BACKGROUND The composite summary score (range, 0-24) of abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) devised by Kauppila et al is a simple method of assessing AAC severity. However, few studies have been conducted to determine an optimal AAC cutoff score for the prediction of mortality or to investigate the relation between mineral metabolism and AAC progression using the scoring system. METHODS The ...

BACKGROUND Clinical outcomes of dialysis patients are variable, and improved knowledge of prognosis would inform decisions regarding patient management. We assessed the value of simple, chest X-ray derived measures of cardiac size (cardiothoracic ratio (CTR)) and vascular calcification (Aortic Arch Calcification (AAC)), in predicting death and improving multivariable prognostic models in a prev...

Children with developmental language or speech disorders frequently benefit from augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategies. These children have severe expressive or receptive communication disorders or both which sometimes occur in isolation, or as part of a global developmental disability. Children with specific language impairment, pervasive developmental disorder, developme...

BACKGROUND Coronary artery disease (CAD) is common in asymptomatic chronic dialysis patients and plays an important role in their poor survival. Early identification of these high-risk patients could improve treatment and reduce mortality. Abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) has previously been associated with CAD in autopsy studies. Since the AAC can be quantified easily using a lateral lumba...

PURPOSE To determine the prevalence of appositional angle closure (AAC) after laser peripheral iridotomy (LPI) in the eyes of Chinese patients with primary angle closure (PAC) and primary angle closure glaucoma (PACG) and to evaluate its pathogenesis by investigating anatomic characteristics. METHODS This was a cross-sectional observational study. PAC and PACG subjects were consecutively enro...

A group of crosslinked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (P(NIPAM-co-AAc)) microgels with different amount acrylic acid (AAc) were synthesized by surfactant-free emulsion polymerization. The morphology and environmental sensitivity studied atomic force microscope (AFM). It was founded that the microgel particles monodispersed diameter dried latex about 800nm. Moreover, volume decrease...

We detail the design, development and evaluation of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) software which encourages rapid conversational interaction. The system uses Natural Language Generation (NLG) technology to automatically generate conversational utterances from a domain knowledge base modelled from content suggested by a small AAC user group. Findings from this work are present...

Abstract. The aerodynamic aerosol classifier (AAC) is a novel instrument that size-selects particles based on their mechanical mobility. So far, the application of an AAC for cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity analysis aerosols has yet to be explored. Traditionally, differential mobility analyzer (DMA) used classification in CCN experimental setup. A DMA classifies electrical Substituting...

Non-speaking people who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems typically have low rates of communication which reduces their ability to interact with others. Research and development continues in the quest to improve the effectiveness of AAC systems in terms of communication rate and impact. One strategy involves making the basic unit of communication an entire utterance, ...

The development of selectable markers for transformation has been a major factor in the successful genetic manipulation of plants. A new selectable marker system has been developed based on bacterial gentamicin-3-N-acetyltransferases [AAC(3)]. These enzymes inactivate aminoglycoside antibiotics by acetylation. Two examples of AAC(3) enzymes have been manipulated to be expressed in plants. Chime...