University of Alberta

About: University of Alberta is a education organization based out in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 65403 authors who have published 154847 publications receiving 5358338 citations. The organization is also known as: Ualberta & UAlberta.

Corotating solar wind streams and recurrent geomagnetic activity: A review

Abstract: [1] Solar wind fast streams emanating from solar coronal holes cause recurrent, moderate intensity geomagnetic activity at Earth. Intense magnetic field regions called Corotating Interaction Regions or CIRs are created by the interaction of fast streams with upstream slow streams. Because of the highly oscillatory nature of the GSM magnetic field z component within CIRs, the resultant magnetic storms are typically only weak to moderate in intensity. CIR-generated magnetic storm main phases of intensity Dst < −100 nT (major storms) are rare. The elongated storm “recovery” phases which are characterized by continuous AE activity that can last for up to 27 days (a solar rotation) are caused by nonlinear Alfven waves within the high streams proper. Magnetic reconnection associated with the southward (GSM) components of the Alfven waves is the solar wind energy transfer mechanism. The acceleration of relativistic electrons occurs during these magnetic storm “recovery” phases. The magnetic reconnection associated with the Alfven waves cause continuous, shallow injections of plasma sheet plasma into the magnetosphere. The asymmetric plasma is unstable to wave (chorus and other modes) growth, a feature central to many theories of electron acceleration. It is noted that the continuous AE activity is not a series of substorm expansion phases. Arguments are also presented why these AE activity intervals are not convection bays. The auroras during these continuous AE activity intervals are less intense than substorm auroras and are global (both dayside and nightside) in nature. Owing to the continuous nature of this activity, it is possible that there is greater average energy input into the magnetosphere/ionosphere system during far declining phases of the solar cycle compared with those during solar maximum. The discontinuities and magnetic decreases (MDs) associated with interplanetary Alfven waves may be important for geomagnetic activity. In conclusion, it will be shown that geomagnetic storms associated with high-speed streams/CIRs will have the same initial, main, and “recovery” phases as those associated with ICME-related magnetic storms but that the interplanetary causes are considerably different.

Discovery of inference rules for question-answering

Abstract: One of the main challenges in question-answering is the potential mismatch between the expressions in questions and the expressions in texts. While humans appear to use inference rules such as ‘X writes Y’ implies ‘X is the author of Y’ in answering questions, such rules are generally unavailable to question-answering systems due to the inherent difficulty in constructing them. In this paper, we present an unsupervised algorithm for discovering inference rules from text. Our algorithm is based on an extended version of Harris’ Distributional Hypothesis, which states that words that occurred in the same contexts tend to be similar. Instead of using this hypothesis on words, we apply it to paths in the dependency trees of a parsed corpus. Essentially, if two paths tend to link the same set of words, we hypothesize that their meanings are similar. We use examples to show that our system discovers many inference rules easily missed by humans.

Persistence of serum and saliva antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 spike antigens in COVID-19 patients.

Abstract: While the antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 has been extensively studied in blood, relatively little is known about the antibody response in saliva and its relationship to systemic antibody levels. Here, we profiled by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) IgG, IgA and IgM responses to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (full length trimer) and its receptor-binding domain (RBD) in serum and saliva of acute and convalescent patients with laboratory-diagnosed COVID-19 ranging from 3-115 days post-symptom onset (PSO), compared to negative controls. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses were readily detected in serum and saliva, with peak IgG levels attained by 16-30 days PSO. Longitudinal analysis revealed that anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgA and IgM antibodies rapidly decayed, while IgG antibodies remained relatively stable up to 105 days PSO in both biofluids. Lastly, IgG, IgM and to a lesser extent IgA responses to spike and RBD in the serum positively correlated with matched saliva samples. This study confirms that serum and saliva IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 are maintained in the majority of COVID-19 patients for at least 3 months PSO. IgG responses in saliva may serve as a surrogate measure of systemic immunity to SARS-CoV-2 based on their correlation with serum IgG responses.

Regulation of myocardial carbohydrate metabolism under normal and ischaemic conditions. Potential for pharmacological interventions

Abstract: Time for primary review 28 days. The regulation of mammalian myocardial carbohydrate metabolism is complex in that it is linked to arterial substrate and hormone levels, coronary flow, inotropic state and the nutritional status of the tissue. Optimal cardiac function under normal and pathological conditions is dependent upon glycolysis and pyruvate oxidation. The purpose of this review is to examine the regulation of myocardial carbohydrate metabolism under physiological conditions, and during myocardial ischaemia and reperfusion. The therapeutic potential of a variety of pharmacological interventions affecting myocardial carbohydrate metabolism will then be discussed. The tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA cycle) provides reducing equivalents for mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, resulting in the condensation of ADP and inorganic phosphate to regenerate ATP, and is fueled by acetyl-CoA formed primarily from oxidation of pyruvate and fatty acids (Fig. 1). Cardiomyocytes oxidise fatty acids derived from both the plasma and the breakdown of intracellular triacylglycerol stores, while pyruvate is derived from either lactate dehydrogenase or glycolysis. The rates of these metabolic pathways are tightly coupled to the rate of contractile work, and conversely, contractile work is coupled to the supply of oxygen and the rate of oxidative phosphorylation (Fig. 1). Early studies in animals [1] and human [2, 3] showed that after an overnight fast the heart extracts free fatty acids (FFA), lactate and glucose from the blood, and that if one assumes complete oxidation of extracted substrates, fatty acids are the major oxidative fuel for the heart (60–100% of the oxygen consumption), with a lesser contribution from lactate and glucose (0–20% from each) [2, 3]. Subsequent studies by others using a variety of experimental approaches have confirmed these early results (see [4–7] for reviews). Fig. 1 Schematic depiction of myocardial substrate metabolism. Abbreviations: G 6-P, glucose 6-phosphate; TCA, tricarboxylic acid; GT, GLUT 1 and GLUT 4 glucose …