32 33 Marine plankton ecosystems are an important component of biogeochemical cycling in the oceans. 34 Operational plankton functional type (PFT) models, that group plankton according to their 35 biogeochemical properties, are currently being developed to resolve biogenic gas exchange between 36 the ocean and atmosphere, and to model the lowest trophic levels in fisheries models. A 37 fundamen...

Objective: This is the first study to evaluate the effect of carvacrol on pulmonary function tests (PFT), and total and differential white blood cell (WBC) counts in healthy volunteers. Materials and Methods: Thirty healthy volunteers were recruited based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The subjects were treated with two doses of carvacrol (1 and 2 mg/kg/day) for 1 month. Total and di...

Plant functional type (PFT) distributions affect the results of biogenic emission modeling as well as O3 and particulate matter (PM) simulations using chemistrytransport models (CTMs). This paper analyzes the variations of both surface biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions and O3 concentrations due to changes in the PFT distributions in the Seoul Metropolitan Areas, Korea. The Fif...

This paper evaluates different strategies for enhancing (partial) fault tolerance (PFT) of feedforward artificial neural networks (ANNs). We evaluate a continuum of strategies between the two extremes (i) Replicating a minimal seed network to achieve a final desired size with the resultant PFT and (ii) Starting with the desired (larger) size but using modified training algorithms to achieve hig...

BACKGROUND Personal fitness trackers (PFT) have substantial potential to improve healthcare. OBJECTIVE To quantify and characterize early adopters who shared their PFT data with providers. METHODS We used bivariate statistics and logistic regression to compare patients who shared any PFT data vs. patients who did not. RESULTS A patient portal was used to invite 79,953 registered portal us...

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of a reported p53 inhibitor, pifithrin-α (PFT-α), on preimplantation porcine in vitro fertilized (IVF) embryo development in culture. Treatment of PFT-α was administered at both early (0 to 48 hpi), and later stages (48 to 168 hpi) of preimplantation development, and its impact upon the expression of five genes related to apoptosis (p53, bak, ...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of pulmonary function abnormalities in clinically asymptomatic children with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and to determine the relationship of these abnormalities to clinical, laboratory, and immunological parameters as well as to disease activity. METHODS Forty-two children with childhood onset Systemic Lupus Erythematosus wer...

BACKGROUND A high incidence of abnormal pulmonary function tests has been reported in cross-sectional studies among patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Few patients have been enrolled in longitudinal studies. OBJECTIVES To perform PFT in rheumatoid arthritic patients without pulmonary involvement and to identify variables related to changes in PFT over 5 years of follow-up. METHODS Consecut...

Methods A total of 76 consecutive adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients who were treated with brace included in this study. 20 of 45 patients who were treated with SpineCor brace, and 13 of 31 patients who were treated with rigid brace, were able to finish pulmonary function test (PFT). PFT is administered to 33 patients before and immediately after wearing the brace. TLC, RV, RV/TLC, FVC, F...

The indications for operative intervention in parapneumonic effusions (PPEs) are currently based on their anatomical, bacterio-logical and biochemical features. Because PPEs ,10 mm in thickness on the lateral decubitus radiograph usually resolve with antibiotics, both the British Thoracic Society and the American College of Chest Physicians guidelines suggest that only PPEs with pleural fluid t...