Effect of formaldehyde vapor on the blood constituents of male rabbits

The present experimental study was designed to investigate the effect of formaldehyde on blood constituents of rabbit males, Twenty four adult males were randomly subdivided into 3 groups (I, II, III) and exposed to vapour of 10% FD (12 ppm) in cages for the following periods: 2, 4 and 6 months; beside, 8 rabbits were exposed to vapour of distilled water as a control group. Blood parameters examination showed no morphological changes, but with a significant increase in lymphocytes and esonophils percentage. Significant decrease in neutrophil, red blood cell (RBC) and platelets counts was detected. The present study concluded that formaldehyde of such concentration and exposure time have an effect on blood constituents of rabbit males

PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF DISTRIBUTED INVENTORY IN PHYSICAL INTERNET

International audienceClassical supply chain design relies on a hierarchical organization to store and distribute products over a given geographical area. Within this framework a shortage in a stock affects the whole downstream of the supply chain regardless of the inventory kept in others locations. Within the Physical Internet approach, inventories are distributed in hubs towards the market and source substitution is allowed. The Physical Internet aims to integrate logistics networks into a universal system of interconnected services through the development of protocols and standards for the routing of smart containers of various sizes. This organization enables a distributed storage of goods in hubs thanks to containerization, thus the feasibility of multi-sourcing to one ordering point. This contribution measures the impact of such an organization on stock levels and inventory costs with service level set as a constraint. The analysis focuses on the resources levels (transportation and inventory) needed by the current supply model and by the Physical Internet in order to serve a market with a (Q,R) stock policy. Starting with two supply models and with the definition of cost models as well as inventory policy, the work is based on computer simulation. The analysis tested 3 different families of criterion in order to select dynamically the source when an order is requested: Source Substitution, Minimum Ratio and Minimum Sum. The source substitution, one of the simplest, was found the more efficient and stable according to different scenarios

Mixed Brain Pathologies in Dementia: The BrainNet Europe Consortium Experience

Background: Dementia results from heterogeneous diseases of the brain. Mixed disease forms are increasingly recognized. Methods: We performed a survey within brain banks of BrainNet Europe to estimate the proportion of mixed disease forms underlying dementia and age- and gender-specific influences. Results: Data collected in 9 centres from 3,303 individuals were analysed. The proportion of patients with mixed diagnoses among all cases with Alzheimer disease (AD), vascular pathology (VP), argyrophilic grain dementia (AGD), and synucleinopathies, such as Lewy body dementia (LBD), Parkinson disease (PD) and synuclein pathology only in the amygdala, was 53.3%. Mixed pathology was more frequently reported with LBD, PD, AGD, and VP than with AD. The percentage of mixed diagnoses for AGD and VP significantly differed between centres. In patients younger than 75 years, synucleinopathies, and pure forms of AD, VP, and AGD were more frequent in men. Above 75 years of age, more women had pure AD and pure AGD. Conclusions: The most obvious neuropathological alteration should not terminate the diagnostic procedure since copathology is likely to be found. Neuropathological interpretation of AGD and VP has not been sufficiently established in a consensus. Pure forms of synucleinopathies are unlikely sole substrates for dementia. Copyright (C) 2008 S. Karger AG, Base

Simulating a physical internet enabled mobility web: the case of mass distribution in France

International audiencePhysical Internet (PI, π) is a novel concept aiming to render more economically, environmentally and socially efficient and sustainable the way physical objects are transported, handled, stored, realized, supplied and used throughout the world. It enables, among other webs, the Mobility Web which deals with moving physical objects within an interconnected set of unimodal and multimodal hubs, transits, ports, roads and ways. We want to develop and use holistic simulations to study and quantify the impact in terms of economical, environmental, and social efficiency and performance of evolving from the current system of freight transportation toward an open logistics web in France. This paper focuses on how the mobility web simulator supporting this study was designed and developed. The simulator produces large-scale simulations of mobility webs consisting of a large number of companies, sites and agents dealing with thousands of daily orders. It supports route and rail transportation modes, pallets and PI-containers for product shipping, different kinds of routing and shipping strategies, and various types of hubs

Comparison of Skeletal and Dentoalveolar Changes between Two Bone-Borne Maxillary Expanders

Introduction: Bone-borne maxillary expander (BBME) are designed to provide additional anchorage to widen the maxillary arch for patients who exhibit maxillary transverse deficiency. One form of BBME is the hybrid BBME which uses mini-implants (bone-borne) and posterior teeth (tooth-borne) as anchorage for maxillary expansion. The other form of BBME is absolute BBME which only uses mini-implants as anchorage. It is not clear in the literature if there is a difference in skeletal and dental changes with these two types of expanders. The objective of this study was to compare the skeletal, dentoalveolar, and periodontal changes between the hybrid and the absolute BBME using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Materials and Methods: Thirty four adolescent patients with transverse maxillary deficiency were divided into two groups; the first group (16 patients) was treated with the hybrid BBME, and the second group (18 patients) was treated with absolute BBME. CBCT scans were taken pre-treatment (T1); and immediately post-expansion (T2) to measure the changes in midpalatal suture opening, total expansion (TE), alveolar bone bending (ABB), dental tipping (DT), and buccal bone thickness (BBT) at the first molar (M1) and first premolar (PM1) levels. Data were analyzed using paired t-test and sample t-test. Results: Midpalatal suture separation was found in 100% of the patients and the pattern of midpalatal suture opening was parallel in both groups. The total expansion at M1 level was 5.9 mm in the hybrid, and 4.7 mm in the absolute BBME group. The skeletal contributions were 56% and 83% of the TE in hybrid and absolute BBME groups at the M1 level, respectively. Subjects in the absolute BBME group experienced significantly less dental buccal tipping (0.5◦ for M1, and -1◦ for PM1), and BBT loss (0.2 mm for M1, and 0.4 mm for PM1) than the hybrid BBME group, (

Analysis of factorial experiments using mixed-effects models: options for estimation, prediction and inference

In linear mixed-effects modelling of experiments, estimation of variance components, prediction of random effects, and computation of denominator degrees of freedom associated with inference on fixed effects, are important elements of the analysis. This thesis investigates alternatives to the likelihoodbased procedures for analysis of factorial experiments with normally distributed observations. Consistent methods, such as the maximum likelihood method, can be disadvantageous in cases where only small samples are available. Moreover, the algorithms used in linear mixed-effects models can be computationally demanding in large datasets. In this thesis, Henderson’s method 3, a non-iterative variance component estimation method, was considered for estimation of the variance components in a two-way mixed linear model with three variance components. The variance component estimator corresponding to one of the random effects was improved by perturbing the standard unbiased estimator. The improved variance component estimator performed better in terms of mean square error. In an application on a quantitative trait loci (QTL) study, the modified estimator was compared to the restricted maximum likelihood estimator on data from European wild boar × domestic pig intercross. The modified estimator was shown to approximate the results obtained from the restricted maximum likelihood (REML) method very closely. For balanced and unbalanced data in two-way with and without interaction models, the generalized prediction intervals for the random effects were derived. The coverage probabilities of the proposed intervals were compared with those based on the REML method and the approximate methods of Satterthwaite (1946) and Kenward and Roger (1997). The coverage of the proposed intervals was closer to the chosen nominal level than coverage of prediction intervals based on the REML method. With focus on Type I error, the implications of the available options in the mixed procedure of SAS and the lmer function of R for the inference on the fixed effects were examined. With the default setting of SAS, the frequency of Type I error was higher than with R. The Type I error rate in SAS was close to the nominal value when negative estimates of the variance components were allowed. Both software packages occasionally produced inaccurate results

Passenger car equivalents at signalized intersections for heavy and medium trucks and animal driven carts in Gaza, Palestine

This study concludes that in Gaza City, PCE values at traffic signals were found to be 2.23, and 1.43 for heavy and medium trucks, respectively. However PCE value for animaldriven carts was found to be 1.51. Using appropriate statistical tests, to examine the significance of the differences among PCE values in Gaza, UK and India; it was found that there is no significant difference in PCE value for heavy and medium trucks between Gaza (2.23, 1.43) and UK (2.3, 1.5). However, it was found that there is a significant difference in PCE value for animaldriven carts between Gaza (1.51) and India (2.6)

Multivariate epidemiologic analysis of type 2 diabetes mellitus risks in the Lebanese population

Background: The burden of diabetes in Lebanon requires well-targeted interventions for screening type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and prediabetes and prevention of risk factors. Newly recruited 998 Lebanese individuals, in addition to 7,292 already available, were studied to investigate the prevalence of diabetes, prediabetes and their associated risk factors. Methods: Participants had fasting blood sugar and glycohemoglobin tests in addition to a lipid profile. Clinical and demographic information were obtained from a detailed questionnaire. The relationship between T2DM, its risk factors, and its complications were tested. Comparisons of these risk factors among diabetics, healthy, and coronary artery disease (CAD) patients were performed. Results: The prevalence of T2DM significantly increased with increasing BMI (p < 0.0001). Exercise activity level negatively correlated with the disease (p = 0.002), whereas the prevalence of T2DM (p < 0.0001) and CAD family history (p = 0.006) positively correlated with the affection status. The mean levels of triglycerides and LDL-C were significantly higher in diabetics (1.87; 1.35) compared to individuals with prediabetes (1.63; 1.26) and unaffected controls (1.49; 1.19). People with T2DM showed a significant decrease in HDL-C levels. A strong correlation of overall hyperlipidemia with the diabetes affection status was shown (p < 0.0001). Other comorbid factors such as hypertension (p < 0.0001) and self-reported obesity (p < 0.0001) were highly associated with T2DM and prediabetes. Reproductive health of women showed a strong correlation between giving birth to a baby with a high weight and the occurrence of T2DM and prediabetes later in life (p < 0.0001). Retinopathy and peripheral neuropathy were significantly correlated with diabetes and prediabetes (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: The present study shows an alarming prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes in the studied subgroups representative of the Lebanese population. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1758-5996-6-89) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Micro computed tomography assessment of tumor size in breast cancer compared to histopathological examination

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of Micro Computed Tomography (Micro CT) to measure primary tumor size in breast lumpectomy specimens, as compared to the histopathological measurement. METHODS: This was a diagnostic study involving women who were scheduled to have breast lumpectomy surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of surgery from June 2011 - September 2011. Those who met the study eligibility criteria were recruited to participate in the study. The study was approved by the MGH Institutional Review Board (IRB). All the participants provided consent prior to their participation in the study. The lumpectomy specimens of 45 subjects were scanned by Micro CT scan for no longer than 15 minutes, they were then delivered to the gross pathology lab for processing via the standard pathological protocol. Later on, the maximum dimension of the invasive breast tumor was obtained from the Micro CT image and was compared to the corresponding pathology report for each subject. RESULTS: We found that Micro CT tends to overestimate the breast malignant tumor size. However, there were few differences in T-stage classification between Micro CT and pathology. Overall, Micro CT demonstrated good agreement with pathological tumor size and staging. For Invasive ductal carcinoma, Micro CT showed a substantial agreement with pathological tumor size and staging. However, Micro CT showed no agreement with pathological tumor size and staging for invasive lobular carcinoma. CONCLUSIONS: Micro CT is a promising modality in measuring and staging the invasive ductal carcinoma