Difference in the in-hospital mortality of unstable angina pectoris between men and women

PURPOSE: To assess differences in the in-hospital mortality (HM) rate between men and women with unstable angina pectoris (UA) according to age, depression of the ST segment, history of previous acute myocardial infarction (AMI), and risk factors for coronary heart disease. METHODS: From October 96 to March 98, 261 patients with UA were selected. Logistic regression models were developed to adjust the association between sex and HM for possible influence of covariables, such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, sedentary lifestyle, smoking, and familial history of early coronary heart disease. RESULTS: HM due to UA was approximately three times higher in women (9.3%; 12/129) than in men (3.0%; 4/132) accounting for a relative risk of 3.07; 95% confidence interval (CI) =1.02-9.27. In logistic regression models, the association between sex and death was not significantly altered when the following parameters were considered: age, depression of the ST segment, history of previous AMI and risk factors for coronary heart disease. The nonadjusted and adjusted odds ratio (OR) for the distinct covariables were 3.28 (CI 95%=1.03-10.45) and 3.14 (CI = 95% = 0.88-11.20), respectively. CONCLUSION: Similarly to AMI, HM in UA is higher in women than in men. Age, risk factors for coronary heart disease, and depression of the ST segment in the electrocardiogram on patients' admission to the hospital did not significantly influence the association between sex and death.

Aproximación al diseño de sistemas de bio-reactores para la delignificación de materiales lignocelulósicos y para la decontaminación de suelos y efluentes. Approximation to the design of bio-reactors systems for the delignificación of lignocellulosic materials and for the decontamination of soil and effluents

Los materiales lignocelulósicos residuales de las actividades agroindustriales pueden ser aprovechados como fuente de lignina, hemicelulosa y celulosa. El tratamiento químico del material lignocelulósico se debe enfrentar al hecho de que dicho material es bastante recalcitrante a tal ataque, fundamentalmente debido a la presencia del polímero lignina. Esto se puede lograr también utilizando hongos de la podredumbre blanca de la madera. Estos producen enzimas lignolíticas extracelulares fundamentalmente Lacasa, que oxida la lignina a CO2. Tambien oxida un amplio rango de sustratos ( fenoles, polifenoles, anilinas, aril-diaminas, fenoles metoxi-sustituídos, y otros), lo cual es una buena razón de su atracción para aplicaciones biotecnológicas. La enzima tiene potencial aplicación en procesos tales como en la delignificación de materiales lignocelulósicos y en el bioblanqueado de pulpas para papel, en el tratamiento de aguas residuales de plantas industriales, en la modificación de fibras y decoloración en industrias textiles y de colorantes, en el mejoramiento de alimentos para animales, en la detoxificación de polutantes y en bioremediación de suelos contaminados. También se la ha utilizado en Q.Orgánica para la oxidación de grupos funcionales, en la formación de enlaces carbono- nitrógeno y en la síntesis de productos naturales complejos. HIPOTESIS: Los hongos de podredumbre blanca, y en condiciones óptimas de cultivo producen distintos tipos de enzimas oxidasas, siendo las lacasas las más adecuadas para explorarlas como catalizadores en los siguientes procesos:  Delignificación de residuos de la industria forestal con el fin de aprovechar tales desechos en la alimentación animal.  Decontaminación/remediación de suelos y/o efluentes industriales. Se realizarán los estudios para el diseño de bio-reactores que permitan responder a las dos cuestiones planteadas en la hipótesis. Para el proceso de delignificación de material lignocelulósico se proponen dos estrategias: 1- tratar el material con el micelio del hongo adecuando la provisión de nutrientes para un desarrollo sostenido y favorecer la liberación de la enzima. 2- Utilizar la enzima lacasa parcialmente purificada acoplada a un sistema mediador para oxidar los compuestos polifenólicos. Para el proceso de decontaminación/remediación de suelos y/o efluentes industriales se trabajará también en dos frentes: 3) por un lado, se ha descripto que existe una correlación positiva entre la actividad de algunas enzimas presentes en el suelo y la fertilidad. En este sentido se conoce que un sistema enzimático, tentativamente identificado como una lacasa de origen microbiano es responsable de la transformación de compuestos orgánicos en el suelo. La enzima protege al suelo de la acumulación de compuestos orgánicos peligrosos catalizando reacciones que involucran degradación, polimerización e incorporación a complejos del ácido húmico. Se utilizarán suelos incorporados con distintos polutantes(por ej. policlorofenoles ó cloroanilinas.) 4) Se trabajará con efluentes industriales contaminantes (alpechínes y/o el efluente líquido del proceso de desamargado de las aceitunas). The lignocellulosic raw materials of the agroindustrial activities can be taken advantage as source of lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose. The chemical treatment of this material is not easy because the above mentioned material is recalcitrant enough to such an assault, due to the presence of the lignin. This can be achieved also using the white-rot fungi of the wood. It produces extracellular ligninolitic enzymes, fundamentally Laccase, which oxidizes the lignin to CO2. The enzyme has application in such processes as in the delignification of lignocellulosic materials and in the biobleaching of fibers for paper industry, in the treatment of waste water of industrial plants, in the discoloration in textile industries, in the improvement of food for ruminants, in the detoxification of polutants and in bioremediation of contaminated soils. HYPOTHESIS: The white-rot fungi produce different types of enzymes, being the laccases the most adapted to explore them as catalysts in the following processes:  Delignification of residues of the forest industry in order to take advantage of such waste in the animal feed.  Decontamination of soils and / or waste waters. The studies will be conducted for the design of bio reactors that allow to answer to both questions raised in the hypothesis. For the delignification process of lignocellulosic material they propose two strategies: 1- to treat the material with the fungi 2-to use the partially purified enzyme to oxidize the polyphenolic compounds. For the soil and/or waste water decontamination process, we have: 3- Is know that the enzyme protects to the soil of the accumulation of organic dangerous compounds catalyzing reactions that involve degradation, polymerization and incorporation to complexes of the humic acid. There will be use soils incorporated into different pollutants. 4- We will work with waste waters (alpechins or the green olive debittering effluents.

Lösbarkeit und Finite-Elemente-Approximation eines mathematischen Modells für die Strömung in Magnetfluiddichtungen

Navier-Stokes-Gleichungen, Gleitrandbedingung, Konvektions-Diffusions-Gleichung, Finite-Elemente-Methode, Mehrgitterverfahren, Fehlerabschätzung, Iterative Entkopplung

Estudos experimentais sôbre a origem do milho

1) It may seem rather strange that, in spite of the efforts of a considerable number of scientists, the problem of the origin of indian corn or maize still has remained an open question. There are no fossil remains or archaeological relics except those which are quite identical with types still existing. (Fig. 1). The main difficulty in finding the wild ancestor- which may still exist - results from the fact that it has been somewhat difficult to decide what it should be like and also where to look for it. 2) There is no need to discuss the literature since an excellent review has recently been published by MANGELSDORF and REEVES (1939). It may be sufficient to state that there are basically two hypotheses, that of ST. HILAIRE (1829) who considered Brazilian pod corn as the nearest relative of wild corn still existing, and that of ASCHERSON (1875) who considered Euchlaena from Central America as the wild ancestor of corn. Later hypotheses represent or variants of these two hypotheses or of other concepts, howewer generally with neither disproving their predecessors nor showing why the new hypotheses were better than the older ones. Since nearly all possible combinations of ideas have thus been put forward, it har- dly seems possible to find something theoretically new, while it is essential first to produce new facts. 3) The studies about the origin of maize received a new impulse from MANGELSDORF and REEVES'S experimental work on both Zea-Tripsacum and Zea-Euchlaena hybrids. Independently I started experiments in 1937 with the hope that new results might be obtained when using South American material. Having lost priority in some respects I decided to withold publication untill now, when I can put forward more concise ideas about the origin of maize, based on a new experimental reconstruction of the "wild type". 4) The two main aspects of MANGELSDORF and REEVES hypothesis are discussed. We agree with the authors that ST. HILAIRE's theory is probably correct in so far as the tunicata gene is a wild type relic gene, but cannot accept the reconstruction of wild corn as a homozygous pod corn with a hermaphroditic tassel. As shown experimentally (Fig. 2-3) these tassels have their central spike transformed into a terminal, many rowed ear with a flexible rachis, while possessing at the same time the lateral ear. Thus no explanation is given of the origin of the corn ear, which is the main feature of cultivated corn (BRIEGER, 1943). The second part of the hypothesis referring to the origin of Euchlaena from corn, inverting thus ASCHERSON's theory, cannot be accepted for several reasons, stated in some detail. The data at hand justify only the conclusion that both genera, Euchlaena and Zea, are related, and there is as little proof for considering the former as ancestor of the latter as there is for the new inverse theory. 5) The analysis of indigenous corn, which will be published in detail by BRIEGER and CUTLER, showed several very primitive characters, but no type was found which was in all characters sufficiently primitive. A genetical analysis of Paulista Pod Corn showed that it contains the same gene as other tunicates, in the IV chromosome, the segregation being complicated by a new gametophyte factor Ga3. The full results of this analysis shall be published elsewhere. (BRIEGER). Selection experiments with Paulista Pod Corn showed that no approximation to a wild ancestor may be obtained when limiting the studies to pure corn. Thus it seemed necessary to substitute "domesticated" by "wild type" modifiers, and the only means for achieving this substitution are hybridizations with Euchlaena. These hybrids have now been analysed init fourth generation, including backcrosses, and, again, the full data will be published elsewhere, by BRIEGER and ADDISON. In one present publication three forms obtained will be described only, which represent an approximation to wild type corn. 6) Before entering howewer into detail, some arguments against ST. HILAIRE's theory must be mentioned. The premendelian argument, referring to the instability of this character, is explained by the fact that all fertile pod corn plants are heterozygous for the dominant Tu factor. But the sterility of the homozygous TuTu, which phenotypically cannot be identified, is still unexplained. The most important argument against the acceptance of the Tunicata faetor as wild type relic gene was removed recently by CUTLER (not yet published) who showed that this type has been preserved for centuries by the Bolivian indians as a mystical "medicine". 7) The main botanical requirements for transforming the corn ear into a wild type structure are stated, and alternative solutions given. One series of these characters are found in Tripsacum and Euchlaena : 2 rows on opposite sides of the rachis, protection of the grains by scales, fragility of the rachis. There remains the other alternative : 4 rows, possibly forming double rows of female and male spikelets, protection of kernels by their glumes, separation of grains at their base from the cob which is thin and flexible. 8) Three successive stages in the reconstruction of wild corn, obtained experimentally, are discussed and illustrated, all characterized by the presence of the Tu gene. a) The structure of the Fl hybrids has already been described in 1943. The main features of the Tunicata hybrids (Fig. -8), when compared with non-tunicate hybrids (Fig. 5-6), consist in the absence of scaly protections, the fragility of the rachis and finally the differentiation of the double rows into one male and one female spikelet. As has been pointed out, these characters represent new phenotypic effects of the tunicate factor which do not appear in the presence of pure maize modifiers. b) The next step was observed among the first backcross to teosinte (Fig. 9). As shown in the photography, Fig. 9D, the features are essencially those of the Fl plants, except that the rachis is more teosinte like, with longer internodes, irregular four-row-arrangement and a complete fragility on the nodes. c) In the next generation a completely new type appeared (Fig. 10) which resembles neither corn nor teosinte, mainly in consequence of one character: the rachis is thin and flexible and not fragile, while the grains have an abscission layer at the base, The medium sized, pointed, brownish and hard granis are protected by their well developed corneous glumes. This last form may not yet be the nearest approach to a wild grass, and I shall try in further experiments to introduce other changes such as an increase of fertile flowers per spikelet, the reduction of difference between terminal and lateral inflorescences, etc.. But the nature of the atavistic reversion is alveadwy such that it alters considerably our expectation when looking for a still existing wild ancestor of corn. 9) The next step in our deductions must now consist in an reversion of our question. We must now explain how we may obtain domesticated corn, starting from a hypothetical wild plant, similar to type c. Of the several changes which must have been necessary to attract the attention of the Indians, the following two seem to me the most important: the disappearance of all abscission layers and the reduction of the glumes. This may have been brought about by an accumulation of mutations. But it seems much more probable to assume that some crossing with a tripsacoid grass or even with Tripsacum australe may have been responsible. In such a cross, the two types of abscission layer would be counterbalanced as shown by the Flhybrids of corn, Tripsacum and Euchlaena. Furthermore in later generations a.tu-allele of Tripsacum may become homozygous and substitute the wild tunicate factor of corn. The hypothesis of a hybrid origin of cultivated corn is not completely new, but has been discussed already by HARSHBERGER and COLLINS. Our hypothesis differs from that of MANGELSDORF and REEVES who assume that crosses with Tripsacum are responsible only for some features of Central and North American corn. 10) The following arguments give indirects evidence in support of our hypothesis: a) Several characters have been observed in indigenous corn from the central region of South America, which may be interpreted as "tripsacoid". b) Equally "zeoid" characters seem to be present in Tripsacum australe of central South-America. c) A system of unbalanced factors, combined by the in-tergeneric cross, may be responsible for the sterility of the wild type tunicata factor when homozygous, a result of the action of modifiers, brought in from Tripsacum together with the tuallele. d) The hybrid theory may explain satisfactorily the presence of so many lethals and semilethals, responsible for the phenomenon of inbreeding in cultivated corn. It must be emphasized that corn does not possess any efficient mechanism to prevent crossing and which could explain the accumulation of these mutants during the evolutionary process. Teosinte which'has about the same mechanism of sexual reproduction has not accumulated such genes, nor self-sterile plants in spite of their pronounced preference for crossing. 11) The second most important step in domestication must have consisted in transforming a four rowed ear into an ear with many rows. The fusion theory, recently revived byLANGHAM is rejected. What happened evidently, just as in succulent pXants (Cactus) or in cones os Gymnosperms, is that there has been a change in phyllotaxy and a symmetry of longitudinal rows superimposed on the original spiral arrangement. 12) The geographical distribution of indigenous corn in South America has been discussed. So far, we may distinguish three zones. The most primitive corn appears in the central lowlands of what I call the Central Triangle of South America: east of the Andies, south of the Amazone-Basin, Northwest of a line formed by the rivers São Prancisco-Paraná and including the Paraguay-Basin. The uniformity of the types found in this extremely large zone is astonishing (BRIEGER and CUTLER). To the west, there is the well known Andian region, characterized by a large number of extremely diverse types from small pop corn to large Cuszco, from soft starch to modified sweet corn, from large cylindrical ears to small round ears, etc.. The third region extends along the atlantic coast in the east, from the Caribean Sea to the Argentine, and is characterized by Cateto, an orange hard flint corn. The Andean types must have been obtained very early, and undoubtedly are the result of the intense Inca agriculture. The Cateto type may be obtained easily by crosses, for instance, of "São Paulo Pointed Pop" to some orange soft corn of the central region. The relation of these three South American zones to Central and North America are not discussed, and it seems essential first to study the intermediate region of Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. The geograprical distribution of chromosome knobs is rapidly discussed; but it seems that no conclusions can be drawn before a large number of Tripsacum species has been analysed.

Difference sets from projective planes

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Mathematik, Diss., 2013

Implicit sequence learning in recurrent neural networks

Magdeburg, Univ., Fak. für Elektrotechnik, Diss., 2013

Comparative Analysis of Signals Restoration by Different Kinds of Approximation

The comparative analysis of continuous signals restoration by different kinds of approximation is performed. The software product, allowing to define optimal method of different original signals restoration by Lagrange polynomial, Kotelnikov interpolation series, linear and cubic splines, Haar wavelet and Kotelnikov-Shannon wavelet based on criterion of minimum value of mean-square deviation is proposed. Practical recommendations on the selection of approximation function for different class of signals are obtained.

Human capital in growth regressions: how much difference does data quality make? An update and further results

We construct estimates of educational attainment for a sample of OECD countries using previously unexploited sources. We follow a heuristic approach to obtain plausible time profiles for attainment levels by removing sharp breaks in the data that seem to reflect changes in classification criteria. We then construct indicators of the information content of our series and a number of previously available data sets and examine their performance in several growth specifications. We find a clear positive correlation between data quality and the size and significance of human capital coefficients in growth regressions. Using an extension of the classical errors in variables model, we construct a set of meta-estimates of the coefficient of years of schooling in an aggregate Cobb-Douglas production function. Our results suggest that, after correcting for measurement error bias, the value of this parameter is well above 0.50.

Normal forms for rational difference equations with applications to the global periodicity problem

We propose a classification and derive the associated normal forms for rational difference equations with complex coefficients. As an application, we study the global periodicity problem for second order rational difference equations with complex coefficients. We find new necessary conditions as well as some new examples of globally periodic equations.

Reduction of periodic difference systems to linear or autonomous ones

We extend Floquet theory for reducing nonlinear periodic difference systems to autonomous ones (actually linear) by using normal form theory.

Dynamics of the third order Lyness' difference equation

"Vegeu el resum a l'inici del document del fitxer adjunt"

Diophantine approximation on projective varieties I: algebraic distance and metric Bézout theorem

"Vegeu el resum a l'inici del document del fitxer adjunt."

Weighted Hardy spaces for the unit disc: approximation properties

In this paper we study basic properties of the weighted Hardy space for the unit disc with the weight function satisfying Muckenhoupt's (Aq) condition, and study related approximation problems (expansion, moment and interpolation) with respect to two incomplete systems of holomorphic functions in this space.

Convergence of the mass-transport steepest descent scheme for the sub-critical Patlak-Keller-Segel model

Variational steepest descent approximation schemes for the modified Patlak-Keller-Segel equation with a logarithmic interaction kernel in any dimension are considered. We prove the convergence of the suitably interpolated in time implicit Euler scheme, defined in terms of the Euclidean Wasserstein distance, associated to this equation for sub-critical masses. As a consequence, we recover the recent result about the global in time existence of weak-solutions to the modified Patlak-Keller-Segel equation for the logarithmic interaction kernel in any dimension in the sub-critical case. Moreover, we show how this method performs numerically in one dimension. In this particular case, this numerical scheme corresponds to a standard implicit Euler method for the pseudo-inverse of the cumulative distribution function. We demonstrate its capabilities to reproduce easily without the need of mesh-refinement the blow-up of solutions for super-critical masses.