Previous studies have reported that intraoperative dexmedetomidine has morphine-sparing effects in patient-controlled analgesia (PCA). The present study was designed to investigate the possible sex differences in the morphine-sparing effects of intraoperative dexmedetomidine following general anesthesia. A total of 223 patients scheduled for surgeries under general anesthesia were divided into ...

Desmoplakin (DP) is a cytoskeletal linker protein that connects the desmosomal cadherin/plakoglobin/plakophilin complex to intermediate filaments (IFs). The C-terminal region of DP (DPCT) mediates IF binding, and contains three plakin repeat domains (PRDs), termed PRD-A, PRD-B and PRD-C. Previous crystal structures of PRDs B and C revealed that each is formed by 4.5 copies of a plakin repeat (P...

We propose that personal relative deprivation (PRD)-the belief that one is worse off than similar others-plays a key role in the link between social class and prosociality. Across multiple samples and measures (total N = 2,233), people higher in PRD were less inclined to help others. When considered in isolation, neither objective nor subjective socioeconomic status (SES) was meaningfully assoc...

Benzene (C6H6) and toluene (C7H8) are toxic to humans and the environment. They are also important precursors of ground-level ozone and secondary organic aerosols and contribute substantially to severe air pollution in urban areas in China. Discrepancies exist between different bottom-up inventories for benzene and toluene emissions in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) and Hong Kong (HK), which are e...

In this paper, we propose a new relaying protocol for large multihop networks combining the concepts of cooperative diversity and opportunistic relaying. The cooperative relaying protocol is based on two diversity mechanisms, incremental redundancy combining and repetition combining. We assume that nodes in the large multihop network are modeled by a homogeneous Poisson Point Process and operat...

Fas ligand (FasL) induces apoptosis through its cell surface receptor Fas. T lymphocytes and natural killer cells sort newly synthesised FasL to secretory lysosomes but, in cell types with conventional lysosomes, FasL appears directly on the plasma membrane. Here, we define a proline-rich domain (PRD) in the cytoplasmic tail of FasL that is responsible for sorting FasL to secretory lysosomes. D...

Oxygen is a product of photosynthesis and is essential for human survival. It also has a profound effect on ecosystems as the atmospheric oxygen balance is the basis for regional ecological sustainability. The Pearl River Delta (PRD) has experienced rapid urbanization and has become one of China’s three major urban agglomerations. This study focused on the oxygen balance of the PRD in 2011, and...

Compression of recorded ECG data has been a topic of interest since the introduction of computer storage and later Holter monitor applications of ECG recording technology. Compression is typically performed using an approximation algorithm belonging to one of three classes; direct data compression; transformation and parameter extraction. Some debate exists as to how the accuracy of each implem...