Effects of Thoratec pulsatile ventricular assist device (PVAD) timing on the abdominal aortic wave intensity pattern

Arterial waves are seen as possible independent mediators of cardiovascular risks, and the wave intensity analysis (WIA) has therefore been proposed as a method for patient selection for ventricular assist device (VAD) implantation. Interpreting measured wave intensity (WI) is challenging and complexity is increased by the implantation of a VAD. The waves generated by the VAD interact with the waves generated by the native heart, and this interaction varies with changing VAD settings. Eight sheep were implanted with a pulsatile VAD (PVAD) through ventriculo-aortic cannulation. The start of PVAD ejection was synchronized to the native R-wave and delayed between 0 % - 90 % of the cardiac cycle in 10 % steps or phase shifts (PS). Pressure and velocity signals were registered, using a combined Doppler and pressure wire positioned in the abdominal aorta, and used to calculate the WI. Depending on the PS, different wave interference phenomena occurred. Maximum unloading of the left ventricle (LV) coincided with constructive interference and maximum blood flow pulsatility, and maximum loading of the LV coincided with destructive interference and minimum blood flow pulsatility. We believe, that non-invasive WIA could potentially be used clinically to assess the mechanical load of the LV, and to monitor the peripheral hemodynamics such as blood flow pulsatility and risk of intestinal bleeding.

Comprehension of Co-Speech Gestures in Aphasic Patients: An Eye Movement Study.

BACKGROUND: Co-speech gestures are omnipresent and a crucial element of human interaction by facilitating language comprehension. However, it is unclear whether gestures also support language comprehension in aphasic patients. Using visual exploration behavior analysis, the present study aimed to investigate the influence of congruence between speech and co-speech gestures on comprehension in terms of accuracy in a decision task. METHOD: Twenty aphasic patients and 30 healthy controls watched videos in which speech was either combined with meaningless (baseline condition), congruent, or incongruent gestures. Comprehension was assessed with a decision task, while remote eye-tracking allowed analysis of visual exploration. RESULTS: In aphasic patients, the incongruent condition resulted in a significant decrease of accuracy, while the congruent condition led to a significant increase in accuracy compared to baseline accuracy. In the control group, the incongruent condition resulted in a decrease in accuracy, while the congruent condition did not significantly increase the accuracy. Visual exploration analysis showed that patients fixated significantly less on the face and tended to fixate more on the gesturing hands compared to controls. CONCLUSION: Co-speech gestures play an important role for aphasic patients as they modulate comprehension. Incongruent gestures evoke significant interference and deteriorate patients' comprehension. In contrast, congruent gestures enhance comprehension in aphasic patients, which might be valuable for clinical and therapeutic purposes.

An Sp1/Sp3 site polymorphism associated with hypermethylation of the candidate tumor suppressor gene RIL in cancer

Gene silencing due to promoter methylation is an alternative to mutations and deletions, which inactivate tumor suppressor genes (TSG) in cancer. We identified RIL by Methylated CpG Island Amplification technique as a novel aberrantly methylated gene. RIL is expressed in normal tissues and maps to the 5q31 region, frequently deleted in leukemias. We found methylation of RIL in 55/80 (69%) cancer cell lines, with highest methylation in leukemia and colon. We also observed methylation in 46/80 (58%) primary tumors, whereas normal tissues showed substantially lower degrees of methylation. RIL expression was lost in 13/16 cancer cell lines and was restored by demethylating agent. Screening of 38 cell lines and 13 primary cancers by SSCP revealed no mutations in RIL, suggesting that methylation and LOH are the primary inactivation mechanisms. Stable transfection of RIL into colorectal cancer cells resulted in reduction in cell growth, clonogenicity, and increased apoptosis upon UVC treatment, suggesting that RIL is a good candidate TSG. ^ In searching for a cause of RIL hypermethylation, we identified a 12-bp polymorphic sequence around the transcription start site of the gene that creates a long allele containing 3CTC repeat. Evolutionary studies suggested that the long allele appeared late in evolution due to insertion. Using bisulfite sequencing, in cancers heterozygous for RIL, we found that the short allele is 4.4-fold more methylated than the long allele (P = 0.003). EMSA results suggested binding of factor(s) to the inserted region of the long allele, but not to the short. EMSA mutagenesis and competition studies, as well as supershifts using nuclear extracts or recombinant Sp1 strongly indicated that those DNA binding proteins are Sp1 and Sp3. Transient transfections of RIL allele-specific expression constructs showed less than 2-fold differences in luciferase activity, suggesting no major effects of the additional Sp1 site on transcription. However, stable transfection resulted in 3-fold lower levels of transcription from the short allele 60 days post-transfection, consistent with the concept that the polymorphic Sp1 site protects against time-dependent silencing. Thus, an insertional polymorphism in the RIL promoter creates an additional Sp1/Sp3 site, which appears to protect it from silencing and methylation in cancer. ^

Factors associated with home health care costs

Characteristics of Medicare-certified home health agencies in Texas and the contributions of selected agency characteristics on home health care costs were examined. Cost models were developed and estimated for both nursing and total visit costs using multiple regression procedures. The models included home health agency size, profit status, control, hospital-based affiliation, contract-cost ratio, service provision, competition, urban-rural input-price differences, and selected measures of patient case-mix. The study population comprised 314 home health agencies in Texas that had been certified at least one year on July, 1, 1986. Data for the analysis were obtained from Medicare Cost Reports for fiscal year ending between July 1, 1985 to June 30, 1986.^ Home health agency size, as measured by the logs of nursing and total visits, has a statistically significant negative linear relationship with nursing visit and total visit costs. Nursing and total visit costs decrease at a declining rate as size increases. The size-cost relationship is not altered when controlling for any other agency characteristic. The number of visits per patient per year, a measure of patient case-mix, is also negatively related to costs, suggesting that costs decline with care of chronic patients. Hospital-based affiliation and urban location are positively associated with costs. Together, the four characteristics explain 19 percent of the variance in nursing visit costs and 24 percent of the variance in total visit costs.^ Profit status and control, although correlated with other agency characteristics, exhibit no observable effect on costs. Although no relationship was found between costs and competition, contract cost ratio, or the provision on non-reimburseable services, no conclusions can be made due to problems with measurement of these variables. ^

Characterization of an upstream negative regulatory region of the mouse {\it neu\/} promoter

Cloning and characterization of the mouse neu gene revealed the presence of positive and negative cis-acting regulatory elements in the mouse neu promoter. An upstream region located between the SmaI and SphI sites of the promoter appeared to contribute significantly to negative regulation of the mouse neu gene, since deletion of this region led to a marked increase in transcriptional activity. To further characterize the mouse neu promoter I conducted a more exhaustive study on this cis-acting region which had not previously been studied in either human or rat neu promoters.^ The SmaI-SphI region was paced in front of the minimal thymidine kinase promoter where it inhibited transcription in both NIH3T3 and Hela cells. Physical association of nuclear proteins with this region was confirmed by electro-mobility shift assays. Four specific protein-DNA complexes were detected which involved interaction of proteins with various portions of the SmaI-SphI region. The most dominant protein complexes could be competed by SmaI-NruI and PstI-SphI subregions. Subsequent gel-shifts using SmaI-NruI and PstI-SphI as probes further confirmed the requirement of these two regions for the formation of the three fastest migrating complexes. Methylation interference and DNase I footprinting analyses were performed to determine the specific DNA sequences required for protein interaction. The two sequences identified were a 28 bp sequence, GAGCTTTCTTGGCTTAGTTCCAGACTCA, from the SmaI-NruI region (SN element) and a 23 bp sequence, AGGGACACCTTTGATCTGACCTTTA, from the PstI-SphI fragment (PS element). The PS and SN elements identified by footprinting were used as probes in gel-shift assays. Both oligonucleotides were capable of forming specific complexes with nuclear proteins. Sequence analysis of the SmaI-SphI region indicated that another sequence similar to PS element was located 330 bp upstream of the PS element. The identified SN and PS elements were subcloned into pMNSphICAT and transfected into NIH3T3 cells. Measurement of CAT activity indicated that both elements were sufficient to inhibit transcription from the mouse neu promoter. Both elements appeared to mediate binding in all cell types examined. Thus, I have identified two silencer elements from an upstream region of the mouse neu promoter which appear to regulate transcription in various cell lines. ^

Marketing público y marketing universitario : la orientación de las universidades hacia la satisfacción de demandas de conocimiento de la sociedad

La idea del marketing público se genera durante el siglo XX estableciendo un intercambio entre Estado y Sociedad. La Administración Pública diseña programas, bienes y servicios, como contraparte, los ciudadanos ofrecen apoyos mediante impuestos y costos de desplazamiento, tiempo y oportunidad. El marketing universitario, propone un intercambio entre las universidades y los alumnos para satisfacer las demandas de conocimiento y formación técnica-profesional. La problemática abordada en esta propuesta es la satisfacción de necesidades públicas a través del marketing público y, en este contexto, el marketing universitario y las demandas de conocimiento de la sociedad.

Un sistema de información ambiental para Mendoza

Se presenta los antecedentes y contenidos del proyecto SIA, Sistema de Información Ambiental para Mendoza fue realizado por CIFOT para el Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, Urbanismo y Vivienda del Gobierno de la Provincia en 1993. Mediante convenio, se provee de información sistematizada y cartografía actualizada, debidamente georeferenciada y fácilmente disponible para tomar decisiones territoriales que mejoren la calidad de vida de los mendocinos. La década de 1990 es una etapa de reflexión sobre las acciones emprendidas, los efectos adversos y las correcciones necesarias para alcanzar el desarrollo sostenible, como se comienza a imponer en América Latina luego de la declaración de Río. El gobernador de Mendoza en 1992, Dr. Arturo Lafalla, ve la necesidad de contar con información precisa, accesible en tiempo y forma, para disminuir la incertidumbre del que debe decidir. El tipo de información que se incluye está relacionada con los recursos del medio natural, la población, equipamiento e infraestructura, así como los Usos del suelo resultantes.

Nannofossil assemblages of mid-Pliocene sediments from the equatorial Atlantic

Downcore cyclic variation in high-resolution nannofossil abundance records from mid-Pliocene equatorial Atlantic ODP Sites 662 and 926 demonstrate the direct response by several Pliocene taxa (notably Discoaster, Sphenolithus and Florisphaera profunda) to orbitally forced climatic variation. In particular, these records display strong obliquity and precessional signals reflecting primarily high latitude, Southern hemisphere changes influencing upwelling intensity and local low-latitude, insolation-driven climatic changes (via the productivity and/or turbidity influence of Amazon-sourced terrigenous material) at Sites 622 and 926 respectively. In seasonal studies of coccolithophorid assemblages, only part of the variation observed can be explained by abiotic processes, so it is perhaps not surprising that in this study few Pliocene nannofossil taxa demonstrate significant correlations with each other or with physical environmental parameters. Only some variance in nannofossil abundances can be explained by the primary controls of temperature and productivity. The rest is attributed to nonlinear responses to climatic changes; biotic processes such as grazing, predation, viral infection and competition, and/or, abiotic factors for which there is no readily available proxy (e.g. salinity). The lack of strong, consistent intra- and inter-relationships of the nannoflora and the environment reflects an ecologically complex, differentiated original community producing a complex integrated signal transmitted into the fossil record.

Disciplining Investment Incentives: A Lost Cause?

An E15 Initiative think piece: Investment incentives rank among the most important policy instruments governments employ to influence the locational decisions of multinational firms. In the wake of the recent increase in locational competition and the growing impact of investment incentives and support measures for state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the need for enhanced disciplines on investment incentives has gained political and academic salience. This think piece explores the evolution of investment incentives from a development and rule-making perspective. It summarises the existing literature and examines current practices and recent trends in FDI flows and the use of various investment incentives. This is followed by a discussion of the reasons for the observed stalemate in attempts at disciplinary rule-making. The paper concludes by putting forth recommendations for data gathering and transparency that could further the move toward improved global governance founded on the increasing complementarities of trade, investment, and competition law and policy as the core pillars of a more open, inclusive, and just world economy.

Evaluación de las Prestaciones de una Red WiMAX Móvil en un Escenario de Alta Movilidad

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the performance of mobile WiMAX technology for users in a highly mobility scenario for an operating frequency of 3.5 GHz. By utilizing a modified version of the extended Erceg’s propagation model, based on the introduction of Rayleigh fading due to multipath, we have calculated the received desired power and the interference power to obtain the statistical signal-to-interference-plusnoise rate (as a function of mean value and variance of cochannel interference) and the user throughput. A rural scenario composed of a transmitting base station and users in moving vehicles along a cell sector is proposed. The obtained results about coverage and throughput have been simulated by a tool built in MATLAB

Desarrollo de circuitos de alta frecuencia para LTE

En este proyecto realizaremos un estudio del efecto de las interferencias procedentes de las redes públicas y veremos cómo afectan el rendimiento de las comunicaciones GSM-R que están en la banda de frecuencias adyacente, por un lado, definiremos las características de las redes públicas y como afectan los niveles de potencia y los anchos de banda de redes de banda ancha, especialmente LTE que dispone de un ancho de banda adaptativo que puede llegar hasta 20 MHZ, y por otro lado definiremos las características y las exigencias de las comunicaciones GSM-R que es una red privada que se utiliza actualmente para comunicaciones ferroviales. Con el objetivo de determinar el origen y los motivos de estas interferencias vamos a explicar cómo se produzcan las emisiones no deseadas de las redes públicas que son fruto de la intermodulación que se produzca por las características no lineales de los amplificadores, entre las emisiones no deseadas se puede diferenciar entre el dominio de los espurios y el dominio de las emisiones fuera de banda, para determinar el nivel de las emisiones fuera de banda definiremos la relación de fugas del canal adyacente, ACLR, que determina la diferencia entre el pico de la señal deseada y el nivel de señal interferente en la banda de paso. Veremos cómo afectan estas emisiones no deseadas a las comunicaciones GSMR en el caso de interferencias procedentes de señales de banda estrecha, como es el caso de GSM, y como afectan en el caso de emisiones de banda ancha con los protocolos UMTS y LTE, también estudiaremos como varia el rendimiento de la comunicación GSM-R frente a señales LTE de diferentes anchos de banda. Para reducir el impacto de las interferencias sobre los receptores GSM-R, analizaremos el efecto de los filtros de entrada de los receptores GSM-R y veremos cómo varia la BER y la ACLR. Además, con el objetivo de evaluar el rendimiento del receptor GSM-R ante diferentes tipos de interferencias, simularemos dos escenarios donde la red GSM-R se verá afectada por las interferencias procedente de una estación base de red pública, en el primer escenario la distancia entre la BS y MS GSM-R será de 4.6 KM, mientras en el segundo escenario simularemos una situación típica cuando un tren está a una distancia corta (25 m) de la BS de red pública. Finalmente presentaremos los resultados en forma de graficas de BER y ACLR, y tablas indicando los diferentes niveles de interferencias y la diferencia entre la potencia a la que obtenemos un valor óptimo de BER, 10-3, sin interferencia y la potencia a la que obtenemos el mismo valor con interferencias. ABSTRACT In this project we will study the interference effect from public networks and how they affect the performance of GSM-R communications that are in the adjacent frequency band, furthermore, we will define the characteristics of public networks and will explain how the power levels and bandwidth broadband networks are affected as a result, especially LTE with adaptive bandwidth that can reach 20 MHZ. Lastly, we will define the characteristics and requirements of the GSM-R communications, a private network that is currently used for railways communications. In order to determine the origin and motives of these interferences, we will explain what causes unwanted emissions of public networks that occur as a result. The intermodulation, which is caused by the nonlinear characteristics of amplifiers. Unwanted emissions from the transmitter are divided into OOB (out-of-band) emission and spurious emissions. The OOB emissions are defined by an Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio (ACLR) requirement. We'll analyze the effect of the OOB emission on the GSM-R communication in the case of interference from narrowband signals such as GSM, and how they affect emissions in the case of broadband such as UMTS and LTE; also we will study how performance varies with GSM-R versus LTE signals of different bandwidths. To reduce the impact of interference on the GSM-R receiver, we analyze the effect of input filters GSM-R receivers to see how it affects the BER (Bits Error Rate) and ACLR. To analyze the GSM-R receiver performance in this project, we will simulate two scenarios when the GSM-R will be affected by interference from a base station (BS). In the first case the distance between the public network BS and MS GSM-R is 4.6 KM, while the second case simulates a typical situation when a train is within a short distance, 25 m, of a public network BS. Finally, we will present the results as BER and ACLR graphs, and tables showing different levels of interference and the differences between the power to obtain an optimal value of BER, 10-3, without interference, and the power that gets the same value with interference.

Signal-to-noise ratio of the MEG signal after preprocessing

Background Magnetoencephalography (MEG) provides a direct measure of brain activity with high combined spatiotemporal resolution. Preprocessing is necessary to reduce contributions from environmental interference and biological noise. New method The effect on the signal-to-noise ratio of different preprocessing techniques is evaluated. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was defined as the ratio between the mean signal amplitude (evoked field) and the standard error of the mean over trials. Results Recordings from 26 subjects obtained during and event-related visual paradigm with an Elekta MEG scanner were employed. Two methods were considered as first-step noise reduction: Signal Space Separation and temporal Signal Space Separation, which decompose the signal into components with origin inside and outside the head. Both algorithm increased the SNR by approximately 100%. Epoch-based methods, aimed at identifying and rejecting epochs containing eye blinks, muscular artifacts and sensor jumps provided an SNR improvement of 5–10%. Decomposition methods evaluated were independent component analysis (ICA) and second-order blind identification (SOBI). The increase in SNR was of about 36% with ICA and 33% with SOBI. Comparison with existing methods No previous systematic evaluation of the effect of the typical preprocessing steps in the SNR of the MEG signal has been performed. Conclusions The application of either SSS or tSSS is mandatory in Elekta systems. No significant differences were found between the two. While epoch-based methods have been routinely applied the less often considered decomposition methods were clearly superior and therefore their use seems advisable.

Epidemiology of injuries in First Division Spanish football

Abstract The aim was to examine the injuries sustained by Spanish football players in the First Division and to compare injury-related variables in the context of both competition and training. The injury data were prospectively collected from 16 teams (427 players) using a specific web-based survey during the 2008/2009 season. A total of 1293 injuries were identified (145 were recurring injuries). The overall injury incidence was 5.65 injuries per 1000 h of exposure. Injuries were much more common during competition than during training (43.53 vs. 3.55 injuries per 1000 h of exposure, P menor que 0.05). Most of the injuries (89.6%) involved the lower extremities, and overuse (65.7%) was the main cause. Muscle and tendon injuries were the most common types of injury (53.8%) among the players. The incidence of training injuries was greater during the pre-season and tended to decrease throughout the season, while the incidence of competition injuries increased throughout the season (all P menor que 0.05). In conclusion, the results of this study suggest the need for injury prevention protocols in the First Division of the Spanish Football League to reduce the number of overuse injuries in the muscles and tendons in the lower extremities. In addition, special attention should be paid during the pre-season and the competitive phase II (the last four months of the season) in order to prevent training and competition injuries, respectively.

A VLC-based beacon location system for mobile applications

This paper proposes a low cost and complexity indoor location and navigation system using visible light communications and a mobile device. LED lamps work as beacons transmitting an identifier code so a mobile device can know its location. Experimental designs for transmitter and receiver interfaces are presented and potential applications are discussed.

Air Mines. Urban Space Station

Air Mines The sky over the city's port was the color of a faulty screen, only partly lit up. As the silhouette of nearby buildings became darker, but more clearly visible against the fading blur-filter of a background, the realization came about how persistent a change had been taking place. Slowly, old wooden water reservoirs and rattling HVAC systems stopped being the only inhabitants of roofs. Slightly trembling, milkish jellyfish-translucent air volumes had joined the show in multiples. A few years ago artists and architects seized upon the death of buildings as their life-saving media. Equipped with constructive atlases and instruments they started disemboweling their subjects, poking about their systems, dumping out on the street the battered ugliness of their embarrassing bits and pieces, so rightly hidden by facades and height from everyday view. But, would you believe it? Even ?old ladies?, investment bankers or small children failed to get upset. Of course, old ladies are not what they used to be. It was old ladies themselves that made it happen after years of fights with the town hall, imaginative proposals and factual arguments. An industry with little financial gains but lots of welcome externalities was not, in fact, the ground for investment bankers. But they too had to admit that having otherwise stately buildings make fine particulate pencils with their facades was not the worse that could happen. Yes, making soot pencils had been found an interesting and visible end product of the endeavor, a sort of mining the air for vintage writing tools one can actually touch. The new view from the street did not seem as solid or dignified as that of old, and they hated that the market for Fine Particulates Extraction (FPE, read efpee) had to be applied on a matrix of blocks and streets that prevented undue concentration of the best or worse solutions. It had to be an evenly distributed city policy in order for the city to apply for cleaning casino money. Once the first prototypes had been deployed in buildings siding Garden Avenue or Bulwark Street even fast movers appreciated the sidekick of flower and plant smell dripping down the Urban Space Stations (USS, read use; USSs, read uses) as air and walls cooled off for a few hours after sunset. Enough. It was all nice to remember, but it was now time to go up and start the lightweight afternoon maintenance of their USS. Coop discussions had taken place all through the planning and continued through the construction phase as to how maintenance was going to be organized. Fasters had voted for a pro, pay a small amount and let them use it for rent and produce. In the end some neighbors decided they were slow enough to take care and it was now the turn. Regret came periodically, sometimes a week before, and lasted until work actually started. But lately it had been replaced by anxiety when it needed to be passed over to the next caretaker. It did not look their shift was good enough and couldn?t wait to fix it. Today small preparations needed to be made for a class visit next day from a nearby cook school. They were frequenters. It had not been easy, but it shouldn?t have been that hard. In the end, even the easiest things are hard if they involve a city, buildings and neighbors. On the face of the data, the technicalities and the way final designs had been worked out for adaptation to the different settings, the decision of where to go was self evident, but organization issues and the ever-growing politics of taste in a city of already-gentrified-rodents almost put the project in the frozen orbit of timeless beautiful future possibilities. This is how it was. A series of designs by XClinic and OSS had made it possible to adapt to different building structures, leave in most cases the roof untouched and adapted a new technology of flexing fiberglass tubes that dissipated wind pressure in smooth bending.......