabilistic topic models provide an unsupervised method for analyzing unstructured text. These models discover semantically coherent combinations of words (topics) that could be integrated in a clinical automatic summarization system for primary care physicians performing chart review. However, the human interpretability of topics discovered from clinical reports is unknown. Our objective is to assess the coherence of topics and their ability to represent the contents of clinical reports from a primary care physician's point of view. Three latent Dirichlet allocation models (50 topics, 100 topics, and 150 topics) were fit to a large collection of clinical reports. Topics were manually evaluated by primary care physicians and graduate students. Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Tests for Paired Samples were used to evaluate differences between different topic models, while differences in performance between students and primary care physicians (PCPs) were tested using Mann-Whitney U tests for each of the tasks. While the 150-topic model produced the best log likelihood, participants were most accurate at identifying words that did not belong in topics learned by the 100-topic model, suggesting that 100 topics provides better relative granularity of discovered semantic themes for the data set used in this study. Models were comparable in their ability to represent the contents of documents. Primary care physicians significantly outperformed students in both tasks. This work establishes a baseline of interpretability for topic models trained with clinical reports, and provides insights on the appropriateness of using topic models for informatics applications. Our results indicate that PCPs find discovered topics more coherent and representative of clinical reports relative to students, warranting further research into their use for automatic summarization. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Topics on continua

    CERN Document Server

    Macias, Sergio

    2005-01-01

    Specialized as it might be, continuum theory is one of the most intriguing areas in mathematics. However, despite being popular journal fare, few books have thoroughly explored this interesting aspect of topology. In Topics on Continua, Sergio Macías, one of the field's leading scholars, presents four of his favorite continuum topics: inverse limits, Jones's set function T, homogenous continua, and n-fold hyperspaces, and in doing so, presents the most complete set of theorems and proofs ever contained in a single topology volume. Many of the results presented have previously appeared only in research papers, and some appear here for the first time. After building the requisite background and exploring the inverse limits of continua, the discussions focus on Professor Jones''s set function T and continua for which T is continuous. An introduction to topological groups and group actions lead to a proof of Effros''s Theorem, followed by a presentation of two decomposition theorems. The author then offers an...

  16. Microemulsion and Microemulsion-Based Gels for Topical Antifungal Therapy with Phytochemicals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boonme, Prapaporn; Kaewbanjong, Jarika; Amnuaikit, Thanaporn; Andreani, Tatiana; Silva, Amélia M; Souto, Eliana B

    2016-01-01

    Skin fungal infections are regular injuries suffered by people living in tropical areas. Most common pathogens are Trichophyton, Microsporum and Epidermophyton which can cause skin lesions in many parts of body. Topical antifungal phytochemicals are commonly used to avoid systemic adverse events and are more convenient for patient application than those administered by other routes. However, the effectiveness of topical treatments in eradicating fungal infection is more limited since the stratum corneum acts as the skin barrier, resulting in long treatment duration and low patient's compliance. The goal of this work is to identify optimized drug delivery systems to improve topic clinical efficacy. Microemulsions i.e. liquid dispersions of oil and water stabilized with an interfacial film of surfactant are well known drug delivery systems. A thickening agent may be included to form microemulsion-based gels to increase skin adhesion. Microemulsions and microemulsion-based gels can be loaded with several hydrophilic and lipophilic drugs because they are composed of both water and oil phases. Microemulsions and microemulsion-based gels can also be used for the delivery of many drugs including antifungal drugs through stratum corneum due to their capacity to act as skin penetration enhancement. In addition to a comprehensive review of microemulsion and microemulsion-based gels as suitable carriers for skin delivery of various antifungal drugs, this review also aims to discuss the delivery of antifungal phytochemicals.

  17. Development of a long-term post-closure radiation monitor: Phase 2, Topical report, March 1994--July 1995

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reed, S.E.

    1995-07-01

    The long-term monitoring of a hazardous waste site for migration of radionuclides requires installation of radiation sensors at a large number of subsurface locations. The concept under development employs a passive in-ground measurement probe which contains a scintillator coupled to an optical lightguide. The overall goal of the Long-Term Post-Closure Radiation Monitor System (LPRMS) development program is to configure a long-term radiation monitor using commercially available, demonstrated components to the largest extent possible. The development program is planned as a three phase program spanning a total time of 53 months. The problems to be solved during Phase 1 were primarily those associated with selection of the most appropriate components (scintillator, coupling optics, optical fiber, and opto-electronics) to maximize the signal reaching the detectors and thereby minimizing the integration time required to obtain a reliable measure of radiation. Phase 2 (the current Phase) encompassed the fabrication and testing of the prototype LPRMS probe at a contaminated DOE site, the Fernald Environmental Management Project, in southwestern Ohio. Uranium isotopes are the primary contaminants of concern at this site. The single probe and opto-electronic device were used to made measurements in-situ at relatively shallow subsurface depths. The end objective of Phase 2 was the design of a full-scale prototype system which incorporates all the features expected to be necessary on a commercial system, including 50 meter depth of measurement, multiplexing of multiple probes, and remote transmission of data. This full-scale prototype will be fabricated and field tested for 12 months during Phase 3, and a commercial design will be developed based upon the data gathered and experience gained during the entire program

  18. Preface: Special Topic on Frontiers in Molecular Scale Electronics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evers, Ferdinand; Venkataraman, Latha

    2017-03-01

    The electronic, mechanical, and thermoelectric properties of molecular scale devices have fascinated scientists across several disciplines in natural sciences and engineering. The interest is partially technological, driven by the fast miniaturization of integrated circuits that now have reached characteristic features at the nanometer scale. Equally important, a very strong incentive also exists to elucidate the fundamental aspects of structure-function relations for nanoscale devices, which utilize molecular building blocks as functional units. Thus motivated, a rich research field has established itself, broadly termed "Molecular Electronics," that hosts a plethora of activities devoted to this goal in chemistry, physics, and electrical engineering. This Special Topic on Frontiers of Molecular Scale Electronics captures recent theoretical and experimental advances in the field.

  19. Topical cholesterol in clofazimine induced ichthyosis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pandey S

    1994-01-01

    Full Text Available Topical application of 10% cholesterol in petrolatum significantly (P< 0.05 controlled the development of ichthyosis in 62 patients taking 100 mg clofazimine daily for a period of 3 months. However, topical cholesterol application did not affect the lowering of serum cholesterol induced by oral clofazimine. Probable mechanism of action is being discussed.

  20. Topical antibiotic monotherapy prescribing practices in acne vulgaris.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoover, William D; Davis, Scott A; Fleischer, Alan B; Feldman, Steven R

    2014-04-01

    The aim of this study is to evaluate the frequency of dosing topical antibiotics as monotherapy in the treatment of acne vulgaris, and physician specialty prescribing these medications. This study is a retrospective review of all visits with a sole diagnosis of acne vulgaris (ICD-9-CM code 706.1) found on the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS) in 1993-2010. We recorded the number of visits surveyed where acne vulgaris was the sole diagnosis, number of visits where topical antibiotics were the only treatment prescribed, and the specialty of physician in each encounter. Topical erythromycin or clindamycin were the sole medication prescribed in 0.81% of the visits recorded, with 60% of these prescriptions arising from dermatologists and 40% from non-dermatologists. The trend of prescribing topical antibiotic monotherapy is declining (p acnes to topical antibiotic regimens has led to the need to re-evaluate the use of topical antibiotics in the treatment of acne vulgaris. While the rate of topical antibiotic monotherapy is declining, their use should be reserved for situations where the direct need for antibiotics arises. If a clinician feels that antibiotics are a necessary component to acne therapy, they should be used as part of a combination regimen.

  1. Topical tacrolimus for atopic dermatitis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cury Martins, Jade; Martins, Ciro; Aoki, Valeria; Gois, Aecio F T; Ishii, Henrique A; da Silva, Edina M K

    2015-07-01

    Atopic dermatitis (AD) (or atopic eczema) is a chronic inflammatory skin condition that affects children and adults and has an important impact on quality of life. Topical corticosteroids (TCS) are the first-line therapy for this condition; however, they can be associated with significant adverse effects when used chronically. Tacrolimus ointment (in its 2 manufactured strengths of 0.1% and 0.03%) might be an alternative treatment. Tacrolimus, together with pimecrolimus, are drugs called topical calcineurin inhibitors (TCIs). To assess the efficacy and safety of topical tacrolimus for moderate and severe atopic dermatitis compared with other active treatments. We searched the following databases up to 3 June 2015: the Cochrane Skin Group Specialised Register, CENTRAL in the Cochrane Library (Issue 5, 2015), MEDLINE (from 1946), EMBASE (from 1974), LILACS (from 1982), and the Global Resource of Eczema Trials (GREAT database). We searched six trials registers and checked the bibliographies of included studies for further references to relevant trials. We contacted specialists in the field for unpublished data.A separate search for adverse effects of topical tacrolimus was undertaken in MEDLINE and EMBASE on 30 July 2013. We also scrutinised the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) websites for adverse effects information. All randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of participants with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis (both children and adults) using topical tacrolimus at any dose, course duration, and follow-up time compared with other active treatments. Two authors independently screened and examined the full text of selected studies for compliance with eligibility criteria, risk of bias, and data extraction. Our three prespecified primary outcomes were physician's assessment, participant's self-assessment of improvement, and adverse effects. Our secondary outcomes included assessment of improvement of the disease by validated or objective measures, such as

  2. Colour terms in the interior design process

    OpenAIRE

    Attiah, DY; Cheung, TLV; Westland, S; Bromilow, D

    2015-01-01

    Colour is a very important topic that interior designers need to consider. Considerable research has been conducted in the area of colour application in interior design; in this study we are concerned with colour terms in interior design, mainly the terms designers use and know about. Fifteen interior designers with varied professional backgrounds, but based in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Bahrain, Lebanon, Egypt, and Turkey), were interviewed. Previously we reported that fourteen ou...

  3. Topical tofacitinib for atopic dermatitis: a phase IIa randomized trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bissonnette, R; Papp, K A; Poulin, Y; Gooderham, M; Raman, M; Mallbris, L; Wang, C; Purohit, V; Mamolo, C; Papacharalambous, J; Ports, W C

    2016-11-01

    Despite unmet need, 15 years have passed since a topical therapy with a new mechanism of action for atopic dermatitis (AD) has been approved. Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor treatment effect via topical application in patients with AD is unknown. Tofacitinib, a small-molecule JAK inhibitor, was investigated for the topical treatment of AD. In this 4-week, phase IIa, randomized, double-blind, vehicle-controlled study (NCT02001181), 69 adults with mild-to-moderate AD were randomized 1:1 to 2% tofacitinib or vehicle ointment twice daily. Percentage change from baseline (CFB) in Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI) score at week 4 was the primary end point. Secondary efficacy end points included percentage CFB in body surface area (BSA), CFB in EASI Clinical Signs Severity Sum Score, proportion of patients with Physician's Global Assessment (PGA) response and CFB in patient-reported pruritus. Safety, local tolerability and pharmacokinetics were monitored. The mean percentage CFB at week 4 in EASI score was significantly greater (P tofacitinib (-81·7%) vs. vehicle (-29·9%). Patients treated with tofacitinib showed significant (P tofacitinib. Tofacitinib ointment showed significantly greater efficacy vs. vehicle across end points, with early onset of effect and comparable safety/local tolerability to vehicle. JAK inhibition through topical delivery is potentially a promising therapeutic target for AD. © 2016 The Authors. British Journal of Dermatology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Association of Dermatologists.

  4. Baby Health Checkup: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Know (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) - PDF Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Baby Health Checkup ... GO MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA Well-child visits Related Health Topics Childhood Immunization Common Infant and Newborn Problems Infant ...

  5. Laser Eye Surgery: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... corneal surgery - discharge (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Laser Eye Surgery ... surgery - what to ask your doctor Related Health Topics Refractive Errors National Institutes of Health The primary ...

  6. Child Mental Health: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... events and children (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Child Mental Health ... in childhood Traumatic events and children Related Health Topics Bullying Child Behavior Disorders Mental Disorders Mental Health ...

  7. Bone Marrow Transplantation: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... marrow transplant - discharge (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Bone Marrow Transplantation ... transplant - slideshow Graft-versus-host disease Related Health Topics Bone Marrow Diseases Stem Cells National Institutes of ...

  8. Nutrition for Seniors: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... America) National Institute on Aging Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Nutrition for Seniors updates by email What's this? GO Related Health Topics Nutrition Seniors' Health National Institutes of Health The ...

  9. Blood Count Tests: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... Spanish WBC count (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Blood Count Tests ... WBC count Show More Show Less Related Health Topics Bleeding Disorders Blood Laboratory Tests National Institutes of ...

  10. Hormone Replacement Therapy: MedlinePlus Health Topic

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... of hormone therapy (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish Topic Image MedlinePlus Email Updates Get Hormone Replacement Therapy ... Estrogen overdose Types of hormone therapy Related Health Topics Menopause National Institutes of Health The primary NIH ...

  11. The Term cybrarian : Concept and The Arabic Usage

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mahmoud A.Sattar Khalifa

    2004-06-01

    Full Text Available A Study about the term cybrarian, dealing with its origin, definition in the public and specific dictionaries and gives comments for each one , then deals with the usage of term on the Arabic coverage which acted by appearing a printed pamphlet and discussion group entitled cybrarians, and a published study about this topic , also acted by establishing an Arabic web site with the same name, finally the study try to give an Arabic opposite to this term.

  12. Atom probe field ion microscopy and related topics: A bibliography 1993

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Godfrey, R.D.; Miller, M.K.; Russell, K.F.

    1994-10-01

    This bibliography, covering the period 1993, includes references related to the following topics: atom probe field ion microscopy (APFIM), field emission (FE), and field ion microscopy (FIM). Technique-oriented studies and applications are included. The references contained in this document were compiled from a variety of sources including computer searches and personal lists of publications. To reduce the length of this document, the references have been reduced to the minimum necessary to locate the articles. The references are listed alphabetically by authors, an Addendum of references missed in previous bibliographies is included.

  13. Atom probe field ion microscopy and related topics: A bibliography 1993

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Godfrey, R.D.; Miller, M.K.; Russell, K.F.

    1994-10-01

    This bibliography, covering the period 1993, includes references related to the following topics: atom probe field ion microscopy (APFIM), field emission (FE), and field ion microscopy (FIM). Technique-oriented studies and applications are included. The references contained in this document were compiled from a variety of sources including computer searches and personal lists of publications. To reduce the length of this document, the references have been reduced to the minimum necessary to locate the articles. The references are listed alphabetically by authors, an Addendum of references missed in previous bibliographies is included

  14. Topical report on release scenario analysis of long-term management of high-level defense waste at the Hanford Site

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wallace, R.W.; Landstrom, D.K.; Blair, S.C.; Howes, B.W.; Robkin, M.A.; Benson, G.L.; Reisenauer, A.E.; Walters, W.H.; Zimmerman, M.G.

    1980-11-01

    Potential release scenarios for the defense high-level waste (HLW) on the Hanford Site are presented. Presented in this report are the three components necessary for evaluating the various alternatives under consideration for long-term management of Hanford defense HLW: identification of scenarios and events which might directly or indirectly disrupt radionuclide containment barriers; geotransport calculations of waste migration through the site media; and consequence (dose) analyses based on groundwater and air pathways calculations. The scenarios described in this report provide the necessary parameters for radionuclide transport and consequence analysis. Scenarios are categorized as either bounding or nonbounding. Bounding scenarios consider worst case or what if situations where an actual and significant release of waste material to the environment would happen if the scenario were to occur. Bounding scenarios include both near-term and long-term scenarios. Near-term scenarios are events which occur at 100 years from 1990. Long term scenarios are potential events considered to occur at 1000 and 10,000 years from 1990. Nonbounding scenarios consider events which result in insignificant releases or no release at all to the environment. Three release mechanisms are described in this report: (1) direct exposure of waste to the biosphere by a defined sequence of events (scenario) such as human intrusion by drilling; (2) radionuclides contacting an unconfined aquifer through downward percolation of groundwater or a rising water table; and (3) cataclysmic or explosive release of radionuclides by such mechanisms as meteorite impact, fire and explosion, criticality, or seismic events. Scenarios in this report present ways in which these release mechanisms could occur at a waste management facility. The scenarios are applied to the two in-tank waste management alternatives: in-situ disposal and continued present action

  15. Experimental model of the burn wound topical treatment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amra Čabaravdić

    2003-11-01

    Full Text Available AbstractBACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:Clinical research of drugs is a researching step subsequent to the preclinical studies in experimental animals. The aim of our research was to evaluate animal model of wound healing process after the burninducement and effects of the ointment containing natural plants on the process of burn healing.MATERIAL AND METHODS:Burn wounds were experimentally induced in two species of experimental animals which were treated with topically applied herbal preparation with concomitant monitoring of the healing process. Experimental groups (1 of 15 animals each (mice and rats, while control group (2 of 10 animals each (mice and rats that were not being treated with herbal ointment. After the hair removal, burn was induced on the back of animals by heated brass seal. Different clinical symptoms including oedema of surrounding tissue, redness, exudation, size of the burn surface, histological and microbiological findings were monitored on the days 1, 3, 7, 14 and 21. A statistically significant difference was observed throughout descriptive statistics and paired Student's t-test.CONCLUSION:Physiological healing processes of the acute burn wound following the topical application of herbal preparation can be monitored on the utilized animal model. A three-week treatment resulted in the 90% of completed epithelization in both animal species, indicating the effectiveness of topically applied herbal preparation.

  16. Composition for the treatment of radiation sickness and topical bacterial infections

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gaffin, S.L.

    1985-01-01

    A therapeutic composition for the theatment of radiation sickness comprises a carrier medium including one or more antibodies specific to gram negative bacteria chosen from the group Klebsiella, Pseudomoneas, Shigella, Salmonella and Escherichia species is discussed. The composition may by formed for oral administration or topical application

  17. The Impact of Topic Interest, L2 Proficiency, and Gender on EFL Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition through Reading

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Sunjung; Pulido, Diana

    2017-01-01

    This study investigated the impact of topic interest, alongside L2 proficiency and gender, on L2 vocabulary acquisition through reading. A repeated-measures design was used with 135 Korean EFL students. Control variables included topic familiarity, prior target-word knowledge, and target-word difficulty (word length, class, and concreteness).…

  18. Topical report review status. Volume 7, No. 2

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1984-11-01

    Purpose of this document is to provide periodic progress reports of on-going topical report reviews, to identify those topical reports for which the NRC staff review has been completed and those which are under review and to provide NRC management with sufficient information regarding the conduct of the topical report program to permit taking whatever actions are deemed necessary or appropriate. This document is also intended to be a source of information to NRC Licensing Project Managers and other NRC personnel regarding the status of topical reports which may be referenced in applications for which they have responsibility

  19. Enhancing Seasonal Influenza Surveillance: Topic Analysis of Widely Used Medicinal Drugs Using Twitter Data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kagashe, Ireneus; Yan, Zhijun; Suheryani, Imran

    2017-09-12

    Uptake of medicinal drugs (preventive or treatment) is among the approaches used to control disease outbreaks, and therefore, it is of vital importance to be aware of the counts or frequencies of most commonly used drugs and trending topics about these drugs from consumers for successful implementation of control measures. Traditional survey methods would have accomplished this study, but they are too costly in terms of resources needed, and they are subject to social desirability bias for topics discovery. Hence, there is a need to use alternative efficient means such as Twitter data and machine learning (ML) techniques. Using Twitter data, the aim of the study was to (1) provide a methodological extension for efficiently extracting widely consumed drugs during seasonal influenza and (2) extract topics from the tweets of these drugs and to infer how the insights provided by these topics can enhance seasonal influenza surveillance. From tweets collected during the 2012-13 flu season, we first identified tweets with mentions of drugs and then constructed an ML classifier using dependency words as features. The classifier was used to extract tweets that evidenced consumption of drugs, out of which we identified the mostly consumed drugs. Finally, we extracted trending topics from each of these widely used drugs' tweets using latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA). Our proposed classifier obtained an F 1 score of 0.82, which significantly outperformed the two benchmark classifiers (ie, Pstrategies for mitigating the severity of seasonal influenza outbreaks. The proposed methods can be extended to the outbreaks of other diseases. ©Ireneus Kagashe, Zhijun Yan, Imran Suheryani. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 12.09.2017.

  20. Does topical tranexamic acid reduce postcoronary artery bypass graft bleeding?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amir Mirmohammadsadeghi

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Postoperative bleeding is a common problem in cardiac surgery. We tried to evaluate the effect of topical tranexamic acid (TA on reducing postoperative bleeding of patients undergoing on-pump coronary artery bypass graft (CABG surgery. Materials and Methods: One hundred and twenty-six isolated primary CABG patients were included in this clinical trial. They were divided blindly into two groups; Group 1, patients receiving 1 g TA diluted in 100 ml normal saline poured into mediastinal cavity before closing the chest and Group 2, patients receiving 100 ml normal saline at the end of operation. First 24 and 48 h chest tube drainage, hemoglobin decrease and packed RBC transfusion needs were compared. Results: Both groups were the same in baseline characteristics including gender, age, body mass index, ejection fraction, clamp time, bypass time, and operation length. During the first 24 h postoperatively, mean chest tube drainage in intervention group was 567 ml compared to 564 ml in control group (P = 0.89. Mean total chest tube drainage was 780 ml in intervention group and 715 ml in control group (P = 0.27. There was no significant difference in both mean hemoglobin decrease (P = 0.26 and packed RBC transfusion (P = 0.7. Topical application of 1 g TA diluted in 100 ml normal saline does not reduce postoperative bleeding of isolated on-pump CABG surgery. Conclusion: We do not recommend topical usage of 1 g TA diluted in 100 ml normal saline for decreasing blood loss in on-pump CABG patients.

  1. Selected topics in nuclear structure

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Solov` ev, V G; Gromov, K Ya; Malov, L A; Shilov, V M

    1994-12-31

    The Fourth International Conference on selected topics in nuclear structure was held at Dubna in July 1994 on recent experimental and theoretical investigations in nuclear structure. Topics discussed were the following: nuclear structure at low-energy excitations (collective quasiparticle phenomena, proton-neutron interactions, microscopic and phenomenological theories of nuclear structure; nuclear structure studies with charged particles). heavy ions, neutrons and photons; nuclei at high angular momenta and superdeformation, structure and decay properties of giant resonances, charge-exchange resonances and {beta}-decay; semiclassical approach of large amplitude collective motion and structure of hot nuclei.

  2. Topics in current aerosol research

    CERN Document Server

    Hidy, G M

    1971-01-01

    Topics in Current Aerosol Research deals with the fundamental aspects of aerosol science, with emphasis on experiment and theory describing highly dispersed aerosols (HDAs) as well as the dynamics of charged suspensions. Topics covered range from the basic properties of HDAs to their formation and methods of generation; sources of electric charges; interactions between fluid and aerosol particles; and one-dimensional motion of charged cloud of particles. This volume is comprised of 13 chapters and begins with an introduction to the basic properties of HDAs, followed by a discussion on the form

  3. Selected topics in nuclear structure

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Solov'ev, V.G.; Gromov, K.Ya.; Malov, L.A.; Shilov, V.M.

    1994-01-01

    The Fourth International Conference on selected topics in nuclear structure was held at Dubna in July 1994 on recent experimental and theoretical investigations in nuclear structure. Topics discussed were the following: nuclear structure at low-energy excitations (collective quasiparticle phenomena, proton-neutron interactions, microscopic and phenomenological theories of nuclear structure; nuclear structure studies with charged particles. heavy ions, neutrons and photons; nuclei at high angular momenta and superdeformation, structure and decay properties of giant resonances, charge-exchange resonances and β-decay; semiclassical approach of large amplitude collective motion and structure of hot nuclei

  4. The Physics of Semiconductors An Introduction Including Devices and Nanophysics

    CERN Document Server

    Grundmann, Marius

    2006-01-01

    The Physics of Semiconductors provides material for a comprehensive upper-level-undergrauate and graduate course on the subject, guiding readers to the point where they can choose a special topic and begin supervised research. The textbook provides a balance between essential aspects of solid-state and semiconductor physics, on the one hand, and the principles of various semiconductor devices and their applications in electronic and photonic devices, on the other. It highlights many practical aspects of semiconductors such as alloys, strain, heterostructures, nanostructures, that are necessary in modern semiconductor research but typically omitted in textbooks. For the interested reader some additional advanced topics are included, such as Bragg mirrors, resonators, polarized and magnetic semiconductors are included. Also supplied are explicit formulas for many results, to support better understanding. The Physics of Semiconductors requires little or no prior knowledge of solid-state physics and evolved from ...

  5. Trends and topics in eye disease research in PubMed from 2010 to 2014.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boudry, Christophe; Denion, Eric; Mortemousque, Bruno; Mouriaux, Fréderic

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to provide a report on scientific production during the period 2010-2014 in order to identify the major topics as well as the predominant actors (journals, countries, continents) involved in the field of eye disease. A PubMed search was carried out to extract articles related to eye diseases during the period 2010-2014. Data were downloaded and processed through developed PHP scripts for further analysis. A total of 62,123 articles were retrieved. A total of 3,368 different journals were found, and 19 journals were identified as "core journals" according to Braford's law. English was by far the predominant language. A total of 853,182 MeSH terms were found, representing an average of 13.73 (SD = 4.98) MeSH terms per article. Among these 853,182 MeSH terms, 14,689 different MeSH terms were identified. Vision Disorders, Glaucoma, Diabetic Retinopathy, Macular Degeneration, and Cataract were the most frequent five MeSH terms related to eye diseases. The analysis of the total number of publications showed that Europe and Asia were the most productive continents, and the USA and China the most productive countries. Interestingly, using the mean Five-Year Impact Factor, the two most productive continents were North America and Oceania. After adjustment for population, the overall ranking positions changed in favor of smaller countries (i.e. Iceland, Switzerland, Denmark, and New Zealand), while after adjustment for Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the overall ranking positions changed in favor of some developing countries (Malawi, Guatemala, Singapore). Due to the large number of articles included and the numerous parameters analyzed, this study provides a wide view of scientific productivity related to eye diseases during the period 2010-2014 and allows us to better understand this field.

  6. Dressings and topical agents for treating pressure ulcers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Westby, Maggie J; Dumville, Jo C; Soares, Marta O; Stubbs, Nikki; Norman, Gill

    2017-06-22

    Pressure ulcers, also known as bedsores, decubitus ulcers and pressure injuries, are localised areas of injury to the skin or the underlying tissue, or both. Dressings are widely used to treat pressure ulcers and promote healing, and there are many options to choose from including alginate, hydrocolloid and protease-modulating dressings. Topical agents have also been used as alternatives to dressings in order to promote healing.A clear and current overview of all the evidence is required to facilitate decision-making regarding the use of dressings or topical agents for the treatment of pressure ulcers. Such a review would ideally help people with pressure ulcers and health professionals assess the best treatment options. This review is a network meta-analysis (NMA) which assesses the probability of complete ulcer healing associated with alternative dressings and topical agents. To assess the effects of dressings and topical agents for healing pressure ulcers in any care setting. We aimed to examine this evidence base as a whole, determining probabilities that each treatment is the best, with full assessment of uncertainty and evidence quality. In July 2016 we searched the Cochrane Wounds Specialised Register; the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL); Ovid MEDLINE; Ovid MEDLINE (In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations); Ovid Embase and EBSCO CINAHL Plus. We also searched clinical trials registries for ongoing and unpublished studies, and scanned reference lists of relevant included studies as well as reviews, meta-analyses, guidelines and health technology reports to identify additional studies. There were no restrictions with respect to language, date of publication or study setting. Published or unpublished randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the effects of at least one of the following interventions with any other intervention in the treatment of pressure ulcers (Stage 2 or above): any dressing, or any topical agent applied directly

  7. Topics in atomic physics

    CERN Document Server

    Burkhardt, Charles E

    2006-01-01

    The study of atomic physics propelled us into the quantum age in the early twentieth century and carried us into the twenty-first century with a wealth of new and, in some cases, unexplained phenomena. Topics in Atomic Physics provides a foundation for students to begin research in modern atomic physics. It can also serve as a reference because it contains material that is not easily located in other sources. A distinguishing feature is the thorough exposition of the quantum mechanical hydrogen atom using both the traditional formulation and an alternative treatment not usually found in textbooks. The alternative treatment exploits the preeminent nature of the pure Coulomb potential and places the Lenz vector operator on an equal footing with other operators corresponding to classically conserved quantities. A number of difficult to find proofs and derivations are included as is development of operator formalism that permits facile solution of the Stark effect in hydrogen. Discussion of the classical hydrogen...

  8. Topics in Finance Part VII--Dividend Policy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laux, Judy

    2011-01-01

    This series inspects the major topics in finance, reviewing the roles of stockholder wealth maximization, the risk-return tradeoff, and agency conflicts. The current article, devoted to dividend policy, also reviews the topic as presented in textbooks and the literature.

  9. Clinical outcomes and response of patients applying topical therapy for pyoderma gangrenosum: A prospective cohort study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomas, Kim S; Ormerod, Anthony D; Craig, Fiona E; Greenlaw, Nicola; Norrie, John; Mitchell, Eleanor; Mason, James M; Johnston, Graham A; Wahie, Shyamal; Williams, Hywel C

    2016-11-01

    Pyoderma gangrenosum (PG) is an uncommon dermatosis with a limited evidence base for treatment. We sought to estimate the effectiveness of topical therapies in the treatment of patients with PG. This was a prospective cohort study of UK secondary care patients with a clinical diagnosis of PG that was suitable for topical treatment (recruited between July 2009 and June 2012). Participants received topical therapy after normal clinical practice (primarily topical corticosteroids [classes I-III] and tacrolimus 0.03% or 0.1%). The primary outcome was speed of healing at 6 weeks. Secondary outcomes included the following: proportion healed by 6 months; time to healing; global assessment; inflammation; pain; quality of life; treatment failure; and recurrence. Sixty-six patients (22-85 years of age) were enrolled. Clobetasol propionate 0.05% was the most commonly prescribed therapy. Overall, 28 of 66 (43.8%) ulcers healed by 6 months. The median time to healing was 145 days (95% confidence interval, 96 days to ∞). Initial ulcer size was a significant predictor of time to healing (hazard ratio, 0.94 [95% confidence interval, 0.88-1.00); P = .043). Four patients (15%) had a recurrence. Our study did not include a randomized comparator. Topical therapy is potentially an effective first-line treatment for PG that avoids the possible side effects associated with systemic therapy. It remains unclear whether more severe disease will respond adequately to topical therapy alone. Crown Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Topics in Nuclear Astrophysics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chung, K.C.

    1982-01-01

    Some topics in nuclear astrophysics are discussed, e.g.: highly evolved stellar cores, stellar evolution (through the temperature analysis of stellar surface), nucleosynthesis and finally the solar neutrino problem. (L.C.) [pt

  11. A Completeness Study on Certain 2×2 Lax Pairs Including Zero Terms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mike C. Hay

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available We expand the completeness study instigated in [J. Math. Phys. 50 (2009, 103516, 29 pages] which found all 2×2 Lax pairs with non-zero, separable terms in each entry of each Lax matrix, along with the most general nonlinear systems that can be associated with them. Here we allow some of the terms within the Lax matrices to be zero. We cover all possible Lax pairs of this type and find a new third order equation that can be reduced to special cases of the non-autonomous lattice KdV and lattice modified KdV equations among others.

  12. Case Of Iatrogenic Cushing's Syndrome By Topical Triamcinolone.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zil-E-Ali, Ahsan; Janjua, Omer Hanif; Latif, Aiza; Aadil, Muhammad

    2018-01-01

    Cushing's syndrome is a collection of signs and symptoms due to hypercortisolism. Prolong use of topical steroid may cause this syndrome and suppression of hypothalamic and pituitary function, however such events are more common with oral and parenteral route. There are very few cases of Cushing's syndrome with a topical application amongst which triamcinolone is the rarest drug. We report a case of 11-year-old boy is presented who developed Cushing's disease by topical application. The child had body rashes for which the caregiver consulted a local quack, a topical cream of triamcinolone was prescribed. After application for three months, the patient became obese and developed a moon-like face. A thorough biochemical workup and diagnostic test for Cushing's disease was done to confirm. The following case report a dramatic example of development of the syndrome from chronic topical application of the least potent corticosteroid.

  13. Interpretable Topic Features for Post-ICU Mortality Prediction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Yen-Fu; Rumshisky, Anna

    2016-01-01

    Electronic health records provide valuable resources for understanding the correlation between various diseases and mortality. The analysis of post-discharge mortality is critical for healthcare professionals to follow up potential causes of death after a patient is discharged from the hospital and give prompt treatment. Moreover, it may reduce the cost derived from readmissions and improve the quality of healthcare. Our work focused on post-discharge ICU mortality prediction. In addition to features derived from physiological measurements, we incorporated ICD-9-CM hierarchy into Bayesian topic model learning and extracted topic features from medical notes. We achieved highest AUCs of 0.835 and 0.829 for 30-day and 6-month post-discharge mortality prediction using baseline and topic proportions derived from Labeled-LDA. Moreover, our work emphasized the interpretability of topic features derived from topic model which may facilitates the understanding and investigation of the complexity between mortality and diseases.

  14. Long-Term Resource Adequacy, Long-Term Flexibility Requirements, and Revenue Sufficiency

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Milligan, Michael [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Bloom, Aaron P [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Townsend, Aaron [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Ela, Erik [Electric Power Research Institute; Botterud, Audun [Argonne National Laboratory; Levin, Todd [Argonne National Laboratory

    2018-02-15

    Variable generation (VG) can reduce market prices over time and also the energy that other suppliers can sell in the market. The suppliers that are needed to provide capacity and flexibility to meet the long-term reliability requirements may, therefore, earn less revenue. This chapter discusses the topics of resource adequacy and revenue sufficiency - that is, determining and acquiring the quantity of capacity that will be needed at some future date and ensuring that those suppliers that offer the capacity receive sufficient revenue to recover their costs. The focus is on the investment time horizon and the installation of sufficient generation capability. First, the chapter discusses resource adequacy, including newer methods of determining adequacy metrics. The chapter then focuses on revenue sufficiency and how suppliers have sufficient opportunity to recover their total costs. The chapter closes with a description of the mechanisms traditionally adopted by electricity markets to mitigate the issues of resource adequacy and revenue sufficiency and discusses the most recent market design changes to address these issues.

  15. Exploring Topic Structure: Coherence, Diversity and Relatedness

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    J. He (Jiyin)

    2011-01-01

    htmlabstractThe use of topical information has long been studied in the context of information retrieval. For example, grouping search results into topical categories enables more effective information presentation to users, while grouping documents in a collection can lead to efficient information

  16. Some topics on radioecological research in marine environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shimizu, Makoto

    1993-01-01

    In Japan, systematic researches on marine environmental radioactivity started in 1954 when 'Bikini incidence' occurred. After several years of handling emergency situations, basic studies were carried out to understand processes and mechanisms of contamination of aquatic organisms by radionuclides. At this period 'Hiyama Group' had a large contribution to the development of this new field of research. Important concepts and items have already been dealt with in this Grant Group. Toward the end of 'Hiyama Group', a new project started in Nuclear Safety Research Association. This project, so-called 'Kaihohtoku', aimed at gathering necessary information for safety assessment on the release of low-level radioactive liquid wastes from a newly planned spent-fuel reprocessing plant at Tokai. NIRS-Nakaminato Branch was established first as Marine Radioecological Station in this project. The term 'radioecology' got popularity also in this period. Many important results were obtained and scientific basis of the safety assessment was established in this project. Today we have not any urgent matter to be handled concerning radioecology in our coastal environment. Nuclides found are exclusively of fallout and of a quite low level. We have also established methodology of radiological assessment. So, what is the problem? The problem is 'from conservative to realistic', which is the trend in the world. Here, from this viewpoint, some topics such as models and parameters including concentration factors and their validation and verification in the natural environment were discussed. (author)

  17. Selected Translated Abstracts of Chinese-Language Climate Change Publications; TOPICAL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cushman, R.M.; Burtis, M.D.

    1999-01-01

    This report contains English-translated abstracts of important Chinese-language literature concerning global climate change for the years 1995-1998. This body of literature includes the topics of adaptation, ancient climate change, climate variation, the East Asia monsoon, historical climate change, impacts, modeling, and radiation and trace-gas emissions. In addition to the biological citations and abstracts translated into English, this report presents the original citations and abstracts in Chinese. Author and title indexes are included to assist the reader in locating abstracts of particular interest

  18. Topical Research: Africa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lynn, Karen

    This lesson plan can be used in social studies, language arts, or library research. The instructional objective is for students to select a topic of study relating to Africa, write a thesis statement, collect information from media sources, and develop a conclusion. The teacher may assign the lesson for written or oral evaluation. The teacher…

  19. Topic structure affects semantic integration: evidence from event-related potentials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Xiaohong; Chen, Xuhai; Chen, Shuang; Xu, Xiaoying; Yang, Yufang

    2013-01-01

    This study investigated whether semantic integration in discourse context could be influenced by topic structure using event-related brain potentials. Participants read discourses in which the last sentence contained a critical word that was either congruent or incongruent with the topic established in the first sentence. The intervening sentences between the first and the last sentence of the discourse either maintained or shifted the original topic. Results showed that incongruent words in topic-maintained discourses elicited an N400 effect that was broadly distributed over the scalp while those in topic-shifted discourses elicited an N400 effect that was lateralized to the right hemisphere and localized over central and posterior areas. Moreover, a late positivity effect was only elicited by incongruent words in topic-shifted discourses, but not in topic-maintained discourses. This suggests an important role for discourse structure in semantic integration, such that compared with topic-maintained discourses, the complexity of discourse structure in topic-shifted condition reduces the initial stage of semantic integration and enhances the later stage in which a mental representation is updated.

  20. Uses of technology in lower secondary mathematics education : a concise topical survey

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Drijvers, P.H.M.; Ball, Lynda; Barzel, Barbel; Heid, M. Kathleen; Cao, Yiming; Maschietto, Michela

    2016-01-01

    This topical survey provides an overview of the current state of the art in technology use in mathematics education, including both practice-oriented experiences and research-based evidence, as seen from an international perspective. Three core themes are discussed: Evidence of effectiveness;

  1. Diclofenac Topical (osteoarthritis pain)

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... gel (Voltaren) is used to relieve pain from osteoarthritis (arthritis caused by a breakdown of the lining ... Diclofenac topical liquid (Pennsaid) is used to relieve osteoarthritis pain in the knees. Diclofenac is in a ...

  2. Diclofenac Topical (actinic keratosis)

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... topical gel (Solaraze) is used to treat actinic keratosis (flat, scaly growths on the skin caused by ... The way diclofenac gel works to treat actinic keratosis is not known.Diclofenac is also available as ...

  3. Emerging Trends on the Topic of Information Technology in the Field of Educational Sciences: A Bibliometric Exploration

    Science.gov (United States)

    González-Valiente, Carlos Luis

    2015-01-01

    The paper presents a bibliometric analysis on the topic of Information Technology (IT) in the field of Educational Sciences, aimed at envisioning the research emerging trends. The ERIC database is used as a consultation source; the results were subjected to productivity by authors, journals, and term co-occurrence analysis indicators for the…

  4. Current State of Nanomedicines in the Treatment of Topical Infectious Disorders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thakur, Kanika; Sharma, Gajanand; Singh, Bhupinder; Chhibber, Sanjay; Katare, Om Prakash

    2018-05-28

    Topical infections, involving a number of diseases such as impetigo, eczema, pustular acne, psoriasis and infected seborrheic dermatitis are one among the many challenges to health which stand out for their profound impact on human species. The treatment of topical infections has always been a difficult proposition because of the lack of efficacy of existing anti-infectives, longer period of treatment and yet incomplete recovery. The increasing emergence of antibiotic resistant bacterial strains like Staphylococcus aureus, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa undermine the need of development of new delivery systems to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of existing topical anti-infectives. The application of nanotechnology to medicine, or nanomedicine, is rapidly becoming a major driving force behind ongoing changes in the anti-infective field because of its interaction at the sub-atomic level with the skin tissue. The latter, in the current scenario, points towards vesicular carriers like liposomes, lipidic nanoparticles and silver nanoparticles etc. as the most promising drug delivery solutions for topical infection disorders. These have exhibited immense significance owing to their uniqueness to facilitate the interactions at interfaces with the barrier membranes. The present review summarizes the emerging efforts in combating topical infections particularly using nanomedicine based delivery systems as new tools to tackle the current challenges in treating infectious diseases. Besides, compiling various research reports, this article also includes formulation considerations, mechanisms of penetration and patents reported. Despite the new emerging technologies and delivery systems, efforts are still needed in the right direction to combat this global challenge. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

  5. Effect of Topical Cyclosporine in grading of Vernal keratoconjunctivitis.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dr Krupali Raol

    2017-06-01

    Full Text Available Background & Objective: To evaluate efficacy of topical aqueous solution of 0.05% cyclosporine in first time diagnosed vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC including palpebral, bulbar and mixed form. Methods: 25 patients of VKC received CsA 0.05% aqueous ophthalmic solution in a dosage of one drop every 12 hours in both eyes for 6 months. Follow up visits (day 1, 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months and 6 months. Five symptoms were evaluated and six clinical signs were charted. Total objective score of 13 or more over atleast 3 variables was included (CART – scoring system. Results: Comparison of 1st Day with 2 weeks score showed no significant effect in the score value (t=0.90, df = 24, p<0.1. 1st Day with 3rd month score showed maximum effect in the score value (t = 35.76, df = 24, p<0.0001. 3rd month with 6th month score showed sustained effect of cyclosporine showing no major change in the score line (t test, t = 1.80, df = 24, p <0.05. Conclusion: Topical application of a 0.05% CsA aqueous solution has been shown to be effective in the treatment of patients with VKC. CsA could be an important alternative to steroid treatment.

  6. Solid-State Lighting 2017 Suggested Research Topics Supplement: Technology and Market Context

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    None, None

    2017-09-29

    A 2017 update to the Solid-State Lighting R&D Plan that is divided into two documents. The first document describes a list of suggested SSL priority research topics and the second document provides context and background, including information drawn from technical, market, and economic studies. Widely referenced by industry and government both here and abroad, these documents reflect SSL stakeholder inputs on key R&D topics that will improve efficacy, reduce cost, remove barriers to adoption, and add value for LED and OLED lighting solutions over the next three to five years, and discuss those applications that drive and prioritize the specific R&D.

  7. Analysis of the Research Status and Topics on the Radionuclide Migration and Retardation in Natural Barriers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Baik, Min Hoon; Park, Chung Kyun; Kim, Seung Soo; Lee, Seung Yeop; Lee, Jae Kwang

    2008-12-01

    In this report, recent research status for major developed countries in the high-level radioactive waste disposal including international organizations was investigated and analyzed in research topics for the radionuclide migration and retardation in natural barriers. Besides, recent research trends and future prospects were investigated for selected major 10 topics about the radionuclide migration and retardation processes. Based upon these investigations and analyses, future research goals and topics to be concentrated were presented. This report will be helpful for understanding our current research status and technical position and establishing future research direction and topics by analyzing domestic and foreign research status and trends. The results will also be utilized as basic information for establishing future policy and plans of the government for the high-level radioactive waste disposal

  8. Analysis of the Research Status and Topics on the Radionuclide Migration and Retardation in Natural Barriers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Baik, Min Hoon; Park, Chung Kyun; Kim, Seung Soo; Lee, Seung Yeop; Lee, Jae Kwang [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2008-12-15

    In this report, recent research status for major developed countries in the high-level radioactive waste disposal including international organizations was investigated and analyzed in research topics for the radionuclide migration and retardation in natural barriers. Besides, recent research trends and future prospects were investigated for selected major 10 topics about the radionuclide migration and retardation processes. Based upon these investigations and analyses, future research goals and topics to be concentrated were presented. This report will be helpful for understanding our current research status and technical position and establishing future research direction and topics by analyzing domestic and foreign research status and trends. The results will also be utilized as basic information for establishing future policy and plans of the government for the high-level radioactive waste disposal.

  9. Digital Social Network Mining for Topic Discovery

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moradianzadeh, Pooya; Mohi, Maryam; Sadighi Moshkenani, Mohsen

    Networked computers are expanding more and more around the world, and digital social networks becoming of great importance for many people's work and leisure. This paper mainly focused on discovering the topic of exchanging information in digital social network. In brief, our method is to use a hierarchical dictionary of related topics and words that mapped to a graph. Then, with comparing the extracted keywords from the context of social network with graph nodes, probability of relation between context and desired topics will be computed. This model can be used in many applications such as advertising, viral marketing and high-risk group detection.

  10. Efficacy and safety of topical tranexamic acid in knee arthroplasty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    López-Hualda, Álvaro; Dauder-Gallego, Cristina; Ferreño-Márquez, David; Martínez-Martín, Javier

    2018-02-26

    Tranexamic acid (TXA) is commonly used to control postoperative blood loss in total knee arthroplasty. In order to avoid adverse effects associated with intravenous administration, topical use has been proposed as an alternative. Our aim was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of topical TXA in total knee arthroplasty. A total of 90 patients scheduled for unilateral total knee arthroplasty were included in a prospective randomised study. All surgeries were performed under spinal anaesthesia, tourniquet and the same postoperative protocol. Patients were allocated to one of the 3 groups according to the application of TXA: group A (n=30) 1g of topical TXA; group B (n=30) 1g of TXA intravenous and in group C or the control group (n=30) no drug was administrated. Parameters related to blood loss and drain outputs were compared between the 3 groups. The results revealed that post-operative decrease in haemoglobin level was significantly lower in group A (1.95g/dL) than group B (2.25g/dL) and group C (2.96g/dL), P<.01. Total postoperative blood loss was lower in group A (195mL) than group B (466mL) and group C (718mL), P<.01. There was no significant difference in complications and allogenic blood transfusion rate between the 3 groups. According to the results, topical application of 1g TXA significantly reduced blood loss in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty more than intravenous or no administration of TXA. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

  11. Efficacy of topical cysteamine in nephropathic cystinosis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Al-Hemidan, Amal; Shoughy, Samir S; Kozak, Igor; Tabbara, Khalid F

    2017-09-01

    The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of topical cysteamine 0.55% eye drops in the treatment of corneal cystine crystal deposits in patients with nephropathic cystinosis. Thirty-two patients with nephropathic cystinosis were prospectively included in the study. Patients with corneal cystinosis were treated with topical cysteamine 0.55% eye drops. They were examined before treatment, on each monthly visit and after treatment at the last follow-up. Photophobia was classified as grade 0 (none) for no photophobia, grade 1 (mild) for photophobia in bright light, grade 2 (moderate) for photophobia in room light and grade 3 (severe) for photophobia in dim light. Corneal cystine crystals were graded as grade 0=none, grade 1=1-10 crystals/mm 2 , grade 2=11-50 crystals/mm 2 , grade 3=more than 50 crystals/mm 2 . The main outcome measure was evaluation of photophobia and resolution of corneal cystine crystals. There were 13 male and 19 female patients. The mean age was 8 years with an age range of 8 months to 19 years. The mean follow-up period was 4.1 years with a range of 2-8 years. Improvement of photophobia was not clinically significant in symptomatic patients. Patients displayed statistically significant worsening of corneal cystine deposits during the follow-up period. This study has shown that topical 0.55% cysteamine eye drops may have limited effects in decreasing the corneal cystine deposits in patients with severe forms of nephropathic cystinosis. NCT02766855, Results. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  12. Cost Utility Analysis of Topical Steroids Compared With Dietary Elimination for Treatment of Eosinophilic Esophagitis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cotton, Cary C; Erim, Daniel; Eluri, Swathi; Palmer, Sarah H; Green, Daniel J; Wolf, W Asher; Runge, Thomas M; Wheeler, Stephanie; Shaheen, Nicholas J; Dellon, Evan S

    2017-06-01

    Topical corticosteroids or dietary elimination are recommended as first-line therapies for eosinophilic esophagitis, but data to directly compare these therapies are scant. We performed a cost utility comparison of topical corticosteroids and the 6-food elimination diet (SFED) in treatment of eosinophilic esophagitis, from the payer perspective. We used a modified Markov model based on current clinical guidelines, in which transition between states depended on histologic response simulated at the individual cohort-member level. Simulation parameters were defined by systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the base-case estimates and bounds of uncertainty for sensitivity analysis. Meta-regression models included adjustment for differences in study and cohort characteristics. In the base-case scenario, topical fluticasone was about as effective as SFED but more expensive at a 5-year time horizon ($9261.58 vs $5719.72 per person). SFED was more effective and less expensive than topical fluticasone and topical budesonide in the base-case scenario. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis revealed little uncertainty in relative treatment effectiveness. There was somewhat greater uncertainty in the relative cost of treatments; most simulations found SFED to be less expensive. In a cost utility analysis comparing topical corticosteroids and SFED for first-line treatment of eosinophilic esophagitis, the therapies were similar in effectiveness. SFED was on average less expensive, and more cost effective in most simulations, than topical budesonide and topical fluticasone, from a payer perspective and not accounting for patient-level costs or quality of life. Copyright © 2017 AGA Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Topical methotrexate pretreatment enhances the therapeutic effect of topical 5-aminolevulinic acid-mediated photodynamic therapy on hamster buccal pouch precancers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Deng-Fu Yang

    2014-09-01

    Conclusion: We conclude that topical MTX-pretreatment can increase intracellular PpIX production in hamster buccal pouch precancerous lesions and significantly improves the outcomes of the precancerous lesions treated with topical ALA-PDT.

  14. Descriptive Topology in Selected Topics of Functional Analysis

    CERN Document Server

    Kakol, J; Pellicer, Manuel Lopez

    2011-01-01

    "Descriptive Topology in Selected Topics of Functional Analysis" is a collection of recent developments in the field of descriptive topology, specifically focused on the classes of infinite-dimensional topological vector spaces that appear in functional analysis. Such spaces include Frechet spaces, (LF)-spaces and their duals, and the space of continuous real-valued functions C(X) on a completely regular Hausdorff space X, to name a few. These vector spaces appear in functional analysis in distribution theory, differential equations, complex analysis, and various other analytical set

  15. A Data-Based Approach to Discovering Multi-Topic Influential Leaders.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xing Tang

    Full Text Available Recently, increasing numbers of users have adopted microblogging services as their main information source. However, most of them find themselves drowning in the millions of posts produced by other users every day. To cope with this, identifying a set of the most influential people is paramount. Moreover, finding a set of related influential users to expand the coverage of one particular topic is required in real world scenarios. Most of the existing algorithms in this area focus on topology-related methods such as PageRank. These methods mine link structures to find the expected influential rank of users. However, because they ignore the interaction data, these methods turn out to be less effective in social networks. In reality, a variety of topics exist within the information diffusing through the network. Because they have different interests, users play different roles in the diffusion of information related to different topics. As a result, distinguishing influential leaders according to different topics is also worthy of research. In this paper, we propose a multi-topic influence diffusion model (MTID based on traces acquired from historic information. We decompose the influential scores of users into two parts: the direct influence determined by information propagation along the link structure and indirect influence that extends beyond the restrictions of direct follower relationships. To model the network from a multi-topical viewpoint, we introduce topic pools, each of which represents a particular topic information source. Then, we extract the topic distributions from the traces of tweets, determining the influence propagation probability and content generation probability. In the network, we adopt multiple ground nodes representing topic pools to connect every user through bidirectional links. Based on this multi-topical view of the network, we further introduce the topic-dependent rank (TD-Rank algorithm to identify the multi-topic

  16. A Data-Based Approach to Discovering Multi-Topic Influential Leaders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, Xing; Miao, Qiguang; Yu, Shangshang; Quan, Yining

    2016-01-01

    Recently, increasing numbers of users have adopted microblogging services as their main information source. However, most of them find themselves drowning in the millions of posts produced by other users every day. To cope with this, identifying a set of the most influential people is paramount. Moreover, finding a set of related influential users to expand the coverage of one particular topic is required in real world scenarios. Most of the existing algorithms in this area focus on topology-related methods such as PageRank. These methods mine link structures to find the expected influential rank of users. However, because they ignore the interaction data, these methods turn out to be less effective in social networks. In reality, a variety of topics exist within the information diffusing through the network. Because they have different interests, users play different roles in the diffusion of information related to different topics. As a result, distinguishing influential leaders according to different topics is also worthy of research. In this paper, we propose a multi-topic influence diffusion model (MTID) based on traces acquired from historic information. We decompose the influential scores of users into two parts: the direct influence determined by information propagation along the link structure and indirect influence that extends beyond the restrictions of direct follower relationships. To model the network from a multi-topical viewpoint, we introduce topic pools, each of which represents a particular topic information source. Then, we extract the topic distributions from the traces of tweets, determining the influence propagation probability and content generation probability. In the network, we adopt multiple ground nodes representing topic pools to connect every user through bidirectional links. Based on this multi-topical view of the network, we further introduce the topic-dependent rank (TD-Rank) algorithm to identify the multi-topic influential users

  17. Functional interpretation of metabolomics data as a new method for predicting long-term side effects: treatment of atopic dermatitis in infants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Seul Ji; Woo, Sung-il; Ahn, Soo Hyun; Lim, Dong Kyu; Hong, Ji Yeon; Park, Jeong Hill; Lim, Johan; Kim, Mi-kyeong; Kwon, Sung Won

    2014-12-10

    Topical steroids are used for the treatment of primary atopic dermatitis (AD); however, their associated risk of serious complications is great due to the presence of vulnerable lesions in young children with AD. Topical calcineurin inhibitors (TCIs) are steroid-free, anti-inflammatory agents used for topical AD therapy. However, their use is prohibited in infants side effects. The 1% pimecrolimus cream displayed similar efficacy and exceptional safety compared with the 0.05% desonide cream. Metabolomics-based long-term toxicity tests effectively predicted long-term side effects using short-term clinical models. This applicable method for the functional interpretation of metabolomics data sets the foundation for future studies involving the prediction of the toxicity and systemic reactions caused by long-term medication administration.

  18. Topical melatonin for treatment of androgenetic alopecia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fischer, Tobias W; Trüeb, Ralph M; Hänggi, Gabriella; Innocenti, Marcello; Elsner, Peter

    2012-10-01

    In the search for alternative agents to oral finasteride and topical minoxidil for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia (AGA), melatonin, a potent antioxidant and growth modulator, was identified as a promising candidate based on in vitro and in vivo studies. One pharmacodynamic study on topical application of melatonin and four clinical pre-post studies were performed in patients with androgenetic alopecia or general hair loss and evaluated by standardised questionnaires, TrichoScan, 60-second hair count test and hair pull test. FIVE CLINICAL STUDIES SHOWED POSITIVE EFFECTS OF A TOPICAL MELATONIN SOLUTION IN THE TREATMENT OF AGA IN MEN AND WOMEN WHILE SHOWING GOOD TOLERABILITY: (1) Pharmacodynamics under once-daily topical application in the evening showed no significant influence on endogenous serum melatonin levels. (2) An observational study involving 30 men and women showed a significant reduction in the degree of severity of alopecia after 30 and 90 days (P melatonin solution can be considered as a treatment option in androgenetic alopecia.

  19. Interactional Organization and Topic Control in Conciliation Hearings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wânia Terezinha Ladeira

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available We analyse discursive topic in talk-in-interaction within the institutional setting of three conciliation hearings held in a kind of small claims court for consumption conflict resolution. This research is based on Interactional Sociolinguistics and Conversation Analysis theories. The analysis shows that the participants of those meetings have asymmetric rights regarding the choice of discussion topics. Thus, the mediator is the one who has the right to suggest and control the discursive topics of the conversation. This topic control is the most important institutional procedure that can cause a reduction in accusations and adjacent replies. Consequently, the chance of mediators achieving their institutional task of reaching an agreement between parts in conflict is increased.

  20. The Optical Society's 2016 topical meeting on optical interference coatings: introduction.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ristau, Detlev; Li, Li; Sargent, Robert; Sytchkova, Anna

    2017-02-01

    This feature issue of Applied Optics is dedicated to the 13th Topical Meeting on Optical Interference Coatings, which was held June 19-24, 2016, in Tucson, Arizona, USA. The conference, taking place every three years, is a focal point for global technical interchange in the field of optical interference coatings and provides premier opportunities for people working in the field to present their new advances in research and development. Papers presented at the meeting covered a broad range of topics, including fundamental research on coating design theory, new materials, and deposition and characterization technologies, as well as the vast and growing number of applications in electronic displays, communication, optical instruments, high power and ultra-fast lasers, solar cells, space missions, gravitational wave detection, and many others.

  1. Precession electron diffraction – a topical review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paul A. Midgley

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available In the 20 years since precession electron diffraction (PED was introduced, it has grown from a little-known niche technique to one that is seen as a cornerstone of electron crystallography. It is now used primarily in two ways. The first is to determine crystal structures, to identify lattice parameters and symmetry, and ultimately to solve the atomic structure ab initio. The second is, through connection with the microscope scanning system, to map the local orientation of the specimen to investigate crystal texture, rotation and strain at the nanometre scale. This topical review brings the reader up to date, highlighting recent successes using PED and providing some pointers to the future in terms of method development and how the technique can meet some of the needs of the X-ray crystallography community. Complementary electron techniques are also discussed, together with how a synergy of methods may provide the best approach to electron-based structure analysis.

  2. [Otomycosis and topical application of thimerosal: study of 152 cases].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tisner, J; Millán, J; Rivas, P; Adiego, I; Castellote, A; Valles, H

    1995-01-01

    To evaluate the effectiveness of the topical application of Timerosal (merthilate tintura) in mycosis involving the external auditory canal. The study includes 152 patients with the clinical, otoscopic and microscopic diagnosis of otomycosis. Results were assessed 72 hours and 10 days after the application. Bacteriological study was performed in 83 patients, finding Aspergilly niger in 54.0% of the cases, Candida albicans in 25.4%, Aspergillus fumigatus in 15.8% and Penicillium in 4.8%. Improvement at 72 h. was found in 66.4% and at 10 days in 93.4% of the patients. Bacteriological contamination was found in 6.6% of the total. In most of the patients, the otomycosis healed after cleaning of the external auditory canal and topical application of timerosal. This method is easy to apply, fast, effective, of low cost and few side effects.

  3. The use of compound topical anesthetics: a review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kravitz, Neal D

    2007-10-01

    The author reviewed the history of, federal regulations regarding, risks of and adverse drug reactions of five compound topical anesthetics: tetracaine, adrenaline/epinephrine and cocaine (TAC); lidocaine, adrenaline/epinephrine and tetracaine (LET); lidocaine, tetracaine and phenylephrine (TAC 20 percent Alternate); lidocaine, prilocaine and tetracaine (Profound); and lidocaine, prilocaine, tetracaine and phenylephrine with thickeners (Profound PET). The author reviewed clinical trials, case reports, descriptive articles, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations and recent public advisory warnings regarding the federal approval of and risks associated with the use of compound topical anesthetics. Compound topical anesthetics are neither FDA-regulated nor -unregulated. Some compounding pharmacies bypass the new FDA drug approval process, which is based on reliable scientific data and ensures that a marketed drug is safe, effective, properly manufactured and accurately labeled. Two deaths have been attributed to the lay use of compound topical anesthetics. In response, the FDA has announced the strengthening of its efforts against unapproved drug products. Compound topical anesthetics may be an effective alternative to local infiltration for some minimally invasive dental procedures; however, legitimate concerns exist in regard to their safety. Until they become federally regulated, compound topical anesthetics remain unapproved drug products whose benefits may not outweigh their risks for dental patients.

  4. Topical Apigenin Alleviates Cutaneous Inflammation in Murine Models

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mao-Qiang Man

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available Herbal medicines have been used in preventing and treating skin disorders for centuries. It has been demonstrated that systemic administration of chrysanthemum extract exhibits anti-inflammatory properties. However, whether topical applications of apigenin, a constituent of chrysanthemum extract, influence cutaneous inflammation is still unclear. In the present study, we first tested whether topical applications of apigenin alleviate cutaneous inflammation in murine models of acute dermatitis. The murine models of acute allergic contact dermatitis and acute irritant contact dermatitis were established by topical application of oxazolone and phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (TPA, respectively. Inflammation was assessed in both dermatitis models by measuring ear thickness. Additionally, the effect of apigenin on stratum corneum function in a murine subacute allergic contact dermatitis model was assessed with an MPA5 physiology monitor. Our results demonstrate that topical applications of apigenin exhibit therapeutic effects in both acute irritant contact dermatitis and allergic contact dermatitis models. Moreover, in comparison with the vehicle treatment, topical apigenin treatment significantly reduced transepidermal water loss, lowered skin surface pH, and increased stratum corneum hydration in a subacute murine allergic contact dermatitis model. Together, these results suggest that topical application of apigenin could provide an alternative regimen for the treatment of dermatitis.

  5. Systematic evaluation program review of NRC Safety Topic VI-10.A associated with the electrical, instrumentation and control portions of the testing of reactor trip system and engineered safety features, including response time for the Dresden station, Unit II nuclear power plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    St Leger-Barter, G.

    1980-11-01

    This report documents the technical evaluation and review of NRC Safety Topic VI-10.A, associated with the electrical, instrumentation, and control portions of the testing of reactor trip systems and engineered safety features including response time for the Dresden II nuclear power plant, using current licensing criteria

  6. Looking Ahead: The Inclusion of Long-Term Futures in Cumulative Environmental Assessments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Munn, R.E.

    1994-01-01

    Proceeding of a workshop on the Inclusion of Long-Term Futures in Cumulative Environmental Assessments (CEA's) were presented.. Also included were three working group reports and papers presented at the conference. The issue of the concept of Cumulative Environmental Assessments was summarized, along with the current transformation to a more global outlook. The concepts and methodological questions associated with ecology and economics were tackled. CEA methods were discussed and a contrast was made with land-use planning. The importance of long-term monitoring programs was introduced and examples of early warning systems were given. Social science issues behind CEAs were also discussed. Recommendation e for preparing CEA's, the design of early warning monitoring systems, and public involvement, were made.. Contributed papers covered topics related to environmental assessment, pollution, and climate change

  7. Topical reports on Louisiana salt domes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1983-09-01

    The Institute for Environmental Studies at Louisiana State University conducted research into the potential use of Louisiana salt domes for disposal of nuclear waste material. Topical reports generated in 1981 and 1982 related to Vacherie and Rayburn's domes are compiled and presented, which address palynological studies, tiltmeter monitoring, precise releveling, saline springs, and surface hydrology. The latter two are basically a compilation of references related to these topics. Individual reports are abstracted

  8. Data Mining Thesis Topics in Finland

    OpenAIRE

    Bajo Rouvinen, Ari

    2017-01-01

    The Theseus open repository contains metadata about more than 100,000 thesis publications from the different universities of applied sciences in Finland. Different data mining techniques were applied to the Theseus dataset to build a web application to explore thesis topics and degree programmes using different libraries in Python and JavaScript. Thesis topics were extracted from manually annotated keywords by the authors and curated subjects by the librarians. During the project, the quality...

  9. An overview of topic modeling and its current applications in bioinformatics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Lin; Tang, Lin; Dong, Wen; Yao, Shaowen; Zhou, Wei

    2016-01-01

    With the rapid accumulation of biological datasets, machine learning methods designed to automate data analysis are urgently needed. In recent years, so-called topic models that originated from the field of natural language processing have been receiving much attention in bioinformatics because of their interpretability. Our aim was to review the application and development of topic models for bioinformatics. This paper starts with the description of a topic model, with a focus on the understanding of topic modeling. A general outline is provided on how to build an application in a topic model and how to develop a topic model. Meanwhile, the literature on application of topic models to biological data was searched and analyzed in depth. According to the types of models and the analogy between the concept of document-topic-word and a biological object (as well as the tasks of a topic model), we categorized the related studies and provided an outlook on the use of topic models for the development of bioinformatics applications. Topic modeling is a useful method (in contrast to the traditional means of data reduction in bioinformatics) and enhances researchers' ability to interpret biological information. Nevertheless, due to the lack of topic models optimized for specific biological data, the studies on topic modeling in biological data still have a long and challenging road ahead. We believe that topic models are a promising method for various applications in bioinformatics research.

  10. Quercetin topical application, from conventional dosage forms to nanodosage forms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hatahet, T; Morille, M; Hommoss, A; Devoisselle, J M; Müller, R H; Bégu, S

    2016-11-01

    Skin is a multifunctional organ with activities in protection, metabolism and regulation. Skin is in a continuous exposure to oxidizing agents and inflammogens from the sun and from the contact with the environment. These agents may overload the skin auto-defense capacity. To strengthen skin defense mechanisms against oxidation and inflammation, supplementation of exogenous antioxidants is a promising strategy. Quercetin is a flavonoid with very pronounced effective antioxidant and antiinflammatory activities, and thus a candidate of first choice for such skin supplementation. Quercetin showed interesting actions in cellular and animal based models, ranging from protecting cells from UV irradiation to support skin regeneration in wound healing. However, due to its poor solubility, quercetin has limited skin penetration ability, and various formulation approaches were taken to increase its dermal penetration. In this article, the quercetin antioxidant and antiinflammatory activities in wound healing and supporting skin against aging are discussed in detail. In addition, quercetin topical formulations from conventional emulsions to novel nanoformulations in terms of skin penetration enhancement are also presented. This article gives a comprehensive review of quercetin for topical application from biological effects to pharmaceutical formulation design for the last 25 years of research. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  11. Control of pain with topical plant medicines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James David Adams Jr.

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available Pain is normally treated with oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents and opioids. These drugs are dangerous and are responsible for many hospitalizations and deaths. It is much safer to use topical preparations made from plants to treat pain, even severe pain. Topical preparations must contain compounds that penetrate the skin, inhibit pain receptors such as transient receptor potential cation channels and cyclooxygenase-2, to relieve pain. Inhibition of pain in the skin disrupts the pain cycle and avoids exposure of internal organs to large amounts of toxic compounds. Use of topical pain relievers has the potential to save many lives, decrease medical costs and improve therapy.

  12. Short-term azithromycin treatment promotes cornea allograft survival in the rat.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wacker, Katrin; Denker, Sophy; Hildebrand, Antonia; Eberwein, Philipp; Reinhard, Thomas; Schwartzkopff, Johannes

    2013-01-01

    Any inflammatory response following corneal transplantation may induce rejection and irreversible graft failure. The purpose of this study is to analyze the anti-inflammatory effect of azithromycin (AZM) following experimental keratoplasty in rats. Corneal transplants were performed between Fisher-donor and Lewis-recipient rats. Recipients were postoperatively treated three times daily with AZM, miglyol, ofloxacin or dexamethasone eye drops. As an additional control, AZM was applied following syngeneic keratoplasty. Furthermore, short-term treatments with AZM for seven days perioperatively or with AZM only three days prior to the transplantation were compared to appropriate controls. All transplants were monitored clinically for opacity, edema, and vascularization. Infiltrating CD45(+), CD4(+), CD8(+), CD25(+), CD161(+) and CD163(+) cells were quantified via immunohistochemistry. AZM significantly promoted corneal graft survival compared with miglyol or ofloxacin treatment. This effect was comparable to topical dexamethasone. No adverse AZM effect was observed. Histology confirmed a significant reduction of infiltrating leukocytes. The short-term application of AZM for three days prior to transplantation or for seven days perioperatively reduced corneal graft rejection significantly compared with the controls. Along with antibiotic properties, topical AZM has a strong anti-inflammatory effect. Following keratoplasty, this effect is comparable to topical dexamethasone without the risk of steroid-induced adverse effects. Short-term treatment with AZM three days prior to the transplantation was sufficient to promote graft survival in the rat keratoplasty model. We therefore suggest further assessing the anti-inflammatory function of topical AZM following keratoplasty in humans.

  13. Short-term azithromycin treatment promotes cornea allograft survival in the rat.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katrin Wacker

    Full Text Available Any inflammatory response following corneal transplantation may induce rejection and irreversible graft failure. The purpose of this study is to analyze the anti-inflammatory effect of azithromycin (AZM following experimental keratoplasty in rats.Corneal transplants were performed between Fisher-donor and Lewis-recipient rats. Recipients were postoperatively treated three times daily with AZM, miglyol, ofloxacin or dexamethasone eye drops. As an additional control, AZM was applied following syngeneic keratoplasty. Furthermore, short-term treatments with AZM for seven days perioperatively or with AZM only three days prior to the transplantation were compared to appropriate controls. All transplants were monitored clinically for opacity, edema, and vascularization. Infiltrating CD45(+, CD4(+, CD8(+, CD25(+, CD161(+ and CD163(+ cells were quantified via immunohistochemistry.AZM significantly promoted corneal graft survival compared with miglyol or ofloxacin treatment. This effect was comparable to topical dexamethasone. No adverse AZM effect was observed. Histology confirmed a significant reduction of infiltrating leukocytes. The short-term application of AZM for three days prior to transplantation or for seven days perioperatively reduced corneal graft rejection significantly compared with the controls.Along with antibiotic properties, topical AZM has a strong anti-inflammatory effect. Following keratoplasty, this effect is comparable to topical dexamethasone without the risk of steroid-induced adverse effects. Short-term treatment with AZM three days prior to the transplantation was sufficient to promote graft survival in the rat keratoplasty model. We therefore suggest further assessing the anti-inflammatory function of topical AZM following keratoplasty in humans.

  14. Topics in Finance Part VI--Capital Budgeting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laux, Judy

    2011-01-01

    This series on the theory of financial management offers insight into the roles of stockholder wealth maximization, the risk-return tradeoff, and agency conflicts as they apply to major topics in finance. The current article investigates capital budgeting. Much literature addresses this topic, with a number of articles challenging mainstream…

  15. Fostering Topic Knowledge: Essential for Academic Writing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Proske, Antje; Kapp, Felix

    2013-01-01

    Several researchers emphasize the role of the writer's topic knowledge for writing. In academic writing topic knowledge is often constructed by studying source texts. One possibility to support that essential phase of the writing process is to provide interactive learning questions which facilitate the construction of an adequate situation…

  16. E-Commerce Topics for Business Education: Perceptions of Employers and Educators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gueldenzoph, Lisa E.

    2006-01-01

    E-commerce is a relatively new content area for business educators even though it includes a variety of business concepts such as marketing and desktop publishing. Whether developing a new course or integrating e-commerce concepts into existing courses, determining the topics that are important can be a challenge. This study sought to identify the…

  17. Structural change of the economy, technological progress and long-term energy demand

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Klinge Jacobsen, H.

    2000-01-01

    The material included in the report is a collection of papers dealing with different issues related to the topics included in the title. Some of these papers have already either been published or presented at various conferences. Together with a general introduction, they constitute the author's PhD dissertation. The dissertation includes six papers and two shorter notes on different aspects of structural change of the economy and energy demand. Three different issues related to long-term energy demand are discussed: (1) the importance of technological change and its representation in energy-economy modelling, (2) an integration of two different modelling approaches, and (3) the effect on energy demand of structural changes exemplified by changes in the energy supply sector and in Danish trade patterns. The report highlights a few aspects of the interaction between structural economic changes and energy demand, but it does not intend to cover a wide range of issues related to these topics. In the introductory chapter some discussions and thoughts about issues not covered by the articles are brought forward. The introductory chapter includes an overview of possible relations between longterm energy demand and the economy, technical progress demography, social conditions and politics. The first two papers discuss the importance for projections of long-term energy demand of the way in which technological progress is modelled. These papers focus on energy-economy modelling. A paper dealing with two different approaches to energy demand modelling and the possible integration of these approaches in the Danish case follows next. The integrated Danish model, is then used for analysing different revenue recycling principles in relation to a CO 2 tax. The effect of subsidising biomass use is compared with recycling through corporate tax rates. Then a paper follows describing the structural change of a specific sector, namely the energy supply sector, and the implications for

  18. Ego Involvement and Topic Controversiality as Related to Attitude Change.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sledden, Elizabeth A.; Fernandez, Katherine A.

    Attitude change was measured on four different topics before and immediately after a persuasion was presented in order to compare the degree of change with the level of ego involvement as it relates to topic controversiality. Ego involvement was based on self-ratings of concern for each topic. Objective topic controversiality was based on the…

  19. EvoRiver: Visual Analysis of Topic Coopetition on Social Media.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Guodao; Wu, Yingcai; Liu, Shixia; Peng, Tai-Quan; Zhu, Jonathan J H; Liang, Ronghua

    2014-12-01

    Cooperation and competition (jointly called "coopetition") are two modes of interactions among a set of concurrent topics on social media. How do topics cooperate or compete with each other to gain public attention? Which topics tend to cooperate or compete with one another? Who plays the key role in coopetition-related interactions? We answer these intricate questions by proposing a visual analytics system that facilitates the in-depth analysis of topic coopetition on social media. We model the complex interactions among topics as a combination of carry-over, coopetition recruitment, and coopetition distraction effects. This model provides a close functional approximation of the coopetition process by depicting how different groups of influential users (i.e., "topic leaders") affect coopetition. We also design EvoRiver, a time-based visualization, that allows users to explore coopetition-related interactions and to detect dynamically evolving patterns, as well as their major causes. We test our model and demonstrate the usefulness of our system based on two Twitter data sets (social topics data and business topics data).

  20. Summary record of the topical session of 16. Meeting of the IGSC

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Van Luik, Abe; Smith, Paul

    2014-01-01

    The sixteenth meeting of the Integration Group for the Safety case (IGSC) included a topical session titled: Handling extreme geological events in safety cases during the post-closure phase. The session included nine presentations on the handling of such events by various national programs, questions and answers on each presentation and ended with a general discussion period. The present document summarises the outcome of the meeting. The document is structured as follows: - Section 2 describes the types of extreme geological events discussed in the session and how these are identified, - Section 3 discusses the measures that can be taken to avoid such events and to mitigate their impact on repositories, - Section 4 describes how the likelihood and consequences of events are assessed, - Section 5 address experiences regarding interactions with regulators and other stakeholders, - Section 6 covers remaining issues and planned R and D to address these, and - Section 7 presents a recommendation for possible future collaborative work on this topic