Converse Implication Research Articles

Performance of the Cryptococcal Antigen Lateral Flow Assay in Non-HIV-Related Cryptococcosis.

The cryptococcal antigen lateral flow assay (CrAg LFA) was evaluated for the diagnosis of cryptococcosis in HIV-negative patients. The sensitivity was excellent, suggesting that this assay can replace conventional testing based on latex agglutination (LA). CrAg LFA and LA titers were correlated but were not directly comparable, with implications for conversion between assays.

Photon Upconversion from Chemically Bound Triplet Sensitizers and Emitters on Mesoporous ZrO2: Implications for Solar Energy Conversion

Photon upconversion by sensitized triplet–triplet annihilation (UC-STTA) is studied in systems with triplet sensitizers and emitter molecules cochemisorbed onto nanostructured ZrO2 films. UC-STTA is a promising strategy to overcome the Shockley–Queisser efficiency limit of single-threshold solar cells. The dye-loaded mesoporous ZrO2 films studied herein allow high molecular densities and are good proxy systems for the study of photophysics relevant to dye-sensitized solar cells. Two sensitizer/emitter dye pairs are studied: platinum(II) deuteroporphyrin IX dicarboxylic acid/4,4′-(10-(anthracene-9,10-diyl)dibenzoic acid and platinum(II) deuteroporphyrin IX dimethyl ester/methyl 4-(10-(p-tolyl)anthracen-9-yl)benzoate. Both dye pairs are closely related to the standard UC-STTA molecular pair platinum(II) octaethylporphyrin (PtOEP)/9,10-diphenylanthracene (DPA). By chemically anchoring the upconverting dye pairs onto ZrO2 films a significant improvement in UC-STTA efficiency is achieved with respect to previo...

Convergence of Series on Large Set of Indices

Abstract We prove that if an = ∞ and (an) is non-decreasing, then an = ∞ for any set A ⊂ ℕ of positive lower density. We introduce a Cauchy-like definition of I-convergence of series. We prove that the I-convergence of series coincides with the convergence on large set of indexes if and only if I is a P-ideal. It turns out that I-convergence of series an implies I-convergence of (an) to zero. The converse implication does not hold for analytic P-ideals and it is independent of ZFC that there is I ideal of naturals for which I-convergence of (an) to zero implies I-convergence of series an = ∞ for every sequence (an).

Reconstructing professional ethics and responsibility: Implications of critical systems thinking

Historians and sociologists remind us that it is disingenuous to ignore the fact that despite differences in research practices as well as the degree of scientization and compartmentalization of the social sciences between the United States and Europe there have been continuous communications between Europeans and Americans over their meaning, purpose, and methods (Mancias, 1987; Wagner et al., 1991). A similar observation about the field of evaluation is warranted, not least since the advent of Evaluation founded in 1995 as ‘an international journal with strong European roots, but with a commitment to encourage dialogue between European, Scandinavian, Northern American, Asian, Australasian and other existing and emergent evaluation communities’ (Stern, 1995: 6). One issue of growing concern in the transnational evaluation conversation that Evaluation encourages, and one that has received a fair amount of attention from European contributors1 to Evaluation in the past 20 years, is the relevance of the scientific study of complex systems (i.e. complexity science) and systems approaches to managing complex issues (i.e. systems thinking) to the theory and practice of evaluation. Looking forward, I offer a few comments on one key idea in this conversation. Evaluation scholars and others have argued that value is not inherent in an intervention (object or activity) being evaluated, but rather is something ascribed to it by those involved in observing it (Stake and Schwandt, 2006; Wadsworth, 1997). Scholar-practitioners working in the tradition of critical systems thinking and specifically in critical systems heuristics (CSH) (e.g. Midgley, 2007; Reynolds, 2014; Ulrich and Reynolds, 2010; Williams, 2015) have expanded this insight by developing a particular approach to making value judgments called boundary critique. Following a brief sketch of this approach, I turn specifically to its implications for the current transnational conversation on the competencies, capabilities, and professional obligations demanded of evaluators. While judging value is presumably the very purpose of evaluation, evaluators have long struggled with multiple issues surrounding making judgments or appraisals of the value (merit, worth, significance) of an intervention (e.g. activity, policy, program, and so on). Debates have centered on how explicit an evaluator must be about the criteria employed for judgment – compare for example the fairly precise approach to identifying criteria and performance on those criteria as advocated by Scriven (1994) and Davidson (2005) to Stake’s (Stake et al., 1997) wholesale

Order boundedness and weak compactness of the set of quasi-measure extensions of a quasi-measure

Let $\mathfrak M$ and $\mathfrak R$ be algebras of subsets of a set $\Omega $ with $\mathfrak M\subset\mathfrak R$, and denote by $E(\mu )$ the set of all quasi-measure extensions of a given quasi-measure $\mu $ on $\mathfrak M$ to $\mathfrak R$. We give some criteria for order boundedness of $E(\mu )$ in $ba(\mathfrak R)$, in the general case as well as for atomic $\mu $. Order boundedness implies weak compactness of $E (\mu )$. We show that the converse implication holds under some assumptions on $\mathfrak M$, $\mathfrak R$ and $\mu $ or $\mu $ alone, but not in general.

The Impacts of Oil Palm Agriculture on Colombia's Biodiversity: What We Know and Still Need to Know

The inexorable expansion of oil palm plantations has been a major driver of biodiversity loss in the tropics. This is particularly evident in Malaysia and Indonesia, where the majority of the world's oil palm is cultivated. In Latin America oil palm acreage has also been steadily increasing, especially in countries such as Colombia, the largest producer by far. However, information on the biological implications of rapid land conversion to oil palm in the region remains scarce. Here, we review the state of knowledge about the impacts of oil palm on biodiversity in Colombia. We also discuss the conservation strategies that have been implemented in the country, and propose research that we need to develop best management practices. The vast majority of research has focused on biotechnology, soils, biological pest control, carbon stock and reduction of greenhouse gases emission, but research on biodiversity is very scarce, or is not published yet. However, important investment and research on this topic are being developed. The most threatened ecosystems are the savannas in the Orinoquia region, where most of the expansion is predicted. The demands for green markets and certification are slowly encouraging oil palm corporations to mitigate their ‘biological footprint‘. However, applied research on the possible impacts of oil palm on biodiversity are urgently needed to support conservation efforts in the oil-palm-dominated landscapes of Colombia, along with commitments by the government and companies to adopt the resulting recommendations.

A meta-analysis to determine the oncological implications of conversion in laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgery.

Laparoscopic colon and rectal cancer surgery is oncologically equivalent to open resection, but the impact of conversion is undetermined. The aim of this study was to assess the oncological outcome and predictive factors associated with conversion. A comprehensive search for published studies examining the associated factors and outcome of conversion from laparoscopic to open colorectal cancer resection was performed adhering to PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items in Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) guidelines. Only randomized control trials and prospective studies were included. Each study was reviewed and the data extracted. Random effects methods were used to combine data. Fifteen studies, including 5293 patients, met the inclusion criteria. Of these 4391 patients had a completed laparoscopic resection and 902 were converted to an open resection. The average conversion rate of the studies was 17.9±10.1%. Meta-analysis showed completed laparoscopic surgery favoured lower 30-day mortality (OR 0.134, 95% CI 0.047-0.385, P<0.0001), lower long-term disease recurrence (OR 0.634, 95% CI 0.421-0.701, P<0.023) and lower overall mortality (OR 0.512, 95% CI 0.417-0.629, P<0.0001). Factors negatively associated with completion of laparoscopic surgery were male gender (P=0.011), rectal tumour (P=0.017), T3/T4 tumour (P=0.009) and node-positive disease (P=0.009). Completed laparoscopic surgery was also associated with a lower body mass index (BMI; mean difference -0.93kg/m(2) , P=0.004). The results suggest that conversion from laparoscopic to open colorectal cancer resection is influenced by patient and tumour characteristics and is associated with an adverse perioperative outcome. Although confounding factors such as advanced tumour stage and elevated BMI are present, unsuccessful laparoscopic surgery appears to be associated with an adverse long-term oncological outcome.

Thermochemical characterization of cattle manure relevant to its energy conversion and environmental implications

In this work, we used three manure resources from common cattle ruminants (i.e., dairy, beef, and buffalo) to evaluate their thermochemical properties, including elemental analysis, lignocellulosic constituents, calorific value, mineral components, thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy–energy-dispersive spectroscopy, which were relevant to the utilization as biofuel feedstocks. The fuel-related properties of manures from three different kinds of cattle were very similar. The cattle manure was rich in lignocellulosic constituents with about 80 % on a dry basis, indicating that its calorific value was as high as around 20 MJ/kg in connection with the contents of about 45 % C and 6 % H. More significantly, the contents of sulfur and nitrogen in the cattle manure are relatively low, suggesting that the biomass represents a promising fuel feedstock without concern in the excessive emissions of acidic gases. From the analyses of inorganic elements for the manure, there were no detectable concentrations of heavy metals such as Mn, Cu, and Zn. Based on the results of thermochemical characterization, cattle manure could be directly reused as a fuel feedstock in the direct combustion and co-firing systems or further converted into biochar, activated char, and bio-oil in the thermochemical processes.

On some classes of reflexive rings

The concept of central reflexive rings is introduced in this paper as a generalization of reflexive rings. Since every reflexive ring is central reflexive, we study the sufficient condition for a central reflexive ring to be a reflexive one. It is shown that every central reversible and hence every central symmetric ring is central reflexive, however converse implications are wrong. It is also proven that the polynomial ring R[x] is central reflexive if R is central reflexive and quasi-Armendariz. We have given some characterizations for an α-reflexive ring and also improved some of the results given by Zhao and Zhu [Extensions of α-reflexive rings, Asian-European J. Math.5(1) (2012) 1–10]. Finally we introduced the concept of central α-reflexive rings as a generalization of α-reflexive rings.

Outcomes of treatment targeting syntax production in people with Broca's-type aphasia: evidence from psycholinguistic assessment tasks and everyday conversation.

Capturing evidence of the effects of therapy within everyday communication is the holy grail of aphasia treatment design and evaluation. Whilst impaired sentence production is a predominant symptom of Broca's-type aphasia, the effects of sentence production therapy on everyday conversation have not been investigated. Given the context-sensitive nature of spoken production by people with aphasia, it is difficult to extrapolate implications for everyday conversation based on results from task-based assessment (such as picture description, story retell or interview). Thus, there are strong theoretical and clinical motivations to investigate generalization from sentence production treatment to everyday conversation. To evaluate a theoretically driven treatment focused on the language production skills of participants with post-stroke Broca's aphasia and to track outcomes from psycholinguistic assessment tasks to everyday conversation. A case series design was utilized with pragmatic selection of participants with chronic aphasia undergoing the same assessment and treatment procedures. Nine participants with Broca's aphasia and their main conversation partners took part in the study. Treatment was implemented once weekly over 8 weeks and targeted production of basic syntax-two, three and four constituent constructions-through principles of mapping and reduced syntax treatment. Use of different possible exemplars for nouns, particularly pronouns, was trained together with use of both light and heavy verbs. Participants had the opportunity to 'top-up' therapy practise by completely a homework task that mirrored the therapy task. Syntactic well-formedness was assessed in samples of constrained sentence production, narrative retell and naturally occurring conversations at baseline, 1 week post-treatment, and 1 month post-treatment. Treatment showed strong direct effects in trained and untrained sentence construction tasks, with some generalization to narrative retell tasks. There was little evidence of change in everyday conversation. Improvement in language production in constrained assessment tasks may not impact on everyday conversations. Implications for further research are discussed, e.g. the need for bridging interventions between constrained and unconstrained contexts of language production. Clinical implications include the potential to streamline therapy planning and delivery by making use of rich, hybrid therapies to treat individuals with similar symptom profiles but with a range of underlying deficits.

Universality and Almost Decidability

We present and study new definitions of universal and programmable universal unary functions and consider a new simplicity criterion: almost decidability of the halting set. A set of positive integers S is almost decidable if there exists a decidable and generic i.e. a set of natural density one set whose intersection with S is decidable. Every decidable set is almost decidable, but the converse implication is false. We prove the existence of infinitely many universal functions whose halting sets are generic negligible, i.e. have density zero and not almost decidable. One result---namely, the existence of infinitely many universal functions whose halting sets are generic negligible and not almost decidable---solves an open problem in [9]. We conclude with some open problems.

The Respiratory Chain Supercomplex Organization Is Independent of COX7a2l Isoforms

SummaryThe organization of individual respiratory chain complexes into supercomplexes or respirasomes has attracted great interest because of the implications for cellular energy conversion. Recently, it was reported that commonly used mouse strains harbor a short COX7a2l (SCAFI) gene isoform that supposedly precludes the formation of complex IV-containing supercomplexes. This claim potentially has serious implications for numerous mouse studies addressing important topics in metabolism, including adaptation to space flights. Using several complementary experimental approaches, we show that mice with the short COX7a2l isoform have normal biogenesis and steady-state levels of complex IV-containing supercomplexes and consequently have normal respiratory chain function. Furthermore, we use a mouse knockout of Lrpprc and show that loss of complex IV compromises respirasome formation. We conclude that the presence of the short COX7a2l isoform in the commonly used C57BL/6 mouse strains does not prevent their use in metabolism research.

TiO2 anatase with a bandgap in the visible region.

TiO2 anatase plays a central role in energy and environmental research. A major bottleneck toward developing artificial photosynthesis with TiO2 is that it only absorbs ultraviolet light, owing to its large bandgap of 3.2 eV. If one could reduce the bandgap of anatase to the visible region, TiO2-based photocatalysis could become a competitive clean energy source. Here, using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy in conjunction with density functional theory calculations, we report the discovery of a highly reactive titanium-terminated anatase surface with a reduced bandgap of less than 2 eV, stretching into the red portion of the solar spectrum. By tuning the surface preparation conditions, we can reversibly switch between the standard anatase surface and the newly discovered low bandgap surface phase. The identification of a TiO2 anatase surface phase with a bandgap in the visible and high chemical reactivity has important implications for solar energy conversion, photocatalysis, and artificial photosynthesis.

The Most Famous Thing Robert E. Lee Never Said: Duty, Forgery, and Cultural Amnesia

This essay explains the surprising set of circumstances surrounding perhaps the best-known quotation commonly attributed to Robert E. Lee (“Duty is the sublimest word in the English language”) and explains several significant things about the famous quotation and its broader significance: (1) Lee never said any such thing. (2) The famous line appears in a forged letter. (3) It is quite likely that a Union soldier forged the letter when the US Army occupied Lee's Arlington, Virginia estate during the American Civil War. (4) The phony quotation also shows up in an amazing range of sources, from academic books and scholarly journals, to Forbes magazine, to legal briefs and judicial decisions, to speeches by major political figures. (5) Although at one point early in the twentieth century it was fairly widely known that the letter was a forgery, the bogus quotation persists in widespread usage as something like a southern (and, perhaps surprisingly, a national) equivalent of George Washington's apocryphal “I cannot tell a lie.” (6) The long, strange career of this bogus quotation has larger implications for professional and general conversations about Lee, the Civil War, and American cultural memory.

Prognostic implications of conversion from nonshockable to shockable rhythms in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

IntroductionThe prognostic significance of conversion from nonshockable to shockable rhythms in patients with initial nonshockable rhythms who experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) remains unclear. We hypothesized that the neurological outcomes in those patients would improve with subsequent shock delivery following conversion to shockable rhythms and that the time from initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation by emergency medical services personnel to the first defibrillation (shock delivery time) would influence those outcomes.MethodsWe analyzed the data of 569,937 OHCA adults with initial nonshockable rhythms. The data were collected in a nationwide Utstein-style Japanese database between 2005 and 2010. Patients were divided into subsequently shocked (n =21,944) and subsequently not-shocked (n =547,993) cohorts. The primary study endpoint was 1-month favorable neurological outcome (Cerebral Performance Categories scale, category 1 or 2).ResultsIn the subsequently shocked cohort, the ratio of 1-month favorable neurological outcome was significantly higher than that in the subsequently not-shocked cohort (1.79% versus 0.60%, P <0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis for 11 prehospital variables revealed that when the shock delivery time was less than 20 minutes, subsequent shock delivery was significantly associated with increased odds of 1-month favorable neurological outcomes (adjusted odds ratios (95% confidence interval), 6.55 (5.21 to 8.22) and 2.97 (2.58 to 3.43) for shock delivery times less than 10 minutes and from 10 to 19 minutes, respectively). However, when the shock delivery time was more than or equal to 20 minutes, subsequent shock delivery was not associated with increased odds of 1-month favorable neurological outcomes.ConclusionsIn patients with an initial nonshockable rhythm after OHCA, subsequent conversion to shockable rhythms during emergency medical services resuscitation efforts was associated with increased odds of 1-month favorable neurological outcomes when the shock delivery time was less than 20 minutes.

Intraoperative conversion from video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery lobectomy to open thoracotomy: A study of causes and implications

To study causes and implications of intraoperative conversion to thoracotomy during video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) lobectomy. We performed an institutional review of patients undergoing lobectomy for known or suspected lung cancer with root cause analysis of every conversion from VATS to open thoracotomy. Between 2004 and 2012, 1227 patients underwent lobectomy. Of these, 517 procedures (42%) were completed via VATS, 87 procedures (7%) were converted to open procedures, and 623 procedures (51%) were performed via planned thoracotomy. Patients undergoing thoracotomy were younger and had a higher incidence of prior lung cancers. Planned thoracotomy and conversion group patients had higher clinical T stage than patients in the VATS group, whereas the planned thoracotomy group had higher pathologic stage than patients in the other groups. Postoperative complications were more frequent in patients in the conversion group (46%) than in the VATS group (23%; P<.001), but similar to the open group (42%; P=.56). Validating a previous classification of causes for conversion, 22 out of 87 conversions (25%) were due to vascular causes, 56 conversions (64%) were for anatomy (eg, adhesions or tumor size), and 8 conversions (9%) were the result of lymph nodes. No specific imaging variables predicted conversion. Within the conversion groups, emergent (20 out of 87; 23%) and planned (67 out of 87; 77%) conversion groups were similar in patient and tumor characteristics and incidence of perioperative morbidity. The conversion rate for VATS lobectomy dropped from 21 out of 74 (28%), to 29 out of 194 (15%), to 37 out of 336 (11%) (P<.001) over 3-year intervals. Over the same periods, the proportion of operations started via VATS increased significantly. With increasing experience, a higher proportion of lobectomy operations can be completed thoracoscopically. VATS should be strongly considered as the initial approach for the majority of patients undergoing lobectomy.

On vector configurations that can be realized in the cone of positive matrices

Let v1,…,vn be n vectors in an inner product space. Can we find a dimension d and positive (semidefinite) matrices A1,…,An∈Md(C) such that Tr(AkAl)=〈vk,vl〉 for all k,l=1,…,n? For such matrices to exist, one must have 〈vk,vl〉≥0 for all k,l=1,…,n. We prove that if n<5 then this trivial necessary condition is also a sufficient one and find an appropriate example showing that from n=5 this is not so – even if we allowed realizations by positive operators in a von Neumann algebra with a faithful normal tracial state.The fact that the first such example occurs at n=5 is similar to what one has in the well-investigated problem of positive factorization of positive (semidefinite) matrices. If the matrix (〈vk,vl〉)(k,l) has a positive factorization, then matrices A1,…,An as above exist. However, as we show by a large class of examples constructed with the help of the Clifford algebra, the converse implication is false.

Microbial bioproducts from cheese whey through fermentation with wastewater sludge Clostridium isolates.

We demonstrated the production of hydrogen, ethanol, and a variety of acids by several Clostridium species using cheese whey as substrate. These species were isolated from the anaerobic sediments of a municipal wastewater stabilization pond. Eight isolates were obtained and all were classified taxonomically as Clostridium spp. based on 16S rRNA sequencing. Sludge isolates showed maximum bioproduct production yields and productivities after approximately 24 h of batch cultivation with 6% (m/v) cheese whey. Fermentation byproducts measured included hydrogen, ethanol, acetic acid, butyric acid, and lactic acid. The maximum yields of bioproducts were 0.59 mol H(2)/mol lactose, 0.071 g ethanol/g, 0.204 g acetic acid/g, 0.218 g butyric acid/g, and 0.144 g lactic acid/g. The production of these high value biofuels and biofuel intermediates from cheese whey could have significant implications for conversion of waste to high value bioproducts to enhance domestic energy economies.

Religious Conversion and Dalit Assertion among a Punjabi Dalit Diaspora

Drawing upon original ethnographic research amongst Punjabi Dalit communities within the UK and India, this paper examines post-transnational migration religious conversion from Sikhism to neo-Buddhism and Christianity, assessing the extent to which this process is simultaneously one of Dalit assertion and resistance to caste-based oppression, thereby facilitating social change within the contemporary Punjabi transnational community. While it is generally accepted that, despite the Ambedkar movement, the volume of Dalit religious conversion away from Sikhism within Punjab has been very low, there is very little analysis of the meanings and implications of religious conversion from Sikhism amongst communities of UK Punjabi Dalits. I specifically evaluate whether such religious conversion is part of a transnational ‘autonomous anti-caste tradition’ (Hardtmann 2009). It is argued that the Punjabi Dalit transnational community studied are simultaneously involved in both caste reform, a continued engagement with the caste order in order to assert an enhanced status within it, and anti-caste practices. Ultimately, Punjabi post-transnational migration religious conversion, as a mechanism for Punjabi Dalit empowerment and social mobility, is ineffective.

Revisiting Photoemission and Inverse Photoemission Spectra of Nickel Oxide from First Principles: Implications for Solar Energy Conversion

We use two different ab initio quantum mechanics methods, complete active space self-consistent field theory applied to electrostatically embedded clusters and periodic many-body G0W0 calculations, to reanalyze the states formed in nickel(II) oxide upon electron addition and ionization. In agreement with interpretations of earlier measurements, we find that the valence and conduction band edges consist of oxygen and nickel states, respectively. However, contrary to conventional wisdom, we find that the oxygen states of the valence band edge are localized whereas the nickel states at the conduction band edge are delocalized. We argue that these characteristics may lead to low electron–hole recombination and relatively efficient electron transport, which, coupled with band gap engineering, could produce higher solar energy conversion efficiency compared to that of other transition-metal oxides. Both methods find a photoemission/inverse-photoemission gap of 3.6–3.9 eV, in good agreement with the experimental range, lending credence to our analysis of the electronic structure of NiO.