The present study used an online behavioral instruction program to teach accurate American Psychological Association (APA) citation formatting to nine graduate students. The participants completed ...two self‐paced, online training modules targeting the correct formation of full reference and in‐text citations, which consisted of the three elements of behavioral instruction: multiple practice opportunities, mastery criteria, and automatic feedback provided contingent on response. Training occurred using a concurrent multiple baseline design across skills (for seven participants) or nonconcurrently across participants (for two participants). Most participants did not correctly use APA citation formatting when probed in the baseline condition. Following training, participants increased their accuracy in APA citations across trained and novel exemplars. Two participants’ data showed limited functional control due to increases in baseline. One participant required an additional visual checklist to reach the mastery criterion for one skill. Social validity was also assessed with overall confidence in using APA citation formatting increasing following completion of the modules. Participants reported overall satisfaction with the online modules stating that they were helpful in teaching correct citation implementation and were easy to use. Limitations to the current study and future uses of behavioral instruction as a technology are discussed.
Presepsin, the soluble CD14 subtype, is known as a sepsis biomarker. However, its clinical significance in pneumonia is unclear. We investigated the effects of plasma presepsin level on clinical ...outcomes in patients with pneumonia.
Patients over 18 years old admitted to our hospital due to pneumonia from May 2016 through November 2017 were reviewed using electronic medical records. One hundred and seventy-two patients who underwent measurement of plasma presepsin levels on admission were enrolled. Median age of enrolled patients was 81 years interquartile range (IQR), 68-86 years. Pneumonia severity index (PSI) class and A-DROP score on admission were calculated. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to assess the prognostic value of 30-day mortality and to identify the optimal cut-off value of plasma presepsin level. Correlations between plasma presepsin level and other factors were assessed using the Spearman's test. The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and the log-rank test were performed to assess the two curves differentiated with the optimal cut-off value of plasma presepsin level.
Seventeen patients (9.9%) died within 30 days of admission. The deceased patients had higher value of plasma presepsin on admission (539 pg/mL; IQR, 414-832 pg/mL) compared with the survivors (334 pg/mL; IQR, 223-484 pg/mL) (P=0.001). The areas under ROC curve for predicting 30-day mortality were 0.742 for plasma presepsin, 0.755 for A-DROP score, and 0.774 for PSI class. Plasma presepsin level was not associated with etiology of pneumonia. However, it was moderately correlated with serum creatinine level (rs =0.524, P<0.001). The ROC curve analysis derived 470 pg/mL of plasma presepsin level as the optimal cut-off value for predicting 30-day mortality. The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that patients with plasma presepsin level ≥470 pg/mL on admission had significantly higher 30-day mortality than those with plasma presepsin level <470 pg/mL (P<0.001). Among patients with A-DROP score ≥3, those with plasma presepsin level ≥470 mg on admission had significantly higher 30-day mortality (P=0.013). Similarly, among patients with PSI class ≥4, those with plasma presepsin level ≥470 mg on admission had significantly higher 30-day mortality (P=0.005).
In hospitalized pneumonia patients, plasma presepsin level on admission could be a useful predictor of 30-day mortality and an additional prognostic biomarker on existing severity assessment scales.
Approximately 30-50% of sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) patients show poor response to systemic steroid therapy. Additionally, the most appropriate treatment for patients with refractory ...sudden sensorineural hearing loss (RSSNHL) is unknown. This study aimed to explore the best treatment for RSSNHL.
Using a frequentist contrast-based model and PRISMA guidelines, this study compared five salvage regimes: intratympanic injection of steroids (ITS), hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy, post auricle steroid injection (PSI), ITS combined with HBO therapy, and continued systemic steroids.
We searched the PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases for randomised controlled trials and cohort studies comparing treatment regimens for RSSNHL.
Compared with the control group (no additional treatment), PSI and ITS demonstrated significant improvements. The mean hearing gain was greater after PSI (11.1 dB 95% CI, 4.4-17.9) than after ITS (7.7 dB 95% CI, 4.8-10.7). When a restricted definition of RSSNHL was used, the ITS + HBO therapy showed the largest difference in improvement for pure tone average compared with the control group (14.5 dB 95% CI, 4.2-25.0).
The administration of either PSI or ITS leads to the greatest therapeutic effect in patients with RSSNHL. However, a consensus on the definition of RSSNHL is needed.
It has been reported that PSI photoinhibition is induced even in wild-type plants of Arabidopsis thaliana, rice and other species by exposure of leaves to fluctuating light (FL) for a few hours. ...Because plants are exposed to FL in nature, they must possess protective mechanisms against the FL-induced photodamage. Here, using A. thaliana grown at various irradiances, we examined PSI photoprotection by far-red (FR) light at intensities comparable with those observed in nature. Dark-treated leaves were illuminated by red FL alternating high/low light at 1,200/30 µmol m-2 s-1 for 800 ms/10 s. By this FL treatment without FR light for 120 min, the level of photo-oxidizable P700 was decreased by 30% even in the plants grown at high irradiances. The addition of continuous FR light during the FL suppressed this damage almost completely. With FR light, P700 was kept in a more oxidized state in both low- and high-light phases. The protective effect of FR light was diminished more in mutants of the NADH dehydrogenase-like complex (NDH)-mediated cyclic electron flow around PSI (CEF-PSI) than in the PGR5 (proton gradient regulation 5)-mediated CEF-PSI, indicating that the NDH-mediated CEF-PSI would be a major contributor to PSI photoprotection in the presence of FR light. We also confirmed that PSI photoinhibition decreased with the increase in growth irradiance in A. thaliana and field-grown plants, and that this PSI photodamage was largely suppressed by addition of FR light. These results clearly indicate that the most effective PSI protection is realized in the presence of FR light.
Inorganic phosphate (Pi) starvation severely affects the normal growth and development of plants. Here, a Pi-responsive gene, named MdMYB2 (MDP0000823458), was cloned and functionally identified in ...apple. Overexpression of MdMYB2 regulated the expression of Pi starvation-induced (PSI) genes and then promoted phosphate assimilation and utilization. The ectopic expression of MdMYB2 in Arabidopsis influenced plant growth and flowering, which was partially rescued by application of exogenous gibberellin (GA). These results indicated that MdMYB2 may be an essential regulator in phosphate utilization and GA-regulated plant growth and development.
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•Polyaspartamide (PA)-encapsulated SPIONs as nano-heaters for hyperthermia therapy.•Enhancing biocompatibility and cellular uptake due to biotin functional group.•Effective cancer ...killing in both in vitro and in vivo hyperthermia experiments.•These results will open further potential for cancer treatment in the future.
We report a delicate synthesis process of polyaspartamide-encapsulated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (PA-encapsulated SPIONs) with their sufficiently obtained grain-size below 100 nm for hyperthermia application. Iron oxide nanoparticles with a high magnetization have been applied as nano-heaters while polyaspartamide (PA) is a biocompatible and biodegradable polymer with a polysuccinimide (PSI) backbone. Multi-functional polymer PA could be conjugated with other groups such as biotin to enhance the uptake capability by receptors of cancer cells. Consequently, encapsulating SPIONs nano-heaters with PA biopolymer is an attractive roadmap for hyperthermia therapy application. Our results revealed that PA-encapsulated SPIONs showed excellent biocompatible behavior based on cell viability test. With Prussian blue staining of cancer cells (4T1), cellular uptake of PA-encapsulated SPIONs was significantly increased in the presence of biotin conjugated on the outer shell. Furthermore, PA-encapsulated SPIONs exhibited effective cancer killing activities in both in vitro and in vivo hyperthermia experiments. Therefore, PA-encapsulated SPIONs might have potential for hyperthermia therapy.
Abstract The performance effect of construction on energy conservation substantially depends upon application of correct materials and energy saving methodologies. A sizable financial impact is ...accomplished through insulated walls. The criteria explaining the present wall insulating material options may have different values. Furthermore, they may alter in different aspects, i.e. higher values of certain criteria show a preferable status, while for others they denote an inferior status. In this framework, a variant of compromise is needed, which can be situated through multi-criteria assessment methodologies. To diminish the effect of different methodologies on computational results, few diverse techniques can be considered, with descriptions of the mean predicted values. Thus, drawbacks of certain multi-criteria assessment techniques could be compensated through others. A hybrid methodology through the combination of individual techniques will be accurate if there is a relationship between the values determined through diverse methodologies. In this study, the most efficient insulation material used at external walls is selected by using PSI-CRITIC based CoCoSo Method. The analytical results are important both from financial and engineering point of views as the applied methodology is commercially viable and practically implementable. Precise and up-to-date material properties are derived from the leading companies in the sector.
Nowadays, the necessity of electronic information increases rapidly. As a consequence, often, that information needs to be shared among mutually distrustful parties. In this area, private set ...intersection (PSI) and its variants play an important role when the participants wish to do secret operations on their input sets. Unlike the most modern public key cryptosystems relying on number theoretic problems, lattice-based cryptographic constructions provide security in the presence of a quantum computer. Consequently, developing PSI and its variants using lattice based cryptosystem becomes an interesting direction for research. This study presents the first size-hiding post quantum PSI cardinality (PSI-CA) protocol whose complexity is linear in the size of the sets of the participants. The authors use space-efficient probabilistic data structure (Bloom filter) as its building block. Further, they extend the authors’ PSI-CA to its authorised version, i.e. authorised PSI-CA. Security for both of them is achieved in the standard model based on the hardness of the decisional learning with errors problem.
In this paper, two Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PSI) methodologies are compared in order to further understand their potential in the detection of surface deformation. A comparison of these ...two algorithms is a comparison of the two classes of PSI techniques available: coherence estimation based on a temporal model of deformation (represented by DePSI) and coherence estimation based on spatial correlation (represented by StaMPS).
Despite the similarity between the results obtained from the application of the two independent PSI methodologies, significant differences in PS density and distribution were detected, motivating a comparative study between both techniques. We analyze which approach might be more appropriate for studying specific areas/environments, which is helpful in evaluating the benefits that could be derived from an integration of the two methodologies. Several experiments are performed to assess the sensitivity of both PSI approaches to different parameter settings and circumstances. The most significant differences in the processing chain of both procedures are then investigated. We apply both methodologies to the Granada Basin area (southern Spain) and realize that coherence does not improve significantly as function of the methodology applied. If oversampling is implemented in the StaMPS processing chain, the PS density increases so that the density in the urbanized areas is similar to the results provided by DePSI but in all the remaining covers the density is significantly higher. The general results provided by both approaches are very similar in the relative deformations estimated.
► Identification of the main differences between two PSI approaches (DePSI/StaMPS). ► Detailed comparison exploiting the main differences detected. ► PS processing part of each methodology was analyzed and evaluated. ► Evaluation of the potentialities and benefits derived from the integration.
Energy deviation study of BEMS at BEPCII Zhang, J.Y.; Cai, X.; Mo, X.H. ...
Nuclear physics. B,
February 2019, 2019-02-00, 2019-02-01, Letnik:
939, Številka:
C
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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The beam energy measurement system (BEMS) at the upgraded Beijing Electron-Positron Collider (BEPCII) is designed to provide beam energy value with the relative error at the level of 5×10−5. The ...obvious energy deviation found during J/ψ resonance scan in 2012 leads to great amount of investigations on both BEPCII and BEMS sides. The reasons causing such an unexpected difference are figured out, which include the neutron damage to HPGe detector, the leakage of RF cavity, and the background from Linac. Based on a series of measures, the ψ(3686) line shape scan is designed and performed, the experimental result indicates that BEMS can measure the beam energy with the claimed accuracy. The afterward performance of BEMS is smooth and stable, and BEMS will play a crucial role in the following high accurate experiments.
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