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Economic Load Dispatch (ELD) is an important part of cost minimization procedure in power system operation. Different derivative and probabilistic methods are used to solve ELD problems. This paper proposes a powerful Salp Swarm Algorithm (SSA) to explain the ELD issue including equality and inequality restrictions. The main objective of ELD is to satisfy the entire electric load at a minimum cost. The SSA is a populationbased probabilistic method that guides its search agents that are randomly placed in the search space to find an optimal point using their fitness function and also, keeps track of the best solution achieved by each search agent. SSA is used to solve the ELD problem with their high exploration and local optima escaping technique. This algorithm confirms that the promising areas of the search space are exploited to have a smooth transition from exploration to exploitation using the movement of salps in the sea. Simulation results prove that the proposed algorithm surpasses other existing optimization techniques in terms of solution quality obtained and computational effciency. The final results also prove that SSA is more robust than other techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives. To study factors that predict changes in management with digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT). Methods. The Institutional Review Board approved this HIPAA compliant study. 996 patients had DBT with full field digital mammography (FFDM). Univariate analysis evaluated predictors of management change and cancer detection. Results. DBT changed management in 109 of 996 (11%); 77 (71%) required less imaging. Recalled patients after abnormal FFDM screen were most likely to have management change--25% (24 of 97 patients) compared to 8% (13/163) of symptomatic patients and 10% (72/736) of screening patients (P < 0.001). Dense breasted patients had a higher likelihood of having DBT change management: 13% (68/526) compared to 9% (41/470) (P = 0.03). Of the 996 patients, 19 (2%) were diagnosed with breast cancer. 15 cancers (83%) were seen on FFDM and DBT; 3 (17%) were diagnosed after DBT (0.3%, 95% CI: 0.1-0.9%). One recurrence was in the skin and was not seen on DBT nor was it seen on FFDM. The increase in cancer detection rate was 17% for asymptomatic patients, 0% for symptomatic patients, and 100% for recalled patients. Conclusions. DBT increased cancer detection rate by 20% and decreased the recall rate in 8-25%. Advances in Knowledge. DBT led to a doubling of the cancer detection rate in recalled patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Batch adsorption of methylene blue (MB) onto Cinnamon plant (Cinnamonum Zeylanicum) leaf powder (CPLP) and Pineapple (Ananas Comosus) peel powder (PPP) was investigated. Different parameters such as initial sorbate concentration, adsorbent dosage, pH, contact time, agitation speed, temperature and particle size.R² All isotherm models were found to be best fitting with high values of regression coefficient i.e. for Langmuir (R² = 0.989 to 0.994 for CPLP and 0.993 to 0.995 for PPP), for Freundlich (R² = 0.996 to 0.998 for CPLP and 0.995 for PPP) and for Temkin (R² = 0.983 to 0.995 for CPLP and 0.984 to 0.989 for PPP). The monolayer (maximum) adsorption capacities (qm) were found to be 250 and 333.333 mg/g for CPLP and PPP respectively. Lagergen pseudo -second order model best fits the kinetics of adsorption (R² = 0.999 for CPLP and 1 for PPP). The amount of dye adsorbed at equilibrium qe(the) obtained from Lagergen pseudo -second order model were found to be nearly same with the experimental data. Intra particle diffusion plot showed boundary layer effect and larger intercepts indicates greater contribution of surface sorption in rate determining step. Adsorption was found to be directly proportional to pH and temperature but inversely proportional to particle size. Thermodynamic analysis (ΔG, ΔH and ΔS values) showed adsorption was favourable, spontaneous, endothermic physisorption and increased disorder and randomness at the solid- solution interface of MB with the adsorbents. The forward rate constant was much higher than reverse rate constant suggesting dominance of rate of adsorption. PPP was found to be better adsorbent than CPLP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a technology comparison between monolithic passively mode-locked lasers (MLLs) fabricated from 1.24 μm InAs dots-in-a-Well (DWELL) and 1.25 μm InGaAs single quantum well (SQW) structures grown using elemental source molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is presented. 5 GHz optical pulses with sub-picosecond RMS jitter, high pulse peak power (1W) and narrow pulse width (< 10 ps) are typical of these monolithic two-section InAs DWELL passive MLLs. An InGaAs single quantum well MLL with the 42% indium is shown to exhibit a superior high-temperature performance. Compared with the typical operating range of the InAs DWELL devices (<60°C), the operation is in excess of 100 °C and is particularly attractive for clocking applications in next generation microprocessors. Based on an 8-band k.p analysis the reduction in the band edge density of states for such a quantum well is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A systematic and comparative study is conducted on Co–B-based ternary alloy catalysts for H2 generation by hydrolysis of NaBH4. Various transition metals, namely Ni, Fe, Cu, Cr, Mo, and W, were added to Co–B catalyst by chemical reduction of the corresponding metal salts. All the transition metals in the Co–B compounds behave in a dissimilar manner while influencing the catalytic activity. Cr, W, Mo, and Cu impose significant promoting effects on the Co–B catalyst by increasing the H2 generation rate by 3–4 times when compared to the undoped catalyst. On the contrary, Ni and Fe are only able to create a marginal increment in the catalytic performance of the Co–B catalyst. The metal/(Co+metal) molar ratio was varied in the catalyst in order to study the effect of metal doping on surface morphology, electronic interaction, and catalytic efficiency of the alloy catalyst. This systematic variation also contributed to clarify the role of each dopant metal in the electron exchange mechanism involved in NaBH4 hydrolysis. The promoting effects of the dopant metals are mainly discussed in terms of large active surface area, ability to act as Lewis acid sites for better absorption of OH− group, electronic interaction with Co active metal, and amorphous nature of the alloy catalyst. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Economic evaluations of clinical treatments most commonly take the form of cost effectiveness or cost utility analyses. This is appropriate since the main-sometimes the only-benefit of such interventions is increased health. The majority of economic evaluations in public health, however, have also been assessed using these techniques when arguably cost benefit analyses would in many cases have been more appropriate, given its ability to take account of nonhealth benefits as well. An examination of the nonhealth benefits from a sample of studies featured in a recent review of economic evaluations in public health illustrates how overfocusing on cost effectiveness/cost utility analyses may lead to forgoing potential social welfare gains from programmes in public health. Prior to evaluation, programmes should be considered in terms of the potential importance of nonhealth benefits and where these are considerable would be better evaluated by more inclusive economic evaluation techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To evaluate optical coherence tomographic elastography as a method for assessing the elastic properties of atherosclerotic plaque and the parameters that influence interpretation.Methods: Phantoms and aorta were examined in vitro to quantify speckle modulation and measure the displacement and strain maps. A correlation method was used as a speckle tracking technique for measuring axial and lateral displacement vectors and calculation of strain maps. The influence of correlation kernel size on accuracy of the method was evaluated.Results: In terms of a percentage error between calculated and measured displacements, the best results for phantoms were obtained with a 41 x 41 kernel (1.88% error). For both phantom and aorta images, it was found that, with the increasing size of cross correlation kernel, the axial and lateral displacement maps are less noisy and the displacement vectors are more clearly defined. However, the large kernels tend to average out the differences in displacements of small particles in phantoms and decrease the ability of speckle tracking to make microstructural assessments. Therefore, it is important to select kernel size carefully, based on the image features.Conclusions: Optical tomographic elastography can be used to assess the microstructural properties of atherosclerotic tissue at micrometre scale resolution, but preselected analysis criteria must be understood in a critical interpretation of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oestrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) is an oestrogen-activated transcription factor, which regulates proliferation and differentiation of mammary epithelial cells by activating or repressing gene expression. ERalpha is a critical prognostic indicator and a therapeutic target for breast cancer. Patients with tumours that express higher level of ERalpha have better prognosis than patients with tumours that are ERalpha negative or express lower level of ERalpha. Better prognosis in ERalpha-positive patients is believed to be due to repression of proinvasive gene expression by ERalpha. Oestrogen receptor alpha represses gene expression by transrepressing the activity of the transcription factors such as nuclear factor-kappaB or by inducing the expression of transcriptional suppressors such as MTA3. In this report, we show that ERalpha transrepresses the expression of the proinvasive gene interleukin 6 (IL-6) in ERalpha-negative MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells stably overexpressing ERalpha. Using these cells as well as ERalpha-positive MCF-7 and ZR-75-1 cells, we show that tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha) and the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3-kinase) modulate transrepression function of ERalpha by reducing its stability. From these results, we propose that TNFalpha expression or PI3-kinase activation lead to reduced levels of ERalpha protein in cancer cells and corresponding loss of transrepression function and acquisition of an invasive phenotype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the ability of optical coherence tomography (OCT), a recently developed technology with micron-scale resolution, to assess the microstructure of tendons and ligaments. In vitro structural- and polarization-sensitive OCT was performed on human ACL, Achilles tendon, and biceps tendon (obtained postmortem). Histology was performed on all imaged samples and compared to the corresponding OCT data. OCT images correlated well with histology. Most importantly, through polarization-sensitive OCT, the collagen in normal tissue was easily distinguished from the surrounding, supportive tissue due to the birefringent properties of organized collagen. Since the integrity of collagen is an important indicator of structural stability and pathologic state, the ability of OCT to assess collagen could be a powerful diagnostic tool in assessing tendon and ligament properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The t(10;11)(p13;q14-21) is a non-random translocation described in acute lymphoblastic and myeloid leukaemias. It results in the fusion of the gene CALM, which encodes a clathrin assembly protein, on 11q14 to the gene AF10, a putative transcription factor on 10p13. Here we describe for the first time, the occurrence of a CALM-AF10 fusion in a case of acute megakaryoblastic leukaemia. Fluorescence in situ hybridisation and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction were used to confirm the presence of a CALM-AF10 fusion. A novel splice variant of CALM missing nt 1927-2091 was also detected. Though CALM is a cytoplasmic protein, the chimaeric fusion product is able to localise to both the nucleus and cytoplasm. Analysis of the fusion variants suggests, however, that the critical fusion product is likely to be cytoplasmic and contain the interactive leucine zipper of AF10. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chimaeric fusion genes created by nonrandom chromosomal translocations are characteristic of childhood acute lymphoblastic (ALL) and myeloid (AML) leukaemias. Although the mechanisms leading to these chromosomal rearrangements are unclear, careful analysis of the primary genomic fusion sequence has suggested a number of possible mechanisms. These include, aberrant VDJ recombinase activity, topoisomerase II-mediated breakage followed by erroneous end joining, illegitimate recombination mediated by repetitive DNA sequences, proteins that bind to specific DNA binding sites and errors in nonhomologous end joining following double-stranded DNA breaks. Fusions detected to date include the MLL-AF4 fusion in infantile ALL, the TEL-AML1 in childhood ALL and the AML1-ETO and MLL-CALM in childhood AML. While events leading to the formation of chimaeric fusion genes occur in utero, only a few develop clinically overt leukaemia at a later date in early childhood. This suggests that additional postnatal genetic hits are required in preleukaemic cells. Murine models of TEL-AML1 and AML1-ETO support this hypothesis, as the transgenes are insufficient themselves to induce leukaemia.