New Machine Learning Ensemble for Flood Susceptibility Estimation

Water Resources Management - Floods are among the most severe natural hazard phenomena that affect people around the world. Due to this fact, the identification of zones highly susceptible to...     

Quality-of-life following thoracotomy for lung cancer

Contrary to the issues of perioperative morbidity and survival following surgery for lung cancer, little attention has been given to quality-of-life. To address this, quality-of-life was assessed preoperatively and 1, 3, 6 and 9 months postoperatively in a cohort of 117 consecutive subjects who underwent thoracotomy with a certain or presumptive diagnosis of lung cancer. Those with cancer (n = 91) confirmed at thoracotomy were contrasted to those without (n = 26). Moderate to severe dyspnea, reported in 14% preoperatively, increased to 34% at 1 and 3 months (p < 0.005) but returned to approximately 10% at 6 and 9 months. Similarly, activities of daily living were impaired in 11% preoperatively; this disability increased to 21% at 1 month (p < 0.005), and returned to baseline at 6 and 9 months. Those with cancer compared to those without a postoperative diagnosis of cancer had similar quality-of-life preoperatively but deteriorated more in the postoperative period. This study demonstrates that important deterioration in quality-of-life occurs during the first 3 months postoperatively in those with a final diagnosis of cancer but improvement back to baseline can be expected thereafter.     

Influence of the organic pollution on the reliability of HE9 connectors

Edge connectors are very commonly used in instrumentation and control (I&C). Failures are difficult to explain and to predict. As a consequence the long-term reliability is difficult to demonstrate. We present in this paper the results of studies we carried out on the influence of the organic pollution in the reliability of HE9 connectors that have been used for more than 25 years. We demonstrate that organic pollution is one of the main important factor that influences the reliability and give an analysis method to evaluate its impact.     

Afferent connections of the medial frontal cortex of the rat. II. Cortical and subcortical afferents

In order to compare the frontal cortex of rat and macaque monkey, cortical and subcortical afferents to subdivisions of the medial frontal cortex (MFC) in the rat were analyzed with fluorescent retrograde tracers. In addition to afferent inputs common to the whole MFC, each subdivision of the MFC has a specific pattern of afferent connections. The dorsally situated precentral medial area (PrCm) was the only area to receive inputs from the somatosensory cortex. The specific pattern of afferents common to the ventrally situated prelimbic (PL) and infralimbic (IL) areas included projections from the agranular insular cortex, the entorhinal and piriform cortices, the CA1-CA2 fields of the hippocampus, the subiculum, the endopiriform nucleus, the amygdalopiriform transition, the amygdalohippocampal area, the lateral tegmentum, and the parabrachial nucleus. In all these structures, the number of retrogradely labeled cells was larger when the injection site was located in area IL. The dorsal part of the anterior cingulate area (ACd) seemed to be connectionally intermediate between the adjacent areas PrCm and PL; it receives neither the somatosensory inputs characteristic of area PrCm nor the afferents characteristic of areas PL and IL, with the exception of the afferents from the caudal part of the retrosplenial cortex. A comparison of the pattern of afferent and efferent connections of the rat MFC with the pattern of macaque prefrontal cortex suggests that PrCm and ACd areas share some properties with the macaque premotor cortex, whereas PL and IL areas may have characteristics in common with the cingulate or with medial areas 24, 25, and 32 and with orbital areas 12, 13, and 14 of macaques.     

Structure, chromosomal localisation and expression of the murine dominant negative helix-loop-helix Id4 gene

In the elderly patients a greater loss of teeth is frequently seen in combination with periodontal diseases. This article presents an overview of the changes of oral structures during ageing as well as immunology, physical and psychological aspects. Also summarised are complications by systemic illnesses, drug medications and periodontal alterations. If possible illnesses and medications are taken into consideration, there should be no special problem for the elderly patients.     

Isolation and characterization of a dibasic selective metalloendopeptidase from rat testes that cleaves at the amino terminus of arginine residues

A metalloendopeptidase that selectively cleaves doublets of basic amino acids on the amino-terminal side of arginine residues was purified to homogeneity from rat testes and analyzed further. Two catalytically active forms with apparent relative molecular masses of 110,000 and 140,000 Da, respectively, were present in the purified preparation of the enzyme. Antibodies raised against the purified testis endopeptidase revealed by immunoblot both the 110- and 140-kDa forms in both rat testis and brain cortex extracts. The isolated enzyme was inhibited by metal chelators and divalent cations. Its activity, lost after preincubation with EDTA, was restored by low concentrations of Zn2+ and Mn2+, thus demonstrating the metallopeptidase nature of the enzyme. This endopeptidase also exhibited a high sensitivity to amastatin (100% inhibition at 20 microM), an aminopeptidase inhibitor. A substrate specificity study using physiologically important or synthetic peptides containing a processing dibasic site indicated that cleavage occurred selectively at the amino-terminal side of an arginine residue, independent of the nature of the basic doublet. The enzyme produced such a cleavage at the Arg-Lys doublet of somatostatin 28 (Km = 43 microM), at the Arg-Arg doublet of dynorphin A (Km = 6.45 microM) and atrial natriuretic factor (Km = 6.25 microM), and at the Lys-Arg doublet of preproneurotensin-(154-170) (Km = 17.3 microM). Moreover, cleavage efficiency was found to be higher for the larger substrates. The distinctive properties of this endopeptidase imply that this protein is a member of a novel class of proteolytic enzymes that may be involved in the endoproteolytic maturation of hormonal precursors.     

An attempt to improve blood pressure control in the French population: information and outcome awareness at the general practitioner level

To improve blood pressure (BP) control in general practice, 3122 general practitioners agreed to participate in a result awareness program. A survey carried out 6 months after participating physicians had been informed of the outcome of treatments they had given showed that blood pressure control (cut-off point: BP < 140/90 mm Hg) had not improved. However, using less stringent criteria, a slight improvement in blood pressure control could be observed. Although this improvement was marginal, results are sufficiently encouraging to warrant another study after a new awareness campaign among the medical population.     

The generation of random numbers that are probably prime

In this paper we make two observations on Rabin's probabilistic primality test. The first is a provocative reason why Rabin's test is so good. It turned out that a single iteration has a nonnegligible probability of failing only on composite numbers that can actually be split in expected polynomial time. Therefore, factoring would be easy if Rabin's test systematically failed with a 25% probability on each composite integer (which, of course, it does not). The second observation is more fundamental because it is not restricted to primality testing: it has consequences for the entire field of probabilistic algorithms. The failure probability when using a probabilistic algorithm for the purpose of testing some property is compared with that when using it for the purpose of obtaining a random element hopefully having this property. More specifically, we investigate the question of how reliable Rabin's test is when used to generate a random integer that is probably prime, rather than to test a specific integer for primality.Supported in part by NSERC grant A4107. Part of the research was performed while this author was at the CWI, Amsterdam.Supported in part by an NSERC Posgraduate Scholarship. Part of the research was performed while this author was at the Université de Montréal.Supported in part by an NSF grant.     

Experiments on the advantages and limits of using conventional friction welding for joining dissimilar and graded materials

Investigations concerning opportunities to apply the friction welding technique for joining dissimilar and graded materials are considered, starting from the advantages offered by this process in assembling parts for manufacturing equipments parts and automotive industry components. Experiments have been carried out on friction welding of heat treated 42CrMo4 with C45 steel and with the solution treated X6CrNiTi18-10 steel, as well as on joining copper with Al alloys. Metallographic observations and hardness measurements are performed in order to detail the peculiarities of the process of making joints that are difficult to obtain by conventional electric arc welding.