Effects of long-term feeding of marine oils with different positional distribution of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids on lipid metabolism, eicosanoid production, and platelet aggregation in hypercholesterolemic rats

To clarify the clinical features of nosocomial pneumonia during mechanical ventilation (ventilator-associated pneumonia) and to select the appropriate antibiotic therapy for patients, we performed a clinical analysis of 19 patients (26 episodes) with this condition. The following results were obtained. 1, The average age of the patients was 68 years old (male 16, female 3). 2, VAP occurred three times in 2 cases, twice in 3 cases, and once in 14 cases. 3, The duration of mechanical ventilation was from 7 days to 11 years and 5 months (the average was 2.1 years). 4, The microorganism isolated from the aspiration sputum of the VAP patients was Pseudomonas aeruginosa frequently, but it was difficult to determine whether this microorganism was the causative microorganism. Ten strains of Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA seven strains and MSSA three strains) were newly isolated at the same time as VAP and especially in the cases in which these were thought to be causative microrganisms, all the patients died within a short time. 5, Antibiotics were clinically effective for 53.8% of all the VAP patients and carbapenem antibiotics (for example, IPM/CS) were also used for the effective group. 6, Regarding the risk factors for VAP, factors such as the duration of mechanical ventilation, the existence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a hyponutritional state, prior antibiotics, aspiration of gastric contents, histamine-type-2 receptor antagonist, and multiple organ failure showed significant differences and were suspected to be associated with the appearance of VAP.     

Extensions to the Sherif-Dear Simple (SDS) theorem in number theory

We put forward extensions to the Sherif-Dear Simple (SDS) Theorem, prove these extensions by enumeration, and cite some relevant applications. “The essence of research is its freedom.”     

Development of the electrochemical scale removal technique for desalination applications

The possibility of alkaline scale precipitation and removal by electrolytic devices has long been recognized. The scale removal principle of the electrochemical technique is based on the creation of a high pH environment around the cathode by water and oxygen reduction reactions which release hydroxyl ions. The alkaline environment induces precipitation of the calcium hardness in the form of CaCO₃ and of the magnesium hardness, in the form of Mg(OH)₂. Despite the commercial availability of such equipment, the use of electrochemical scale control methods is quite limited. Currently, the main field of application of electrolytic devices is for reducing the hardness of water recirculating in cooling towers. The lack of authoritative technical information on electrochemical scale removal reflects the paucity of research and development efforts in a technology which holds considerable promise for expanding the rather limited scope of viable scale control techniques. The objectives of this research project are to evaluate the potential of the electrochemical technique for RO desalination processes in general and for increasing water recovery levels in particular. The paper summarizes results of the first phase of the research. Models describing cell resistance in the absence and in the presence of a deposit on the cathode are presented. The effects of several parameters on the deposition rate and on the electric energy consumption are investigated. Results show that the higher the water hardness, the higher the scale precipitation rate and the lower the specific energy consumption. An increase in the flow velocity augments the scale deposition rate. Analysis of the velocity effect data indicates that the scale precipitation reaction is mass transfer controlled. The main optimization parameter is the current density. As may be anticipated, a low specific electrical energy is consumed when the electrolyzed solution is exposed to a large electrode surface and a high specific energy is consumed when the solution is exposed to a small electrode surface. The energy consumption can be rather low. For instance, in the electrolysis of a typical concentrate stream of a brackish desalination plant at a current density of 25 A/m², the energy consumption is of the order of 4 kWh per kg of precipitated CaCO₃ and the scale precipitation rate is of the order of 25 g CaCO₃/h m². Finally, a flow scheme is presented indicating the possibility of beneficial increase of the water recovery level in brackish water RO desalination, by partial recycle of the concentrate after electrochemical precipitation of the scale forming ions held in solution by the anti-scalant.     

Unusual Magnetic Phase Transitions in Gd<Superscript>3+</Superscript> Clusters in Multicomponent Oxide Glasses

Magnetic susceptibility, EPR and optical properties have been studied in a glass system {20La₂O₃−22Al₂O₃−23 B₂O₃−35(SiO₂+GeO₂)} with a part of La₂O₃ substituted by Gd₂O₃ in different concentrations. Positive Weiss constants have been found in more heavily doped glasses; two magnetic transitions at 55 and 12 K have been detected and ascribed, respectively, to ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic clusters of Gd³⁺ ions. The EPR spectra confirm the clustering at higher Gd contents. At low temperatures the cluster-related resonance indicates an onset of magnetic anisotropy. The clustering, depending on the Gd concentration, correlates with a shift to lower energies of the strong optical absorption band edge.     

无线通信中的能源效率VS带宽效率：从经济可持续性到绿色无线电

We carry out a comprehensive analysis of a range of wireless network efficiency considerations. Firstly, we explore the properties and the implications of the power-versus bandwidth-efficiency criteria. Secondly, we perform a detailed top-down analysis of a typical commercial wireless network, which emphasizes the inherent differences between the aforementioned two efficiency metrics, while demonstrating that the appropriate choice of the network optimization criterion can have a profound effect on the over...     

Agent development as a strategy shaper

This paper studies to what extent agent development changes one’s own strategy. While this question has many general implications it is of special interest to the study of peer designed agents (PDAs), which are computer agents developed by non-experts. This latter emerging technology, has been widely advocated in recent literature for the purpose of replacing people in simulations and investigating human behavior. Its main premise is that strategies programmed into these agents reliably reflect, to some extent, the behavior used by their programmers in real life. We show that PDA development has an important side effect that has not been addressed to date—the process that merely attempts to capture one’s strategy is also likely to affect the developer’s strategy. This result has many implications concerning the appropriate design of PDA-based simulations as well as the validity of using PDAs for studying individual decision making. The phenomenon is demonstrated experimentally, using two very different application domains and several performance measures. Our findings suggest that the effects on one’s strategy arise both in situations where it is potentially possible for people to reason about the optimal strategy (in which case PDA development will enhance the use of an optimal strategy) and in those where calculating the optimal strategy is computationally challenging (in which case PDA development will push people to use more effective strategies, on average). Since in our experiments PDA development actually improved the developer’s strategy, PDA development can be suggested as a means for improving people’s problem solving skills. Finally, we show that the improvement achieved in people’s strategies through agent development is not attributed to the expressive aspect of agent development per-se but rather there is a crucial additional gain in the process of designing and programming ones strategy into an agent.     

Effects of long-term feeding of marine oils with different positional distribution of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids on lipid metabolism, eicosanoid production, and platelet aggregation in hypercholesterolemic rats

Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were distributed mainly in the sn-1,3 positions of seal oil triglyceride and in the sn-2 position of squid oil triglyceride. Seal oil-rich or squid oil-rich fats having constant saturated/monounsaturated/polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) and n−6/n−3 PUFA ratios were fed to exogenously hypercholesterolemic rats for 160 d. The control fat contained linoleic acid as the sole PUFA. Before starting the experimental diets, rats were orally treated with high doses of vitamin D for 4 d to accelerate atherogenesis. The percentage of arachidonic acid in phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine of liver, platelets, and aorta was lower in the marine oil groups than in the control group, seal oil being more effective than squid oil. Maximal platelet aggregation induced by collagen was significantly lower both marine oil groups. Platelet thromboxane (TX) A₂ production induced by collagen or thrombin was markedly reduced by feeding seal or squid oils, the reduction being more pronounced in the seal oil than in the squid oil group. Aortic prostacyclin (PGI₂) production was the same among the three groups. The ratio of the productions of aortic PGI₂ and platelet TXA₂ was significantly higher in the seal oil than in the control group. Although there was no difference in intimal thickness among the three groups, the aortic cholesterol content was significantly lower in the marine oil groups than in the control group. These results showed that the main effects in rats of the different intramolecular distributions of EPA and DHA in dietary fats were on arachidonic acid content in tissue phospholipids and on platelet TXA₂ production.     

Modeling the repairability function by the first passage time distribution of Brownian motion

This paper puts forward the first passage time distribution of Brownian motion as a repairability model. The paper proceeds to fit the model to observed active repair data of radar systems, obtaining as a result estimates of the mean first passage time, drift and diffusion parameters of the associated Brownian motion. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test of the hypothesized model of repair data is accepted.