BACKGROUND Cholestasis is a frequent problem in patients on total parenteral nutrition. Cisapride has a prokinetic effect on the biliary system, but its effect on hepatic excretory function is unknown. OBJECTIVES To study the effect of cisapride on TPN-induced cholestasis in a rat model. METHODS Bile flow and bile salt secretion rate were measured in rats given TPN. There were four groups o...

Tapasin (Tpn) has been implicated in multiple steps of the MHC class I assembly pathway, but the mechanisms of function remain incompletely understood. Using purified proteins, we could demonstrate direct binding of Tpn to peptide-deficient forms of MHC class I molecules at physiological temperatures. Tpn also bound to M10.5, a pheromone receptor-associated MHC molecule that has an open and emp...

The optimal resources allocation to tasks was the primary objective of the research dealing with scheduling problems. These problems are characterized by their complexity, known as NP-hard in most cases. Currently with the evolution of technology, classical methods are inadequate because they degrade system performance (inflexibility, inefficient resources using policy, etc.). In the context of...

BACKGROUND Pharmacists can provide beneficial pharmaceutical care services to patients receiving Parenteral Nutrition (PN) therapy by working within Nutrition Support Teams (NSTs). OBJECTIVE This study was designed to explore pharmacists' role in PN therapy in hospitals of Kuwait, sources of PN-related information, opinions on NSTs, perceptions about the barriers to pharmaceutical care implem...

To evaluate and predict component-based software security, a two-dimensional model of software security is proposed by Stochastic Petri Net in this paper. In this approach, the software security is modeled by graphical presentation ability of Petri nets, and the quantitative prediction is provided by the evaluation capability of Stochastic Petri Net and the computing power of Markov chain. Each...

Total parenteral nutrition (TPN), with the absence of enteral nutrition, results in profound changes to both intestinal epithelial cells (EC) as well as the adjacent intraepithelial lymphocyte (IEL) population. Intestinal EC are a rich source of IL-7, a critical factor to support the maintenance of several lymphoid tissues, and TPN results in marked EC changes. On this basis, we hypothesized th...

We examined interactions in a soluble tapasin (TPN)/HLA-B*0801 complex to gain mechanistic insights into the functions of TPN. Results show that TPN acts as a chaperone by increasing the ratio of active-to-inactive peptide-deficient HLA-B*0801 molecules in solution. TPN causes peptides to associate and dissociate faster owing to its effect on widening the binding groove of HLA-B*0801 molecules....

One of the features of wireless sensor networks is that the nodes in this network have limited power sources. Therefore, assessment of energy consumption in these networks is very important. What has been common practice has been the use of traditional simulators to evaluate the energy consumption of the nodes in these networks. Simulators often have problems such as fluctuating output values i...

In this paper, a formal model for antivirus update agent system is presented based on mobile agent technology and predicate/transition Petri nets. The mobile agent system contains two mobile agents called DCA and UNA. It sends out agents to update antivirus on client computers in a network. Each agent takes on a specified responsibility. First, DCA roams through the network and check the last d...