38,061 research outputs found
Experimental hut comparisons of nets treated with carbamate or pyrethroid insecticides, washed or unwashed, against pyrethroid-resistant mosquitoes.
The efficacy against mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) of a bednet treated with carbamate insecticide [carbosulfan capsule suspension (CS) 200 mg/m(2)] was compared with four types of pyrethroid-treated nets in veranda-trap huts at Yaokoffikro near Bouaké, CÎte d'Ivoire, where the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae Giles carries the kdr gene (conferring pyrethroid resistance) at high frequency and Culex quinquefasciatus Say is also pyrethroid resistant. Pyrethroids compared were lambdacyhalothrin CS 18 mg/m(2), alphacypermethrin water dispersible granules (WG) 20 mg/m(2), deltamethrin 50 mg/m(2) (Permanet) and permethrin emulsifiable concentrate (EC) 500 mg/m(2). Insecticidal power and personal protection from mosquito bites were assessed before and after the nets were used for 8 months and hand washed five times in cold soapy water. Before washing, all treatments except permethrin significantly reduced blood-feeding and all had significant insecticidal activity against An. gambiae. The carbosulfan net gave significantly higher killing of An. gambiae than all pyrethroid treatments except the Permanet. Against Culex spp., carbosulfan was more insecticidal and gave a significantly better protective effect than any of the pyrethroid treatments. After washing, treated nets retained various degrees of efficacy against both mosquito genera - but least for the carbosulfan net. Washed nets with three types of pyrethroid treatment (alphacypermethrin, lambdacyhalothrin, permethrin) gave significantly higher mortality rates of Culex than in huts with the same pyrethroid-treated nets before washing. After five washes, the Permanet, which is sold as a long-lasting insecticidal product, performed no better than the other nets in our experimental conditions
Toxin-Antitoxin Systems of Staphylococcus aureus
Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems are small genetic elements found in the majority of prokaryotes. They encode toxin proteins that interfere with vital cellular functions and are counteracted by antitoxins. Dependent on the chemical nature of the antitoxins (protein or RNA) and how they control the activity of the toxin, TA systems are currently divided into six different types. Genes comprising the TA types I, II and III have been identified in Staphylococcus aureus. MazF, the toxin of the mazEF locus is a sequence-specific RNase that cleaves a number of transcripts, including those encoding pathogenicity factors. Two yefM-yoeB paralogs represent two independent, but auto-regulated TA systems that give rise to ribosome-dependent RNases. In addition, omega/epsilon/zeta constitutes a tripartite TA system that supposedly plays a role in the stabilization of resistance factors. The SprA1/SprA1AS and SprF1/SprG1 systems are post-transcriptionally regulated by RNA antitoxins and encode small membrane damaging proteins. TA systems controlled by interaction between toxin protein and antitoxin RNA have been identified in S. aureus in silico, but not yet experimentally proven. A closer inspection of possible links between TA systems and S. aureus pathophysiology will reveal, if these genetic loci may represent druggable targets. The modification of a staphylococcal TA toxin to a cyclopeptide antibiotic highlights the potential of TA systems as rather untapped sources of drug discovery
Evaluation of an interview skills training package for adolescents with speech, language and communication needs
BACKGROUND & AIMS: We evaluated a structured intervention programme aimed at preparing adolescents with developmental language disorders for job interviews. Our primary outcome measures included change in ratings of verbal and nonâverbal social communication behaviours evident during mock interviews.
METHODS & PROCEDURES:
In study 1, 12 participants, aged 17â19 years, from a specialist sixthâform college completed the intervention and two mock interviews, one preâ and one postâintervention. In study 2, 34 participants, aged 17â19 years, completed a modified intervention programme and three mock interviews, one at baseline (included to control for possible practise effects), one preâ and one postâintervention. In both studies, interviews were video recorded and social communication behaviours were coded by independent assessors blind to interview time, participant diagnosis and therapy content. A repeatedâmeasures design was employed to measure change in communication behaviours.
OUTCOMES & RESULTS:
In study 1, a significant increase in the number of âpositiveâ verbal and nonâverbal social communication behaviours was observed from preâ to postâintervention. However, there was no significant change in the number of ânegativeâ behaviours (i.e., fidgeting, irrelevant remarks). In study 2, there were no significant changes in verbal behaviours, but significant group differences (though wide individual variation) in both positive and negative nonâverbal social communication behaviours.
CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS:
Our findings suggest that training specific social communication skills that are important for interview success, and consistently reinforcing those behaviours during therapy practice, can increase the use of those skills in an interview setting, though in this heterogeneous population there was considerable variation in therapy outcome. The skills of the interviewer were identified as a potential source of variation in outcome, and a target for future research and practice
Magnetization reversal and local switching fields of ferromagnetic Co/Pd microtubes with radial magnetization
Three-dimensional nanomagnetism is a rapidly growing field of research covering both noncollinear spin textures and curved magnetic geometries including microtubular structures. We spatially resolve the field-induced magnetization reversal of free-standing ferromagnetic microtubes utilizing multifrequency magnetic force microscopy (MFM). The microtubes are composed of Co/Pd multilayer films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy that translates to an anisotropy with radial easy axis upon rolling-up. Simultaneously mapping the topography and the perpendicular magnetostatic force derivative, the relation between surface angle and local magnetization configuration is evaluated for a large number of locations with slopes exceeding 45 degrees. The angle-dependence of the switching field is concurrent with the Kondorsky model, i.e., the rolled-up nanomembrane behaves like a planar magnetic film with perpendicular anisotropy and a pinning dominated magnetization reversal. Additionally, we discuss methodological challenges when detecting magnetostatic force derivatives near steep surfaces
Infall of gas as the formation mechanism of stars up to 20 times more massive than the Sun
Theory predicts and observations confirm that low-mass stars (like the Sun)
in their early life grow by accreting gas from the surrounding material. But
for stars ~ 10 times more massive than the Sun (~10 M_sun), the powerful
stellar radiation is expected to inhibit accretion and thus limit the growth of
their mass. Clearly, stars with masses >10 M_sun exist, so there must be a way
for them to form. The problem may be solved by non-spherical accretion, which
allows some of the stellar photons to escape along the symmetry axis where the
density is lower. The recent detection of rotating disks and toroids around
very young massive stars has lent support to the idea that high-mass (> 8
M_sun) stars could form in this way. Here we report observations of an ammonia
line towards a high-mass star forming region. We conclude from the data that
the gas is falling inwards towards a very young star of ~20 M_sun, in line with
theoretical predictions of non-spherical accretion.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
Deep Learning using K-space Based Data Augmentation for Automated Cardiac MR Motion Artefact Detection
Quality assessment of medical images is essential for complete automation of
image processing pipelines. For large population studies such as the UK
Biobank, artefacts such as those caused by heart motion are problematic and
manual identification is tedious and time-consuming. Therefore, there is an
urgent need for automatic image quality assessment techniques. In this paper,
we propose a method to automatically detect the presence of motion-related
artefacts in cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) images. As this is a highly
imbalanced classification problem (due to the high number of good quality
images compared to the low number of images with motion artefacts), we propose
a novel k-space based training data augmentation approach in order to address
this problem. Our method is based on 3D spatio-temporal Convolutional Neural
Networks, and is able to detect 2D+time short axis images with motion artefacts
in less than 1ms. We test our algorithm on a subset of the UK Biobank dataset
consisting of 3465 CMR images and achieve not only high accuracy in detection
of motion artefacts, but also high precision and recall. We compare our
approach to a range of state-of-the-art quality assessment methods.Comment: Accepted for MICCAI2018 Conferenc
Spatial resolution of drug crystallisation in the skin by X-ray micro-computed tomography
Drug crystallisation in the skin is recognised as a significant problem in topical and transdermal drug delivery. Our recent investigations provided new evidence of drug crystallisation in the skin, however, confirming the precise location of crystals remains challenging. Of note, most approaches used have required disruption of the membrane by tape stripping, with crystal detection limited to the superficial skin layers. Hence, a non-destructive method for complete spatial resolution of crystallised drug in skin is still lacking. In this communication, we report the application of X-ray micro-computed tomography (microCT) to examine drug crystallisation in mammalian skin ex vivo. Permeation studies of a saturated solution of diclofenac sodium were conducted in porcine skin; subsequently, tissue samples were scanned using microCT to generate 2D and 3D maps. A layer of drug crystals was observed on the skin surface; microCT maps also confirmed the distribution of drug crystals up to a skin depth of 0.2 â 0.3âmm. MicroCT also allowed the identification of drug crystallisation as a distinct and confirmed event in the skin and as an extension from drug crystals formed on the skin. These preliminary results confirm the potential of microCT to study this important phenomenon in topical and transdermal drug delivery
Next-to-leading order QCD predictions for W+W+jj production at the LHC
Because the LHC is a proton-proton collider, sizable production of two
positively charged W-bosons in association with two jets is possible. This
process leads to a distinct signature of same sign high-pt leptons, missing
energy and jets. We compute the NLO QCD corrections to the QCD-mediated part of
pp -> W+W+jj. These corrections reduce the dependence of the production
cross-section on the renormalization and factorization scale to about +- 10
percent. We find that a large number of W+W+jj events contain a relatively hard
third jet. The presence of this jet should help to either pick up the W+W+jj
signal or to reject it as an unwanted background.Comment: 15 pages, 5 (lovely) figures, v3 accepted for publication in JHEP,
corrects tables in appendi
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