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Similar Performance (similar + performance)
Selected AbstractsA performance comparison between the Earth Simulator and other terascale systems on a characteristic ASCI workload,CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION: PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE, Issue 10 2005Darren J. Kerbyson Abstract This work gives a detailed analysis of the relative performance of the recently installed Earth Simulator and the next top four systems in the Top500 list using predictive performance models. The Earth Simulator uses vector processing nodes interconnected using a single-stage, cross-bar network, whereas the next top four systems are built using commodity based superscalar microprocessors and interconnection networks. The performance that can be achieved results from an interplay of system characteristics, application requirements and scalability behavior. Detailed performance models are used here to predict the performance of two codes representative of the ASCI workload, namely SAGE and Sweep3D. The performance models encapsulate fully the behavior of these codes and have been previously validated on many large-scale systems. One result of this analysis is to size systems, built from the same nodes and networks as those in the top five, that will have the same performance as the Earth Simulator. In particular, the largest ASCI machine, ASCI Q, is expected to achieve a similar performance to the Earth Simulator on the representative workload. Published in 2005 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Effects of physiological aging and cerebrovascular risk factors on the hemodynamic response to brain activation: a functional transcranial Doppler studyEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 2 2007K. Gröschel The influence of the vascular system on the coupling of cerebral blood flow (CBF) to focal brain activation during aging is incompletely understood. Using functional transcranial Doppler sonography and a hypercapnic challenge as a marker of intact cerebral vasoreactivity, we determined CBF velocity (CBFV) changes in response to a language and arithmetic task in a group of 43 healthy young subjects (mean age 32 ± 8.6 years), 18 healthy old subjects (mean age 64 ± 9.8 years) and 29 old subjects with risk factors for an atherosclerosis (mean age 69 ± 8.4 years). Despite a similar performance during the cognitive tasks the CBFV changes were significantly lower in the group of old subjects with vascular risk factors compared with the healthy young and old subjects. Similarly, the CBFV changes during hypercapnia were significantly lower in the group of old subjects with vascular risk factors compared with the healthy young and old subjects. In contrast, both cognitive tasks and hypercapnia produced comparable CBFV changes in the group of healthy young and old subjects. These results suggest that the hemodynamic response to neuronal activation is unaffected by aging alone, whereas the presence of cardiovascular risk factors significantly diminishes the capability of cerebral vessels to react to vasodilating stimuli. [source] Unfamiliar face recognition in children with autistic spectrum disordersINFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 6 2009Rebecca R. Wilson Abstract We investigated unfamiliar face recognition in low-functioning children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) using a ,part-of-face' method. This method has not previously been used for unfamiliar faces with this population. The ,part-of-face' procedure provides measures of both face recognition accuracy and of processing style. We compared the performance of the children with ASD with three control groups: children with developmental delay (DD), typically developing (TD) children matched for verbal cognitive ability and TD children matched for chronological age (CA). Compared to the DD group, the ASD group showed similar processing in recognition accuracy and processing style. Compared to the TD children, the ASD group did not show the same level of accuracy as controls of the same CA, instead showing similar performance to younger TD children. However, as both children with ASD and DD showed the same performance, no ASD-specific deficit was found. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A peer-to-peer IPTV service architecture for the IP multimedia subsystemINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, Issue 6-7 2010A. Bikfalvi Abstract During these last years the Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service and the different peer-to-peer (P2P) technologies have generated an increasing interest for the developers and the research community that find in them the solution to deal with the scalability problem of media streaming and reducing costs at the same time. However, despite of the benefits obtained in Internet-based applications and the growing deployment of commercial IPTV systems, there has been a little effort in combining them both. With the advent of the next-generation-network platforms such as the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), which advocates for an open and inter-operable service infrastructure, P2P emerges as a possible solution in situations where the traditional streaming mechanisms are not possible or not economically feasible. In this paper, we propose an IPTV service architecture for the IMS that combines a centralized control layer and a distributed, P2P-like, media layer that relies on the IMS devices or peers located in the customers' premises to act as streaming forwarding nodes. We extend the existing IMS IPTV standardization work that has already been done in 3GPP and ETSI TISPAN in order to require a minimum number of architectural changes. The objective is to obtain a system with a similar performance to the one in currently deployed systems and with the flexibility of P2P. One of the main challenges is to achieve comparable response times to user actions such as changing and tuning into channels, as well as providing a fast recovery mechanism when streaming nodes leave. To accomplish this we introduce the idea of foster peers as peers having inactive multimedia sessions and reserved resources. These peers are on stand-by until their functionality is required and at that moment, they are able to accept downstream peers at short notice for events requiring urgent treatment like channel changing and recovery. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Thermoeconomic modeling of micro-CHP (micro-cooling, heating, and power) for small commercial applicationsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH, Issue 9 2008Alan Moran Abstract The increasing demand for electrical power as well as energy for heating and cooling of residences and small commercial buildings is a growing worldwide concern. Micro-cooling, heating, and power (micro-CHP), typically designated as less than 30,kW electric, is decentralized electricity generation coupled with thermally activated components for residential and small commercial applications. The number of combinations of components and parameters in a micro-CHP system is too many to be designed through experimental work alone. Therefore, theoretical models for different micro-CHP components and complete micro-CHP systems are needed to facilitate the design of these systems and to study their performance. This paper presents a model for micro-CHP systems for residential and small commercial applications. Some of the results that can be obtained using the developed model include the cost per month of operation of using micro-CHP versus conventional technologies, the amount of fuel per month required to run micro-CHP systems, the overall efficiency of micro-CHP systems, etc. A case study is used to demonstrate differences in the system performances of micro-CHP systems driven by a natural gas internal combustion engine and a diesel engine. Some of the results show that both systems have similar performance and that system total efficiencies in cooler months of up to 80% could be obtained. Also, modeling results show that there is a limit in fuel price that economically prevents the use of CHP systems, which is $11 MBTU,1 for this specific case. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Comparison of the diagnostic accuracy of the Cognitive Performance Scale (Minimum Data Set) and the Mini-Mental State Exam for the detection of cognitive impairment in nursing home residentsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY, Issue 4 2007Louis Paquay Abstract Objective To compare the diagnostic accuracy of an outcome measurement scale of the Minimum Data Set of the Resident Assessment Instrument for nursing homes (MDS/RAI-NH), the Cognitive Performance Scale (CPS) and the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) for the detection of cognitive impairment. The Cambridge Examination for Mental Disorders of the Elderly , Revised (CAMDEX-R) was used as the reference standard. Study design and setting This study was part of a larger prospective study (QUALIDEM) involving a diagnostic procedure and two-year follow-up on the quality of primary care for demented patients. CAMDEX-R and MDS/RAI-NH were administered to 198 residents, aged 65 or more, living in 42 low and high care institutions for aged people. Main outcome measures Indicators of diagnostic accuracy: sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, likelihood ratios, odds ratio and area under receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC). Results The CAMDEX-based prevalence of cognitive impairment was 75%. The diagnostic values of a CPS score of two or more for the detection of cognitive impairment were: sensitivity,=,0.81; specificity,=,0.80; PPV,=,0.92; NPV,=,0.57. The diagnostic values of a MMSE score of less than or equal 23 were: sensitivity,=,0.97; specificity,=,0.59; PPV,=,0.88; NPV,=,0.85. For CPS, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.87 (95% CI, 0.81,0.91), and not significantly different (p,=,0.63) from the MMSE score, 0.88 (0.83,0.93). Conclusions CPS and MMSE demonstrated similar performance to detect cognitive impairment in nursing home residents. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A quasi-planar incident wave excitation for time-domain scattering analysis of periodic structuresINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NUMERICAL MODELLING: ELECTRONIC NETWORKS, DEVICES AND FIELDS, Issue 5 2006David Degerfeldt Abstract We present a quasi-planar incident wave excitation for time-domain scattering analysis of periodic structures. It uses a particular superposition of plane waves that yields an incident wave with the same periodicity as the periodic structure itself. The duration of the incident wave is controlled by means of its frequency spectrum or, equivalently, the angular spread in its constituting plane waves. Accuracy and convergence properties of the method are demonstrated by scattering computations for a planar dielectric half-space. Equipped with the proposed source, a time-domain solver based on linear elements yields an error of roughly 1% for a resolution of 20 points per wavelength and second-order convergence is achieved for smooth scatterers. Computations of the scattering characteristics for a sinusoidal surface and a random rough surface show similar performance. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Environmental and Genotypic Effects on Pod Characteristics Related to Common Bean QualityJOURNAL OF AGRONOMY AND CROP SCIENCE, Issue 4 2004Dr A. M. De Ron Abstract A collection of 121 common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) landraces from Spain and Portugal (Iberian Peninsula) was evaluated in six environments (three locations and 2 years). Significant differences among landraces were found for period of flowering, pod maturity and pod morphology (weight, length, width/thickness and curvature). Wide variation among landraces was revealed by the range of variation observed. Environmental effects were not significant although year × location and landrace × year × location interactions were significant for all traits studied except for pod curvature. Poor consistent expression across the different environments for most of the traits studied was expressed by the low values of constancy (C) with the exception of width/thickness indicating that pod shape (round or flat) was expressed regularly across different environments. Principal component analysis enhanced differences among environments affecting the performance of the bean landraces evaluated. Analysis by environment showed that 51 landraces were adapted to specific environments and only four of them had broad geographical adaptability with similar performance under different conditions. These results could be a starting point for selection of new inbred lines adapted to distinct environments with potential for the improvement of current snap bean cultivars. [source] Implementation and Validation of the Teleshake Unit for DNA IQÔ Robotic Extraction and Development of a Large Volume DNA IQÔ MethodJOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES, Issue 3 2010Jennifer C. Grubb B.A. Abstract:, Automated platforms used for forensic casework sample DNA extraction need to be versatile to accommodate a wide variety of sample types, thus protocols frequently need modification. In this study, DNA IQÔ methods previously developed for the Biomek® 2000 Automation Workstation were adapted for the Teleshake Unit using normal volumes and all deepwell extraction, and a large volume DNA IQÔ method developed. DNA purification without detectable contamination of adjacent reagent blanks is reported in the extraction of tissue samples containing several micrograms of DNA. Sensitivity and contamination studies demonstrated similar performance with the manual organic extraction method for bloodstain dilution samples. Mock casework samples demonstrated the effectiveness of the Teleshake and Teleshake large volume methods. Because of the performance and increased versatility of the DNA IQÔ extraction with these modifications, the Teleshake Unit has been implemented in both normal and large volume automated DNA extractions at the Virginia Department of Forensic Science. [source] Application of ALOGPS to predict 1-octanol/water distribution coefficients, logP, and logD, of AstraZeneca in-house databaseJOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES, Issue 12 2004Igor V. Tetko Abstract The ALOGPS 2.1 was developed to predict 1-octanol/water partition coefficients, logP, and aqueous solubility of neutral compounds. An exclusive feature of this program is its ability to incorporate new user-provided data by means of self-learning properties of Associative Neural Networks. Using this feature, it calculated a similar performance, RMSE,=,0.7 and mean average error 0.5, for 2569 neutral logP, and 8122 pH-dependent logD7.4, distribution coefficients from the AstraZeneca "in-house" database. The high performance of the program for the logD7.4 prediction looks surprising, because this property also depends on ionization constants pKa. Therefore, logD7.4 is considered to be more difficult to predict than its neutral analog. We explain and illustrate this result and, moreover, discuss a possible application of the approach to calculate other pharmacokinetic and biological activities of chemicals important for drug development. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. and the American Pharmacists Association J Pharm Sci 93:3103,3110, 2004 [source] Two-dimensional coordination polymer matrix for solid-phase extraction of pesticide residues from plant Cordia salicifoliaJOURNAL OF SEPARATION SCIENCE, JSS, Issue 12 2009Pedro Henrique Viana de Carvalho Abstract The 2D coordination polymer (,[Gd(DPA)(HDPA)]) was tested for extraction of acephate, chlorpropham, pirimicarb, bifenthrin, tetradifon, and phosalone from the medicinal plant Cordia salicifolia, whose extracts are commercialized in Brazil as diuretic, appetite suppressant, and weight loss products, using GC/MS, SIM. Considering that there are no Brazilian regulations concerning maximum permissible pesticide residue concentrations in medicinal herbs, recovery experiments were carried out (seven replicates), at two arbitrary fortification levels (0.5 and 1.0 mg/kg), resulting in recoveries in range of 20 to 107.7% and SDRSDs were between 5.6 and 29.1% for ,[Gd(DPA)(HDPA)] sorbent. Detection and quantification limits for herb ranged from 0.10 to 0.15 mg/kg and from 0.15 to 0.25 mg/kg, respectively, for the different pesticides studied. The developed method is linear over the range assayed, 0.5,10.0 ,g/mL, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.9975 to 0.9986 for all pesticides. Comparison between ,[Gd(DPA)(HDPA)] sorbent and conventional sorbent (neutral alumina) showed similar performance of ,[Gd(DPA)(HDPA)] polymeric sorbent for three (bifenthrin, tetradifon, and phosalone) out of six pesticides tested. [source] Physico-enzymatic production of monoacylglycerols enriched with very-long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acidsJOURNAL OF THE SCIENCE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE, Issue 2 2008Ratchapol Pawongrat Abstract BACKGROUND: Monoacylglycerols (MAG) containing polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), especially eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), have interesting applications. The enzymatic processing of such MAG directly from fish oils is highly interesting, integrating the processing of MAG and concentration of EPA and DHA. The aim of this study was to develop an efficient enzymatic glycerolysis system together with physical fractionation for the production of PUFA-MAG from tuna oil. RESULTS: Novozym 435 was eventually selected after evaluation together with immobilized lipase AK in a tertiary alcohol-based system. A further evaluation of solvent mixtures involving tertiary alcohols was made, taking ease of operation into consideration. It turned out that a number of mixtures gave a similar performance to that of tert -butanol (TB). Basic reaction parameters were thoroughly evaluated. In the batch reaction system with TB as solvent, the recommended conditions were: glycerol/tuna oil 4:1 (mol/mol), TB/tuna oil 2:1 (wt/wt), 15 wt% Novozym 435, and temperature 40 °C. Under these conditions, the yield of MAG was up to 90% after 3 h incubation. Crude MAG from the production was fractionated to produce MAG with higher EPA and DHA content. Using acetone as solvent at 0 °C led to ca 50% yield of MAG but contained EPA and DHA up to 71% in comparison with ca 30% in tuna oil. CONCLUSION: Potentially practical process steps have been developed for the production of MAG containing a high content of EPA and DHA from natural fish oils with high efficiency and simplicity. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry [source] Replacement of Fish Meal with Soybean Meal in the Production Diets of Juvenile Red Snapper, Lutjanus campechanusJOURNAL OF THE WORLD AQUACULTURE SOCIETY, Issue 1 2005D. Allen Davis The replacement of fish meal with soybean meal in fish diets has met with varying degrees of success. Quite often, poor responses to high soybean meal diets are either due to shifts in the nutrient profile or a reduced palatability of the diet when fish meal is removed. The present research was designed to evaluate the replacement of menhaden fish meal with solvent-extracted soybean meal in practical diets containing 10% poultry by-product meal and formulated to contain 40% protein, 8% lipid, and a total sulfur amino acid content of > 3.0% of the protein. The response of red snapper (mean initial weight 10.9 g) to diets containing graded levels of fish meal (30,20, 10, 0%) as well as the response to a low fish meal diet (10%) without poultry by-product meal were evaluated over a 6-wk growth period. Significant (P± 0.05) differences in final mean weight, percent weight gain, and feed conversion were observed. Final weights (percent gain) ranged from 30.9 g (185.5%) for fish offered diets with 30% fish meal to 12.6 g (16.3%) for fish offered diets with 0% fish meal. Corresponding feed conversion efficiencies ranged from 60.1% to 7.7%. No significant differences were observed for survival between treatment means. Although there was a clear reduction in performance as the fish meal was replaced with soybean meal, the use of 10% poultry by-product meal or 10% fish meal resulted in similar performance of the fish. This is a good indication that poultry by-product meal does not have palatability problems and could be used as a substitute. The present findings suggest that replacing fish meal with high levels of soybean meal appears to reduce the palatability of the diet. While the cost reducing benefit, with respect to the replacement of fish meal, has been shown with other species, before high levels of inclusion can be efficiently utilized further research is needed to address the palatability problems observed with red snapper. [source] High-energy femtosecond fiber lasers based on pulse propagation at normal dispersionLASER & PHOTONICS REVIEWS, Issue 1-2 2008F.W. Wise Abstract The generation and stable propagation of ultrashort optical pulses tend to be limited by accumulation of excessive nonlinear phase shifts. The limitations are particularly challenging in fiber-based devices, and as a result, short-pulse fiber lasers have lagged behind bulk solid-state lasers in performance. This article will review several new modes of pulse formation and propagation in fiber lasers. These modes exist with large normal cavity dispersion, and so are qualitatively distinct from the soliton-like processes that have been exploited effectively in modern femtosecond lasers but which are also quite limiting. Self-similar evolution can stabilize high-energy pulses in fiber lasers, and this leads to order-of-magnitude increases in performance: fiber lasers that generate 10 nJ pulses of 100 fs duration are now possible. Pulse-shaping based on spectral filtering of a phase-modulated pulse yields similar performance, from lasers that have no intracavity dispersion control. These new modes feature highly-chirped pulses in the laser cavity, and a theoretical framework offers the possibility of unifying our view of normal-dispersion femtosecond lasers. Instruments based on these new pulse-shaping mechanisms offer performance that is comparable to that of solid-state lasers but with the major practical advantages of fiber. [source] Comparative Characterization of PP Nano- and Microcomposites by In-Mold Shrinkage Measurements and Structural CharacteristicsMACROMOLECULAR MATERIALS & ENGINEERING, Issue 6 2007Rodolfo Revilla-Díaz Abstract Poly(propylene)-clay nanocomposites and poly(propylene) containing conventional inorganic fillers such as calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and glass fiber were used in a comparative study focusing on dimensional stability, structure, mechanical and thermal properties. Micro- and nanocomposites were prepared by melt blending in a twin-screw extruder. The relative influence of each filler was observed from dimensional stability measurements and structural analysis by WAXD, TEM, and thermal and mechanical properties. At equal filler loadings, PP/clay nanocomposites exhibit an improvement in dimensional stability and were the only composites capable of reduced shrinkage in both in-flow and cross-flow directions. The flexural modulus of PP increased nearly 20% by compounding with 4% organoclay, as compared to a similar performance obtained by compounding with 10 wt.-% of CaCO3 or approximately 6 wt.-% of glass fiber. The HDT and thermal stability of PP were enhanced by using nanoclay as filler. [source] Analysis of different factors affecting cathodic protection for deep well casingsMATERIALS AND CORROSION/WERKSTOFFE UND KORROSION, Issue 3 2010I. A. Metwally Abstract This paper introduces a comparative theoretical investigation of the conventional cathodic protection (CP) and the pulse cathodic protection (PCP) systems to show how both of them behave under different operating conditions. The effectiveness of the PCP system is also highlighted for a typical large-scale configuration as well as some field measurements have been carried out. The performance of PCP system has been analyzed in the light of getting better protection-current distribution along the protected well casing at reduced anode current together with reducing the stray current (corrosion) at any nearby unprotected structure(s). Many factors have been investigated to show their effects on the performance of the CP system, namely, soil resistivity, voltage pulse waveform and frequency, and multi-layer soil. In addition, the performance of both the conventional CP and the PCP systems has been compared to that when utilizing unused/abandoned well casing as anode energized by the conventional CP system. The PCP system shows better performance than that of the conventional CP, and a similar performance at high soil resistivity to that when using unused/abandoned well casing. On the other hand, the utilization of the unused/abandoned well casing gives superior performance, especially at low soil resistivities, where the protection-current profiles of both the conventional CP and the PCP systems decay sharply. [source] Technical Performance of Percutaneous and Laminectomy Leads Analyzed by ModelingNEUROMODULATION, Issue 4 2004Ljubomir Manola Dipl. Abstract The objective of this study was to compare the technical performance of laminectomy and percutaneous spinal cord stimulation leads with similar contact spacing by computer modeling. Monopolar and tripolar (guarded cathode) stimulation with both lead types in a low-thoracic spine model was simulated using UT-SCS software. Dorsal column and dorsal root fiber thresholds were calculated as well as the area of recruited fibers in the dorsal columns, the rostrocaudal span of recruited dorsal root fibers and the energy consumption at discomfort threshold. Tripolar stimulation is superior to monopolar stimulation in the recruitment of the dorsal columns, a percutaneous lead recruits a ,12% larger dorsal column area than a laminectomy lead does. This difference is reduced when the contact spacing of the lead models is the same. A percutaneous lead with significant wire impedance (140 Ohms) consumes ,115,240% more energy, whereas the same lead with negligible wire impedance consumes ,40,85% more energy. A deterioration of all performance parameters is predicted when a percutaneous lead is placed more dorsally in the epidural tissue. When positioned next to the dura mater, a percutaneous lead has a similar performance (fiber recruitment in the dorsal columns and the dorsal roots) as a laminectomy lead with similar contact spacing, but substantially higher energy consumption. The superior clinical performance of the laminectomy lead is most probably due to the difference in volume and insertion technique of the two lead types. [source] Pt/SiO2 as addition to multilayer SPSU/PTFE composite membrane for fuel cellsPOLYMERS FOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES, Issue 12 2008L. Wang Abstract A multilayer composite membrane was prepared by reinforcing sulfonated polysulfone (SPSU) with porous polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), and adding Pt/SiO2,Nafion® membranes on both sides of the SPSU/PTFE membrane to self-humidify and protect the inside membrane. The ex situ Fenton test and open circuit voltage (OCV) accelerated test show that the composite membrane has better stability than the initial membrane because of the protection of the outside Pt/SiO2,Nafion layers. The composite membrane has similar performance to that of NRE-212 under the fully humidified condition and better performance than NRE-212 without humidifying. The self-humidifying membrane shows great potential for use in low humidifying conditions. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Effect of methionine hydroxy analog-free acid on growth performance and chemical composition of liver of broiler chicks fed a corn,soybean based diet from 0 to 6 weeks of ageANIMAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 1 2006Chaiyapoom BUNCHASAK ABSTRACT The experiment was carried out to determine the effects of liquid DL-methionine hydroxy analog-free acid (LMA) and dry DL-methionine (DLM) on growth performance, carcass quality and chemical composition of the livers of broiler chicks during 0,6 weeks of age. Four hundred and fifty male commercial broiler chicks (Ross strain) were used. The chicks were divided into three groups, and each group consisted of six replicates of 25 chicks each. The chicks were kept in floor pens, and water and feed were supplied ad libitum throughout the experiment. Three experimental diets were provided as follows: (i) corn,soybean-based diet deficient in methionine; (ii) methionine-deficient corn,soybean-based diet supplemented with DLM to meet the methionine requirements of broiler chicks; and (iii) methionine-deficient corn,soybean-based diet supplemented with LMA (1.25-fold (w/w) the amount of DLM supplied to the second group, given an assumption that 100 units of liquid LMA can be replaced by 80 units DLM to give similar performance results). During the starter period, the weight gains of chicks fed LMA or DLM were significantly greater than those in chicks receiving the methionine-deficient diet (P < 0.05), and the addition of LMA significantly improved weight gain compared with the addition of DLM. Adding DLM or LMA significantly improved the feed conversion ratio (FCR) and percentage of uniformity (P < 0.05). No significant differences between the effects of DLM and LMA on these parameters were found. During the grower period (3,6 weeks of age), weight gain, FCR, uniformity and feed intake of chicks that received diet supplemented with DLM or LMA were superior to those of the methionine-deficient group (P < 0.05). Chicks fed LMA had the same bodyweight gain and uniformity as those fed DLM. However, adding LMA resulted in a significant increase of FCR resulting from excess feed consumption. Outer breast meat yields were significantly improved and abdominal fat was significantly decreased when methionine sources were added (P < 0.05), and adding LMA tended to promote edible meat growth better than did adding DLM. Although no significant effects of methionine sources on the chemical composition of the liver were seen, adding methionine sources tended to increase liver fat content. In conclusion, it seems that the bioefficacy of LMA relative to DLM is not less than 80%. Therefore, chicks fed with diet supplemented with 1.25-fold (w/w) as much LMA as DLM might exceed requirements for growth performance, while meeting requirements for meat production. Moreover, the relative bioefficacies of LMA and DLM between the starter and grower periods may perhaps be different. [source] Ibuprofen Provides Analgesia Equivalent to Acetaminophen,Codeine in the Treatment of Acute Pain in Children with Extremity Injuries: A Randomized Clinical TrialACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 8 2009Janet H. Friday MD Abstract Objectives:, This study compared the analgesic effectiveness of acetaminophen,codeine with that of ibuprofen for children with acute traumatic extremity pain, with the hypothesis that the two medications would demonstrate equivalent reduction in pain scores in an emergency department (ED) setting. Methods:, This was a randomized, double-blinded equivalence trial. Pediatric ED patients 5 to 17 years of age with acute traumatic extremity pain received acetaminophen,codeine (1 mg/kg as codeine, maximum 60 mg) or ibuprofen (10 mg/kg, maximum 400 mg). The patients provided Color Analog Scale (CAS) pain scores at baseline and at 20, 40, and 60 minutes after medication administration. The primary outcome measured was the difference in changes in pain score at 40 minutes, compared to a previously described minimal clinically significant change in pain score of 2 cm. The difference was defined as (change in ibuprofen CAS score from baseline) , (change in acetaminophen,codeine CAS score from baseline); negative values thus favor the ibuprofen group. Additional outcomes included need for rescue medication and adverse effects. Results:, The 32 acetaminophen,codeine and the 34 ibuprofen recipients in our convenience sample had indistinguishable pain scores at baseline. The intergroup differences in pain score change at 20 minutes (,0.6, 95% confidence interval [CI] = ,1.5 to 0.3), 40 minutes (,0.4, 95% CI = ,1.4 to 0.6), and 60 minutes (0.2, 95% CI = ,0.8 to 1.2) were all less than 2 cm. Adverse effects were minimal: vomiting (one patient after acetaminophen,codeine), nausea (one patient after ibuprofen), and pruritus (one after acetaminophen,codeine). The three patients in each group who received rescue medications all had radiographically demonstrated fractures or dislocations. Conclusions:, This study found similar performance of acetaminophen,codeine and ibuprofen in analgesic effectiveness among ED patients aged 5,17 years with acute traumatic extremity pain. Both drugs provided measurable analgesia. Patients tolerated them well, with few treatment failures and minimal adverse effects. [source] Evaluation of fisheries by-catch and by-product meals in diets for red drum Sciaenops ocellatus L.AQUACULTURE RESEARCH, Issue 16 2005Kasey W Whiteman Abstract This study evaluated various by-catch and by-product meals of marine origin with red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus L.). Four different kinds of by-catch or by-product meals [shrimp by-catch meal from shrimp trawling, Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei (Boone)) processing waste meal, red salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka (Walbaum)) head meal, and Pacific whiting (Merluccius productus (Ayres)) meal] were substituted for Special SelectÔ menhaden fish meal at 33% or 67% of crude protein in diets formulated to contain 40% crude protein, 12% lipid, and 14.6 kJ digestible energy g,1. Each of these diets and three additional diets consisting of shrimp processing waste meal formulated on a digestible-protein basis and two Pacific whiting diets containing reduced levels of ash were also evaluated in two 6-week feeding trials with juvenile red drum (initial weight of 4,5 and 1,2 g fish,1 in trials 1 and 2). Red drum fed by-catch meal at either level of substitution performed as well as fish fed the control diet; whereas, fish fed shrimp processing waste meal diets had significantly (P,0.05) reduced weight gain and feed efficiency ratio values compared with the controls, even when fed on a digestible-protein basis. The diets containing Pacific whiting at either levels of substitution and regardless of ash level supported similar performance of red drum as those fed the control diet. Fish fed the red salmon head meal diet fared poorly, probably owing to an excessive amount of lipid in the diet that became rancid. Overall, by-catch meal associated with shrimp trawling and Pacific whiting appear to be suitable protein feedstuffs for red drum. [source] Using the Optimal Robust Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) Curve for Predictive Genetic TestsBIOMETRICS, Issue 2 2010Qing Lu Summary Current ongoing genome-wide association (GWA) studies represent a powerful approach to uncover common unknown genetic variants causing common complex diseases. The discovery of these genetic variants offers an important opportunity for early disease prediction, prevention, and individualized treatment. We describe here a method of combining multiple genetic variants for early disease prediction, based on the optimality theory of the likelihood ratio (LR). Such theory simply shows that the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve based on the LR has maximum performance at each cutoff point and that the area under the ROC curve so obtained is highest among that of all approaches. Through simulations and a real data application, we compared it with the commonly used logistic regression and classification tree approaches. The three approaches show similar performance if we know the underlying disease model. However, for most common diseases we have little prior knowledge of the disease model and in this situation the new method has an advantage over logistic regression and classification tree approaches. We applied the new method to the type 1 diabetes GWA data from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium. Based on five single nucleotide polymorphisms, the test reaches medium level classification accuracy. With more genetic findings to be discovered in the future, we believe a predictive genetic test for type 1 diabetes can be successfully constructed and eventually implemented for clinical use. [source] Dynamic cone response functions for models of colour appearanceCOLOR RESEARCH & APPLICATION, Issue 2 2003R. W. G. Hunt Abstract The CIECAM97s type of colour appearance models results in some changes in hue and saturation for series of colours of constant chromaticity but changing luminance factor. To keep hue and saturation constant for such series, a model in which the dynamic cone response is based on a power function has been developed. By optimizing its parameters, its correlates of hue, lightness, colourfulness, brightness, and saturation perform nearly as well as those of CIECAM97s. A similar performance is achieved in a modified power model, which is more physiologically plausible. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 28, 82,88, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.10128 [source] Predictive assessment of ochratoxin A accumulation in grape juice based-medium by Aspergillus carbonarius using neural networksJOURNAL OF APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY, Issue 3 2009F. Mateo Abstract Aims:, To study the ability of multi-layer perceptron artificial neural networks (MLP-ANN) and radial-basis function networks (RBFNs) to predict ochratoxin A (OTA) concentration over time in grape-based cultures of Aspergillus carbonarius under different conditions of temperature, water activity (aw) and sub-inhibitory doses of the fungicide carbendazim. Methods and Results:, A strain of A. carbonarius was cultured in a red grape juice-based medium. The input variables to the network were temperature (20,28°C), aw (0·94,0·98), carbendazim level (0,450 ng ml,1) and time (3,15 days after the lag phase). The output of the ANNs was OTA level determined by liquid chromatography. Three algorithms were comparatively tested for MLP. The lowest error was obtained by MLP without validation. Performance decreased when hold-out validation was accomplished but the risk of over-fitting is also lower. The best MLP architecture was determined. RBFNs provided similar performances but a substantially higher number of hidden nodes were needed. Conclusions:, ANNs are useful to predict OTA level in grape juice cultures of A. carbonarius over a range of aw, temperature and carbendazim doses. Significance and Impact of the Study:, This is a pioneering study on the application of ANNs to forecast OTA accumulation in food based substrates. These models can be similarly applied to other mycotoxins and fungal species. [source] Validity Study of Kessler's Psychological Distress Scales Conducted Among Patients Admitted to French Emergency Department for Alcohol Consumption,Related DisordersALCOHOLISM, Issue 7 2010Benjamin Arnaud Background:, Alcohol-related disorders (ARD) encountered in emergency departments (ED) have a high prevalence and are underestimated. It is necessary to provide professionals with a tool to identify patients in whom there is a risk that alcohol-related and mental health problems may be associated. Kessler's K6/10 psychological distress scales are fast, easy-to-use, and have been shown to achieve a good performance in the identification of psychological distress associated with ARD. Aim:, The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Kessler scales, version 6 and 10, with a sample of patients admitted to EDs for alcohol consumption. Methods:, On the day after their admission, with a zero "blood" alcohol concentration, 71 patients were randomly assigned to be assessed using 6 or 10 items version. The internal consistency and factor structure of the K6/10 versions were examined. Convergent validity was measured using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS). Results:, The prevalence of psychological distress in our sample was approximately 60%. The selected threshold scores were 10 for K6 (Sensitivity: 0.92; Specificity: 0.62) and 14 for K10 (Sensitivity: 0.95; Specificity: 0.54). The Cronbach coefficients for K6 and K10 were 0.76 and 0.84, respectively. The factor analyses indicated the multidimensional nature of K6/10. The 2 versions, containing 6 and 10 items respectively, correlated better with the HADS (0.83 and 0.70, respectively) than with the HDRS (0.51 and 0.49, respectively). The areas under the ROC Curve indicated a high level of accuracy for both the K6 (0.87) and the K10 (0.77). The difference was not statistically significant. Conclusions:, This study confirms the good psychometric characteristics of Kessler's psychological distress scale. Even though similar performances were observed for K6/10, the brevity of the K6 makes it more suitable for use in EDs. [source] Computational identification of altered metabolism using gene expression and metabolic pathwaysBIOTECHNOLOGY & BIOENGINEERING, Issue 4 2009Hojung Nam Abstract Understanding altered metabolism is an important issue because altered metabolism is often revealed as a cause or an effect in pathogenesis. It has also been shown to be an important factor in the manipulation of an organism's metabolism in metabolic engineering. Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to measure the concentration levels of all metabolites in the genome-wide scale of a metabolic network; consequently, a method that infers the alteration of metabolism is beneficial. The present study proposes a computational method that identifies genome-wide altered metabolism by analyzing functional units of KEGG pathways. As control of a metabolic pathway is accomplished by altering the activity of at least one rate-determining step enzyme, not all gene expressions of enzymes in the pathway demonstrate significant changes even if the pathway is altered. Therefore, we measure the alteration levels of a metabolic pathway by selectively observing expression levels of significantly changed genes in a pathway. The proposed method was applied to two strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene expression profiles measured in very high-gravity (VHG) fermentation. The method identified altered metabolic pathways whose properties are related to ethanol and osmotic stress responses which had been known to be observed in VHG fermentation because of the high sugar concentration in growth media and high ethanol concentration in fermentation products. With the identified altered pathways, the proposed method achieved best accuracy and sensitivity rates for the Red Star (RS) strain compared to other three related studies (gene-set enrichment analysis (GSEA), significance analysis of microarray to gene set (SAM-GS), reporter metabolite), and for the CEN.PK 113-7D (CEN) strain, the proposed method and the GSEA method showed comparably similar performances. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009;103: 835,843. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] UV/Vis to NIR Photoconduction in Cyclopalladated ComplexesCHEMISTRY - AN ASIAN JOURNAL, Issue 7 2009Nicolas Godbert Abstract Funky discotics: Photoconductivity is measured in newly synthesized cyclopalladated metallomesogens exhibiting hexagonal columnar mesophases at room temperature. The tuning of the HOMO/LUMO energy levels by modification of the chain/core linkage (ester 1 vs ether 2) makes compound 2 photoconductive across the whole UV/Vis/NIR range. The incorporation of a rigid core, formed by a cyclopalladated azobenzene fragment bonded to an ancillary Schiff base ligand, into molecules with 12 or 11 peripheral alkyl chains has been successfully achieved. These new complexes, 1 and 2, respectively, are columnar liquid crystals between room temperature and about 50,°C. Both cyclometallated and ancillary ligands have been polyalkylated through either aryl ester (electron-withdrawing group) or aryl ether (electron-releasing group) linkages, in order to tune the HOMO/LUMO energy levels. The photoconductive properties of 1 and 2 have been studied as a function of their absorption properties before and after annealing, from the UV/Vis to NIR region. Compared with the reference compounds, tris-alkynyl benzene discotics, these new materials gave similar performances (,/I,8×10,13,S,cm,W,1 with E=10,V,,m,1 at ,=370,nm). Moreover, complex 2 shows a normalized photoconductivity ,/I=8.5×10,13,S,cm,W,1 at ,=760,nm. Organic photoconductors in such a high wavelength spectral range are not common and are usually assembled by mixing dyes with organic semiconductors. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||