Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Other Projects (other + project)
Selected AbstractsPutting flesh and polish on autoimmune hepatitis and moving the disease of exclusion to inclusion,HEPATOLOGY, Issue 4 2010Albert J. Czaja Autoimmune hepatitis emerged during an era when concepts of neonatal immune tolerance, clonal selection of lymphocytes, and "forbidden clones" of activated immune cells were forming. The diagnosis had to be deduced from circumstantial evidence and by exclusion of other conditions. The goals of this review are to demonstrate how a clinician nonscientist can contribute to the maturation of autoimmune hepatitis and to illustrate the principles of clinical investigation that can be applied broadly to other projects. Autoimmune hepatitis initially had to be distinguished from other diseases, and improvements in the tests for viral and immune markers were instrumental in this regard. Diversification of the clinical phenotype to accommodate acute severe, asymptomatic, elderly, and variant forms enhanced the pertinence of the disease, and the formation of the International Autoimmune Hepatitis Group standardized the diagnosis, interconnected investigators, and promoted global acceptance of the condition. Subsequent studies refined current corticosteroid-based therapies, identified prognostic markers, assessed genetic predispositions, explored new pharmacological agents, and forecast the emergence of cellular and molecular interventions. Good fortune, stimulating mentors, career dedication, practical goal selection, protocol compliance, compulsive record keeping, personal resilience, and strong collaborations were the bases for progress. Autoimmune hepatitis exemplifies an evolutionary process in the science of autoimmunity and the people committed to its study. Lessons derived from this experience can be far-reaching. (HEPATOLOGY 2010;52:1177-1184) [source] Porting and performance aspects from IPv4 to IPv6: The case of OpenH323INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, Issue 9 2005Ch. Bouras Abstract This paper is a summary of our experiences on a case study for porting applications to IPv6. We present the results of the effort to port OpenH323, an open-source H.323 platform to IPv6, which we believe can serve as guidelines for other projects with similar goals. We briefly present the structure of the OpenH323 platform. We also discuss a number of issues arising during the porting of a platform to IPv6, like which would be the easiest approach to the porting procedure, how compatibility with earlier, IPv4-only versions of the platform could be retained, if there are any useful tools for assisting this task, how and when one could be positive that the necessary modifications had been made, and which testing procedures should be followed. We then present a variety of experiments that we conducted in order to comparatively evaluate the IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks. We also present the results of some initial experiments comparing IPv4 and IPv6 performance under congested network links and the conclusions that they lead us to. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Grid-connected photovoltaic systems: the Brazilian experience and the performance of an installationPROGRESS IN PHOTOVOLTAICS: RESEARCH & APPLICATIONS, Issue 5 2001Sérgio Henrique Ferreira de Oliveira Just as in several other countries, the Brazilian experience of installing in place solar photovoltaic technology was first aimed at meeting the needs of rural areas. More recently, the effects of the international trend towards grid-connected photovoltaic systems are beginning to be felt in Brazil. In less than five years, the first four grid-connected photovoltaic systems have been installed, and other projects are in progress. This work presents the overall characteristics of the first four systems and the technical performance achieved by one of them, with an annual production in the range of 1500,kW,h/kWp. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Single-scattering properties of aggregates of platesTHE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, Issue 639 2009Junshik Um Abstract During the 2006 Tropical Warm Pool International Cloud Experiment (TWP-ICE) sponsored by the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement programme, the Scaled Composites Proteus aircraft executed spiral profiles and flew horizontal legs through aging anvils, fresh anvils, and cirrus of unknown origin in the vicinity of Darwin, Australia. Pristine ice crystals including both plates and bullet rosettes, their aggregates, and unclassifiable ice crystals were observed by a Cloud Particle Imager. The widths of observed plates ranged between 80 µm and 200 µm. When a fresh dissipating anvil was observed on 2 February, aggregates of plates contributed 46.2% of the total area of measured ice crystals with maximum dimensions greater than 200 µm, while it was only 7.2% and 1.0% for 27 and 29 January, respectively, when aged cirrus was sampled. Because aggregates of plates have been observed to make large contributions to projected ice crystal area near convection during TWP-ICE and other projects, their single-scattering properties that have not been previously examined are investigated here. The dependence of the scattering phase function P11, asymmetry parameter g, and single-scattering albedo ,0 on three parameters (the area ratio AR, normalized projected area An, and a newly defined aggregation index AI which varies between 0 and 1 with ice crystals with more compact shape having lower AI) defining the three-dimensional shapes of aggregates of plates were calculated using a geometric ray-tracing code at wavelengths , of 0.55, 1.38 and 2.13 µm. The scattering properties depended on the crystal morphology with, for example, the g of an aggregate of plates with a high AI of 0.818 differing by + 6.89% (+6.44%; + 4.55%) from that with a lower AI of 0.378 at , of 0.55 µm (1.38 µm; 2.13 µm), but by only + 0.29% (+0.25%; , 0.03%) from those of the component plates. The ,0 at absorbing , increased with AI, 1 , AR, and An. Adding ray distortion to the aggregates caused a decrease in forward scattering and an increase in lateral and backward scattering, decreasing g, an effect that weakened with , due to absorption. The aggregates of plates with low AI were more influenced by ray distortion compared to those with high AI. The dependence of scattering properties on crystal morphology noted here should be considered when computing bulk scattering properties of ice clouds to determine its importance for climate and remote-sensing studies. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society [source] ENVELOPING OBJECTS: ALLEGORY AND COMMODITY FETISH IN WENCESLAUS HOLLAR'S PERSONIFICATIONS OF THE SEASONS AND FASHION STILL LIFESART HISTORY, Issue 3 2006JOSEPH MONTEYNE While in London during the 1640s Wenceslaus Hollar produced a striking cycle of etchings using contemporary female figures as allegories of the seasons, followed by another series of still lifes depicting fashion accessories, in which fur muffs appear repeatedly. This article focuses on the connections between the personi-fications of winter and the still lifes, and brings out the tensions that transpire when the disinterested and supposedly objective eye utilized in Hollar's other projects of the 1640s is revealed as an eye steeped with ambivalent desires , not just in relation to the bodies of certain women, but to the commodity form as well. The fur muff in these etchings is shown to be an enigmatic entity, not only intersecting with issues related to fetishism, eroticism and urban space in early modern London, but is also poised on a threshold between different economies of the object, between residual classical and medieval systems of representation and newly emergent anxieties about the commodity and exchange value. [source] Developing a modern pollen,climate calibration data set for NorwayBOREAS, Issue 4 2010ANNE E. BJUNE Bjune, A. E., Birks, H. J. B., Peglar, S. M. & Odland, A. 2010: Developing a modern pollen,climate calibration data set for Norway. Boreas, Vol. 39, pp. 674,688. 10.1111/j.1502-3885.2010.00158.x. ISSN 0300-9483. Modern pollen,climate data sets consisting of modern pollen assemblages and modern climate data (mean July temperature and mean annual precipitation) have been developed for Norway based on 191 lakes and 321 lakes. The original 191-lake data set was designed to optimize the distribution of the lakes sampled along the mean July temperature gradient, thereby fulfilling one of the most critical assumptions of weighted-averaging regression and calibration and its relative, weighted-averaging partial least-squares regression. A further 130 surface samples of comparable taphonomy, taxonomic detail and analyst became available as a result of other projects. These 130 samples, all from new lakes, were added to the 191-lake data set to create the 321-lake data set. The collection and construction of these data sets are outlined. Numerical analyses involving generalized linear modelling, constrained ordination techniques, weighted-averaging partial least-squares regression, and two different cross-validation procedures are used to asses the effects of increasing the size of the calibration data set from 191 to 321 lakes. The two data sets are used to reconstruct mean July temperature and mean annual precipitation for a Holocene site in northwest Norway and a Lateglacial site in west-central Norway. Overall, little is to be gained by increasing the modern data set beyond about 200 lakes in terms of modern model performance statistics, but the down-core reconstructions show less between-sample variability and are thus potentially more plausible and realistic when based on the 321-lake data set. [source] Bridging the Gap between Clinical Research and Knowledge Translation in Pediatric Emergency MedicineACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 11 2007Lisa Hartling MSc In 2006, a multidisciplinary group of researchers from across Canada submitted a successful application to the Canadian Institutes for Health Research for a Canadian Institutes for Health Research Team in Pediatric Emergency Medicine. The conceptual foundation for the proposal was to bring together two areas deemed critical for optimizing health outcomes: clinical research and knowledge translation (KT). The framework for the proposed work is an iterative figure-eight model that provides logical steps for research and a seamless flow between the development and evaluation of therapeutic interventions (clinical research) and the implementation and uptake of those interventions that prove to be effective (KT). Under the team grant, we will conduct seven distinct projects relating to the two most common medical problems affecting children in the emergency department: respiratory illness and injury. The projects span the research continuum, with some projects targeting problems for which there is little evidence, while other projects involve problems with a strong evidence base but require further work in the KT realm. In this article, we describe the history of the research team, the research framework, the individual research projects, and the structure of the team, including coordination and administration. We also highlight some of the many advantages of bringing this research program together under the umbrella of a team grant, including opportunities for cross-fertilization of ideas, collaboration among multiple disciplines and centers, training of students and junior researchers, and advancing a methodological research agenda. [source] Screening by the Company You Keep: Joint Liability Lending and the Peer Selection EffectTHE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 465 2000Maitreesh Ghatak We look at an economic environment where borrowers have some information about the nature of each other's projects that lenders do not. We show that joint-liability lending contracts, similar to those used by credit cooperatives and group-lending schemes, will induce endogenous peer selection in the formation of groups in a way that the instrument of joint liability can be used as a screening device to exploit this local information. This can improve welfare and repayment rates if standard screening instruments such as collateral are unavailable. [source] | ||||||||||||||||