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Discriminant Factors (discriminant + factor)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Earth and Environmental Science	50%

Selected Abstracts

Understanding and Treating Patients With Alcoholic Cirrhosis: An Update

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 7 2009
Giovanni Addolorato
Alcoholic cirrhosis represents the terminal stage of alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and one of the main causes of death among alcohol abusers. The aim of this review was to provide an update on alcoholic cirrhosis, with an emphasis on recent findings. Increased alcohol consumption in developing countries is expected to increase cirrhosis mortality. There is a need, therefore, to develop new approaches to the prevention of ALD, including more attention to co-factors that may increase risk of ALD (i.e., obesity and diabetes, chronic HCV infection, and smoking). Furthermore, a better understanding of the pathological mechanisms on the basis of alcohol cirrhosis represents a cornerstone in order to develop new pharmacological treatments. Inflammatory and immune responses along with oxidative stress and alterations in adipokine secretion might contribute in different ways to the evolution of alcohol-induced fibrosis/cirrhosis. As of this date, patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis with a Maddrey Discriminant Factor (MDF) 32 should be offered pentoxifylline and/or corticosteroids unless contraindications exist. For ambulatory patients, S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) may be considered in a motivated patient with nutritional support. Current studies do not support use of anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha antibody. Finally, achieving total alcohol abstinence should represent the main aim in the management of patients affected by any stage of cirrhosis. In the last decades, several drugs able to increase abstinence and prevent alcohol relapse have been evaluated and some of them have obtained approval for alcohol dependence. Patients with alcoholic cirrhosis; however, are usually excluded from such treatments. A recent study demonstrated the efficacy and safety of baclofen in inducing and maintaining alcohol abstinence in cirrhotic alcohol-dependent patients with cirrhosis. All together the information available suggests the need of a multimodal approach in the clinical management of these patients. [source]

Chemical Composition of Ancient Celadon Material (1127,1279 A.D.) from Zhejiang, China and Its Implication

ACTA GEOLOGICA SINICA (ENGLISH EDITION), Issue 5 2006
PENG Zicheng
Abstract: The microprobe EDXRF equipment was used for analysis of the major and trace elements in glaze layer-transitive layer-body layer of the celadon from the Altar Yao (Kiln) and Laohudong Yao in the Southern Song Dynasty (1127,1279 A.D.), Zhejiang, China. The K values of the discriminant factor for the celadon wares are larger than 8, which means the celadon of the Altar Yao and Laohudong Yao are different from that of the Longquan Yao. The former two belong to the Guan Yao system (the Chinese imperial kilns), but the latter to the Min Yao system (the Chinese popular kilns). The principle component analysis shows their relationship between the Altar and Laohudong wares with provenance postulation. The thickness of the transitive layer in the Altar and Laohudong wares is obviously different, which reveals the microstructure characteristics of the celadon even though both kinds of wares belong to the imperial kiln system. [source]

Assessment of shallow landslide susceptibility by means of multivariate statistical techniques

EARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS, Issue 12 2001
Cristina Baeza
Abstract Several multivariate statistical analyses have been performed to identify the most influential geological and geomorphological parameters on shallow landsliding and to quantify their relative contribution. A data set was first prepared including more than 30 attributes of 230 failed and unfailed slopes. The performance of principal component analysis, t-test and one-way test, allowed a preliminary selection of the most significant variables, which were used as input variables for the discriminant analysis. The function obtained has classified successfully 88·5 per cent of the overall slope population and 95·6 per cent of the failed slopes. Slope gradient, watershed area and land-use appeared as the most powerful discriminant factors. A landslide susceptibility map, based on the scores of the discriminant function, has been prepared for Ensija range in the Eastern Pyrenees. An index of relative landslide density shows that the results of the map are consistent. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Identification of discriminant factors after treatment of resistant and susceptible banana leaves with Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense culture filtrates

PLANT BREEDING, Issue 1 2005
B. Companioni
Abstract Among the most important crops in developing countries are banana and plantain. However, the production is threatened by increasingly virulent forms of Fusarium wilt, and therefore, intensive breeding programmes are being carried out worldwide. As conventional field studies of banana resistance to this disease are time-consuming and destructive, an easy-to-do procedure was previously developed to differentiate field-grown resistant and susceptible banana cultivars at leaf level. Such a procedure involved the in vitro treatment of fungal culture filtrates on to field-grown adult leaves and the measurement of lesion areas 48 h later. The present report includes measurements of other indicators such as biochemical compounds. The cultivar ,Gross Michel' (susceptible) and cv. ,FHIA-01' (resistant) leaves were treated with Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense race 1 culture filtrates. Evaluations were performed 48 h after leaf treatment. Compared with culture medium-treated leaves (control treatment), fungal metabolites produced leaf lesions, decreased freephenolic contents and increased protein levels in both cultivars. In ,FHIA-01', the culture filtrate increased contents of cell wall-linked phenolics and the pool of aldehydes (except malondialdehyde). Fungal metabolites did not cause variations in peroxidase activity, chlorophyll pigment contents or malondialdehyde level in any cultivar. The use of Fisher's linear discriminant analysis to differentiate resistant and susceptible banana cultivars in breeding programmes is also a novel aspect of this report. Such an estimation was performed from a data matrix that included the effects of the fungal metabolites (leaf lesion area and levels of free and cell wall-linked phenolics, aldehydes, except malondialdehyde, and proteins) on banana leaves of seven cultivars (four susceptible and three resistant). [source]