Search

Residential buildings account for significant proportions of energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions. The dwelling and occupants together have a strong impact on the temporal characteristics of energy demand. This paper presents and validates a new stochastic electricity, space heating (SH) and domestic hot water (DHW) model for UK residential buildings, called CREST Heat and Power (CHAP). The open source model is easily adaptable to over 14,000 different building configurations, which represent the UK residential building stock. A validation with empirical data on domestic hot water, gas demand, and internal temperatures demonstrates the accuracy of the new SH and DHW parts of the model. Notwithstanding some uncertainties in extracting the DHW run-off profiles, the energy consumption, water volume, and the dependency on the number of residents are all well considered. The CHAP model produces mean SH, DHW and temperature profiles that are broadly in agreement with the employed field studies. Future work should focus on the consideration of appliances at the heat/power interface, improving the DHW calibration and extending the approach to other national contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents results of a study investigating a permanent grid deployment of medium voltage superconductor cables in combination with superconducting fault current limiters within a typical urban area power system. A completely new grid concept, which only becomes feasible through the use of superconductor cable systems, is shown. Further, several different cable options, including superconducting and conventional cables, are compared [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

To characterize the growth of female authorship in the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) "Clinical Practice Guidelines" and "Reporting Standards" publications (henceforth called CPG) over a 15-year period and to identify ways to improve female representation. For CPGs covering "universal" topics, there was a near-significant increase in female authorship (n = 7/87, 8% in 2004-09 vs. 26/147,18% in 2014-19, P = 0.064), while for "specific" topics (which represent 73% of total CPG authorships) the increase was not significant (n = 30/253, 12% in 2004-09 vs. 55/378,15% in 2014-19, P = 0.39). While the incremental improvements are noteworthy, men are still more likely than women to author multiple CPGs, and female authorship has increased more slowly for CPG topics requiring content-expertise. [Extracted from the article]

Veins included were the inferior vena cava (IVC), bilateral common iliac veins (CIV), and bilateral external iliac veins (EIV). ISR occurred in 15.1% of IVC stents, 15.2% of CIV stents, and 18.4% of EIV stents. In both the CIV and EIV, Wallstents had a decreased risk of restenosis when compared to SMART stents (CIV: HR -3.0, P <0.005; EIV: HR -2.4, P = 0.02). [Extracted from the article]

Hypoxia of renal medulla is a key factor implicated in the development of drug-induced renal failure. Drugs are known to influence renal hemodynamics and, subsequently, affect renal tissue oxygenation. Changes in renal oxygenation can be assessed non-invasively in humans using blood oxygenation level-dependent magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-MRI). This study was designed to test the acute effects of administration of specific drugs in healthy human kidney oxygenation using BOLD-MRI. Acute changes in renal tissue oxygenation induced by the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug indomethacin, the iodinated radio-contrast media (RCM) iopromidum, and the calcineurin inhibitors cyclosporine micro-emulsion (CsA-ME) and tracrolimus were studied in 30 healthy volunteers. A modified Multi Echo Data Image Combination sequence was used to acquire 12 T2*-weighted images. Four coronal slices were selected to cover both kidneys. The mean R2* (1/T2*) values determined in medulla and cortex showed no significant changes induced by indomethacin and tacrolimus administration. CsA-ME decreased medullary (P=0.008) and cortical (P=0.004) R2* values 2 h after ingestion. Iopromidum caused a significant increase in medullary R2* within the first 20 min after injection (P<0.001), whereas no relevant changes were observed in renal cortex. None of the measurements showed left–right kidney differences. Significant differences in renal medullary oxygenation were evidenced between female and male subjects (P=0.013). BOLD-MRI was efficient to show effects of specific drugs in healthy renal tissue. Cyclosporine increased renal medullary oxygenation 2 h after ingestion of a single dose, whereas indomethacin and tacrolimus showed no effect on renal oxygenation. Injection of iodinated RCM decreased renal medullary oxygenation.Kidney International (2006) 70, 144–150. doi:10.1038/sj.ki.5000418; published online 26 April 2006 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To compare outcomes between low- and high-dose anticoagulation regimens following stent placement for nonthrombotic lower extremity venous disease. This suggests that short-term prophylactic anticoagulation or no anticoagulation may be as safe and effective as therapeutic anticoagulation following venous stent placement for nonthrombotic stenosis. [Extracted from the article]

To characterize long-term rates of in-stent restenosis and risk factors for in-stent restenosis after lower extremity venous stent placement. Patients with acute DVT (Hazard ratio (HR): 3.53, P = 0.015), acute on chronic DVT (HR: 3.93, P = 0.038), or chronic DVT (HR: 3.81, P = 0.0018) had increased risk of in-stent restenosis. Patients with thrombotic venous occlusions have a >3 times higher risk of in-stent restenosis than patients with nonthrombotic disease. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: Recent drug shortages have required modifications to transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) techniques, and some trials have shown advantages to using drug-eluting bead (DEB) technology. We investigated whether the advantages of using DEBs over ethiodated oil emulsion extend to superselective catheterization and administration for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Materials and Methods: From March 2010 to March 2011, 232 patients with HCC were treated by superselective (segmental, subsegmental) TACE with one of 3 protocols, determined by the availability of materials at the time of treatment. 159 underwent conventional TACE using an emulsion of ethiodated oil with doxorubicin and/or cisplatin (cTACE), 47 received doxorubicin-eluting LC beads (DEBDOX), and 26 received doxorubicin-eluting Quadraspheres (hqTACE). Clinical and laboratory toxicity were evaluated monthly, and objective radiographic response was evaluated at 3 months. Results: Lesion-based response rates in the cTACE, DEBDOX, and hqTACE groups were 65.4%, 63.8%, and 53.8%, respectively, and showed no significant differences. Fever and fatigue were slightly more common in the hqTACE group; clinical adverse events were otherwise equivalent. Changes in laboratory values were mild, expected and transient. Total doxorubicin administered in the DEBDOX group (median 75 mg) and hqTACE group (median 50 mg) were significantly higher than in the cTACE group (median 40 mg; p<0.001, p=0.009). No advantages were found for high-risk patients (bilobar disease, ECOG 1, Child-Pugh B, postsurgical recurrence), including for objective response, systemic toxicity, hepatotoxicity, and doxorubicin-related toxicity. The median cost of materials was $1531 for DEBDOX, $1443 for hqTACE, and $238 for cTACE, but the cost of cTACE materials has since more than doubled. Conclusion: Despite previous studies showing advantages to using DEBs over cTACE, when performed in a superselective manner, TACE using DEBs was more expensive and showed no significant advantages in efficacy or toxicity, probably due to the inherent optimized conditions of superselective catheterization. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]