Effect of Peroxide Concentration on the Modification of the LLDPE: Statistical Experimental Design and Thermal Properties

Summary The effect of small concentrations of dicumyl peroxide (DCP) on the modification of a linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) during a reactive extrusion process was investigated. The experiments were arranged in a two level factorial design in order to evaluate the effect of temperature zones (X₁), peroxide concentration (X₂) and screw rpm (X₃) on the modification of LLDPE. The melt flow index (MFI) was used as a response variable. It was verified that the thermal properties, crystalline melting temperature (T_m), the heat of fusion (Hmelt) and the crystallinity degree (X%) decrease with the increasing of the peroxide concentration. The crystallization temperature (T_c) increased up to 0.05% w/w peroxide, whereafter the level stays almost constant. The gel content of the samples however indicated that a three-dimensional network was negligible in the experimental conditions used.     

Identification of preussin as a selective inhibitor for cell growth of the fission yeast ts mutants defective in Cdc2-regulatory genes

In order to identify physiological activators of proteinase-activated receptor-2 (PAR-2), a peptide chloromethane inhibitor (biotinyl-Ser-Lys-Gly-Arg-CH2Cl) based on the cleavage site for activation of PAR-2 was synthesised and tested with 12 trypsin-like serine proteinases. The second-order rate constant (ki/Ki) for the formation of the covalent proteinase-inhibitor complex varied by 2 x 10(5)-fold between the proteinases. Biotinyl-Ser-Lys-Gly-Arg-CH2Cl reacted very rapidly with trypsin, acrosin from sperm and tryptase from mast cells: the ki/Ki values with these proteinases were greater than 10(5) M(-1) x s(-1). Thus, the specificity of these proteinases matched the sequence of the activation site of PAR-2 and it can be concluded that these proteinases are potential physiological activators of PAR-2.     

Clinical evaluation of Azasetron Hydrochloride: a new selective 5-HT3 receptor antagonist--antiemetic profile and plasma concentration in transcatheter arterial chemoembolization using CDDP for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma

We performed a clinical evaluation on the antiemetic profile and the plasma concentration of Azasetron Hydrochloride (a new selective 5-HT3 receptor antagonist), in transcatheter arterial chemoembolization using CDDP for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma. Antiemetic effects were examined in 32 patients in the serotone group (administration of serotone 10 mg + methylprednisolone 125 mg) and in 77 patients of the control group (administration of metoclopramide 20-30 mg + methylprednisolone 500 mg). The response rate and the CR ratio in serotone group was 97% and 66%, respectively. These results were statistically higher than in the control group. Although all patients had chronic liver diseases, no side effects and complications related to administration of serotone were observed. The average area under the concentration (AUC) curve of plasma serotone in five patients with liver cirrhosis was 531 ng.h/ml, which was greater than that of a healthy volunteer. In conclusion, serotone is a new, safe and useful antiemetic drug in TACE therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma.     

Diagnosis of endocardial cushion defect with cross-sectional and M-mode scanning echocardiography. Differentiation from secundum atrial septal defect

Twelve cases of endocardial cushion defect were studied before and after operation with ultrasono-cardiotomography (tomography) cross-sectional echocardiography, two-dimensional echocardiography, B-scan echocardiography) and M-mode scan along a horizontal section of the heart. For comparison, 20 healthy subjects, 18 cases of mitral valvular disease, 4 cases of congestive cardiomyopathy, 1 case of partial anomalous pulmonary venous drainage, and 25 cases of atrial septal defect of secundum type were also examined with the same technique. In cases without cardiac malformation, the echo of the anterior mitral valve was usually continuous medially with that of the interatrial septum in the horizontal plane at the level of the membranous septum. This feature was clearly recorded in all cases with right heart enlargement. In ostium secundum atrial septal defect the echo of the anterior mitral valve continued into that of the interatrial septum. An echo interruption was shown, indicating the defect itself to be in the middle part of the interatrial septum. In all the cases of endocardial cushion defect which we examined discontinuity was shown between the echo of the anterior mitral valve and that of the interatrial septum. This discontinuity was interpreted as indicating the defect itself. The mitral valve ring echo was close to the basal end of that of the interventricular septum, possibly reflecting an abnormal attachment of the mitral valve. In all cases, after operation, the echo of the artificial interatrial septum was recorded, continuous with that of the anterior mitral valve. The features of the echocardiographic sweep from the anterior mitral valve to the interatrial septum were thus different in the three groups. These echocardiographic differences are thought to correspond to the anatomical differences between the normal, atrial septal defect of secundum type, and endocardial cushion defect, and are essential features differentiating them from each other.     

Plan directeur d'exploitation des carrieres

The necessity of planning the activities related to quarries developed in the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo, in accordance with the directions fixed by the metropolitan planning led to the preparation of a PDM-PLANO DIRECTOR DE MINERAÇAO-(guiding Plan for Quarrying). This project includes contributions from SNM—Secretaria dos negocios metropolitanos do estado de Sao Paulo—as well as from D.N.P.M.—Departmento Nacional da Produçao Mineral; from Emplasa—Empresa metropolitana de planejamento da grande Sao Paulo and from C.P.R.M.—Companhia de Pesquisa de Recursos Minerais. This work was a natural consequence of what was agreed upon between S.N.M. and D.N.P.M., on september the 28^th, 1976. Such an agreement proved to be necessary when the conflicts between the quarrying activities and the plans for use and occupation of the metropolitan soils tended to increase, as there was an incompatibility between quarrying activities development and the areas which had been selected for agriculture, implantation of industrial districts, urban expansion or even for environmental protection. The elaboration of the PDM required hard field work including a survey of mineral potential areas, the situation of the market; a check-up of local conditions for quarrying; the methods of quarrying which were used and the possibilities of recovering the mined areas. It also requried experts from different fields, such as architects, civil and mining engineers, geoligists, geographers and lawyers who worked together, in an attempt to find an integrated solution for the problem. The execution and implantation of the PDM led to the conclusion that quarrying activities had to be considered as a significant way of using the soil, contrary to what had been done so far. It also tried to integrate it with other uses of the soil, in the metropolitan planning.     

Finite horizon analysis of Markov Chains with the Murϕ verifier

In this paper we present an explicit disk-based verification algorithm for Probabilistic Systems defining discrete time/finite state Markov Chains. Given a Markov Chain and an integer k (horizon), our algorithm checks whether the probability of reaching an error state in at most k steps is below a given threshold. We present an implementation of our algorithm within a suitable extension of the Murϕ verifier. We call the resulting probabilistic model checker FHP-Murϕ (Finite Horizon ProbabilisticMurϕ). We present experimental results comparing FHP-Murϕ with (a finite horizon subset of) PRISM, a state-of-the-art symbolic model checker for Markov Chains. Our experimental results show that FHP-Murϕ can handle systems that are out of reach for PRISM, namely those involving arithmetic operations on the state variables (e.g. hybrid systems). This research has been partially supported by MURST projects MEFISTO and SAHARA. This paper is a journal version of the conference paper [16].     

Feature selection for ensembles applied to handwriting recognition

Feature selection for ensembles has shown to be an effective strategy for ensemble creation due to its ability of producing good subsets of features, which make the classifiers of the ensemble disagree on difficult cases. In this paper we present an ensemble feature selection approach based on a hierarchical multi-objective genetic algorithm. The underpinning paradigm is the “overproduce and choose”. The algorithm operates in two levels. Firstly, it performs feature selection in order to generate a set of classifiers and then it chooses the best team of classifiers. In order to show its robustness, the method is evaluated in two different contexts:supervised and unsupervised feature selection. In the former, we have considered the problem of handwritten digit recognition and used three different feature sets and multi-layer perceptron neural networks as classifiers. In the latter, we took into account the problem of handwritten month word recognition and used three different feature sets and hidden Markov models as classifiers. Experiments and comparisons with classical methods, such as Bagging and Boosting, demonstrated that the proposed methodology brings compelling improvements when classifiers have to work with very low error rates. Comparisons have been done by considering the recognition rates only.     

Vascular access‐related infection in nocturnal home hemodialysis

Frequent hemodialysis is associated with increased vascular access adverse events. We hypothesized that bacteremia would be more frequent in patients with central venous catheter (CVC) than arteriovenous fistula or arteriovenous graft (AVF/AVG) in nocturnal home hemodialysis (NHHD). We reviewed blood culture reports and concurrent clinical data for a cohort of one hundred eighty‐seven NHHD patients between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2012. The primary outcome was time to first bacteremia, technique failure, or death after commencing NHHD. Types of bacteremia and clinical consequences were analyzed. Analyses were adjusted for a priori defined confounders. One hundred eighty‐seven patients were included with a total follow up of six hundred five patient years. Initial vascular access was AVF in seventy‐eight (42%) patients, AVG in eleven (6%) patients, and CVC in ninety‐eight (52%) patients. A total of 79.3% of patients with a CVC reached the composite endpoint of bacteremia, technique failure, or death in the study period; 44.5% of patients with an AVF or AVG reached this composite endpoint. Adjusted time to first bacteremia, technique failure, or death was significantly shorter in patients with initial CVC access (hazard ratio 2.42, 95% confidence interval 1.50–3.90, p < 0.001). Risk factors for bacteremia were comorbid status quantified by the Charlson Comorbidity Index (p < 0.001) and diabetes (p < 0.001). Coagulase negative staphylococcus was the commonest organism cultured accounting for 51.4% bacteremias. The second commonest organism was staphylococcus aureus (20.3% bacteremias). Patients undergoing NHHD with a CVC have a shorter duration to first infection, technique failure, or death than those with permanent vascular access.