Our study focused on the lateral position of drivers in relation to risk on rural crest vertical curves, using a field site proposed by a local operator of the French road network (Conseil Général de ...Maine-et-Loire, 49). The final goal was to test one road treatment on this field site. The study consisted of three stages. The first, using driving simulators, selected two perceptual treatments (i.e., rumble strips on both sides of the centerline and sealed shoulders) from five that were tested in order to help drivers maintain lateral control when driving on crest vertical curves. The rumble strips were installed first on the field site.
The second stage was to develop a diagnostic device specifically in order to evaluate, on the field site, the impact of a perceptual treatment on the driver's performance (i.e., lateral position). This diagnostic device was installed in the field upstream and downstream of the target crest vertical curve. The third stage was to collect the data during two periods, before and after the centerline rumble strips were installed. We then compared the results obtained in the field study with those from the driving simulator studies. The comparison showed that, as in the simulator studies, the centerline rumble strips on the crest vertical curve affected lateral positions, causing the participants to drive closer to the center of the lane. Finally, the results showed the usefulness of driving simulators in the road design process.
Human females have a unique duration of post-reproductive longevity, during which sex-specific mechanisms ma influence later-life mechanisms of neuronal resilience and vulnerability. The maintenance ...of energy metabolism, through the oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) apparatus, is essential for brain health. Given the known association between reproductive period (years from menarche to menopause) and cognitive aging, we examined the hypothesis that cumulative estrogen exposure across the lifetime may be associated with differential methylation of genes in the OXPHOS pathway.
Using DNA methylation patterns in the post-mortem dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of 426 women prospectively followed until death in the Religious Orders Study and Rush Memory and Aging Project, we examined the relationship between reproductive period (subtracting age at menarche from age at menopause) and DNA methylation of a published set of autosomal OXPHOS genes previously implicated in stroke susceptibility. We then performed an unsupervised analysis of methylation levels across the Hallmark pathways from the Molecular Signatures Database.
We observed a strong association between reproductive period and DNA methylation status across OXPHOS CpGs. We replicated this association between reproductive period and DNA methylation in a much larger set of OXPHOS genes in our unsupervised analysis. Here, reproductive period also showed associations with methylation in genes related to E2F, MYC and MTORC1 signaling, fatty acid metabolism and DNA repair.
This study provides evidence from both a supervised and unsupervised analyses, that lifetime cumulative endogenous steroid exposures may play a role in maintenance of post-menopausal cellular balance, including in brain tissue.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The present investigation was undertaken in order to study the influence of the dehusking procedure on the germ meal composition of carob (
Ceratonia siliqua L.) seeds and also to investigate its ...detailed composition and nutritive value. Meals of carob seed germ were obtained by acid treatment or boiling water treatment of the whole seeds. These procedures allowed to separation of the tight-fitting brown coat of the seed and the removal of the endosperm. Results indicated that the carob germ meal composition could be affected by the isolation procedures. Small reductions were observed in protein and lipid contents in germ meals from acid extraction. The analysis of the carob germ meal (containing fine fragments of husk and endosperm), which could be really obtained industrially, showed the following composition: moisture 8.3%, ash 6.5%, lipids (neutral and polar) 6.6% containing ∼21% of polar lipids, crude proteins 54.7% and energy value 17.5
kJ/g.
Oleic acid (34.4%) and linoleic acid (44.5%) were the major fatty acids, while palmitic acid (16.2%) and stearic acid (3.4%) were the main saturated ones. Essential amino acids were present in very interesting amounts, according to the FAO standard except for a low content of tryptophan. The abundant protein fraction bands detected by SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed that the carob germ protein fraction was extremely heterogeneous.
We use viability techniques for solving Dirichlet problems with inequality constraints (obstacles) for a class of Hamilton-Jacobi equations. The hypograph of the "solution" is defined as the "capture ...basin" under an auxiliary control system of a target associated with the initial and boundary conditions, viable in an environment associated with the inequality constraint. From the tangential condition characterizing capture basins, we prove that this solution is the unique "upper semicontinuous" solution to the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman partial differential equation in the Barron-Jensen/Frankowska sense. We show how this framework allows us to translate properties of capture basins into corresponding properties of the solutions to this problem. For instance, this approach provides a representation formula of the solution which boils down to the Lax-Hopf formula in the absence of constraints.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
CEKLJ, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The Calypso 4D Localization System is being developed to provide accurate, precise, objective, and continuous target localization during radiotherapy. This study involves the first human use of the ...system, to evaluate the localization accuracy of this technique compared with radiographic localization and to assess its ability to obtain real-time prostate-motion information.
Three transponders were implanted in each of 20 patients. Eleven eligible patients of the 20 patients participated in a study arm that compared radiographic triangulated transponder locations to electromagnetically recorded transponder locations. Transponders were tracked for 8-min periods.
The implantations were all successful, with no major complications. Intertransponder distances were largely stable. Comparison of the patient localization on the basis of transponder locations as per the Calypso system with the radiographic transponder localization showed an average (+/-SD) 3D difference of 1.5 +/- 0.9 mm. Upon tracking during 8 min, 2 of the 11 patients showed significant organ motion (>1 cm), with some motion lasting longer that 1 min.
Calypso transponders can be used as magnetic intraprostatic fiducials. Clinical evaluation of this novel 4D nonionizing electromagnetic localization system with transponders indicates a comparable localization accuracy to isocenter, (within 2 mm) compared with X-ray localization.
The development of high fidelity, anthropomorphically shaped physical phantom organs has a great potential to benefit novel robotic surgical systems by acting as a pre-clinical test bed to validate ...robotic performance. We present a manufacturing process and methodology to create inexpensive, anatomically accurate kidney and liver phantom organs from gelatin gel with Young's moduli and ultrasound (US) attenuation coefficients matched to those of a porcine kidney and liver. The ration of gelatin to water was varied in order to produce eight gelatin gel samples with a Young's modulus ranging from 8.88 kPa to 76.84. Fresh porcine liver and kidney organs were tested ex vivo to determine their Young's moduli and US attenuation coefficients. A 3D printer created an anthropomorphically accurate kidney mold based on x-ray computed tomography images of a human abdomen. The difference between the porcine and gelatin phantom Young's modulus was less than 2.1 kPa for both the kidney and liver. The US attenuation differed at most by 0.577 dB(cm·MHz) -1 when comparing the phantom material to the porcine organs. The volume of anthropomorphically shaped gelatin phantom kidney was within 5% of the volume of the virtual kidney organ which was constructed from x-ray computed tomography. With a total material cost of approximately 0.70 per organ we foresee these organs to be used in a disposable fashion to facilitate the development of novel surgical robotic systems.
Impaired emotional abilities (higher scores of alexithymia and lower levels of emotional awareness) were found in patients with skin-restricted lupus, warranting examination of the relationship ...between these abilities and the evolution of skin-restricted lupus, using longitudinal data. A total of 75 consecutive outpatients with skin-restricted lupus were recruited and assessed by a dermatologist and a psychiatrist every 6 months over a period of 2.5 years. Alexithymia and emotional awareness were evaluated with the French versions of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS). During follow-up, good stability of the LEAS scores was observed, whereas TAS-20 scores varied; those variations were positively associated both with lupus duration and current psychiatric and personality disorders, but not with lupus remission. Such findings regarding 2 complementary aspects of emotional functioning are of direct interest for the management of patients with skin-restricted lupus.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Cross-tolerization of T lymphocytes after apoptotic cell uptake by dendritic cells may be involved in self-tolerance maintenance. Furthermore, immunosuppressive properties are attributed to apoptotic ...cells. This study evaluated the consequences of apoptotic leukocyte administration in a restrictive engraftment model of murine bone marrow (BM) transplantation. Sublethally irradiated recipients received a limited number of allogeneic BM, with or without irradiated apoptotic leukocytes of different origins. No graft-versus-host disease was observed. Whereas only a low proportion of mice receiving BM cells alone engrafted, addition of apoptotic irradiated leukocytes, independently of the origin (donor, recipient, third-party mice, as well as xenogeneic peripheral blood mononuclear cells), significantly enhanced engraftment. Similar results were obtained after infusion of leukocytes rendered apoptotic by UVB irradiation or by anti-Fas monoclonal antibody stimulation, thus confirming the role of apoptotic cells in engraftment facilitation. Overall, these results suggest that apoptotic leukocytes can nonspecifically facilitate allogeneic BM engraftment. Such a simple approach could be of interest in BM transplantation settings involving an important HLA donor/recipient disparity, a T-cell–depleted graft, or reduced conditioning regimen intensity.
Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), a chronic progressive neurodegenerative disorder, can have symptoms similar to essential tremor (ET), a 'benign' condition, making differential diagnoses ...sometimes challenging. In this paper we investigate the performance of a support vector machine classifier which may facilitate diagnosing PD and ET patients. Wireless inertial sensors were used to measure angular velocity and acceleration during multi-joint arm motion as well as during rest, postural and action tremor tasks from seven PD, seven ET and seven CO patients. Mean rest tremor was statistically significantly different between the PD and CO groups, while for the ET and CO groups mean postural tremor was statistically significantly different. Two SVMs were developed which operated on features extracted from the tremor acceleration signals. The misclassification rates of the SVMs were 9.5% for the tremor versus non-tremor SVM and 14.3% for the PD versus ET SVM.
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