Cocoa pod is among the by-products of cocoa (Theobroma cacao) plantations. The aim of this study was to apply a number of treatments in order to improve nutritional quality of cocoa pod for feeding of ruminants. Cocoa pod was subjected to different treatments, i.e. C (cocoa pod without any treatment or control), CAm (cocoa pod+1.5% urea), CMo (cocoa pod+3% molasses), CRu (cocoa pod+3% rumen con...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of a supplement enriched in ω-3 fatty acids on immune responses and platelet-leukocyte complex formation in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Patients in the supplement group (n = 7) took a supplement enriched in ω-3 fatty acids (Impact(®)) in addition to a hospital diet for five successive days before surgery; those in the contro...

Seed shattering in crops is a key domestication trait due to its relevance for seed dispersal, yield, and fundamental questions in evolution (e.g., convergent evolution). Here, we focused on pod shattering in common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), the most important legume crop for human consuption in the world. With this main aim, we developed a methodological pipeline that comprises a thorough ...

For distributed parameter systems, recognition of state change is crucial to process operation with a wide range of motivations, for example, sensitivity analysis of input condition, selection of operating point and abnormal situation diagnosis, etc. A key task therein is developing a criterion from which the extent of state change can quantitatively determinated. In this paper, a novel concept...

To reduce the incidence of postoperative pharyngolaryngeal adverse events, laryngeal mask airway (LMA) manufacturers recommend maximum cuff pressures not exceeding 60 cmH₂O. We performed a prospective randomised study, comparing efficacy and adverse events among patients undergoing laparoscopic surgical procedures who were allocated randomly into low (limiting 25 cmH₂O, L group) and high (at 60...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to assess the benefit of using a prophylactic surgical site closed suction drain in pterional craniotomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective review was conducted on 607 consecutive patients who underwent a pterional craniotomy for treatment of intracranial anterior circulation aneurysms over a 5-year period. Between January 2000 and December 2004, 607 pa...

Background Postoperative delirium (POD) is a very common complication in operative disciplines, especially in those elderly patients after cardiac surgery. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between C-reactive protein (CRP) and POD in elderly patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery for colon carcinoma. Methods 160 elderly patients scheduled to undergo selective laparoscopic sur...

Establishment of anterior-posterior (a-p) polarity in the Caenorhabditis elegans embryo depends on filamentous (F-) actin. Previously, we isolated an F-actin-binding protein that was enriched in the anterior cortex of the one-cell embryo and was hypothesized to link developmental polarity to the actin cytoskeleton. Here, we identify this protein, POD-1, as a new member of the coronin family of ...

Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method has been successfully used in the reduced-order modeling of complex systems. In this paper, we extend the applications of POD method, i.e., combine the classical finite volume element (FVE) method with the POD method to obtain a reduced-order FVE formulation with lower dimensions and sufficiently high accuracy for two-dimensional solute transport pro...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence, predictive factors, and effect of post-operative delirium (POD) among patients treated by transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). BACKGROUND Patients undergoing operations that involve valve replacement appear at higher risk of POD than patients subjected to coronary artery bypass surgery alone. In patients with sev...