Quantitation by radioimmunoassay of PAF in human saliva

Approximately 75% of the PAF present in saliva is recovered on extraction of whole saliva (0.8 vol) with chloroform/methanol/water (2∶2∶1 v/v/v). PAF levels, determined by our recently developed radioimmunoassay, in saliva extracts ranged from 0.5–21 ng/mL with 59% between 2–6 ng/mL. These figures, for apparently healthy subjects, are higher than previously reported levels obtained by platelet assays. The validity of our radioimmunoassay results was checked by isolating and quantitating the PAF fraction from whole saliva. In addition, when we examined our saliva samples by platelet aggregation, low levels of PAF, comparable with the values found in the literature, were detected. Investigations revealed the presence of a substance(s) which inhibited PAF-induced platelet aggregation but which did not affect the radioimmunoassay.     

Business intelligence success: The roles of BI capabilities and decision environments

This study examines the role of the decision environment in how well business intelligence (BI) capabilities are leveraged to achieve BI success. We examine the decision environment in terms of the types of decisions made and the information processing needs of the organization. Our findings suggest that technological capabilities such as data quality, user access and the integration of BI with other systems are necessary for BI success, regardless of the decision environment. However, the decision environment does influence the relationship between BI success and capabilities, such as the extent to which BI supports flexibility and risk in decision making.     

Manual Therapy Facilitates Homeostatic Adaptation to Bone Microstructural Declines Induced by a Rat Model of Repetitive Forceful Task

The effectiveness of manual therapy in reducing the catabolic effects of performing repetitive intensive force tasks on bones has not been reported. We examined if manual therapy could reduce radial bone microstructural declines in adult female Sprague–Dawley rats performing a 12-week high-repetition and high-force task, with or without simultaneous manual therapy to forelimbs. Additional rats were provided 6 weeks of rest after task cessation, with or without manual therapy. The control rats were untreated or received manual therapy for 12 weeks. The untreated TASK rats showed increased catabolic indices in the radius (decreased trabecular bone volume and numbers, increased osteoclasts in these trabeculae, and mid-diaphyseal cortical bone thinning) and increased serum CTX-1, TNF-α, and muscle macrophages. In contrast, the TASK rats receiving manual therapy showed increased radial bone anabolism (increased trabecular bone volume and osteoblast numbers, decreased osteoclast numbers, and increased mid-diaphyseal total area and periosteal perimeter) and increased serum TNF-α and muscle macrophages. Rest, with or without manual therapy, improved the trabecular thickness and mid-diaphyseal cortical bone attributes but not the mineral density. Thus, preventive manual therapy reduced the net radial bone catabolism by increasing osteogenesis, while rest, with or without manual therapy, was less effective.     

Reliability performance of safety instrumented systems: A common approach for both low- and high-demand mode of operation

Safety instrumented systems (SISs) are usually divided into two modes of operation, low-demand and high-demand. Unfortunately, this classification is not easy to justify and the available formulas that are used to quantify the reliability performance in these two modes of operation are unable to capture combined effects of functional testing, spurious activations, and successful responses to demands. This article discusses some important modeling issues for SIS reliability performance quantification, and demonstrates their implementation in a Markov model. The accuracy of the Markov model for a simple case study of a pressure transmitter is verified through comparison with a scenario-based formula, and it is shown that the Markov approach gives a sufficiently accurate result for all demand rates, covering both low- and high-demand modes of operation.     

Assessment of myocardial lesion size during in vitro radio frequency catheter ablation

We report our experience with a system that utilizes changes in several biophysical characteristics of cardiac tissue to determine lesion formation and to estimate lesion size both on and off-line in vitro during radio frequency (RF) energy delivery. We analyzed the reactive and resistive components of tissue impedance and tracked the change of phase angle during RF ablation. We correlated the amount of tissue damage with these and other biophysical parameters and compared them with off-line analysis. We found that there are irreversible changes in the reactive and resistive components of impedance that occurred during tissue ablation. The irreversible changes of these components are greater in magnitude, and correlate better with the size of lesions than that of impedance alone that is currently used. Numerically, the best single on-line and off-line correlation for combined perpendicular and parallel electrode orientation was with phase angle. On-line and off-line capacitance and susceptance correlations were essentially similar suggesting that they may be useful as lesion size predictors, given these parameter's persistent change without temperature sensitivity. This study indicates that it is technically feasible to assess lesion formation using biophysical parameters.     

Dropping False Packet to Increase the Network Lifetime of Wireless Sensor Network using EFDD Protocol

In Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) sensors are densely deployed where the intruders can compromise some sensor nodes and inject false data in order to raise false alarms, reduce network lifetime, utilize bandwidth resources and so on. False Data Injection can possibly occur in Data Aggregation (DA) and Data Forwarding (DF). This paper analyses EFDD Protocol-Early False Data Detection Protocol which addresses the two possibilities in a simple and secure way considering the constraints of sensor nodes. The main idea is the selection of the network structure; this protocol will work effectively in Spatial/Semantic Correlation Tree Structure (SCT). False Data Detection in DA is done using some monitoring nodes which will monitor the Data Aggregator. EFDD in SCT structure reduce the counterfeit data transmission when compared to other structure in a better way. The result shows that EFDD reduce data transmission by dropping false data earlier and it also reduces computation when compared to the existing schemes.     

Structural and Spectroscopic Studies of Sm3+/CdS Nanocrystallites in Sol–Gel TiO2-ZrO2 Matrix

A sol–gel method was used to prepare titania-zirconia matrices doped with Sm³⁺/CdS nanocrystallites. The structural properties of the matrices were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential thermal analysis (DTA), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy studies. The thermal stability of the material was determined by TGA/DTA analysis. The absorption spectrum shows the characteristic peaks of the Sm³⁺ ions and the absorption peak corresponding to the CdS nanocrystallites. The optical bandgap and size of the CdS nanoparticles were calculated from the absorption spectrum. From TEM, the interplanar distance (d) was estimated to be 3.533 Å, which matches with the (1 0 0) plane of bulk CdS. The measurements yield a nanocrystallite size of around 7.8 nm. The optical absorption and emission spectra confirmed the formation of CdS nanoparticles along with samarium ions in the titania-zirconia matrices. The fluorescence intensity of the samarium ions was found to be greatly enhanced by codoping with CdS nanocrystallites.     

Iterative voting for inference of structural saliency and characterization of subcellular events.

Saliency is an important perceptual cue that occurs at different levels of resolution. Important attributes of saliency are symmetry, continuity, and closure. Detection of these attributes is often hindered by noise, variation in scale, and incomplete information. This paper introduces the iterative voting method, which uses oriented kernels for inferring saliency as it relates to symmetry. A unique aspect of the technique is the kernel topography, which is refined and reoriented iteratively. The technique can cluster and group nonconvex perceptual circular symmetries along the radial line of an object's shape. It has an excellent noise immunity and is shown to be tolerant to perturbation in scale. The application of this technique to images obtained through various modes of microscopy is demonstrated. Furthermore, as a case example, the method has been applied to quantify kinetics of nuclear foci formation that are formed by phosphorylation of histone gammaH2AX following ionizing radiation. Iterative voting has been implemented in both 2-D and 3-D for multi image analysis.     

Synthesis,characterisation and use of 2-tetradecylcyclobutanone together with other cyclobutanones as markers for irradiated liquid whole egg

The synthesis and characterisation of 2-tetradecylcyclobutanone (TCB) is described. Both 2-dodecykyclobutanone and TCB were shown to be present in liquid whole egg irradiated at doses of 2.5 and 10.0 kGy. These compounds were absent from the unirradiated pasteurised samples. Using gas chromatography and infrared spectroscopy, there was also evidence for the presence in irradiated egg of 2-tetradeccnyl- and 2-tetradecadienylyclobutanone which are formed from oleic and linoleic acids, respectively. Authentic standards for these unsaturated cyclobutanones were not available commercially but the presence of 2-tetra-decenylcyclobutanone was substantiated by hydrogenating the egg extracts so converting this unsaturated cyclobutanone to TCB. Saturated and unsaturated cyclobutanones appear to be specific products of irradiation and are potential markers for detection of irradiated liquid egg and probably other fat-containing foods.