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Selected AbstractsTransient neurological symptoms after spinal anaesthesia with levobupivacaine 5 mg/ml or lidocaine 20 mg/mlACTA ANAESTHESIOLOGICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 1 2010M. GOZDEMIR Background: Transient neurological symptoms (TNS) after spinal anaesthesia have been reported most commonly in association with lidocaine, but have been observed with other local anaesthetics. The aim of this prospective, randomized, double-blind study was to investigate the incidence of TNS after spinal anaesthesia with either levobupivacaine or lidocaine. Methods: Patients undergoing inguinal hernia, appendectomy, varicose vein or minor orthopaedic operations were included in the study (60 patients; 47 male, 13 female, overall mean age 30 years). All patients had an American Society of Anesthesiologists score of I or II. The patients were randomly assigned to receive spinal anaesthesia with either 20 mg isobaric levobupivacaine (5 mg/ml) or 80 mg isobaric lidocaine (20 mg/ml). Onset of sensory and motor block and side effects were recorded. On post-operative days 1, 2, and 3, patients were interviewed by an investigator blinded to the spinal anaesthetic used. The patients were classified as having TNS if, following recovery from anaesthesia, there was pain in the buttocks, thighs and/or lower limbs. Results: In the levobupivacaine group, one patient (3.33%) experienced TNS, whereas in the lidocaine group, eight (26.6%) experienced TNS (P=0.002). Maximum times to arrival of sensory blocks were shorter with lidocaine (P<0.001). The levobupivacaine and lidocaine groups did not differ significantly in terms of the highest dermatome included in sensory block or motor block grade. Conclusion: After spinal anaesthesia with levobupivacaine, the incidence of TNS was much less than after lidocaine. However, it appears that TNS may occur in association with levobupivacaine. [source] The effect of accelerated ageing of building wiresFIRE AND MATERIALS, Issue 5 2007Viktor Emanuelsson Abstract The fire performance of two electric cables (building wires) designed for indoor use has been tested, both as new products and after accelerated thermooxidative ageing. The cables were aged for a maximum time of 16.5 weeks at 80°C. The cables are commercially available, and were constructed using a PVC material in one case and a non-halogenated polyolefin-based material, called Casico, in the other. The effects of ageing on the fire performance of the cables, and the chemical changes that have caused the observed fire behaviour, have been investigated and are discussed. Special attention is paid to the behaviour of the plasticizers that are used in the PVC cable, and how the fire behaviour is affected by the loss of plasticizers from the cable and by the migration of plasticizers between the parts of the cable (insulation, bedding and sheathing). Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Functional Impact of Relative Versus Absolute Sarcopenia in Healthy Older WomenJOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 11 2007Marcos Estrada MD OBJECTIVES: To determine whether adjustment of muscle mass for height2 or for body mass represents a more-relevant predictor of physical performance. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study, using baseline data from a trial comparing upper- and lower-body training. SETTING: Women recruited from the community and gynecological practices in Connecticut. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred eighty-nine healthy older (aged 67.5 ± 4.8), active women receiving estrogen for osteoporosis over 2 years. MEASUREMENTS: Total and appendicular skeletal muscle (ASM) and fat mass (AFM) were determined using dual x-ray absorptiometry. Physical performance, muscle strength, and fitness measures were obtained at baseline. RESULTS: Adjusting ASM for height2 identifies lean women who are sarcopenic according to published standards yet fails to identify overweight and obese women whose ASM adjusted for body mass is low. ASM divided by body mass (ASM/body mass) is a stronger physical performance predictor, explaining 32.5%, 13.5%, 11.6%, 6.3%, and 6.8% of the variance in maximum time on treadmill, 6-minute walk, gait speed, 8-foot walk, and single leg stance, respectively, whereas ASM divided by height in m2 (ASM/height2) explained only 2.9%, 0.2%, 2.0%, 0.04%, and 0.1%. Multivariate modeling demonstrated considerable overlap in aspects of ASM/body mass and AFM/body mass associated with performance, with ASM/body mass dominant. In contrast, ASM/height2 is a much stronger predictor of leg press 1 repetition maximum and maximum power. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that relative sarcopenia with ASM adjusted for body mass is a better mobility predictor, with absolute sarcopenia a better indicator of isolated muscle group function in healthy postmenopausal women receiving estrogen replacement. [source] Improved myocardial perfusion in chronic diabetic mice by the up-regulation of pLKB1 and AMPK signalingJOURNAL OF CELLULAR BIOCHEMISTRY, Issue 5 2010Claudia Kusmic Abstract Previous studies related impaired myocardial microcirculation in diabetes to oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction. Thus, this study was aimed to determine the effect of up-regulating pAMPK-pAKT signaling on coronary microvascular reactivity in the isolated heart of diabetic mice. We measured coronary resistance in wild-type and streptozotocin (STZ)-treated mice, during perfusion pressure changes. Glucose, insulin, and adiponectin levels in plasma and superoxide formation, NOx levels and heme oxygenase (HO) activity in myocardial tissue were determined. In addition, the expression of HO-1, 3-nitrotyrosine, pLKB1, pAMPK, pAKT, and peNOS proteins in control and diabetic hearts were measured. Coronary response to changes in perfusion pressure diverged from control in a time-dependent manner following STZ administration. The responses observed at 28 weeks of diabetes (the maximum time examined) were mimicked by L-NAME administration to control animals and were associated with a decrease in serum adiponectin and myocardial pLKB1, pAMPK, pAKT, and pGSK-3 expression. Cobalt protoporphyrin treatment to induce HO-1 expression reversed the microvascular reactivity seen in diabetes towards that of controls. Up-regulation of HO-1 was associated with an increase in adiponectin, pLKB1, pAKT, pAMPK, pGSK-3, and peNOS levels and a decrease in myocardial superoxide and 3-nitrotyrosine levels. In the present study we describe the time course of microvascular functional changes during the development of diabetes and the existence of a unique relationship between the levels of serum adiponectin, pLKB1, pAKT, and pAMPK activation in diabetic hearts. The restoration of microvascular function suggests a new therapeutic approach to even advanced cardiac microvascular derangement in diabetes. J. Cell. Biochem. 109: 1033,1044, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Ionizing radiation-induced long-term expression of senescence markers in mice is independent of p53 and immune statusAGING CELL, Issue 3 2010Oanh N. L. Le Summary Exposure to IR has been shown to induce the formation of senescence markers, a phenotype that coincides with lifelong delayed repair and regeneration of irradiated tissues. We hypothesized that IR-induced senescence markers could persist long-term in vivo, possibly contributing to the permanent reduction in tissue functionality. Here, we show that mouse tissues exposed to a sublethal dose of IR display persistent (up to 45 weeks, the maximum time analyzed) DNA damage foci and increased p16INK4a expression, two hallmarks of cellular senescence and aging. BrdU-labeling experiments revealed that IR-induced damaged cells are preferentially eliminated, at least partially, in a tissue-dependent manner. Unexpectedly, the accumulation of damaged cells was found to occur independent from the DNA damage response modulator p53, and from an intact immune system, as their levels were similar in wild-type and Rag2,/, ,C,/, mice, the latter being deficient in T, B, and NK cells. Together, our results provide compelling evidence that exposure to IR induces long-term expression of senescence markers in vivo, an effect that may contribute to the reduced tissue functionality observed in cancer survivors. [source] Fermentation Capabilities of Bifidobacteria Using Nondigestible Oligosaccharides, and Their Viability as Probiotics in Commercial Powder Infant FormulaJOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE, Issue 6 2005Darío Pérez-Conesa ABSTRACT The species Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium breve, Bifidobacterium longum biotype infantis (Spanish type culture collection), and Bifidobacterium longum (Morinaga nutritional foods) were evaluated in vitro in the presence of 4 commercial nondigestible oligosaccharides (NDO) (short-chain fructooligosaccharides [SCFOS] [degree of polymerization, DP: 2,3], inulin [DP: 10,0], oligofructose [DP: 2,0] and 4,-galactosyllactose [4,-GOS] [DP: 3,]). Each species was incubated anaerobically in tryptone phytone yeast (TPY) broth for 7 d with NDO. Every 24 h, bifidobacteria growth was evaluated by means of broth turbidity as optical density at 600 nm. Moreover, another sample was collected for pH culture measurement. Results showed that inulin was the substrate with the least effect on the stimulation of bifidobacteria growth and pH decrease. On the last day of incubation, the substrate 4,-GOS stimulated bacterial growth more strongly and produced a larger decrease in culture broth pH than the other substrates. On the other hand, B. bifidum and B. longum showed a greater growth with 4,-GOS. In a 2nd study, these 2 bifidobacteria species were added to a powder follow-on probiotic infant formula. The viability of the bifidobacteria during the formula's period of consumption was evaluated in 2 studies of 6 and 14 d. Both corresponded to the minimum and maximum time of consumption of the formula according to the manufacturer's directions. It was found that, although in both studies bifidobacteria counts decreased significantly (P < 0.05) with time, they were always above the recommended addition level (106 colony-forming units [CFU]/g) at the time of sale for dairy products by the Intl. Standard of Fédération Internationale de Laiterie/International Dairy Federation (FIL/IDF). Moreover, because the pH of the reconstituted formula was always close to neutrality (from 6.74 to 7.06), the number of bacteria did not drop below the recommended level. [source] On the effectiveness of clone detection by string matchingJOURNAL OF SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE AND EVOLUTION: RESEARCH AND PRACTICE, Issue 1 2006Stéphane Ducasse Abstract Although duplicated code is known to pose severe problems for software maintenance, it is difficult to identify in large systems. Many different techniques have been developed to detect software clones, some of which are very sophisticated, but are also expensive to implement and adapt. Lightweight techniques based on simple string matching are easy to implement, but how effective are they? We present a simple string-based approach which we have successfully applied to a number of different languages such COBOL, JAVA, C++, PASCAL, PYTHON, SMALLTALK, C and PDP-11 ASSEMBLER. In each case the maximum time to adapt the approach to a new language was less than 45 minutes. In this paper we investigate a number of simple variants of string-based clone detection that normalize differences due to common editing operations, and assess the quality of clone detection for very different case studies. Our results confirm that this inexpensive clone detection technique generally achieves high recall and acceptable precision. Over-zealous normalization of the code before comparison, however, can result in an unacceptable numbers of false positives. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] THE ANALYSIS OF STRESS RELAXATION DATA OF SOME VISCOELASTIC FOODS USING A TEXTURE ANALYZER,JOURNAL OF TEXTURE STUDIES, Issue 4 2006H. SINGH ABSTRACT Uniaxial compression test for dough and several commercial products like jello, mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese, tofu and sausage (cooked and uncooked) was performed using a texture analyzer (TA). Percent stress relaxation (%SR ), k1 (initial rate of relaxation), k2 (extent of relaxation) and relaxation time (RT) were calculated and compared for different products. The TA software was used to convert the raw SR data into a linear form. Constants k1 and k2 were determined from the intercept and slope of the linear data. Higher values of %SR and k2 (90 and 9, respectively) indicated higher elasticity for jello, whereas wheat flour dough samples showed the lowest values (20,30) for %SR and 1 to 2 for k2. The RT and k1 values were not good indicators for differentiating different products based on their viscoelastic behavior. Measurement of RT was limited by the maximum time for which the data were collected, whereas k1, because of its mathematical form, needed careful interpretation. In this study, %SR was found to be a good measure to interpret viscoelasticity of different food samples. [source] Clinical Evaluation of a Pacemaker Algorithm That Adjusts the Pacing Rate During Sleep Using Activity VariancePACING AND CLINICAL ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY, Issue 10 2000FIRAT DURU DURU, F., et al.: Clinical Evaluation of a Pacemaker Algorithm That Adjusts the Pacing Rate During Sleep Using Activity Variance. Even though rate responsive pacemakers are able to regulate pacing rates based on sensor activity, they are set with a minimum rate that is not adjusted to provide rate decreases during sleep. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the "Sleep Rate" feature, as compared to patient diaries and a validated method that identifies sleep from wrist actigraphy. In 19 patients (15 men; age 69 ± 8 years) with Pacesetter Trilogy DR+ pacemakers, the base rate and the sleep rate were set to 80 and 50 ppm, respectively. When the patients returned 2 days later, data recorded by the pacemaker and wrist actigraph were analyzed to find the agreement in corresponding sleep/wake periods. In 17 (89%) patients, the pacemaker went into the sleep mode. The total sleep time derived from actigraphy significantly exceeded the time during which the pacemaker was in sleep mode (1156.8 ± 83.4 vs 307.3 ± 77.2 minutes). Frequent reversions out of the sleep mode limited the total sleep time derived from the pacemaker. Cumulative analysis of the pacemaker data showed that the maximum time in the sleep mode was 78 minutes, and exceeded 1 hour in six instances, 30 minutes in 32 instances, and 15 minutes in 83 instances. Epoch by epoch comparisons revealed a good agreement (93.6 ± 1.8%) during wakefulness between the corresponding actigraph and pacemaker epochs. However, only 24.6 ± 3.7% of the corresponding epochs during sleep were identical, and the overall agreement was 54.4 ± 3.7%. Except for one patient who reported palpitations, patients did not suffer from a pacemaker rate change. The Sleep Rate feature provides rate reduction during sleep, while assuring rapid frequency response during physical activity. However, the current algorithm does not allow long periods of slow pacing rate during continuous sleep, possibly due to its conservative design and the presence of movement arousals, which has to be improved in future generation algorithms. [source] Relationship between group sunspot numbers and Wolf sunspot numbersASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 7 2010K.J. Li Abstract Continuous wavelet transform and cross-wavelet transform have been used to investigate the phase periodicity and synchrony of the monthly mean Wolf (Rz) and group (Rg) sunspot numbers during the period of June 1795 to December 1995. The Schwabe cycle is the only one common period in Rg and Rz, but it is not well-defined in case of cycles 5,7 of Rg and in case of cycles 5 and 6 of Rz. In fact, the Schwabe period is slightly different in Rg and Rz before cycle 12, but from cycle 12 onwards it is almost the same for the two time series. Asynchrony of the two time series is more obviously seen in cycles 5 and 6 than in the following cycles, and usually more obviously seen around the maximum time of a cycle than during the rest of the cycle. Rg is found to fit Rz better in both amplitudes and peak epoch during the minimum time time of a solar cycle than during the maximum time of the cycle, which should be caused by their different definition, and around the maximum time of a cycle, Rg is usually less than Rz. Asynchrony of Rg and Rz should somewhat agree with different sunspot cycle characteristics exhibited by themselves (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Creep failure mechanisms of a Ti-6Al-4V thick plateFATIGUE & FRACTURE OF ENGINEERING MATERIALS AND STRUCTURES, Issue 11 2001F. J. Seco The creep failure operating mechanisms of a 17-mm thick plate of a Ti,6Al,4V alloy in various heat treating conditions have been investigated. Specimens in the as-received, mill-annealed, condition (50 min maintenance at 720 °C and air cooled as the final step of the thermomechanical process) showed the lowest creep resistance and their metallographic analysis revealed that the temperature-activated dislocation climb was the mechanism responsible for the failure and that observed holes were generated by plastic deformation, rather than by creep cavitation. Conversely, maximum times to failure were recorded in beta-annealed specimens (1030 °C for 30 min, air cooled and aged for 2 h at 730 °C). The fracture surfaces of these broken specimens exhibited an intergranular morphology that was attributed to grain boundary sliding along the former beta grains. Finally, alpha,beta field-annealed samples (940 °C 4 h, and furnace cooled to 700 °C) possessed intermediate lives between those of mill-annealed and beta-annealed specimens and the failure operating mechanism was diffusional creep by the nucleation and coalescence of the creep cavities generated at the alpha,beta interfaces and the triple points. [source] | ||||||||||||||||