Two methods for semi-automated quantification of changes in ventricular volume and their use in schizophrenia

Two semi-automated methods for quantification of ventricular volume change from baseline and follow-up magnetic resonance imaging scans have been developed. Technique 1 employs direct segmentation of the ventricles from both the scans using thresholding and contour extraction. Technique 2 operates on difference images produced by voxel based intensity subtraction of the baseline from the registered follow-up images. Here, all voxels with intensities above a noise threshold and in a restricted area are monitored to compute volumetric changes. In phantom measurements the first technique was accurate to 0.0046%, the second to 0.167% of the phantom volume. Results from normal volunteers was that the average ventricular volume changed by 1.52% and 1.54% for images acquired within 9 months using techniques 1 and 2, respectively. With schizophrenic patients mean change of 10.78% and 9.43% were found employing the first and second procedures, respectively. All measurements agreed with a radiologist's visual grading of the changes. Robust, objective, fast, easy-to-use, and fairly accurate procedures have been developed and validated to quantify volumetric changes.     

Dual effects of nimesulide, a COX-2 inhibitor, in human platelets

Nimesulide (CAS 51803-78-2) has been shown to exert marked anti-inflammatory effect in several in vivo models of inflammation. Since nimesulide is considered to be a selective inhibitor of COX-2, it has not been studied in detail in relation to its mechanistic effects on platelets, which express COX-1. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of nimesulide in platelet aggregation. We show that nimesulide (1-100 microM) inhibited platelet aggregation induced by adrenaline (20-200 microM). It also inhibited thromboxane A2 (TXA2) formation by platelets at low concentration (IC50; 1 microM). However, much lower concentrations of nimesulide (0.01-0.1 microM) potentiated the aggregatory response of subthreshold concentrations of adrenaline (0.2-2 microM). Such an effect was blocked by Ca2+-channel blockers, verapamil and diltiazem (IC50: 7 and 46 microM, respectively), nitric oxide donor, SNAP (IC50; 2 microM) and cinchonine (10 nM) but not by genistein (up to 10 microM). These results are indicative of the concentration-dependent dual effects of nimesulide on human platelet aggregation. The synergistic effect of low doses of nimesulide and adrenaline seems to be mediated through inhibition of multiple signalling pathways.     

Design of Circular Urban Storm Sewer Systems Using Multilinear Muskingum Flow Routing Method

In this study, a multilinear Muskingum method is presented for hydrologic routing through circular conduits. In order to increase accuracy, the reference discharge is assumed to be a nonlinear function of conduit diameter, Manning coefficient, bed slope, and peak discharge of the inflow hydrograph. The reference discharge function has been determined using a nonlinear regression technique. Flow depths are computed at every time step by solving the continuity equation using an implicit finite difference scheme. Many storm hydrographs were routed through circular conduits of various sizes by the proposed model. The calculated routed hydrographs and water surface profiles indicate close agreement with those obtained by solving Saint Venant equations. Using this method, a branched urban sewer system was designed. This indicates that the method can be easily implemented for design purposes because of its simplicity, accuracy, and computational efficiency.     

Muscarinic regulation of intracellular signaling and neurosecretion in gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons

Agonist activation of cholinergic receptors expressed in perifused hypothalamic and immortalized GnRH-producing (GT1-7) cells induced prominent peaks in GnRH release, each followed by a rapid decrease, a transient plateau, and a decline to below basal levels. The complex profile of GnRH release suggested that acetylcholine (ACh) acts through different cholinergic receptor subtypes to exert stimulatory and inhibitory effects on GnRH release. Whereas activation of nicotinic receptors caused a transient increase in GnRH release, activation of muscarinic receptors inhibited basal GnRH release. Nanomolar concentrations of ACh caused dose-dependent inhibition of cAMP production that was prevented by pertussis toxin (PTX), consistent with the activation of a plasma-membrane Gi protein. Micromolar concentrations of ACh also caused an increase in phosphoinositide hydrolysis that was inhibited by the M1 receptor antagonist, pirenzepine. In ACh-treated cells, immunoblot analysis revealed that membrane-associated G(alpha q/11) immunoreactivity was decreased after 5 min but was restored at later times. In contrast, immunoreactive G(alpha i3) was decreased for up to 120 min after ACh treatment. The agonist-induced changes in G protein alpha-subunits liberated during activation of muscarinic receptors were correlated with regulation of their respective transduction pathways. These results indicate that ACh modulates GnRH release from hypothalamic neurons through both M1 and M2 muscarinic receptors. These receptor subtypes are coupled to Gq and Gi proteins that respectively influence the activities of PLC and adenylyl cyclase/ion channels, with consequent effects on neurosecretion.     

Flood inundation extent in storage cell mode

An understanding of floodplain processes in general and floodplains flooding in particular are vital issues for river engineers and managers. Insufficient observations of flood inundation extent and the infrequent nature of flood inundation necessitate some sort of predictive tools. In this paper flood inundation extent has been simulated by HEC-RAS software in two storage cell and normal modes and capabilities and limitations of the two models have been determined by comparing simulated and observed flood inundation extent which occurred in the study area on Feb 4th, 2004.     

Generic Methodology for Analyzing Delay Claims

It is common for a construction project to encounter delays. There are several reasons that can contribute to delaying a project. Analyzing the various causes that contribute to a project's delay is an important task to resolving it. Determining, in a scientific manner, the impact, timing, and the contributing effect of each of those causes to the overall delay should assist in helping the parties settle the delay without litigation. Project participants are becoming more aware of the high costs and risks associated with delay claims and their litigation. Thus, the construction industry needs to develop methodologies and techniques to prevent and more efficiently resolve delay claims. While many practitioners have been following some kind of a methodology for analyzing delay claims, a written exposition of such a methodology is not widely available in the literature. Thus, this paper presents a written exposition of a generic methodology for analyzing delay claims. This methodology has been developed and successfully used, by the writer, in various projects to resolve delay claims. The developed methodology will be illustrated through its application in those projects. Moreover, this methodology shows that while there are several techniques for analyzing delay claims, very few of these can be considered adequate. The use of such an adequate technique is a key in obtaining a fair allocation of the delay responsibility. This paper's methodology utilizes one of these few adequate techniques for analyzing delay claims.     

MULTIPLE SOLUTIONS IN STABILITY ANALYSIS USING HOMOTOPY CONTINUATION IN COMPLEX SPACE

Stability analysis problems that have strong nonlinearity have been of interest in chemical engineering in recent years. In this study, we solved these problems using the homotopy continuation method in complex domain. Based on this method, homotopy branches in real and complex space are connected to each other through bifurcation branches. Therefore, multiple solution branches are found by just one initial guess. Some examples presented to show methods of solving nonlinear sets of equations in stability problems.     

Enhancing the crystallization and orientation of electrospinning poly (lactic acid) (PLLA) by combining with additives

Novel hydrogel films composed of hydroxyethylacryl chitosan (HC) and sodium alginate (SA) were prepared for biomedical application by using calcium chloride (CaCl₂) as a nontoxic ionic crosslinker to form a semi-interpenetrating polymer network (semi-IPN). HC was successfully prepared by following a Michael addition reaction of chitosan (CS) and hydroxyethylacrylate completely dissolved in distilled water at 70 °C. The distribution pattern of Ca²⁺ ions were well-dispersed within the hydrogel films examined by scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS), implying uniformity of crosslinking. The swelling behavior of the hydrogel films in distilled water, simulated gastric fluid (SGF, pH?=?1.2) and phosphate buffer solution (PBS, pH?=?7.4) were investigated. The equilibrium swelling degree of the hydrogel films in distilled water increased with a decreas of either the SA content or the concentration of CaCl₂. The hydrogel films showed pH-dependent behavior in that the shapes of the hydrogel films were stable in SGF while they degraded in PBS. The tensile strength and elongation of the hydrogel films reached 12.1 MPa and 162%, respectively, which presented reasonable mechanical properties during use and enough flexibility to follow skin movement. Cell viability of the hydrogels was measured using a methylthiazol tetrazolium (MTT) assay. The results indicated that the hydrogel films are not cytotoxic.     

Morphological and rheological properties of (low‐density polyethylene)/thermoplastic starch blend: investigation of the role of high elastic network

Rheological and morphological properties of low‐density polyethylene (LDPE) and thermoplastic starch (TPS) with low‐density polyethylene‐grafted‐maleic anhydride as a compatibilizer were investigated. The results showed that the circularity of the droplets decreased with increasing TPS content. The presence of compatibilizer led to finer morphology and higher continuity. The rheological analyses showed that TPS and compatibilizer can increase elasticity and viscosity of the blend dramatically. In addition, the compatibilizer enhanced the compatibility of the blends, as evidenced by the shifting of the relaxation time peak of TPS to longer times. The rheological properties of the neat components and their blends were discussed by the Carreau‐Yasuda and fractional Zener models. The fractional Zener model results proved the existence of network structure in the compatibilized blends. The transient properties of blends showed that TPS and compatibilized blends had strong overshoot compared with the uncompatibilized blend, owing to the formation of high elastic network in their structure. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 20:250–259, 2014. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Three-level response surface full-factorial design: advanced chemometric approach for optimizing diclofenac sodium-imprinted polymer

The present research work was undertaken to optimize the template:monomer:cross-linker ratio of the diclofenac sodium block molecularly imprinted polymer with respect to the molecular recognition properties. A three-level full-factorial design was employed. This is of great interest because applying this approach instead of traditional methods would be expected to improve validation of the optimum and consumed time. Imprinted polymers with selected ratios and the control polymers were synthesized by precipitation polymerization method and the values of rebind capacity and imprinting factor calculated after performing batch rebinding experiments. The predicted optimum ratios of (1:8:40) and (1:4:40) were found by applying the three-dimensional surface plots for rebind capacity and imprinting factor. The optimized imprinted polymers and their control polymers were produced. These polymers were evaluated using equilibrium binding experiments and finally the optimum molar ratio of (1:8:40) chosen. Batch rebinding experiments were carried out to evaluate the binding and selectivity properties of the optimized polymer. A heterogeneous nature of the binding sites was found based on the Scatchard plot. The selectivity study of imprinted polymers demonstrated a 24 % cross-reactivity towards meclofenamate sodium, but less than 2 % towards fenoprofen calcium.