The Timing Noise of PSR 0823+26, PSR 1706-16, PSR 1749-28, PSR 2021+51 and The Anomalous Braking Indices

We have investigated the stability of the pulse frequency second derivatives ($\ddot \nu$) of PSR 0823+26, PSR 1706-16, PSR 1749-28, PSR 2021+51 which show significant quadratic trends in their pulse frequency histories in order to determine whether the observed second derivatives are secular or they arise as part of noise processes. We have used TOA data extending to more than three decades which are the longest time spans ever taken into account in pulse timing analyses. We investigated the stability of pulse frequency second derivative in the framework of low resolution noise power spectra (Deeter 1984) estimated from the residuals of pulse frequency and TOA data. We have found that the $\ddot \nu$ terms of these sources arise from the red torque noise in the fluctuations of pulse frequency derivatives which may originate from the external torques from the magnetosphere of pulsar

Management and Prognostic Factors for Delayed Reconstruction of Neglected Posterior Shoulder Fracture-Dislocation

Introduction: Posterior fracture-dislocations of the shoulder are rare conditions. Misdiagnosis can occur in 50% - 80% of the patients. Due to the size of the lesion, stability of the joint could not be achieved with transfer of subscapular tendon or tuberosity. Case Presentation: A 54-year-old male patient was referred to our hospital with a neglected posterior shoulder fracture-dislocation. Functional results of the patient, and technical informations were explained in this case report. The reverse Hill-Sachs lesion involved 40% of the articular surface. Depressed and malunited fragment was elevated, and fixated to the humeral head. Conclusions: Glenohumeral joint reduction with reconstruction of the humeral head seems to be possible even in a neglected locked posterior shoulder fracture-dislocation. If the depressed osteochondral fragment is still spheric, signs of the avascular necrosis are absent on CT, and malunion of the fragment has occurred, it is quite possible to reconstruct the head. Although results of the case are good, it is worthwhile to follow these patients for long-term complications

Tulathromycin disturbs blood oxidative and coagulation status

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of tulathromycin on serum oxidative status and coagulation factors in rabbits. Tulathromycin was administered to eight rabbits, and blood samples were obtained 0, 1, 5, 10 and 15 days after treatment. Indicators of serum oxidative status (malondialdehyde, nitric oxide, superoxide dismutase, retinol and -carotene) and coagulation values (antithrombin III, fibrinogen) were measured after tulathromycin treatment. In addition, routine serum biochemical values (creatine kinase-MB, lactate dehydrogenase, alkaline phosphatase, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, gamma glutamyl transferase, creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, cholesterol, triglyceride, high density lipoprotein, amylase, total protein, albumin, glucose and calcium), haemacell counts (white and red blood cells) and arterial blood gas parameters (packed cell volume, hemoglobin, pH, partial pressure of carbon dioxide, partial pressure of oxygen, actual bicarbonate, standard bicarbonate, total carbon dioxide, base excess in vivo, base excess in vitro, oxygen saturation, sodium and potassium) were also determined. Tulathromycin increased (P < 0.05) the levels of malondialdehyde, nitric oxide and superoxide dismutase activity, and decreased (P < 0.05) the level of antithrombin III. In conclusion, tulathromycin may cause oxidative damage and coagulation disorders during the treatment period.Key words: Tulathromycin, oxidative damage, coagulation disorder

Genome-wide prediction of prokaryotic two-component system networks using a sequence-based meta-predictor

BACKGROUND: Two component systems (TCS) are signalling complexes manifested by a histidine kinase (receptor) and a response regulator (effector). They are the most abundant signalling pathways in prokaryotes and control a wide range of biological processes. The pairing of these two components is highly specific, often requiring costly and time-consuming experimental characterisation. Therefore, there is considerable interest in developing accurate prediction tools to lessen the burden of experimental work and cope with the ever-increasing amount of genomic information. RESULTS: We present a novel meta-predictor, MetaPred2CS, which is based on a support vector machine. MetaPred2CS integrates six sequence-based prediction methods: in-silico two-hybrid, mirror-tree, gene fusion, phylogenetic profiling, gene neighbourhood, and gene operon. To benchmark MetaPred2CS, we also compiled a novel high-quality training dataset of experimentally deduced TCS protein pairs for k-fold cross validation, to act as a gold standard for TCS partnership predictions. Combining individual predictions using MetaPred2CS improved performance when compared to the individual methods and in comparison with a current state-of-the-art meta-predictor. CONCLUSION: We have developed MetaPred2CS, a support vector machine-based metapredictor for prokaryotic TCS protein pairings. Central to the success of MetaPred2CS is a strategy of integrating individual predictors that improves the overall prediction accuracy, with the in-silico two-hybrid method contributing most to performance. MetaPred2CS outperformed other available systems in our benchmark tests, and is available online at http://metapred2cs.ibers.aber.ac.uk, along with our gold standard dataset of TCS interaction pairs. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12859-015-0741-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Nano-scale Flexible Interphase in a Glass Fiber/Epoxy Resin System Obtained by Admicellar Polymerization

Organosilane coupling agents are widely used in the composites industry to improve the wetting of inorganic reinforcements by low surface energy resins. An increased wettability is often a harbinger of better mechanical properties in a structural composite. Silane coatings effectively increase the spreading of liquid matrixes over glass reinforcement by altering the surface energetics of glass, not by extensive coverage, but by eradication of the high-energy sites present in the oxide surface. Commercial sizings often applied to glass fibers contain up to 10% of the active silane agent, while the remaining 90% is a mixture of lubricants, surfactants, anti-stats, and film formers. Recent investigations have demonstrated that non-reactive components tend to remain in high concentrations within the interphase, thus weakening the resin network crosslink density and increasing the potential for water ingress. Further, sizing formulations are proprietary and designed for specific resin system, which make them expensive, consequently limiting their widespread use. In this paper, admicellar polymerization, a versatile technique to prepare elastomeric thin films of styrene-isoprene copolymer and polystyrene on the surface of random glass-fiber mats is presented. This hydrophobic coating of monolayer thickness applied to the glass fibers is not expected to disrupt the matrix cross-linking reaction; and due to its higher elastic modulus, is believed to cause a change in the stress distribution along the fiber length. Admicellar-modified reinforcements were impregnated with an epoxy resin system: EPON 815C/EPICURE 3232, and molded by Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) into disk shaped parts. Tensile strength, stiffness and interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) were measured for the flexible interphase composites, and compared to parts containing commercially sized and bare fibers. Void fraction, void size and shape distributions, as well as water diffusivity were investigated for each system.YesPeer reviewed and presented at the 18th International Conference of the Polymer processing Society

The impact of integrating food supplementation, nutritional education and HAART (Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy) on the nutritional status of patients living with HIV/AIDS in Mozambique: result from the DREAM programme

DREAM (Drug Resources Enhancement against AIDS and Malnutrition) is a multiregional health program active in Mozambique since 2002 and provides free of charge an integrating package of care consisting of peer to peer nutritional and health education, food supplementation, voluntary counseling and testing, immunological, virological, clinical assessment and HAART (Highly Active AntiRetroviral Treatment). The main goals of this paper are to describe the state of health and nutrition and the adequacy of the diet of a sample of HIV/AIDS patients in Mozambique on HAART and not. A single-arm retrospective cohort study was conducted. 106 HIV/AIDS adult patients (84 in HAART), all receiving food supplementation and peer-to-peer nutritional education, were randomly recruited in Mozambique in two public health centres where DREAM is running. The programme is characterized by: provision of HAART, clinical and laboratory monitoring, peer to peer health and nutritional education and food supplementation. We measured BMI, haemoglobin, viral load, CD4 count at baseline (T0) and after at least 1 year (T1). Dietary intake was estimated using 24h food recall and dietary diversity was assessed by using the Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) at T1. Overall, the patients'diet appeared to be quite balanced in nutrients. In the cohort not in HAART the mean BMI values showed an increases but not significant (initial value: 21.9±2.9; final value: 22.5±3.3 ) and the mean haemoglobin values (g/dl) showed a significant increases (initial value: 10.5+ 2.1; final value: 11.5±1.7 p< 0.024) . In the cohort in HAART, both the mean of BMI value (initial value: 20.7±3.9; final value: 21.9±3.3 p< 0.001) and of haemoglobin (initial value: 9.9±2.2; final value: 10.8±1.7 p< 0.001) showed a higher significant increase. The increase in BMI was statistically associated with the DDS in HAART patients. In conclusion nutritional status improvement was observed in both cohorts. The improvement in BMI was significant and substantially higher in HAART patients because of the impact of HAART on nutritional status of AIDS patients. Subjects on HAART and with a DDS > 5, showed a substantial BMI gain. This association showed an additional expression of the synergic effect of integrating food supplementation, nutritional education and HAART on the nutritional status of African AIDS patients and also highlights the complementary role of an adequate and diversified diet in persons living with HIV/AIDS in resources limited settings

Using Habits of Mind, Intelligent Behaviors, and Educational Theories to Create a Conceptual Framework for Developing Effective Teaching Dispositions

Despite the heated debates about dispositions in teacher education, most accrediting agencies continue to put dispositions among their priorities. The authors of the current article concur with the value of using Dewey to understand how habits can be clustered to better understand intelligent teaching dispositions. But, can we extend Dewey’s epistemology to learning theories in a manner that informs the making of teaching conduct more intelligent? To address this question, the authors applied qualitative content analysis to review the literature. Through a deductive approach, dispositions as Habits of Mind were related to educational theories using intelligent behaviors as the common denominator. The conclusion is that dispositions can be clustered around Habits of Mind that are related directly to educational learning theories vis-à-vis thoughtfulness, and to learning theories that support learning or mindfulness. Grounding dispositions as habits of mind in selected educational theories may guide and support the professional development of teaching dispositions. © 2017, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education

A stitch in time: Efficient computation of genomic DNA melting bubbles

Background: It is of biological interest to make genome-wide predictions of the locations of DNA melting bubbles using statistical mechanics models. Computationally, this poses the challenge that a generic search through all combinations of bubble starts and ends is quadratic. Results: An efficient algorithm is described, which shows that the time complexity of the task is O(NlogN) rather than quadratic. The algorithm exploits that bubble lengths may be limited, but without a prior assumption of a maximal bubble length. No approximations, such as windowing, have been introduced to reduce the time complexity. More than just finding the bubbles, the algorithm produces a stitch profile, which is a probabilistic graphical model of bubbles and helical regions. The algorithm applies a probability peak finding method based on a hierarchical analysis of the energy barriers in the Poland-Scheraga model. Conclusions: Exact and fast computation of genomic stitch profiles is thus feasible. Sequences of several megabases have been computed, only limited by computer memory. Possible applications are the genome-wide comparisons of bubbles with promotors, TSS, viral integration sites, and other melting-related regions.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figure