The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating pattern in special populations.

The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) trial showed that a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products with reduced total and saturated fat, cholesterol, and sugar-sweetened products effectively lowers blood pressure in individuals with prehypertension and stage I hypertension. Limited evidence is available on the safety and efficacy of the DASH eating pattern in special patient populations that were excluded from the trial. Caution should be exercised before initiating the DASH diet in patients with chronic kidney disease, chronic liver disease, and those who are prescribed renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system antagonist, but these conditions are not strict contraindications to DASH. Modifications to the DASH diet may be necessary to facilitate its use in patients with chronic heart failure, uncontrolled diabetes mellitus type II, lactose intolerance, and celiac disease. In general, the DASH diet can be adopted by most patient populations and initiated simultaneously with medication therapy and other lifestyle interventions.

Oldest known cranium of a juvenile New World monkey (Early Miocene, Patagonia, Argentina): implications for the taxonomy and the molar eruption pattern of early platyrrhines.

A juvenile cranium of Homunculus patagonicus Ameghino, 1891a from the late Early Miocene of Santa Cruz Province (Argentina) provides the first evidence of developing cranial anatomy for any fossil platyrrhine. The specimen preserves the rostral part of the cranium with deciduous and permanent alveoli and teeth. The dental eruption sequence in the new specimen and a reassessment of eruption patterns in living and fossil platyrrhines suggest that the ancestral platyrrhine pattern of tooth replacement was for the permanent incisors to erupt before M(1), not an accelerated molar eruption (before the incisors) as recently proposed. Two genera and species of Santacrucian monkeys are now generally recognized: H. patagonicus Ameghino, 1891a and Killikaike blakei Tejedor et al., 2006. Taxonomic allocation of Santacrucian monkeys to these species encounters two obstacles: 1) the (now lost) holotype and a recently proposed neotype of H. patagonicus are mandibles from different localities and different geologic members of the Santa Cruz Formation, separated by approximately 0.7 million years, whereas the holotype of K. blakei is a rostral part of a cranium without a mandible; 2) no Santacrucian monkey with associated cranium and mandible has ever been found. Bearing in mind these uncertainties, our examination of the new specimen as well as other cranial specimens of Santacrucian monkeys establishes the overall dental and cranial similarity between the holotype of Killikaike blakei, adult cranial material previously referred to H. patagonicus, and the new juvenile specimen. This leads us to conclude that Killikaike blakei is a junior subjective synonym of H. patagonicus.

Persistent Homology Analysis of Brain Artery Trees.

New representations of tree-structured data objects, using ideas from topological data analysis, enable improved statistical analyses of a population of brain artery trees. A number of representations of each data tree arise from persistence diagrams that quantify branching and looping of vessels at multiple scales. Novel approaches to the statistical analysis, through various summaries of the persistence diagrams, lead to heightened correlations with covariates such as age and sex, relative to earlier analyses of this data set. The correlation with age continues to be significant even after controlling for correlations from earlier significant summaries.

Genome-wide hydroxymethylcytosine pattern changes in response to oxidative stress

The TET enzymes convert methylcytosine to the newly discovered base hydroxymethylcytosine. While recent reports suggest that TETs may play a role in response to oxidative stress, this role remains uncertain, and results lack in vivo models. Here we show a global decrease of hydroxymethylcytosine in cells treated with buthionine sulfoximine, and in mice depleted for the major antioxidant enzymes GPx1 and 2. Furthermore, genome-wide profiling revealed differentially hydroxymethylated regions in coding genes, and intriguingly in microRNA genes, both involved in response to oxidative stress. These results thus suggest a profound effect of in vivo oxidative stress on the global hydroxymethylome.

Vibration-rotation pattern in acetylene. II. Introduction of Coriolis coupling in the global model and analysis of emission spectra of hot acetylene around 3 microns

This paper was selected by the editors of the Journal of Chemical Physics as one of the few of the many notable JCP articles published in 2009 that present ground-breaking research

Vibration-rotation pattern in acetylene: Introduction of Coriolis coupling in the global model and analysis of emission spectra of hot acetylene around 3 µm

info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Layers of generality and types of generalization in pattern activities

Pattern generalization is considered one of the prominent routes for in-troducing students to algebra. However, not all generalizations are al-gebraic. In the use of pattern generalization as a route to algebra, we —teachers and educators— thus have to remain vigilant in order not to confound algebraic generalizations with other forms of dealing with the general. But how to distinguish between algebraic and non-algebraic generalizations? On epistemological and semiotic grounds, in this arti-cle I suggest a characterization of algebraic generalizations. This char-acterization helps to bring about a typology of algebraic and arithmetic generalizations. The typology is illustrated with classroom examples.

Uma abordagem da lógica fuzzy no ensino médio

O uso cada vez mais intenso de conceitos subjetivos - provenientes da lógica fuzzy - aplicados a problemas reais nos motivou a desenvolver procedimentos para a introdução destas idéias no âmbito do ensino médio. O projeto propõe inicialmente o estudo de conjuntos fuzzy que podem ser entendidos com exemplos - de variação populacional, de controle de pragas e de epidemias. Posteriormente, usar as “operações fuzzy” Sup e Inf em produtos de matrizes para realizar diagnósticos e avaliações subjetivas. As situações abordadas já estão na literatura (Barros e Bassanezi, 2006), entretanto não como fonte para o Ensino Médio. Um dos objetivos principais deste trabalho é contrapor a crença de exatidão da matemática clássica com os resultados provenientes de lógica subjetiva, utilizando conceitos apropriados para os estudantes destas séries: teoria dos conjuntos, relações e funções, matrizes, equações de diferenças e outros.

A design pattern approach to bitemporal data modeling

The importance of patterns in constructing complex systems has long been recognised in other disciplines. In software engineering, for example, well-crafted object-oriented architectures contain several design patterns. Focusing on mechanisms of constructing software during system development can yield an architecture that is simpler, clearer and more understandable than if design patterns were ignored or not properly applied. In this paper, we propose a model that uses object-oriented design patterns to develop a core bitemporal conceptual model. We define three core design patterns that form a core bitemporal conceptual model of a typical bitemporal object. Our framework is known as the Bitemporal Object, State and Event Modelling Approach (BOSEMA) and the resulting core model is known as a Bitemporal Object, State and Event (BOSE) model. Using this approach, we demonstrate that we can enrich data modelling by using well known design patterns which can help designers to build complex models of bitemporal databases.

A design pattern for integration of business process management systems

A cross-domain workflow application may be constructed using a standard reference model such as the one by the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) [7] but the requirements for this type of application are inherently different from one organization to another. The existing models and systems built around them meet some but not all the requirements from all the organizations involved in a collaborative process. Furthermore the requirements change over time. This makes the applications difficult to develop and distribute. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based approaches such as the BPET (Business Process Execution Language) intend to provide a solution but fail to address the problems sufficiently, especially in the situations where the expectations and level of skills of the users (e.g. the participants of the processes) in different organisations are likely to be different. In this paper, we discuss a design pattern that provides a novel approach towards a solution. In the solution, business users can design the applications at a high level of abstraction: the use cases and user interactions; the designs are documented and used, together with the data and events captured later that represents the user interactions with the systems, to feed an intermediate component local to the users -the IFM (InterFace Mapper) -which bridges the gaps between the users and the systems. We discuss the main issues faced in the design and prototyping. The approach alleviates the need for re-programming with the APIs to any back-end service thus easing the development and distribution of the applications

Temporal pattern recognition in video clips detection

Temporal representation and reasoning plays an important role in Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, particularly, in mining and recognizing patterns with rich temporal information. Based on a formal characterization of time-series and state-sequences, this paper presents the computational technique and algorithm for matching state-based temporal patterns. As a case study of real-life applications, zone-defense pattern recognition in basketball games is specially examined as an illustrating example. Experimental results demonstrate that it provides a formal and comprehensive temporal ontology for research and applications in video events detection.

In vitro-in vivo correlations of self-emulsifying drug delivery systems combining the dynamic lipolysis model and neuro-fuzzy networks

The aim of the current study was to evaluate the potential of the dynamic lipolysis model to simulate the absorption of a poorly soluble model drug compound, probucol, from three lipid-based formulations and to predict the in vitro-in vivo correlation (IVIVC) using neuro-fuzzy networks. An oil solution and two self-micro and nano-emulsifying drug delivery systems were tested in the lipolysis model. The release of probucol to the aqueous (micellar) phase was monitored during the progress of lipolysis. These release profiles compared with plasma profiles obtained in a previous bioavailability study conducted in mini-pigs at the same conditions. The release rate and extent of release from the oil formulation were found to be significantly lower than from SMEDDS and SNEDDS. The rank order of probucol released (SMEDDS approximately SNEDDS > oil formulation) was similar to the rank order of bioavailability from the in vivo study. The employed neuro-fuzzy model (AFM-IVIVC) achieved significantly high prediction ability for different data formations (correlation greater than 0.91 and prediction error close to zero), without employing complex configurations. These preliminary results suggest that the dynamic lipolysis model combined with the AFM-IVIVC can be a useful tool in the prediction of the in vivo behavior of lipid-based formulations.

Public sector pay in the UK: has the historic pattern of public/private sector pay movements been broken?

The historic pattern of public sector pay movements in the UK has been counter-cyclical with private sector pay growth. Periods of relative decline in public sector pay against private sector movements have been followed by periods of ‘catch-up’ as Government controls are eased to remedy skill shortages or deal with industrial unrest among public servants. Public sector ‘catch up’ increases have therefore come at awkward times for Government, often coinciding with economic downturn in the private sector (Trinder 1994, White 1996, Bach 2002). Several such epochs of public sector pay policy can be identified since the 1970s. The question is whether the current limits on public sector pay being imposed by the UK Government fit this historic pattern or whether the pattern has been broken and, if so, how and why? This paper takes a historical approach in considering the context to public sector pay determination in the UK. In particular the paper seeks to review the period since Labour came into office (White and Hatchett 2003) and the various pay ‘modernisation’ exercises that have been in process over the last decade (White 2004). The paper draws on national statistics on public sector employment and pay levels to chart changes in public sector pay policy and draws on secondary literature to consider both Government policy intentions and the impact of these policies for public servants.

Relating sardine recruitment in the Northern Benguela to satellite-derived sea surface height using a neural network pattern recognition approach

Processes of enrichment, concentration and retention are thought to be important for the successful recruitment of small pelagic fish in upwelling areas, but are difficult to measure. In this study, a novel approach is used to examine the role of spatio-temporal oceanographic variability on recruitment success of the Northern Benguela sardine Sardinops sagax. This approach applies a neural network pattern recognition technique, called a self-organising map (SOM), to a seven-year time series of satellite-derived sea level data. The Northern Benguela is characterised by quasi-perennial upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water and is influenced by intrusions of warm, nutrient-poor Angola Current water from the north. In this paper, these processes are categorised in terms of their influence on recruitment success through the key ocean triad mechanisms of enrichment, concentration and retention. Moderate upwelling is seen as favourable for recruitment, whereas strong upwelling, weak upwelling and Angola Current intrusion appear detrimental to recruitment success. The SOM was used to identify characteristic patterns from sea level difference data and these were interpreted with the aid of sea surface temperature data. We found that the major oceanographic processes of upwelling and Angola Current intrusion dominated these patterns, allowing them to be partitioned into those representing recruitment favourable conditions and those representing adverse conditions for recruitment. A marginally significant relationship was found between the index of sardine recruitment and the frequency of recruitment favourable conditions (r super(2) = 0.61, p = 0.068, n = 6). Because larvae are vulnerable to environmental influences for a period of at least 50 days after spawning, the SOM was then used to identify windows of persistent favourable conditions lasting longer than 50 days, termed recruitment favourable periods (RFPs). The occurrence of RFPs was compared with back-calculated spawning dates for each cohort. Finally, a comparison of RFPs with the time of spawning and the index of recruitment showed that in years where there were 50 or more days of favourable conditions following spawning, good recruitment followed (Mann-Whitney U-test: p = 0.064, n = 6). These results show the value of the SOM technique for describing spatio-temporal variability in oceanographic processes. Variability in these processes appears to be an important factor influencing recruitment in the Northern Benguela sardine, although the available data time series is currently too short to be conclusive. Nonetheless, the analysis of satellite data, using a neural network pattern-recognition approach, provides a useful framework for investigating fisheries recruitment problems.