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PubMed1989

The accumulation of free and phosphorylated sugars in adipocytes based on a dynamic diffusion barrier.

The simple theory of a dynamic diffusion barrier is described and it is shown how this could account for the accumulation, in adipocytes, of those free sugars which are also phosphorylated. The standing concentration gradient established by this mechanism depends on the recycling of free sugar and sugar phosphate in submembrane structures which start in juxtaposition to conventional membrane hexose transporters. Although a continual expenditure of metabolic energy is involved, there can be a net gain from the potential-energy store of accumulated substrates. The hypothesis leads to a series of simple equations which can be used as the basis for computer simulations of experimental procedures.

Adipose Tissue↗
PubMed2006

Knowledge barriers to PACS adoption and implementation in hospitals.

PURPOSE: Drawing on the classical theory of diffusion of innovations advanced by Rogers [E.M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, 4th ed., Free Press, New York, NY, 1995] and on the theory of barriers to innovation [P. Attewell, Technology diffusion and organizational learning: the case of business computing. Organ. Sci. 3 (1992) 1-19; H. Tanriverdi, C.S. Iacono, Knowledge barriers to diffusion of telemedicine. Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Information Systems, Charlotte, NC, 1999, pp. 39-50; S. Nambisan, Y.-M. Wang, Roadblocks to web technology adoption? Commun. ACM, 42 (1) (1999) 98-101], this study seeks a better understanding of challenges faced in PACS implementations in hospitals and of the strategies required to ensure their success. METHODS: To attain this objective, we describe and analyze the process used to adopt and implement PACS at two Canadian hospitals. RESULTS: Our findings clearly demonstrate the importance of treating any PACS deployment not simply as a rollout of new technology but as a project that will transform the organization. Proponents of these projects must not lose sight of the fact that, even if technological complexity represents a significant issue, it must not garner all the project team's attention. This situation is even more dangerous, inasmuch as the greatest risk to the implementation often lies elsewhere. It would also appear to be crucial to anticipate and address organizational and behavioral challenges from the very first phase of the innovation process, in order to ensure that all participants will be committed to the project. CONCLUSIONS: In order to maximize the likelihood of PACS success, it appears crucial to adopt a proactive implementation strategy, one that takes into consideration all the technical, economic, organizational, and human factors, and does so from the first phase of the innovation process.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2005

Photon counting histograms for diffusing fluorophores.

The theory of photon counting histograms for fluorescent molecules diffusing through a laser spot is presented. Analytic expressions for the factorial cumulants of photon counts are obtained. For an arbitrary counting time window, it is shown how the exact histograms can be obtained by solving an appropriate reaction-diffusion equation. Our formalism reduces correctly when the molecules are immobile. The approximation used in fluorescence intensity multiple distribution analysis (FIMDA) is tested against the exact numerical solution of the problem. FIMDA works very well for a wide range of parameters except for small concentrations and long time windows.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1988

Safety belt promotion: theory and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to provide practitioners a rationale and description of selected theoretically based approaches to safety belt promotion. Theory failure is a threat to the integrity and effectiveness of safety belt promotion. The absence of theory driven programs designed to promote safety belt use is a concern of this paper. Six theoretical models from the social and behavioral sciences are reviewed with suggestions for application to promoting safety belt use and include Theory of Reasoned Action, the Health Belief Model, Fear Arousal, Operant Learning, Social Learning Theory, and Diffusion of Innovations. Guidelines for the selection and utilization of theory are discussed.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed2003

MR diffusion tensor imaging: recent advance and new techniques for diffusion tensor visualization.

Recently, diffusion tensor imaging is attracting the biomedical researchers for its application in depiction of fiber tracts based on diffusion anisotropy. In this paper, we briefly describe the basic theory of diffusion tensor MR imaging, the determination process of diffusion tensor, and the basic concepts of diffusion tensor visualization techniques. Several results of clinical application in our institute are also introduced. Finally, the limitations, advantages and disadvantages of the techniques are discussed for further application of diffusion tensor visualization.

Anisotropy↗
PubMed1995

A predictive algorithm for skin permeability: the effects of molecular size and hydrogen bond activity.

PURPOSE: To develop a predictive algorithm of nonelectrolyte transport through skin based upon a partitioning-diffusion model. METHODS: Drug permeability is described by a partitioning-diffusion equation. Through free-energy relationships, partitioning is related to the drug's molecular volume (MV), and hydrogen bond donor (Hd) and acceptor (Ha) activity. Diffusion is related to the drug's MV using a theory of diffusion through lipid lamellae based on free-volume fluctuations within the lipid domain. These two explicit descriptions are combined to give an equation describing permeability in terms of the permeant's physical properties. The aqueous permeability coefficients of 37 nonelectrolytes through human epidermis were evaluated as a function of these physical properties using a multiple regression analysis. RESULT: The results of the regression analysis show that 94% of the variability in the data can be explained by a model which includes only the permeant's MV, Hd and Ha. These results further provide an algorithm to predict skin permeability based upon the values of these parameters. In addition, the relative contribution of various chemical functional groups (e.g., -COOH) is derived, and can be used to predict skin transport from drug structure alone. CONCLUSIONS: A biophysically relevant model of drug transport through human skin is derived based solely on the physical properties of the drug. The model provides an algorithm to predict permeability from the drug's structure and/or physical properties. Moreover, the model is applicable to a number of lipid barrier membranes, suggesting a common transport mechanism in all.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2001

Diffusion of pain management research into nursing practice.

The promotion of evidence based practice is a challenge within nursing. Pain management is a prime example of this practice research gap. There is solid evidence for 20 years to promote positive change in our methods of pain management, yet outdated approaches are still amazingly evident. Even among oncology nurses, who place a high value on promoting patient comfort, there is a lack of evidence-based pain management. Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation Theory provides an interesting framework for examining the issues and possible solutions to this complex problem. Rogers' theory examines how changes diffuse through a social system over time and also exposes some of the barriers and facilitators to this process. The theory looks at adopters, the nature of the innovation, the social system, and communication patterns. Identifying the barriers of the past will help nursing to overcome these same barriers and increase the adoption of evidence-based pain management approaches in the future.

California↗
PubMed2006

Theory for formation of a low-pressure, current-free double layer.

A diffusion-controlled theory is developed for the formation of a low-pressure, current-free double layer just inside an upstream insulating source chamber connected to a larger diameter, downstream chamber. The double layer is described using four groups of charged particles: thermal ions, monoenergetic accelerated ions flowing downstream, accelerated electrons flowing upstream, and thermal electrons. The condition of particle balance upstream is found to determine the double layer potential. The double layer disappears at very low pressures due to loss of ionization balance upstream and due to energy relaxation processes for ionizing electrons at higher pressures, in good agreement with experiments.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2003

Lattice mean-field method for stationary polymer diffusion.

We present a method to study mean-field stationary diffusion (MFSD) in polymer systems. When gradients in chemical potentials vanish, our method reduces to the Scheutjens-Fleer self-consistent field (SF-SCF) method for inhomogeneous polymer systems in equilibrium. To illustrate the concept of our MFSD method, we studied stationary diffusion between two different bulk mixtures, containing, for simplicity, noninteracting homopolymers. Four alternatives for the diffusion equation are implemented. These alternatives are based on two different theories for polymer diffusion (the slow- and fast-mode theories) and on two different ways to evaluate the driving forces for diffusion, one of which is in the spirit of the SF-SCF method. The diffusion profiles are primarily determined by the diffusion theory and they are less sensitive to the evaluation of the driving forces. The numerical stationary state results are in excellent agreement with analytical results, in spite of a minor inconsistency at the system boundaries in the numerical method. Our extension of the equilibrium SF method might be useful for the study of fluxes, steady state profiles and chain conformations in membranes (e.g., during drug delivery), and for many other systems for which simulation techniques are too time consuming.

Biophysical Phenomena↗
PubMed2001

Field theory for a reaction-diffusion model of quasispecies dynamics.

RNA viruses are known to replicate with extremely high mutation rates. These rates are actually close to the so-called error threshold. This threshold is in fact a critical point beyond which genetic information is lost through a second-order phase transition, which has been dubbed as the "error catastrophe." Here we explore this phenomenon using a field theory approximation to the spatially extended Swetina-Schuster quasispecies model [J. Swetina and P. Schuster, Biophys. Chem. 16, 329 (1982)], a single-sharp-peak landscape. In analogy with standard absorbing-state phase transitions, we develop a reaction-diffusion model whose discrete rules mimic the Swetina-Schuster model. The field theory representation of the reaction-diffusion system is constructed. The proposed field theory belongs to the same universality class as a conserved reaction-diffusion model previously proposed [F. van Wijland et al., Physica A 251, 179 (1998)]. From the field theory, we obtain the full set of exponents that characterize the critical behavior at the error threshold. Our results present the error catastrophe from a different point of view and suggest that spatial degrees of freedom can modify several mean-field predictions previously considered, leading to the definition of characteristic exponents that could be experimentally measurable.

Biophysical Phenomena↗
PubMed1992

Uptake of palmitate by hepatocyte suspensions: facilitation by albumin?

Albumin-dependent uptake of unbound [3H]palmitic acid by hepatocytes isolated from female rat livers was studied and the experimental results compared with the predictions of a noncompartmental diffusion-reaction theory for the cellular uptake of protein-bound ligands. The outright theoretical predictions involve values for the parameters of the system, some newly measured (hepatocyte radii and the rate constant for the dissociation of palmitate-albumin complex) and some taken from the literature (diffusion coefficients and the equilibrium association constant for the palmitate-albumin complex). The measured unbound clearance of [3H]palmitic acid, defined as the initial uptake velocity divided by the unbound [3H]palmitic acid concentration in the medium, was enhanced 6.6-fold as the concentration of human serum albumin was increased from approximately 5 to 480 microM. This enhancement factor was predicted by the theory, according to which the enhancement reflects codiffusion of bound ligand across the unstirred layer adjacent to the cell membrane and, therefore, an increased delivery of unbound ligand to the cell surface. In contrast, the absolute magnitude of the unbound clearance was consistent with the theory only for the lowest published value for the equilibrium association constant, 15 microM-1. For higher published values (62 and 94 microM-1), the magnitude of the unbound clearance observed experimentally was severalfold higher than that predicted by the theory. If in fact the association constant exceeds 30 microM-1, the data would imply that an albumin-dependent facilitation mechanism exists which enhances the availability of palmitate to the cell over and above the enhancement predicted by the diffusion-reaction theory.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

A theoretical model of intracellular devitrification.

Devitrification of the intracellular solution can cause significant damage during warming of cells cryopreserved by freezing or vitrification. Whereas previous theoretical investigations of devitrification have not considered the effect of cell dehydration on intracellular ice formation, a new model which couples membrane-limited water transport equations, classical nucleation theory, and diffusion-limited crystal growth theory is presented. The model was used to explore the role of cell dehydration in devitrification of human keratinocytes frozen in the presence of glycerol. Numerical simulations demonstrated that water transport during cooling affects subsequent intracellular ice formation during warming, correctly predicting observations that critical warming rate increases with increasing cooling rate. However, for cells with a membrane transport activation energy less than approximately 50 kJ/mol, devitrification was also affected by cell dehydration during warming, leading to a reversal of the relationship between cooling rate and critical warming rate. Thus, for low warming rates (less than 10 degrees C/min for keratinocytes), the size and total volume fraction of intracellular ice crystals forming during warming decreased with decreasing warming rate, and the critical warming rate decreased with increasing cooling rate. The effects of water transport on the kinetics of intracellular nucleation and crystal growth were elucidated by comparison of simulations of cell warming with simulations of devitrification in H(2)O-NaCl-glycerol droplets of constant size and composition. These studies showed that the rate of intracellular nucleation was less sensitive to cell dehydration than was the crystal growth rate. The theoretical methods presented may be of use for the design and optimization of freeze-thaw protocols.

Cryopreservation↗
PubMed2004

Diffusion of innovations: family planning in developing countries.

One of the best examples of the validity of the theory of "diffusion of innovations" is the case of family planning in developing countries. The desire of health, development and environment advocates in rich countries to make modern contraceptive use and lower fertility a norm in developing countries was translated into organized efforts to reach top-level leaders in these countries. Once on board, these high-level leaders cooperated with bilateral and international funding agencies as well as private foundations to develop mass media and community education campaigns, while simultaneously setting up clinic infrastructure; training doctors, nurses and outreach workers; and developing a new and varied "cafeteria" of modern methods. Over the intervening decades, this innovation was indeed diffused and became a norm, but not without its controversies and missed opportunities.

Developing Countries↗
PubMed2006

Observation of anomalous diffusion in excised tissue by characterizing the diffusion-time dependence of the MR signal.

This report introduces a novel method to characterize the diffusion-time dependence of the diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) signal in biological tissues. The approach utilizes the theory of diffusion in disordered media where two parameters, the random walk dimension and the spectral dimension, describe the evolution of the average propagators obtained from q-space MR experiments. These parameters were estimated, using several schemes, on diffusion MR spectroscopy data obtained from human red blood cell ghosts and nervous tissue autopsy samples. The experiments demonstrated that water diffusion in human tissue is anomalous, where the mean-square displacements vary slower than linearly with diffusion time. These observations are consistent with a fractal microstructure for human tissues. Differences observed between healthy human nervous tissue and glioblastoma samples suggest that the proposed methodology may provide a novel, clinically useful form of diffusion MR contrast.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1972

Significant liquid-structure theory of viscosity and self-diffusion of the alkali metals.

Significant liquid-structure theory has been used to calculate the transport properties of the alkali metals. Unlike previous calculations, the volume and temperature dependence of the solid-like structure has been taken into consideration. Equations for the potential energy as a function of volume of the alkali metals, which lead to agreement between calculated and experimental values of thermodynamic and transport properties, are given. The calculated results are in satisfactory agreement with the experimental data.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1999

Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging: theory and potential applications to child neurology.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an excellent tool for the investigation of neurological disorders in children. Diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) is sensitive to the diffusion (or molecular displacement) of water in tissue. The purpose of this article is to describe briefly the basic theory behind DWI and to discuss its potential applications to neurological disorders in children. We demonstrate that DWI is a sensitive technique for the detection of acute brain injury, and that it is well suited for monitoring brain development, particularly myelination and white matter changes.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1990

Diffusion and kinetic approaches to describe permeation in ionic channels.

Diffusion and reaction rate theories provide convenient approaches for describing permeation in ionic channels. Both approaches have strengths and weaknesses. Diffusion theories realistically approximate the physical process of ion movement within an aqueous pore, but those theories do not handle ionic interactions easily. Reaction rate theories are easy to use, and they provide a mathematical summarization of the data that is valuable for communicating experimental results. During ion permeation, however, the basic assumptions of reaction rate theory are not met. Therefore, rate theories do not provide true physical descriptions of ion permeation.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The quantitative relations between diffusion-controlled reaction rate and characteristic parameters in enzyme-substrate reaction systems. I. Neutral substrates.

With the development of techniques for studying fast reactions, we are confronted with some experimental observations which, according to the classical diffusion-controlled reaction theory based on the assumption of pherical symmetry, will lead to paradoxical consequences. Recently, some investigators have attempted to present a theory of non-spherically symmetric diffusion-controlled reaction. Owing to the difficulty in mathematics, only the formal discussion has been given, and the numerical results have not yet been reported. The combination between enzyme and substrate is not only non-spherically symmetric, but also related to the force field existing between the reacting molecules. In the previous article we introduced the spatial factor and the force field factor and derived a general equation for these reaction systems. We present in this article a general method for finding the numerical solution of the above equation. With the numerical results obtained by this method we may interpret the experimental facts which can not be explained from the viewpoint of the classical diffusion-controlled reaction theory. In order to examine more closely the kinetic behaviour of enzyme-substrate reaction systems, we defined several characteristic parameters. The quantitative relation between these parameters and the rate of diffusion-controlled reaction has been discussed.

Binding Sites↗