• Title/Summary/Keyword: Event duration

Search Result 307, Processing Time 0.024 seconds

Significance of Oligoclonal Bands after Stem Cell Transplantation in Multiple Myeloma Cases

  • Liu, Ai-Jun;Zong, Hong;Yang, Guang-Zhong;Zhai, Yu-Hua;Li, Li-Hong
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
    • /
    • v.13 no.4
    • /
    • pp.1483-1486
    • /
    • 2012
  • Objective: To determine the characteristics of oligoclonal bands that are frequently detected by serum protein electrophoresis (SPEP) and immunofixation electrophoresis (IFE) after stem cell transplantation. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 56 patients with multiple myeloma (MM) undergoing transplantation, and standard immunofixation electrophoresis was used to identify and quantify paraproteins. Results: The median follow-up was 35 months (range, 10-76months) and 21 patients relapsed. Twelve (25.0%) demonstrated oligoclonal bands after a median time 1.4 months (range, 1-3months), with a median duration of 5.8 months (range, 1-15months). The majority patients with oligoclonal bands had normal quantities of immunoglobulins and the one year event free survival (EFS) was 92%, even higher than for patients without OBs (P=0.002). Conclusion: Oligoclonal bands frequent develop post-transplantation in MM cases. In the vast majority of patients, they may not represent relapsed disease, and more likely represent a transient phenomenon representing recovery of impaired immunoglobulin production.

Design, Analysis and Implementation of Energy-efficient Broadcast MAC Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks

  • Kang, Young-Myoung;Lim, Sang-Soon;Yoo, Joon;Kim, Chong-Kwon
    • KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
    • /
    • v.5 no.6
    • /
    • pp.1113-1132
    • /
    • 2011
  • In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), most energy saving asynchronous MAC protocols are custom tailored for unicast communications only. However, broadcast protocols are very commonly used in WSNs for a variety of functionalities, such as gathering network topology information, event monitoring and query processing. In this paper, we propose a novel low-power asynchronous broadcast MAC protocol called Alarm Broadcast (A-CAST). A-CAST employs the strobe preamble that specifies the residual waiting time for the following data transmission. Each receiver goes back to sleep upon hearing the strobe preamble for the residual time duration, to conserve energy and to wake up just before data transmission starts. We compute the energy consumption of A-CAST via rigorous mathematical analysis. The analytic results show that A-CAST outperforms B-CAST, a simple broadcast extension of the well-known B-MAC. We also implement A-CAST on sensor motes and evaluated its performance through real experiments. Our experimental results show that A-CAST reduces the energy consumption by up to 222% compared to the previously proposed protocols.

A Study on Female Sexual Dysfunction, Sexual Distress, Sexual Attitude and Knowledge in Korean Women (여성의 성기능 장애와 성 스트레스, 성태도 및 성지식과의 관계 연구)

  • Bae, Jeong-Yee
    • Women's Health Nursing
    • /
    • v.10 no.4
    • /
    • pp.342-350
    • /
    • 2004
  • Purpose: It has been suggested that approximately 40% of women between 40 and 64 years of age cease their sexual activity. The aim of this study was to establish the basic data for FSD(female sexual dysfunction) and FSD-related factors in regional urban and rural areas of Korea. Method: Three hundred twenty five women over 20 years of age and resident in regional urban and rural areas were analyzed by a visit survey with an organized questionnaire. The female sexual function index(FSFI) for measurement of sexual dysfunction was used. The significance between the degree of sexual dysfunction and characteristics of the participants was analyzed by a t-test and ANOVA test. The relationship between the degree of sexual dysfunction and related factors was analyzed by Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results: All analyzing tools including the FSFI had a high validity for measuring. The FSFI in Korean women was $19.97{\pm}4.87$ and ranged from 2 to 29. Old age, menopause, medication, no contraception usage and longer marital duration were significantly related with a lower FSFI score. Pearson's correlation coefficient revealed the significance in degrees of sexual distress (r=-.469, p=.000), sexual attitude(r=.305, p=.000) and a stressful life event(r= -.141, p=.038) with the sexual function index score. Conclusion: Women with sexual dysfunction should be evaluated for these sexual function-related factors in the history taking, and this data can be a basis for study for sexual dysfunction.

  • PDF

A Derivation of a Hydrograph by Using Smoothed Dimensionless Unit Kernel Function (평활화된 무차원 단위핵함수를 이용한 단위도의 유도)

  • Seong, Kee-Won
    • Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
    • /
    • v.41 no.6
    • /
    • pp.559-564
    • /
    • 2008
  • A practical method is derived for determining the unit hydrograph and S-curve from complex storm events by using a smoothed unit kernel approach. The using a unit kernel yields more convenient way of constructing a unit hydrograph and its S-curve than a conventional method. However, with use of real data, the unit kernel oscillates and is unstable so that a unit hydrograph and S-curve cannot easily obtained. The use of non-parametric ridge regression with a Laplacian matrix is suggested for deriving an event averaged unit kernel which reduces the computational efforts when dealing with the Nash instantaneous unit hydrograph as a basis of the kernel. A method changing the unit hydrograph duration is also presented. The procedure shown in this work will play an efficient role when any unit hydrograph works is involved.

Febrile seizures

  • Chung, Sajun
    • Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
    • /
    • v.57 no.9
    • /
    • pp.384-395
    • /
    • 2014
  • Febrile seizure (FS) is the most common seizure disorder of childhood, and occurs in an age-related manner. FS are classified into simple and complex. FS has a multifactorial inheritance, suggesting that both genetic and environmental factors are causative. Various animal models have elucidated the pathophysiological mechanisms of FS. Risk factors for a first FS are a family history of the disorder and a developmental delay. Risk factors for recurrent FS are a family history, age below 18 months at seizure onset, maximum temperature, and duration of fever. Risk factors for subsequent development of epilepsy are neurodevelopmental abnormality and complex FS. Clinicians evaluating children after a simple FS should concentrate on identifying the cause of the child's fever. Meningitis should be considered in the differential diagnosis for any febrile child. A simple FS does not usually require further evaluation such as ordering electroencephalography, neuroimaging, or other studies. Treatment is acute rescue therapy for prolonged FS. Antipyretics are not proven to reduce the recurrence risk for FS. Some evidence shows that both intermittent therapy with oral/rectal diazepam and continuous prophylaxis with oral phenobarbital or valproate are effective in reducing the risk of recurrence, but there is no evidence that these medications reduce the risk of subsequent epilepsy. Vaccine-induced FS is a rare event that does not lead to deleterious outcomes, but could affect patient and physician attitudes toward the safety of vaccination.

Scaling Inter-domain Routing System via Path Exploration Aggregation

  • Wang, Xiaoqiang;Zhu, Peidong;Lu, Xicheng;Chen, Kan;Cao, Huayang
    • KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
    • /
    • v.7 no.3
    • /
    • pp.490-508
    • /
    • 2013
  • One of the most important scalability issues facing the current Internet is the rapidly increasing rate of BGP updates (BGP churn), to which route flap and path exploration are the two major contributors. Current countermeasures would either cause severe reachability loss or delay BGP convergence, and are becoming less attractive for the rising concern about routing convergence as the prevalence of Internet-based real time applications. Based on the observation that highly active prefixes usually repeatedly explore very few as-paths during path exploration, we propose a router-level mechanism, Path Exploration Aggregation (PEA), to scale BGP without either causing prefix unreachable or slowing routing convergence. PEA performs aggregation on the transient paths explored by a highly active prefix, and propagates the aggregated path instead to reduce the updates caused by as-path changes. Moreover, in order to avoid the use of unstable routes, PEA purposely prolongs the aggregated path via as-path prepending to make it less preferred in the perspective of downstream routers. With the BGP traces obtained from RouteViews and RIPE-RIS projects, PEA can reduce BGP updates by up to 63.1%, shorten path exploration duration by up to 53.3%, and accelerate the convergence 7.39 seconds on average per routing event.

Development of Empirical Space Weather Models based on Solar Information

  • Moon, Yong-Jae;Kim, Rok-Soon;Park, Jin-Hye;Jin, Kang
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
    • /
    • v.36 no.2
    • /
    • pp.90.1-90.1
    • /
    • 2011
  • We are developing empirical space weather (geomagnetic storms, solar proton events, and solar flares) forecast models based on solar information. These models have been set up with the concept of probabilistic forecast using historical events. Major findings can be summarized as follows. First, we present a concept of storm probability map depending on CME parameters (speed and location). Second, we suggested a new geoeffective CME parameter, earthward direction parameter, directly observable from coronagraph observations, and demonstrated its importance in terms of the forecast of geomagnetic storms. Third, the importance of solar magnetic field orientation for storm occurrence was examined. Fourth, the relationship among coronal hole-CIR-storm relationship has been investigated, Fifth, the CIR forecast based on coronal hole information is possible but the storm forecast is challenging. Sixth, a new solar proton event (flux, strength, and rise time) forecast method depending on flare parameters (flare strength, duration, and longitude) as well as CME parameter (speed, angular width, and longitude) has been suggested. Seventh, we are examining the rates and probability of solar flares depending on sunspot McIntosh classification and its area change (as a proxy of flux change). Our results show that flux emergence greatly enhances the flare probability, about two times for flare productive sunspot regions.

  • PDF

SEISMIC ISOLATION OF LEAD-COOLED REACTORS: THE EUROPEAN PROJECT SILER

  • Forni, Massimo;Poggianti, Alessandro;Scipinotti, Riccardo;Dusi, Alberto;Manzoni, Elena
    • Nuclear Engineering and Technology
    • /
    • v.46 no.5
    • /
    • pp.595-604
    • /
    • 2014
  • SILER (Seismic-Initiated event risk mitigation in LEad-cooled Reactors) is a Collaborative Project, partially funded by the European Commission in the $7^{th}$ Framework Programme, aimed at studying the risk associated to seismic-initiated events in Generation IV Heavy Liquid Metal reactors, and developing adequate protection measures. The project started in October 2011, and will run for a duration of three years. The attention of SILER is focused on the evaluation of the effects of earthquakes, with particular regards to beyond-design seismic events, and to the identification of mitigation strategies, acting both on structures and components design. Special efforts are devoted to the development of seismic isolation devices and related interface components. Two reference designs, at the state of development available at the beginning of the project and coming from the $6^{th}$ Framework Programme, have been considered: ELSY (European Lead Fast Reactor) for the Lead Fast Reactors (LFR), and MYRRHA (Multi-purpose hYbrid Research Reactor for High-tech Applications) for the Accelerator-Driven Systems (ADS). This paper describes the main activities and results obtained so far, paying particular attention to the development of seismic isolators, and the interface components which must be installed between the isolated reactor building and the non-isolated parts of the plant, such as the pipe expansion joints and the joint-cover of the seismic gap.

Characteristics on variation of meterological variables during the partial solar eclipse event of 21 May 2012 in Busan (2012년 5월 21일 부분일식 발생 시 부산지역 기상요소의 변화 특성)

  • Jeon, Byung-Il;Kim, Il-Gon
    • Journal of Environmental Science International
    • /
    • v.22 no.7
    • /
    • pp.885-893
    • /
    • 2013
  • The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of partial solar eclipse on 21 May 2012 in Korea on meteorological variables in Busan. 0800 LST(Local Standard Time) solar radiation was similar or lower than 0700 LST solar radiation, and sunshine duration decreased by 0.2~0.5 hours in Busan and great cities under the influence of the partial solar eclipse. Temperature drop due to the partial solar eclipse was $0.2{\sim}2.0^{\circ}C$, time taken to arrive at maximum temperature after onset of eclipse was 8~62 minutes, and time taken to arrive at minimum temperature after maximum eclipse was -9~17 minutes in Busan. Change of wind speed was negligible as partial solar eclipse occurred in the morning. Soil temperature of 5 cm was minute as well, the increase of soil temperature due to sunset was delayed by more than 1 hour.

Lysosomal acid phosphatase mediates dedifferentiation in the regenerating salamander limb

  • Ju, Bong-Gun;Kim, Won-Sun
    • Animal cells and systems
    • /
    • v.14 no.2
    • /
    • pp.73-81
    • /
    • 2010
  • In this study, monoclonal antibodies against lysosomal acid phosphatase (LAP) of a salamander, Hynobius leechii, were used to determine the spatial and temporal expression of the LAP in the regenerating limbs. The Western blot and immunohistochemical analysis in the limb regeneration revealed that LAP was highly expressed at the dedifferentiation stage, especially in the wound epidermis and dedifferentiating limb tissues such as muscle and cartilage. With RA treatment, the LAP expression became upregulated in terms of both level and duration in the wound epidermis, blastemal cell and dedifferentiating limb tissues. In addition, in situ activity staining of LAP showed a similar result to that of immunohistochemistry. Thus, the activity profile of LAP activity coincides well with the expression profile of LAP during the dedifferentiation period. Furthermore, to examine the effects of lysosomal enzymes including LAP on salamander limb regeneration, lysosome extract was microinjected into limb regenerates. Interestingly, when the lysosome extract was microinjected into limb regenerates with a low dose of RA($50\;{\mu}g/g$ body wt.), skeletal pattern duplication occurred frequently in the proximodistal and transverse axes. Therefore, lysosomal enzymes might cause the regenerative environment and RA plays dual roles in the modification of positional value as well as evocation of extensive dedifferentiation for pattern duplication. In conclusion, these results support the hypothesis that dedifferentiation is a crucial event in the process of limb regeneration and RA-evoked pattern duplication, and lysosomal enzymes may play important role(s) in this process.