Potent bactericidal efficacy of copper oxide impregnated non-porous solid surfaces

BACKGROUND: The role of fomites and the environment in nosocomial infections is becoming widely recognized. In this paper we discuss the use of Cupron copper oxide impregnated non-porous solid surface in the hospital setting and present in vitro testing data via USA Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved testing protocols that demonstrate the efficacy of these products to assist in reduction in environmental contamination and potentially nosocomial infections. RESULTS: The two countertops tested passed all the acceptance criteria by the EPA (>99.9% kill within 2 hours of exposure) killing a range of bacterial pathogens on the surface of the countertops even after repeated exposure of the countertops to the pathogen, and multiple wet and dry abrasion cycles. CONCLUSIONS: Cupron enhanced EOS countertops thus may be an important adjunct to be used in hospital settings to reduce environmental bioburden and potentially nosocomial infections

Building Detection by Dempster-Shafer Fusion of LIDAR Data and Multispectral Aerial Imagery

A method for the classification of land cover in urban areas by the fusion of first and last pulse LIDAR data and multi-spectral images is presented. Apart from buildings, the classes "tree", "grass land", and "bare soil" are also distinguished by a classification method based on the theory of Dempster-Shafer for data fusion. Examples are given for a test site in Germany

Scaling up research on family justice using large-scale administrative data: an invitation to the socio-legal community

This article outlines the value of administrative data for family justice research. Although socio-legal scholars have extended their research beyond purely theoretical or doctrinal analyses, studies using large-scale digital datasets remain few in number. As new opportunities arise to link large-scale administrative datasets across health, education, welfare and justice, it is vital that the community of family justice researchers and analysts are supported to deliver research based on entire service or family court populations. In this context, this article provides a definition of administrative data, before outlining the potential of single, linked or blended administrative data sets for family justice research. The remaining sections of the article speak to questions that are pertinent to this particular academic community, including the distinctive contribution of the socio-legal scholar to interdisciplinary teams and the place of data providers in collaborative research. Drawing on the sociological concept of ‘publics’, the final section considers the multiple interest groups whose social licence must be secured, when personal records are used to understand the relationship between law and family life

Encouraging brisk walking with the free Active10 app in postnatal women who had a hypertensive pregnancy: "Just Walk It" feasibility study.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the feasibility of a future trial to investigate whether encouraging use of the free NHS smartphone app Active10 increases brisk walking and reduces blood pressure (BP) in postnatal mothers who had hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP). DESIGN: 3-month feasibility study. SETTING: London maternity unit. POPULATION: 21 women with HDP. METHODS: At recruitment we recorded initial (booking) clinic BP and asked participants to complete a questionnaire. Two months after delivery all participants were sent (by post/email/WhatsApp) a "Just Walk It" leaflet encouraging them to download the Active10 app and walk briskly for at least 10 minutes/day. This was backed by a telephone call after 2-weeks. Assessments were repeated 3-months later, and included telephone interviews about the acceptability and use of Active10. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Were recruitment rate, follow-up rate and acceptability/use of Active10. RESULTS: Of 28 women approached, 21 (75%, 95% CI 55.1-89.3%) agreed to participate. Age range was 21-46 years and five (24%) self-identified as black ethnicity. One woman dropped out of the study, and one became ill. The remaining participants (90%, 19/21, 95% CI 69.6-98.8%) were followed up after 3-months. Ninety-five percent (18/19) downloaded the Active10 app and 74% (14/19) continued using it at 3-months, averaging 27-minutes brisk walking/day according to Active10 weekly screenshots. Comments included: "Brilliant app", "Really motivates me". Mean BP was 130/81mmHg at booking and 124/80mmHg at 3-months follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The Active10 app was acceptable to postnatal women after HDP and may have increased minutes of brisk walking. A future trial could explore whether this simple, low-cost intervention could reduce long-term BP in this vulnerable group

Fully automated delineation of the optic radiation for surgical planning using clinically feasible sequences

[EN] Quadrantanopia caused by inadvertent severing of Meyer's Loop of the optic radiation is a well-recognised complication of temporal lobectomy for conditions such as epilepsy. Dissection studies indicate that the anterior extent of Meyer's Loop varies considerably between individuals. Quantifying this for individual patients is thus an important step to improve the safety profile of temporal lobectomies. Previous attempts to delineate Meyer's Loop using diffusion MRI tractography have had difficulty estimating its full anterior extent, required manual ROI placement, and/or relied on advanced diffusion sequences that cannot be acquired routinely in most clinics. Here we present CONSULT: a pipeline that can delineate the optic radiation from raw DICOM data in a completely automated way via a combination of robust pre-processing, segmentation, and alignment stages, plus simple improvements that bolster the efficiency and reliability of standard tractography. We tested CONSULT on 696 scans of predominantly healthy participants (539 unique brains), including both advanced acquisitions and simpler acquisitions that could be acquired in clinically acceptable timeframes. Delineations completed without error in 99.4% of the scans. The distance between Meyer's Loop and the temporal pole closely matched both averages and ranges reported in dissection studies for all tested sequences. Median scan-rescan error of this distance was 1¿mm. When tested on two participants with considerable pathology, delineations were successful and realistic. Through this, we demonstrate not only how to identify Meyer's Loop with clinically feasible sequences, but also that this can be achieved without fundamental changes to tractography algorithms or complex post-processing methods.Advance Queensland, Grant/Award Number: R-09964-01; Fundacion Merck Salud; Proyecto Societat Catalana Neurologia; Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad of Spain, Grant/Award Number: DPI2017-87743-R; Red Espanola de Esclerosis Multiple, Grant/Award Numbers: RD12/0032/0002, RD12/0060/01-02, RD16/0015/0002, RD16/0015/0003; Spanish Government; Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Grant/Award Numbers: FIS 2015 PI15/00061, FIS 2015 - PI15/00587, FIS 2018 - PI18/01030Reid, LB.; Martínez-Heras, E.; Manjón Herrera, JV.; Jeffree, RL.; Alexander, H.; Trinder, J.; Solana, E.... (2021). Fully automated delineation of the optic radiation for surgical planning using clinically feasible sequences. Human Brain Mapping. 42(18):5911-5926. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25658S59115926421

Action research and democracy

This contribution explores the relationship between research and learning democracy. Action research is seen as being compatible with the orientation of educational and social work research towards social justice and democracy. Nevertheless, the history of action research is characterized by a tension between democracy and social engineering. In the social-engineering approach, action research is conceptualized as a process of innovation aimed at a specific Bildungsideal. In a democratic approach action research is seen as research based on cooperation between research and practice. However, the notion of democratic action research as opposed to social engineering action research needs to be theorized. So called democratic action research involving the implementation by the researcher of democracy as a model and as a preset goal, reduces cooperation and participation into instruments to reach this goal, and becomes a type of social engineering in itself. We argue that the relationship between action research and democracy is in the acknowledgment of the political dimension of participation: ‘a democratic relationship in which both sides exercise power and shared control over decision-making as well as interpretation’. This implies an open research design and methodology able to understand democracy as a learning process and an ongoing experiment

Probability of a Solution to the Solar Neutrino Problem Within the Minimal Standard Model

Tests, independent of any solar model, can be made of whether solar neutrino experiments are consistent with the minimal Standard Model (stable, massless neutrinos). If the experimental uncertainties are correctly estimated and the sun is generating energy by light-element fusion in quasi-static equilibrium, the probability of a standard-physics solution is less than 2%. Even when the luminosity constraint is abandoned, the probability is not more than 4%. The sensitivity of the conclusions to input parameters is explored.Comment: PRL, Revtex, 1 figure, 5 page

Standard Neutrino Spectrum from B-8 Decay

We present a systematic evaluation of the shape of the neutrino energy spectrum produced by beta-decay of $^8$B. We place special emphasis on determining the range of uncertainties permitted by existing laboratory data and theoretical ingredients (such as forbidden and radiative corrections). We review and compare the available experimental data on the $^8$B$(\beta^+){}^8$Be$(2\alpha)$ decay chain. We analyze the theoretical and experimental uncertainties quantitatively. We give a numerical representation of the best-fit (standard-model) neutrino spectrum, as well as two extreme deviations from the standard spectrum that represent the total (experimental and theoretical) effective $\pm3\sigma$ deviations. Solar neutrino experiments that are currently being developed will be able to measure the shape of the $^8$B neutrino spectrum above about 5 MeV. An observed distortion of the $^8$B solar neutrino spectrum outside the range given in the present work could be considered as evidence, at an effective significance level greater than three standard deviations, for physics beyond the standard electroweak model. We use the most recent available experimental data on the Gamow--Teller strengths in the $A=37$ system to calculate the $^8$B neutrino absorption cross section on chlorine: $\sigma_{\rm Cl}=(1.14\pm0.11)\times10^{-42}$~cm$^2$ ($\pm3\sigma$ errors). The chlorine cross section is also given as a function of the neutrino energy. The $^8$B neutrino absorption cross section in gallium is $\sigma_{\rm Ga}=(2.46^{+2.1}_{-1.1})\times10^{-42}$ cm$^2$ ($\pm3\sigma$ errors).Comment: Revised version, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Brain iron accumulation affects myelin-related molecular systems implicated in a rare neurogenetic disease family with neuropsychiatric features

The ‘neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation’ (NBIA) disease family entails movement or cognitive impairment, often with psychiatric features. To understand how iron loading affects the brain, we studied mice with disruption of two iron regulatory genes, hemochromatosis (Hfe) and transferrin receptor 2 (Tfr2). Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy demonstrated increased iron in the Hfe-/- × Tfr2mut brain (P=0.002, n =5/group), primarily localized by Perls’ staining to myelinated structures. Western immunoblotting showed increases of the iron storage protein ferritin light polypeptide and microarray and real-time reverse transcription-PCR revealed decreased transcript levels (P<0.04, n =5/group) for five other NBIA genes, phospholipase A2 group VI, fatty acid 2-hydroxylase, ceruloplasmin, chromosome 19 open reading frame 12 and ATPase type 13A2. Apart from the ferroxidase ceruloplasmin, all are involved in myelin homeostasis; 16 other myelin-related genes also showed reduced expression (P<0.05), although gross myelin structure and integrity appear unaffected (P>0.05). Overlap (P<0.0001) of differentially expressed genes in Hfe-/- × Tfr2mut brain with human gene co-expression networks suggests iron loading influences expression of NBIA-related and myelin-related genes co-expressed in normal human basal ganglia. There was overlap (P<0.0001) of genes differentially expressed in Hfe-/- × Tfr2mut brain and post-mortem NBIA basal ganglia. Hfe-/- × Tfr2mut mice were hyperactive (P<0.0112) without apparent cognitive impairment by IntelliCage testing (P>0.05). These results implicate myelin-related systems involved in NBIA neuropathogenesis in early responses to iron loading. This may contribute to behavioral symptoms in NBIA and hemochromatosis and is relevant to patients with abnormal iron status and psychiatric disorders involving myelin abnormalities or resistant to conventional treatments

Factors associated with self-care activities among adults in the United Kingdom: a systematic review

Background: The Government has promoted self-care. Our aim was to review evidence about who uses self-tests and other self-care activities (over-the-counter medicine, private sector,complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), home blood pressure monitors). Methods: During April 2007, relevant bibliographic databases (Medline, Embase, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts, PsycINFO,British Nursing Index, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, Sociological Abstracts, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, Arthritis and Complementary Medicine Database, Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Pain Database) were searched, and potentially relevant studies were reviewed against eligibility criteria. Studies were included if they were published during the last 15 years and identified factors, reasons or characteristics associated with a relevant activity among UK adults. Two independent reviewers used proformas to assess the quality of eligible studies. Results: 206 potentially relevant papers were identified, 157 were excluded, and 49 papers related to 46 studies were included: 37 studies were, or used data from questionnaire surveys, 36 had quality scores of five or more out of 10, and 27 were about CAM. Available evidence suggests that users of CAM and over-the-counter medicine are female, middle-aged, affluent and/or educated with some measure of poor health, and that people who use the private sector are affluent and/or educated. Conclusion: People who engage in these activities are likely to be affluent. Targeted promotion may, therefore, be needed to ensure that use is equitable. People who use some activities also appear to have poorer measures of health than non-users or people attending conventional services. It is, therefore, also important to ensure that self-care is not used as a second choice for people who have not had their needs met by conventional service