Several Thousands (several + thousand)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Role of ancillary techniques in diagnosing and subclassifying non-Hodgkin's lymphomas on fine needle aspiration cytology

CYTOPATHOLOGY, Issue 5 2006
P. DeyArticle first published online: 8 SEP 200
Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) are tumours of the lymphoid cells. During the process of development of lymphoid cells, neoplasia may evolve at any point. Neoplastic cells usually carry the imprint of cell of origin at the stage of origin. Various types of NHL may have similar morphology with wide variation in origin, immunophenotype and other biological features. Different ancillary laboratory techniques may help to overcome the limitations of morphology in this aspect. The commonly used ancillary techniques in lymphomas are immunocytochemistry (IC), flow cytometry, Southern blot (SB) technique, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). In addition, laser scanning cytometry (LSC) and DNA microarray technologies are in the research phase. Various laboratory techniques are used for immunophenotyping, demonstration of monoclonality, identification of chromosomal translocation, assessment of cell kinetics and expression of mRNA in the tumour cells. Flow cytometry helps in rapid immunophenotying of NHL and it has an added advantage over IC in recognizing the co-expression of CD markers. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) combined with flow immunophenotyping may help us to diagnose and subclassify certain NHLs, such as follicular lymphoma and mantle cell lymphoma, which were previously recognized as pure morphological entities. Loss of morphology is one of the important limitations of flow cytometry. LSC can overcome this limitation by studying morphology along with the immunophenotyping pattern of individual cells. Chromosomal changes in NHL can be identified by SB, PCR and FISH. Molecular diagnosis of NHL helps in diagnosis, subclassification, prognostic assessment and even in planning of therapy. DNA microarray is a relatively newer and promising technology. It gives information about the expression of several thousands of genes in a tumour in a single experiment. In the near future, FNAC combined with ancillary techniques may play a major role in diagnosis, subclassification and management of lymphomas. [source]


Interpretation of observed fluid potential patterns in a deep sedimentary basin under tectonic compression: Hungarian Great Plain, Pannonian Basin

GEOFLUIDS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2001
J. Tóth
Abstract The , 40 000 km2 Hungarian Great Plain portion of the Pannonian Basin consists of a basin fill of 100 m to more than 7000 m thick semi- to unconsolidated marine, deltaic, lacustrine and fluviatile clastic sediments of Neogene age, resting on a strongly tectonized Pre-Neogene basement of horst-and-graben topography of a relief in excess of 5000 m. The basement is built of a great variety of brittle rocks, including flysch, carbonates and metamorphics. The relatively continuous Endr,d Aquitard, with a permeability of less than 1 md (10,15 m2) and a depth varying between 500 and 5000 m, divides the basin's rock framework into upper and lower sequences of highly permeable rock units, whose permeabilities range from a few tens to several thousands of millidarcy. Subsurface fluid potential and flow fields were inferred from 16 192 water level and pore pressure measurements using three methods of representation: pressure,elevation profiles; hydraulic head maps; and hydraulic cross-sections. Pressure,elevation profiles were constructed for eight areas. Typically, they start from the surface with a straight-line segment of a hydrostatic gradient (,st = 9.8067 MPa km,1) and extend to depths of 1400,2500 m. At high surface elevations, the gradient is slightly smaller than hydrostatic, while at low elevations it is slightly greater. At greater depths, both the pressures and their vertical gradients are uniformly superhydrostatic. The transition to the overpressured depths may be gradual, with a gradient of ,dyn = 10,15 MPa km,1 over a vertical distance of 400,1000 m, or abrupt, with a pressure jump of up to 10 MPa km,1 over less than 100 m and a gradient of ,dyn > 20 MPa km,1. According to the hydraulic head maps for 13 100,500 m thick horizontal slices of the rock framework, the fluid potential in the near-surface domains declines with depth beneath positive topographic features, but it increases beneath depressions. The approximate boundary between these hydraulically contrasting regions is the 100 m elevation contour line in the Duna,Tisza interfluve, and the 100,110 m contours in the Nyírség uplands. Below depths of ,,600 m, islets of superhydrostatic heads develop which grow in number, areal extent and height as the depth increases; hydraulic heads may exceed 3000 m locally. A hydraulic head ,escarpment' appears gradually in the elevation range of ,,1000 to ,,2800 m along an arcuate line which tracks a major regional fault zone striking NE,SW: heads drop stepwise by several hundred metres, at places 2000 m, from its north and west sides to the south and east. The escarpment forms a ,fluid potential bank' between a ,fluid potential highland' (500,2500 m) to the north and west, and a ,fluid potential basin' (100,500 m) to the south and east. A ,potential island' rises 1000 m high above this basin further south. According to four vertical hydraulic sections, groundwater flow is controlled by the topography in the upper 200,1700 m of the basin; the driving force is orientated downwards beneath the highlands and upwards beneath the lowlands. However, it is directed uniformly upwards at greater depths. The transition between the two regimes may be gradual or abrupt, as indicated by wide or dense spacing of the hydraulic head contours, respectively. Pressure ,plumes' or ,ridges' may protrude to shallow depths along faults originating in the basement. The basement horsts appear to be overpressured relative to the intervening grabens. The principal thesis of this paper is that the two main driving forces of fluid flow in the basin are gravitation, due to elevation differences of the topographic relief, and tectonic compression. The flow field is unconfined in the gravitational regime, whereas it is confined in the compressional regime. The nature and geometry of the fluid potential field between the two regimes are controlled by the sedimentary and structural features of the rock units in that domain, characterized by highly permeable and localized sedimentary windows, conductive faults and fracture zones. The transition between the two potential fields can be gradual or abrupt in the vertical, and island-like or ridge-like in plan view. The depth of the boundary zone can vary between 400 and 2000 m. Recharge to the gravitational regime is inferred to occur from infiltrating precipitation water, whereas that to the confined regime is from pore volume reduction due to the basement's tectonic compression. [source]


Approximation method for high-degree harmonics in normal mode modelling

GEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1 2002
R. E. M. Riva
Summary For some loading applications, the normal modes approach to the viscoelastic relaxation of a spherical earth requires the use of spherical harmonics up to a high degree. Examples include postseismic deformation (internal loading) and sea level variations due to glacial isostatic adjustment (external loading). In the case of postseismic modelling, the convergence of the solution, given as a spherical harmonic expansion series, is directly dependent on loading depth and requires several thousands of terms for shallow earthquake sources. The particular structure of the analytical fundamental solutions used in normal mode techniques usually does not allow a straightforward calculation, since numerical problems can readily occur due to the stiffness of the matrices used in the propagation routines. Here we show a way of removing this stiffness problem by approximating the fundamental matrix solutions, followed by a rescaling procedure, in this way we can virtually go up to whatever harmonic degree is required. [source]


Molluscicides from some common medicinal plants of eastern Uttar Pradesh, India

JOURNAL OF APPLIED TOXICOLOGY, Issue 1 2010
Sunil Kumar Singh
Abstract Many aquatic snails act as intermediate hosts for the larvae of trematodes, Fasciola hepatica and Fasciola gigantica, which cause the diseases fascioliasis and schistosomiasis. The WHO has tested several thousands of synthetic compounds for the control of the snail host. Although effective, these molluscicides have so far not proved themselves to be entirely satisfactory. With a growing awareness of environmental pollution, efforts are being made to discover molluscicidal products of plant origin. Being products of biosynthesis, these are potentially biodegradable in nature. Several groups of compounds present in various plants have been found to be toxic to target organisms at acceptable doses ranging from <1 to 100,ppm. Common medicinal plants, i.e. Thevetia peruviana, Alstonia scholaris (Family; Apocynaceae), Euphorbia pulcherima and Euphorbia hirta (Family; Euphorbiaceae), have potent molluscicidal activity against freshwater snails. The toxicological actions of Thevetia peruviana may be due to the presence of apigenin-5-methyl ether (flavonoid) and triterpenoid glycosides, while a number of alkaloids (pseudo-akuammigine in addition to betulin, ursolic acid and ,-sitosterol), steroids and triterpenoids are present in Alstonia scholaris and the diterpenoids, pulcherrol, ,-sitosterol, hentriacontane, ellagic acid and ,-amyrin are present in Euphorbia hirta and in Euphorbia pulcherima. Although, at present very little literature is available on the control of vector snails through plant origin pesticides, an attempt has been made in this review to assemble all the known information on molluscicidal properties of common medicinal plants of eastern Uttar Pradesh, India, which might be useful for the control of harmful snails. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


CAD-based automated robot programming in adhesive spray systems for shoe outsoles and uppers

JOURNAL OF FIELD ROBOTICS (FORMERLY JOURNAL OF ROBOTIC SYSTEMS), Issue 11 2004
J. Y. Kim
Most shoe manufacturing processes are not yet automated; it puts restrictions on increasing productivity. Among them, adhesive application processes particularly are holding the most workers and working hours. In addition, the working environment is very poor due to the toxicity of adhesive agents. In the case of automating an adhesive application process by using a robot, robot teaching by playback is difficult to produce high productivity because the kinds of shoes to be taught mount up to several thousands. To cope with it, it is necessary to generate robot working paths automatically according to the kind, the size, or the right and the left of shoes, and also to teach the generated paths to a robot automatically. This paper presents a method to generate three-dimensional robot working paths off-line based on CAD data in an automatic adhesive spray system for shoe outsoles and uppers. First, this paper describes how to extract the three-dimensional data of an outsole outline from a two-dimensional CAD drawing file. Second, it describes how to extract the three-dimensional data of an upper profiling line from the three-dimensional scanning data that is opened in a three-dimensional CAD program. Third, it describes how to generate robot working paths based on the extracted data and the nozzle setting parameters for adhesive spray. Also, a series of experiments for adhesive spray is performed to verify the effectiveness of the presented methods. This study will do much for increasing productivity in shoe manufacturing as a core work of a robotic adhesive spray system. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


PAMAMOS: The first commercial silicon-containing dendrimers and their applications

JOURNAL OF POLYMER SCIENCE (IN TWO SECTIONS), Issue 9 2006
Petar R. Dvornic
Abstract The world of dendrimers presently encompasses several thousands of publications, including scientific papers and patents, several hundreds of different compositions, but only a few commercially available families of products (i.e. polyamidoamines (PAMAMs), until recently polypropyleneimines, and phosphorus-containing dendrimers) This is the story of PAMAMOS, which recently became the first commercially available silicon-containing dendrimers, and how we journeyed from our initial idea to the point of their commercialization. It focuses on three unique features of these new dendrimers: their ability to form precisely defined nano-structured, honeycomb-like, 2D or 3D networks; the amazing usefulness of these networks for the preparation of a variety of nanocomplexes and nancomposites; and some of the new vistas that these materials open up for engineering nanotechnology applications. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 2755,2773, 2006 [source]


DNA Microarrays: Their Use and Misuse

MICROCIRCULATION, Issue 1 2002
Xinmin Li
DNA microarray represents one of the major advances in functional genomics. Its ability to study expression of several thousands of genes or even all genes in the entire genome in a single experiment has changed the way in which we address basic biomedical questions. Numerous publications have shown its utility in drug discovery, disease diagnosis, novel gene identification, and understanding complex biological systems. However, there are substantive technical issues associated with the use of this technology that limit the interpretation of microarray data. In this review, we first give an overview of DNA microarray technology and then focus on uncertainty areas of microarray technology that include making microarrays, isolation of RNA and labeling, hybridization and scanning, and data analysis. The center theme of this review is to improve microarray reproducibility by addressing common technical problems. Finally, we briefly summarize microarray's applications in biomedical research. [source]


Reionization history from coupled cosmic microwave background/21-cm line data

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 3 2005
R. Salvaterra
ABSTRACT We study cosmic microwave background (CMB) secondary anisotropies produced by inhomogeneous reionization by means of cosmological simulations coupled with the radiative transfer code crash. The reionization history is consistent with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe Thomson optical depth determination. We find that the signal arising from this process dominates over the primary CMB component for l, 4000 and reaches a maximum amplitude of l(l+ 1)Cl/2,, 1.6 × 10,13 on arcmin scales (i.e. l as large as several thousands). We then cross-correlate secondary CMB anisotropy maps with neutral hydrogen 21-cm line emission fluctuations obtained from the same simulations. The two signals are highly anticorrelated on angular scales corresponding to the typical size of H ii regions (including overlapping) at the 21-cm map redshift. We show how the CMB/21-cm cross-correlation can be used: (i) to study the nature of the reionization sources; (ii) to reconstruct the cosmic reionization history; (iii) to infer the mean cosmic ionization level at any redshift. We discuss the feasibility of the proposed experiment with forthcoming facilities. [source]


The effect of overlying absorbing aerosol layers on remote sensing retrievals of cloud effective radius and cloud optical depth

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, Issue 598 2004
Jim M. Haywood
Abstract Two types of partially absorbing aerosol are included in calculations that are based on intensive aircraft observations: biomass burning aerosol characterized during the Southern AFricAn Regional science Initiative (SAFARI 2000) and mineral dust aerosol characterized during the SaHAran Dust Experiment (SHADE). Measurements during SAFARI 2000 reveal that the biomass burning aerosol layer is advected over the South Atlantic ocean at elevated altitudes above the marine boundary layer which is capped by semi-permanent stratocumulus cloud sheets. Similarly, the mineral dust is measured at elevated altitudes during SHADE resulting in transport above cloud for distances of several thousands of kilometres. We perform theoretical calculations of the effect of these partially absorbing aerosol layers on satellite retrievals of cloud effective radius and cloud optical depth, and show that, in these cases, retrievals of cloud optical depth or liquid water path are likely to be subject to systematic low biases. The theoretical calculations suggest that the cloud effective radius may be subject to a significant low bias for Moderate resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) retrievals that rely on the 0.86 and 1.63 µm radiance pair for an overlying aerosol layer of either biomass burning aerosol or mineral dust. Conversely, the cloud effective radius may be subject to a significant high bias for Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer or MODIS retrievals that rely on the 0.63 and 3.7 µm radiance pair for an overlying aerosol layer of mineral dust. Analysis of 1 km resolution MODIS data for the SAFARI 2000 period suggests that the effective radius derived from the 0.86 and 1.63 µm radiance pair is, indeed, subject to a low bias in the presence of overlying biomass burning aerosol. These results show the difficulties associated with remote sensing retrievals, which must be kept in mind when attempting to assess any potential indirect effect. © Crown copyright 2004. [source]


Equatorial magnetic helicity flux in simulations with different gauges

ASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 1 2010
D. Mitra
Abstract We use direct numerical simulations of forced MHD turbulence with a forcing function that produces two different signs of kinetic helicity in the upper and lower parts of the domain. We show that the mean flux of magnetic helicity from the small-scale field between the two parts of the domain can be described by a Fickian diffusion law with a diffusion coefficient that is approximately independent of the magnetic Reynolds number and about one third of the estimated turbulent magnetic diffusivity. The data suggest that the turbulent diffusive magnetic helicity flux can only be expected to alleviate catastrophic quenching at Reynolds numbers of more than several thousands. We further calculate the magnetic helicity density and its flux in the domain for three different gauges. We consider the Weyl gauge, in which the electrostatic potential vanishes, the pseudo-Lorenz gauge, where the speed of light is replaced by the sound speed, and the ,resistive gauge' in which the Laplacian of the magnetic vector potential acts as a resistive term. We find that, in the statistically steady state, the time-averaged magnetic helicity density and the magnetic helicity flux are the same in all three gauges (© 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source]