Neoproterozoic Mafic-Ultramafic Intrusions from the Fanjingshan Region, South China: Implications for Subduction-Related Magmatism in the Jiangnan Fold Belt

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Sample entropy analysis of EEG signals via artificial neural networks to model patients' consciousness level based on anesthesiologists experience.

Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, as it can express the human brain's activities and reflect awareness, have been widely used in many research and medical equipment to build a noninvasive monitoring index to the depth of anesthesia (DOA). Bispectral (BIS) index monitor is one of the famous and important indicators for anesthesiologists primarily using EEG signals when assessing the DOA. In this study, an attempt is made to build a new indicator using EEG signals to provide a more valuable reference to the DOA for clinical researchers. The EEG signals are collected from patients under anesthetic surgery which are filtered using multivariate empirical mode decomposition (MEMD) method and analyzed using sample entropy (SampEn) analysis. The calculated signals from SampEn are utilized to train an artificial neural network (ANN) model through using expert assessment of consciousness level (EACL) which is assessed by experienced anesthesiologists as the target to train, validate, and test the ANN. The results that are achieved using the proposed system are compared to BIS index. The proposed system results show that it is not only having similar characteristic to BIS index but also more close to experienced anesthesiologists which illustrates the consciousness level and reflects the DOA successfully.This research is supported by the Center forDynamical Biomarkers and Translational Medicine, National Central University, Taiwan, which is sponsored by Ministry of Science and Technology (Grant no. MOST103-2911-I-008-001). Also, it is supported by National Chung-Shan Institute of Science & Technology in Taiwan (Grant nos. CSIST-095-V301 and CSIST-095-V302)

Chiral zero-mode for abelian BPS dipoles

We present an exact normalisable zero-energy chiral fermion solution for abelian BPS dipoles. For a single dipole, this solution is contained within the high temperature limit of the SU(2) caloron with non-trivial holonomy.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure (in 2 parts), presented at the workshop on "Confinement, Topology, and other Non-Perturbative Aspects of QCD", 21-27 Jan. 2002, Stara Lesna, Slovaki

Ant colony optimization with immigrants schemes for the dynamic railway junction rescheduling problem with multiple delays

Train rescheduling after a perturbation is a challenging task and is an important concern of the railway industry as delayed trains can lead to large fines, disgruntled customers and loss of revenue. Sometimes not just one delay but several unrelated delays can occur in a short space of time which makes the problem even more challenging. In addition, the problem is a dynamic one that changes over time for, as trains are waiting to be rescheduled at the junction, more timetabled trains will be arriving, which will change the nature of the problem. The aim of this research is to investigate the application of several different ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms to the problem of a dynamic train delay scenario with multiple delays. The algorithms not only resequence the trains at the junction but also resequence the trains at the stations, which is considered to be a first step towards expanding the problem to consider a larger area of the railway network. The results show that, in this dynamic rescheduling problem, ACO algorithms with a memory cope with dynamic changes better than an ACO algorithm that uses only pheromone evaporation to remove redundant pheromone trails. In addition, it has been shown that if the ant solutions in memory become irreparably infeasible it is possible to replace them with elite immigrants, based on the best-so-far ant, and still obtain a good performance

Comparative Chromosome Maps of Neotropical Rodents Necromys lasiurus and Thaptomys nigrita (Cricetidae) Established by ZOO-FISH

This work presents chromosome homology maps between Mus musculus (MMU) and 2 South American rodent species from the Cricetidae group: Necromys lasiurus (NLA, 2n = 34) and Thaptomys nigrita (TNI, 2n = 52), established by ZOO-FISH using mouse chromosome-specific painting probes. Extending previous molecular cytogenetic studies in Neotropical rodents, the purpose of this work was to delineate evolutionary chromosomal rearrangements in Cricetidae rodents and to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships among the Akodontini species. Our phylogenetic reconstruction by maximum parsimony analysis of chromosomal characters confirmed one consistent clade of all Neotropical rodents studied so far. In both species analyzed here, we observed the syntenic association of chromosome segments homologous to MMU 8/13, suggesting that this chromosome form is a synapomorphic trait exclusive to Neotropical rodents. Further, the previously described Akodontini-specific syntenic associations MMU 3/18 and MMU 6/12 were observed in N. lasiurus but not in T. nigrita, although the latter species is considered a member of the Akodontini tribe by some authors. Finally, and in agreement with this finding, N. lasiurus and Akodon serrensis share the derived fission of MMU 13, which places them as basal sister clades within Akodontini. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Base

New strategies for developing cardiovascular stent surfaces with novel functions (Review)

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Geospatial information infrastructures

Manual of Digital Earth / Editors: Huadong Guo, Michael F. Goodchild, Alessandro Annoni .- Springer, 2020 .- ISBN: 978-981-32-9915-3Geospatial information infrastructures (GIIs) provide the technological, semantic,organizationalandlegalstructurethatallowforthediscovery,sharing,and use of geospatial information (GI). In this chapter, we introduce the overall concept and surrounding notions such as geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial datainfrastructures(SDI).WeoutlinethehistoryofGIIsintermsoftheorganizational andtechnologicaldevelopmentsaswellasthecurrentstate-of-art,andreflectonsome of the central challenges and possible future trajectories. We focus on the tension betweenincreasedneedsforstandardizationandtheever-acceleratingtechnological changes. We conclude that GIIs evolved as a strong underpinning contribution to implementation of the Digital Earth vision. In the future, these infrastructures are challengedtobecomeflexibleandrobustenoughtoabsorbandembracetechnological transformationsandtheaccompanyingsocietalandorganizationalimplications.With this contribution, we present the reader a comprehensive overview of the field and a solid basis for reflections about future developments

Sub-Sets of Cancer Stem Cells Differ Intrinsically in Their Patterns of Oxygen Metabolism

PMCID: PMC3640080This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

52-week efficacy and safety of telbivudine with conditional tenofovir intensification at week 24 in HBeAg-positive chronic Hepatitis B

Background and Aims: The Roadmap concept is a therapeutic framework in chronic hepatitis B for the intensification of nucleoside analogue monotherapy based on early virologic response. The efficacy and safety of this approach applied to telbivudine treatment has not been investigated. Methods: A multinational, phase IV, single-arm open-label study (ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT00651209) was undertaken in HBeAg-positive, nucleoside-naive adult patients with chronic hepatitis B. Patients received telbivudine (600 mg once-daily) for 24 weeks, after which those with undetectable serum HBV DNA (<300 copies/mL) continued to receive telbivudine alone while those with detectable DNA received telbivudine plus tenofovir (300 mg once-daily). Outcomes were assessed at Week 52. Results: 105 patients commenced telbivudine monotherapy, of whom 100 were included in the efficacy analysis. Fifty-five (55%) had undetectable HBV DNA at Week 24 and continued telbivudine monotherapy; 45 (45%) received tenofovir intensification. At Week 52, the overall proportion of undetectable HBV DNA was 93% (93/100) by last-observation-carried-forward analysis (100% monotherapy group, 84% intensification group) and no virologic breakthroughs had occurred. ALT normalization occurred in 77% (87% monotherapy, 64% intensification), HBeAg clearance in 43% (65% monotherapy, 16% intensification), and HBeAg seroconversion in 39% (62% monotherapy, 11% intensification). Six patients had HBsAg clearance. Myalgia was more common in the monotherapy group (19% versus 7%). No decrease in the mean glomerular filtration rate occurred in either treatment group at Week 52. Conclusions: Telbivudine therapy with tenofovir intensification at Week 24, where indicated by the Roadmap strategy, appears effective and well tolerated for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT0065120

Presymptomatic risk assessment for chronic non-communicable diseases

The prevalence of common chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCDs) far overshadows the prevalence of both monogenic and infectious diseases combined. All CNCDs, also called complex genetic diseases, have a heritable genetic component that can be used for pre-symptomatic risk assessment. Common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that tag risk haplotypes across the genome currently account for a non-trivial portion of the germ-line genetic risk and we will likely continue to identify the remaining missing heritability in the form of rare variants, copy number variants and epigenetic modifications. Here, we describe a novel measure for calculating the lifetime risk of a disease, called the genetic composite index (GCI), and demonstrate its predictive value as a clinical classifier. The GCI only considers summary statistics of the effects of genetic variation and hence does not require the results of large-scale studies simultaneously assessing multiple risk factors. Combining GCI scores with environmental risk information provides an additional tool for clinical decision-making. The GCI can be populated with heritable risk information of any type, and thus represents a framework for CNCD pre-symptomatic risk assessment that can be populated as additional risk information is identified through next-generation technologies.Comment: Plos ONE paper. Previous version was withdrawn to be updated by the journal's pdf versio