In the third step, OD matrix estimation method is used to get the OD matrices in short-term period. The experimental results indicate that the proposed divide-and-conquer

method performs well in forecasting the short-term passenger ALK inhibitor list flow on high-speed railway. In particular, the short-term passenger flow forecasting in holiday is a special issue which combines the trends and conventional forecasting program; it is the work to be further studied. Acknowledgments This work was supported by Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 14JJ3030), Doctoral Scientific Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China (Grant no. 20120162120042), and Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants nos. 71401182 and 71471179). Conflict of Interests The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.
Due to fierce market competition, product design and development process is faced with a huge challenge. In addition, in the initial stage of industrialization, competitiveness mainly lies with the prices of products. Only if the products were cheap and usable, would they be of competitive advantage in the market. This type of competition is named the cost-based competition. However, with the development of economy, the quality, time-to-market, and service turned up trumps, which led to

the competition being quality based as well as time based. As a result, to succeed in this type of competition, it is necessary for most of enterprises to introduce some new competitive products more quickly so as to occupy the global market share. It also means that new product development has become a key factor to keep the core competitiveness. Therefore, many

enterprises adopt concurrent engineering (CE) technology to support product design and development. Nevertheless, due to the existing of coupling in product design and development, it is difficult to manage this process. Particularly when take execution may produce new information flow or affect other interdependent tasks, more complex information flows among interdependent tasks will be generated. At the same time, due to the randomness of information Batimastat flow, incomplete information may often be used for design decision, which usually leads to design iteration [1]. Design iteration generally causes increases of product cost and delays of development time as well, so how to identify and model couplings among tasks in product design and development has become an important issue for enterprises to settle. Many of the traditional project management techniques (e.g., Gantt chart, critical path method (CPM), and program evaluation and review (PERT)) only describe the sequential and parallel relationships, not the interdependent relationships in tasks. The design structure matrix (DSM) model presented by Steward [2] can express the interdependent relationships as well as the iterations induced by the relationships.

Suppose the coupled task set has n kind of way for tearing; combining with formula (2), formula selleckchem (1) can be transformed

into min⁡⁡TT=min⁡⁡T1,T2,…,Tn. (3) Formula (3) is time aggregative model based on task transmission and interaction. As can be seen from this model the shortest task transmission and interaction represent an optimal task execution sequence. According to this task sequence, the whole design duration of coupled set will come to the shortest one. Moreover, the measurement of aggregative time is to calculate the execution time Ti of all the tasks. The measurement of task transmission and interaction is described as follows: tr=SF×t, (4) where tr is practical transmission time. SF can be calculated by the following formula, where m is the number of impact influences, Vi is the value of Fi, and ei is the weight of Fi: SF=∑i=1mei×Vi. (5) According to the analysis, the model can be built based on the following assumptions [18]. All tasks are done in every stage. Rework performed is a function

of the work done in the previous iteration stage. The work transformation parameters in the matrix do not vary with time. We take formula (5) mentioned above as the first objective function which is used to measure the quality loss of decoupling process. The other objective function, development cost, is adopted by using cumulative sum of the whole iteration process. In addition, the constraint condition of the model can be expressed as follows: Ωj = ∑i=1naij < 1(i, j ∈ Ak), which makes the entries either in every row or in every column sum to less than one. Based on these analyses, the hybrid model set up in this paper is described as follows:  Object 1:  tr=SF×t, (6)  Object 2:lim⁡T→∞⁡∑t=0TΛt=I−Λ−1, (7)  Satisfy Ωj=∑i=1naij<1 i,j∈Ak, (8) where formulas (6) and (7) are objective functions, where the first one represents quality loss and the other development cost. The symbol Ak in constraint condition (8) denotes small coupled sets

after tearing approach and aij is an element in Ak. This constraint condition is used to assure that the decomposed small coupled set Ak can converge. 4. Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm for Finding a Near-Optimal Solution The hybrid model set up in the above section is difficult in finding out the optimal solution by conventional methods such as branch and bound method and Lagrangian relaxation method. Due to its simplicity and high-performance searching ability, heuristic algorithm has been widely used in Drug_discovery NP-hard problems. As a new swarm intelligence algorithm, artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC) has strong local and global searching abilities and has been applied to all kinds of engineering optimization problems. In this section, the ABC algorithm is used to solve this coupled problem. 4.1. Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm The ABC algorithm is one of the most recently introduced optimization algorithms inspired by intelligent foraging behavior of a honey bee swarm.

5% agarose gel. Bioinformatics methods Illumina order Everolimus MiSeq reads from each isolate were adapter and quality trimmed before use with Trimmomatic.27 Phylogenetic reconstruction of isolates sequenced in this study were combined with data from a global collection of 55 P. aeruginosa strains collected world-wide which have been previously analysed by Stewart et al.28 For each of

the published strains, 600 000 paired-end reads of length 250 bases were simulated using wgsim (https://github.com/lh3/wgsim) from the complete or draft genome assembly deposited in Genbank. Read sets were mapped against the P. aeruginosa PAO1 reference genome using BWA-MEM 0.7.5a-r405 using default settings.29 Single nucleotide polymorphisms were called using VarScan 2.3.6 and filtered for regions with an excessive number of variants. These may represent regions of recombination, misalignments or strong Darwinian selection.30 FastTree (V2.1.7) was used for phylogenetic reconstruction. This software estimates an approximate maximum-likelihood tree

under the Jukes-Cantor model of nucleotide evolution with a single rate for each site (CAT).31 Trees were drawn in FigTree (http://tree.bio.ed.ac.uk/software/figtree/). For in silico MLST prediction, trimmed reads were assembled de novo using Velvet 32 with a k-mer size of 81 and searched using nucleotide BLAST against the multilocus sequence database downloaded from the pubMLST website on 5 August 2013 (http://pubmlst.org/paeruginosa/).33 For Clade E isolates, in order

to exhaustively search for discriminatory mutations, a nearly complete reference genome was generated by de novo assembly using Pacific Biosciences sequencing data. Reads were assembled using the ‘RS_HGAP_Assembly.3’ pipeline within SMRT Portal V2.2.0. Illumina reads from the same sample were mapped to this draft genome assembly in order to correct remaining indel errors in the assembly using Pilon (http://www.broadinstitute.org/software/pilon/). Isolates belonging to each clade were mapped individually against either the PacBio reference (Clade E) or P. aeruginosa PAO1 (“type”:”entrez-nucleotide”,”attrs”:”text”:”NC_002516″,”term_id”:”110645304″,”term_text”:”NC_002516″NC_002516; Clades C, D and G). Variants (single nucleotide polymorphisms and short insertion-deletions) were called using SAMtools mpileup and VarScan with an allele frequency threshold of 80%.30 Non-informative positions and regions of putative recombination were removed, the later with Cilengitide a variant density filter of more than 3 SNPs every 1000 nucleotides. Analysing samples in each clade individually maximised the number of variants detected by reducing the likelihood of the position being uncovered by a subset of samples. From these variants fine-grained phylogenetic trees were reconstructed for each clade using FastTree. The scripts used to perform this analysis are available at http://www.github.com/joshquick/snp_calling_scripts.

DNA from this biofilm was extracted for whole-genome shotgun sequencing. The majority of reads did PLK inhibition selleck not map to any known bacterial taxa. The most abundant taxon identified was P. aeruginosa (3%). Subsequent alignment to the P. aeruginosa Clade E reference covered 94% of the 6.3 million base reference genome at a median coverage of 5×, confirming that reads were correctly classified to this species and not other environmental Pseudomonas species. Alignment to the P. aeruginosa Clade E reference genome followed by phylogenetic placement of reads demonstrated that it fell into the same clade

as previously recovered isolates from the shower or tap in room 9 (indicated on figure 3, and in online supplementary appendix 6). Discussion The hospital environment has been intimately linked with P. aeruginosa infection for over 50 years yet hospital acquisitions, clusters and outbreaks remain a common occurrence and understanding precise routes of transmission can be difficult.47 48 Our results demonstrate that, even in a new hospital, P. aeruginosa can become rapidly endemic in hospital plumbing. Furthermore, by linking P. aeruginosa genotypes recovered from patients to specific individual water outlets, we offer compelling evidence of unidirectional transmission from water to patients. Further, by sequencing

of a biofilm identified in a TMV from a hospital water system, we can identify the likely common source of genotypes found in water and in the hospital environment. Our results suggest that use of

WGS can reduce ambiguity about potential transmission events in hospitals and consequently inform infection prevention efforts about the direction and sequence of transmission. Typing schemes such as MLST and PFGE are much lower resolution methods and would not be able to provide sufficient information to permit such inferences to be made. It is notable that the burns unit was colonised by a single clone, meaning that it was very unlikely that water outlets at each bed space were colonised as a result of transmissions from the patient or environment. For this to happen would require multiple transmission events from separate patients with the same clone, for which there is no evidence. Instead we speculate that this clone was introduced to the hospital associated with its commissioning. Brefeldin_A One hypothesis is that particular plumbing fittings, that is, the TMV may have been colonised simultaneously by a clone circulating in water. Clade E (ST395) has been frequently reported associated with water, so this remains a possibility. 49 50 However, it is possible that plumbing fittings are installed ‘pre-seeded’ with P. aeruginosa as has already been proposed by Kelsey.3 5 47 Investigation of an outbreak in Wales implicated new plumbing parts as a potential source of P. aeruginosa.

7/≥25.7); age at first sexual intercourse (≤19 years/≥20 years); www.selleckchem.com/products/Dasatinib.html other type of sexual intercourse in the preceding month: giving oral sex (yes/no), receiving oral sex (yes/no); woman lives with sexual partner (yes/no); number of sexual partners in the previous year (none/≥1); partner underwent HIV testing (yes/no); quality of life following diagnosis (changed/unchanged); CD4 cell count (<350/≥350); CD4 cell count nadir (<199/≥200); use of

antiretroviral drug 3TC (lamivudine, Epivir; yes/no); use of antiretroviral drug tenofovir (yes/no); use of antiretroviral drug lamivudine/zidovudine (yes/no); use of antiretroviral drug efavirenz (yes/no); antiretroviral drug

used in the past: lamivudine/zidovudine (yes/no); and antiretroviral drug used in the past: efavirenz (yes/no). Menopausal status was classified as premenopausal, perimenopausal or postmenopausal. Women were considered premenopausal if they continued to have regular menstrual cycles similar to those present during the woman’s reproductive life. They were considered to be in the perimenopause if their menstrual cycles were irregular and they had been amenorrhoeic for less than 12 months. Finally, women were classified as postmenopausal if they had been amenorrhoeic for 12 months or more.14 Data on physical activity was obtained through two questions: Do you practise

physical exercise or participate in sports every week? How often in a week do you practise physical exercise or participate in sports? It was classified in up to two times a week or three or more times a week. Vaginal lubrication during sexual Drug_discovery activity was graded from 1 to 6, where 1 referred to the absence of lubrication and 6 to maximum lubrication. This was dichotomised into four or less or more than four. Statistical analysis A bivariate analysis was performed in which dyspareunia was considered the dependent variable (dyspareunia) and analysed as a function of the independent variables. Pearson’s χ2 test and the Yates correction were used to compare the groups.

1 This dramatic change in the demographic landscape presents significant medical, societal and economic challenges,2 particularly as older age is generally accompanied by reductions in physical function and increased levels of disability.3–5 These seemingly inherent consequences selleck chemical of aging can often be further exacerbated by the onset and/or progression of chronic disabling diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS). The prevalence of MS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the central nervous system,6 is estimated to be 2.3 million people worldwide, with more than 400 000 cases in the USA alone,7 and 45% are aged 55 years

and older.8 Even with variations in the pathological manifestations of MS, some of the most common symptoms and impairments mirror those that are characteristically associated with aging, such as reduced strength, difficulties with balance, mobility, and coordination, frequent fatigue, cognitive

dysfunction, and compromised quality of life (QOL).9–11 Unfortunately, there is a dearth of research examining these outcomes in older adults with MS.12 13 Physical inactivity among individuals with MS14 may exacerbate problems associated with this chronic condition. Physical activity participation, by comparison, can confer a protective and potential restorative effect on functional limitations and disability in older adults with MS15–17 and may also have a protective effect on the rate of disease progression.18 Thus, it is imperative to establish methods to increase levels of physical activity engagement in the MS population. Although a number of exercise interventions have been safely and successfully implemented for more general or younger segments of the MS population,19–21 to the best of our knowledge, there have been no interventions designed for and specifically targeting older adults with MS. Additionally, the majority of MS-specific exercise interventions tend to be supervised, centre-based (eg, fitness centres, university laboratories, medical settings,

etc) programmes, which can provide challenges to participation, in terms of accessibility and ultimately resulting in limited generalisability.22 Additionally, centre-based programmes have limited reach, can be difficult to implement, and are often resource intensive (eg, costs, time, staff, etc). There is a need to identify innovative, low-cost and broad-reaching strategies specifically aimed at improving physical function and, as a result, delaying (or at the very least Carfilzomib minimising) the progression of functional limitations and disability in older adults with MS. Targeted exercise training via DVD may be one contemporary approach in achieving this goal. Commercial revenue for exercise DVDs exceeded $260 million in the past 5 years and demand remains high, especially among older adults.23 The efficacy of delivering such programmes via DVD to improve physical function in older adults living with chronic disease remains to be determined.

BMI ≥30 kg/m2 is defined as a positive risk factor. Metabolic syndrome is defined

by the criteria license with Pfizer of the National Cholesterol Education Program as the presence of three or more of the following: (1) abdominal obesity; (2) elevated triglyceride levels (≥150 mg/dL); (3) decreased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels (<40 mg/dL for men and <50 mg/dL for women); (4) high blood pressure (systolic blood pressure ≥130 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure ≥85 mmHg or use of antihypertensive medication); and (5) elevated fasting glucose levels (≥110 mg/dL).[27] Abdominal obesity is defined as a waist circumference of ≥90 cm for men and ≥80 cm for women according to the revised Asia-Pacific criteria suggested by the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region [28]. Clinical data collection The physician responsible for consideration of the patient for DSA fills out

a standardised data collection form to collect information on age, gender, pattern of cerebral atherosclerosis (lesion location and severity), cardiac disease, DM, HTN, family history, dyslipidaemia, previous stroke history, alcohol history, metabolic syndrome and BMI, medical history and current medication. Patients’ angiographic findings and medical records are recorded prospectively to assess patient demographics; however, additional smoking history is assessed retrospectively by telephone to obtain the data in sufficient detail. Statistics and Study outcome Distribution of patient age, gender, lesion location (AC vs. PC, IC vs. EC, and ID vs. ED) and number (single vs. multiple) are correlated with the history of smoking. We also evaluate the proportion of patients with IC atherosclerotic stenosis among smokers and compare this with the proportion in patients stratified by the other risk factors. Differences in risk factor distribution are analysed according to age in 10 year intervals. Categorical variables are presented as frequencies and percentages, and continuous variables are expressed

as mean and SD. The t test is used to compare continuous variables, and the chi-square test or Fisher exact test are used to compare categorical variables, as appropriate. Associations between risk factors (age, gender, location, multiplicity, smoking, etc.) and IC atherosclerosis stenosis are tested by using the univariate Dacomitinib logistic regression model followed by the multivariable logistic regression model with backward elimination. All reported p-values are two sided, and P<.05 is considered statistically significant. Statistical analyses are conducted using SPSS 21 software (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). SUMMARY This analytical cohort study is designed to investigate the association between IC atherosclerotic stenosis and smoking, adjusting for confounding by other risk factors. We anticipate that it will have the power to detect any relationship between smoking and IC atherosclerotic lesions especially in younger patients.

Table 3 Association between participants’ laboratory test results and HBsAg positivity On multivariable analysis, women 20 years of age or younger were

2.5-fold more likely to test positive than those aged above 20 years; aOR 2.54, CI (1.31 to mostly 4.90); p value 0.006 (table 2 footnote). Discussion This study highlights the high prevalence of HBV infection (11.8%) among pregnant women attending ANC in two hospitals in postconflict northern Uganda. Although the prevalence of HBV and HIV infections in this region exceeds those in most other regions of Uganda that have not experienced prolonged civil conflict and internment in camps, no causal relationship between HBV infection and civil conflict can be inferred from these findings from a cross-sectional study. We also found that about 15% of the HBsAg positive mothers were also

HBeAg positive. The prevalence of HBV infection was higher among women aged 20 years or younger (20%) compared with the older women (8.7%). HIV infection among the study population was also high (9.3%). However, there was no significant association between HIV infection and HBV infection among the pregnant women included in this study. The prevalence of HBV infection among pregnant women in this study is consistent with findings from a study in Nigeria of a prevalence of 11%. The prevalence of HBeAg (33%) was, however, higher in the Nigerian study.12 The majority of people who get HBV infection after the neonatal period tend to clear the virus over time. The natural history of hepatitis B infection follows three phases: immune tolerant, immune active and immune inactive phases. During the immune active phase when the virus is actively replicating and HBV DNA is high, HBeAg becomes positive and the individual is at a higher risk of transmitting the virus. In the immune inactive phase, the individual has cleared the virus and HBsAg from the blood and becomes less or not infectious to others unless they revert to the immune active phase. The liver enzymes, particularly ALT, are normal during the immune tolerant and immune inactive phases. In our study, the liver enzymes were

largely within normal ranges and did not vary significantly between HBsAg-positive and HBsAg-negative pregnant mothers. This may mean that most of our mothers were in the immune intolerant or immune inactive phases of their infections. In the Nigerian study where prevalence Cilengitide of HBeAg was up to 33%, it is probable that the mothers were in the immune active phases and could have had recent infections or were reverting from immune inactive to active phases.19 The finding in this study that 3 in 20 pregnant women with positive HBsAg are also HBeAg positive means that many unborn babies in northern Uganda are at an even higher risk of infection with HBV. The infants of all these HBsAg positive mothers will need immediate vaccination with HBV vaccine on delivery.

It is not always possible to apply such associations from a population level down to the individuals within selleck that population. In summary, this study has provided a number

of interesting results. First, it has helped to quantify and map the inequality that exists across different parts of Warwickshire with regard to heart failure risk. It has also provided some interesting circumstantial evidence of a link between heart failure morbidity and air pollution. Finally, it has also given a suggestion of a possible link between living in urban environments and a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and a corresponding lower risk from living in rural environments. More work will need to be carried out to look into this particular possibility. It would be informative to run this type of analysis while factoring in the influence of a person’s distance from their nearest urban centre. This urban/rural factor should be further

explored and mined for additional information as it could be an indication of hitherto unconsidered factors influencing the health status of the population of Warwickshire and possibly further afield. In order to determine the validity of our conclusions at the individual level, further work would need to be carried out analysing the available data from individual patients (risks and outcomes). Such work could help to characterise the true effect of different components of air pollution at the individual level. It would also be interesting to determine if the different components of air pollution act as effect modifiers on each other. It would be possible to look at the effects of air pollution variation in the shorter term as well. For example, looking at how local ‘spikes’ in

air pollution affect the rates of hospital admissions locally immediately following it. This could be carried out in Leamington Spa where there is an air quality monitoring station constantly measuring the levels of air pollutants. Other health problems, such as ischaemic heart disease and respiratory diseases, have been linked with air pollution as well and it could be informative to also look into these links locally. Supplementary Material Author’s manuscript: Click here to view.(3.9M, pdf) Reviewer comments: Click here to view.(259K, pdf) Footnotes Contributors: OB conceived the idea, analysed the data, contributed to formulating the results and Brefeldin_A wrote the first draft. N-B K analysed the data, advised on statistical aspects, contributed to formulating the results and wrote the second draft. CJ analysed the data. JL helped coordinate the project and cowrote the final draft. AC coordinated the project, advised on all aspects and cowrote the final draft. Funding: This paper presents independent research supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care West Midlands.

The Uganda HIV serobehavioural survey of 2004/2005 sellckchem estimated the prevalence of hepatitis B in northern Uganda to be

between 18.4% and 24.3%, much higher than the national average of 10%,14 while in a recent community-based study in Gulu municipality the prevalence of HBV in the general population was estimated at 17.6%.15 In this study, we report the prevalence of HBV infection among pregnant women attending antenatal care (ANC) at St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor (Lacor) and Gulu Regional referral Hospital using the HBsAg test. We also report HBeAg positivity, a surrogate measure of infectivity among those women who tested positive for HBsAg, and describe the factors associated with HBV infection among these women, with possible implications for testing of pregnant mothers, as well as vaccination of HBV-exposed neonates. Methods Study design and setting This was a cross-sectional study at the Lacor and Gulu regional referral Hospitals. The two hospitals are both in Gulu district in northern Uganda. Lacor hospital is 6 km west of Gulu town; it is a 482 bed capacity teaching hospital16 and a sentinel site for infectious disease surveillance in northern

Uganda, and has a laboratory with the capacity to separate and store frozen plasma. The Lacor Hospital antenatal clinic (ANC) is visited by 50–80 pregnant women per day, Monday through Friday. The Gulu regional referral hospital, on the other hand, is a 250-bed government owned referral facility located in the centre of Gulu town16; the antenatal clinic in Gulu hospital is visited by about 40–60 pregnant women every working day. Study population We included pregnant women attending ANC at the two study hospitals from September 2012 until January 2013, whose gestation age was 28 weeks or more confirmed by clinical history and examination or an obstetric ultrasound scan. We excluded women who had emergency conditions requiring urgent intervention. The two hospitals receive a majority of pregnant women from Gulu district;

however, AV-951 some women attend ANC in other private facilities in the town and health centres. Sample size and sampling method We used the Kish Leslie formula (1965) and a prevalence of HBsAg of 30% for sample size determination, to cater for the North-central Uganda prevalence of about 20%14 and an additional 10% since pregnant women are engaged in unprotected sex, a known risk factor for STIs compared with the general population.17 To cater for the possible incomplete responses, we added 10% of the calculated sample size; hence, 402 participants were recruited. Sampling procedures Women were sampled on two working days a week in the two study hospitals: Lacor on Wednesdays and Fridays, while in Gulu, sampling was done on Mondays and Thursdays.