Search results for "Values."

Lovastatin attenuates ionizing radiation-induced normal tissue damage in vivo.

2009

Abstract Background and purpose HMG-CoA-reductase inhibitors (statins) are widely used lipid-lowering drugs. Moreover, they have pleiotropic effects on cellular stress responses, proliferation and apoptosis in vitro . Here, we investigated whether lovastatin attenuates acute and subchronic ionizing radiation-induced normal tissue toxicity in vivo . Materials and methods Four hours to 24h after total body irradiation (6Gy) of Balb/c mice, acute pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic responses were analyzed. To comprise subchronic radiation toxicity, mice were irradiated twice with 2.5Gy and analyses were performed 3weeks after the first radiation treatment. Molecular markers of inflammation and f…

Coffee Silverskin and Spent Coffee Suitable as Neuroprotectors against Cell Death by Beauvericin and α-Zearalenol: Evaluating Strategies of Treatment

2021

Coffee silverskin and spent coffee have been evaluated in a neuroblastoma cell line (SH-SY5Y cells) against beauvericin (BEA) and α-zearalenol (α-ZEL)-induced cytotoxicity with different strategies of treatment. First, the direct treatment of mycotoxins and coffee by-products extracts in SH-SY5Y cells was assayed. IC50 values for α-ZEL were 20.8 and 14.0 µM for 48 h and 72 h, respectively and, for BEA only at 72 h, it was 2.5 µM. Afterwards, the pre-treatment with spent coffee obtained by boiling water increased cell viability for α-ZEL at 24 h and 48 h from 10% to 16% and from 25% to 30%, respectively

Deformed quons and bi-coherent states

2017

We discuss how a q-mutation relation can be deformed replacing a pair of conjugate operators with two other and unrelated operators, as it is done in the construction of pseudo-fermions, pseudo-bosons and truncated pseudo-bosons. This deformation involves interesting mathematical problems and suggests possible applications to pseudo-hermitian quantum mechanics. We construct bi-coherent states associated to $\D$-pseudo-quons, and we show that they share many of their properties with ordinary coherent states. In particular, we find conditions for these states to exist, to be eigenstates of suitable annihilation operators and to give rise to a resolution of the identity. Two examples are discu…

Finite-dimensional pseudo-bosons: a non-Hermitian version of the truncated harmonic oscillator

2018

We propose a deformed version of the commutation rule introduced in 1967 by Buchdahl to describe a particular model of the truncated harmonic oscillator. The rule we consider is defined on a $N$-dimensional Hilbert space $\Hil_N$, and produces two biorhogonal bases of $\Hil_N$ which are eigenstates of the Hamiltonians $h=\frac{1}{2}(q^2+p^2)$, and of its adjoint $h^\dagger$. Here $q$ and $p$ are non-Hermitian operators obeying $[q,p]=i(\1-Nk)$, where $k$ is a suitable orthogonal projection operator. These eigenstates are connected by ladder operators constructed out of $q$, $p$, $q^\dagger$ and $p^\dagger$. Some examples are discussed.

Two-dimensional Noncommutative Swanson Model and Its Bicoherent States

2019

We introduce an extended version of the Swanson model, defined on a two-dimensional noncommutative space, which can be diagonalized exactly by making use of pseudo-bosonic operators. Its eigenvalues are explicitly computed and the biorthogonal sets of eigenstates of the Hamiltonian and of its adjoint are explicitly constructed.We also show that it is possible to construct two displacement-like operators from which a family of bi-coherent states can be obtained. These states are shown to be eigenstates of the deformed lowering operators, and their projector allows to produce a suitable resolution of the identity in a dense subspace of \(\mathcal{L}^\mathrm{2}\, (\mathbb{R}^\mathrm{2})\).

Conceptualizing and Measuring the Quality of Democracy: The Citizens' Perspective

2018

In recent years, several measurements of the quality of democracy have been developed (e.g. Democracy Barometer, Varieties of Democracy Project). These objective measurements focus on institutional and procedural characteristics of democracy. This article starts from the premise that in order to fully understand the quality of democracy such objective measurements have to be complemented by subjective measurements based on the perspective of citizens. The aim of the article is to conceptualize and measure the subjective quality of democracy. First, a conceptualization of the subjective quality of democracy is developed consisting of citizens’ support for three normative models of democracy …

Alveolar gas exchange and tissue deoxygenation during exercise in type 1 diabetes patients and healthy controls.

2012

We used near-infrared spectroscopy to investigate whether leg and arm skeletal muscle and cerebral deoxygenation differ during incremental cycling exercise in men with type 1 diabetes (T1D, n=10, mean±SD age 33±7 years) and healthy control men (matched by age, anthrometry, and self-reported physical activity, CON, n=10, 32±7 years) to seek an explanation for lower aerobic capacity (˙VO2peak) often reported in T1D. T1D had lower ˙VO2peak (35±4mlkg(-1)min(-1) vs. 43±8mlkg(-1)min(-1), P0.01) and peak work rate (219±33W vs. 290±44W, P0.001) than CON. Leg muscle deoxygenation (↑ [deoxyhemoglobin]; ↓ tissue saturation index) was greater in T1D than CON at a given absolute submaximal work rate, bu…

Questionnaires, spirometry and PEF monitoring in epidemiological studies on elderly respiratory patients.

2003

Questionnaires are the most used subjective instrument of measurement in respiratory epidemiology. The standardisation of the questionnaires aims to limit bias by maximising validity and reliability, and comparability. Within the European Union project BIOMED1, a compendium of respiratory standard questionnaires (CORSQ) was developed for adults covering 18 topics from general information to early life events, through environmental risk factors and respiratory symptoms and diseases. Reliable spirometry data needs a rigorous quality control programme, as in the "Salute Respiratoria nell'Anziano" (Sa.R.A.) project, Italian for "Respiratory Health in the Elderly". Reproducibility rates were 95.…

Maximal respiratory pressure reference values for Navajo children ages 6-14

2013

Background Since anthropometric variables are critical to the creation of pulmonary nomograms for FVC, FEV1, and other volumes and capacities, it is logical that anthropometric variables also influence the values of the maximal respiratory pressures (MRPs). Since nomograms are race-specific, it is important that tribe-specific tables of normal maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP) and maximal expiratory pressure (MEP) be developed. To date normal tables for MRPs do not exist for Navajo children. Objective Therefore the purpose of this study was to derive MRP normative reference values for Navajo children in the age range of 6–14 years. Methods—Participants and Measurements A cross-sectional st…

2017

It has been shown in previous papers that classes of (minimal asymmetric) informationally-complete positive operator valued measures (IC-POVMs) in dimension d can be built using the multiparticle Pauli group acting on appropriate fiducial states. The latter states may also be derived starting from the Poincare upper half-plane model H . To do this, one translates the congruence (or non-congruence) subgroups of index d of the modular group into groups of permutation gates, some of the eigenstates of which are the sought fiducials. The structure of some IC-POVMs is found to be intimately related to the Kochen-Specker theorem.