Search

The rapid urban growth in developing city increases the requirement of the efficient and sustainable public transportation system. The urban growth affects the urban form, which indicates the change in human and urban development activity. Urban form affects directly and indirectly access to the public transportation system as an assessment of potential riders and proximity to stops increase transit services users. Therefore, access is one of the important aspects for the assessment of transit service efficiency. Public transportation access can be represented by a coverage area and useful to estimate potential riders of public transportation. In this study, a Geographical Information System (GIS)-based spatial statistical analysis method is used to examine the spatial relationship of different urban form indicators with population or riders of transit service in a coverage area and to ascertain how urban form influences public transportation trips in this coverage area. The coverage area is delineated using a GIS-based road/street network distance approach. The spatial analysis results suggested that urban forms have certain impact on trips in coverage area at both ward level and zone level. The statistical analysis implies that significant and positive values of spatial lag coefficient indicate a positive spatial interaction between wards and variable like total coverage area; worker density have shown positive and significant effects on trips of public transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate eye fatigue that could impair diagnostic accuracy by measuring the critical flicker fusion frequency (CFFF) before and after reading.Materials and Methods: CFFF was measured before and after about 4 h of health checkup reading in seven healthy volunteer radiologists. A questionnaire was also completed on duration of sleep the night before the experiment, average duration of sleep, and subjective fatigue using a visual analog scale (corrected to a 0-1 scale, 0 indicating the worst fatigue ever experienced).Results: After-reading subjective fatigue was significantly greater (before 0.52 ± 0.15, after 0.42 ± 0.15), and CFFF was significantly lower (before 40.9 ± 2.4, after 39.9 ± 2.0). There was no significant correlation between subjective fatigue and CFFF, either before or after or between before- and after-reading differences in subjective fatigue and CFFF. Shorter duration of sleep the night before significantly correlated with lower CFFF (Pearson's correlation coefficient): before 0.42, P = 0.0047; after 0.52, P = 0.0003.Conclusion: CFFF declines after reading and can be considered useful as an indicator of fatigue induced by radiology reading. CFFF declines significantly when sleep is reduced the day before reading without correlation with subjective fatigue, meaning that sleep deprivation can cause an unaware decline in visual function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Adaptive statistical iterative reconstruction (ASIR) is a reconstruction technique for computed tomography (CT) that reduces image noise. The purpose of our study was to investigate whether ASIR improves the quality of volume-rendered (VR) CT portovenography.Materials and Methods: Institutional review board approval, with waived consent, was obtained. A total of 19 patients (12 men, 7 women; mean age 69.0 years; range 25-82 years) suspected of having liver lesions underwent three-phase enhanced CT. VR image sets were prepared with both the conventional method and ASIR. The required time to make VR images was recorded. Two radiologists performed independent qualitative evaluations of the image sets. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for statistical analysis. Contrast-noise ratios (CNRs) of the portal and hepatic vein were also evaluated.Results: Overall image quality was significantly improved by ASIR (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.0155 for each radiologist). ASIR enhanced CNRs of the portal and hepatic vein significantly (P < 0.0001). The time required to create VR images was significantly shorter with ASIR (84.7 vs. 117.1 s; P = 0.014).Conclusion: ASIR enhances CNRs and improves image quality in VR CT portovenography. It also shortens the time required to create liver VR CT portovenographs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent investigations into the translation termination sites of various organisms have revealed that not only stop codons but also sequences around stop codons have an effect on translation termination. To investigate the relationship between these sequence patterns and translation as well as its termination efficiency, we analysed the correlation between strength of consensus and translation efficiency, as predicted according to Codon Adaptation Index (CAI) value. We used RIKEN full-length mouse cDNA sequences and ten other eukaryotic UniGene datasets from NCBI for the analyses. First, we conducted sequence profile analyses following translation termination sites. We found base G and A at position +1 as a strong consensus for mouse cDNA. A similar consensus was found for other mammals, such as Homo sapiens, Rattus norvegicus and Bos taurus. However, some plants had different consensus sequences. We then analysed the correlation between the strength of consensus at each position and the codon biases of whole coding regions, using information content and CAI value. The results showed that in mouse cDNA, CAI value had a positive correlation with information content at positions +1. We also found that, for positions with strong consensus, the strength of the consensus is likely to have a positive correlation with CAI value in some other eukaryotes. Along with these observations, biological insights into the relationship between gene expression level, codon biases and consensus sequence around stop codons will be discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Alexander disease is a leukodystrophy that is neuropathologically characterized by the presence of numerous Rosenthal fibers in astrocytes. Recently, mutations in the gene encoding glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were identified in patients with Alexander disease. We sequenced the GFAP gene of a Japanese girl who presented with typical symptoms of Alexander disease but in whom the diagnosis was not proven by histopathology. We identified a missense mutation, R239C, which is identical to the mutation previously reported to be most frequent. As was the case in previously described patients, our patient was also heterozygous for the de novo mutation. Interestingly, despite the fact that this is a de novo mutation, R239C was found to be common in different ethnic groups, implying that the site is a "hot spot" for mutagenesis. Molecular genetic analysis now makes the antemortem diagnosis of Alexander disease possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A preliminary investigation into the effects of ruby laser radiation from 4 to 40 joule dosages on the Incisor teeth, the dorsal surface of the tongue and the auricular skin was carried out on 20 rats A unique articulating arm was utilized to direct the energy conveniently to the exposed target. A crater was produced in the labial surface of the incisor, and adjacent to the crater the normal appearing enamel was rep!aced by a glass-like substance. Severe changes also occurred in the dental pulps, the tongues and the auricular skin. Although the possibility of the clinical application of laser in dentistry is considered to be premature for the time being, data both relevant and interesting enough to encourage further study were obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]