N ‐Functionalised Imidazoles as Stabilisers for Metal Nanoparticles in Catalysis and Anion Binding

Metal nanoparticles (NPs) have physicochemical properties which are distinct from both the bulk and molecular metal species, and provide opportunities in fields such as catalysis and sensing. NPs typically require protection of their surface to impede aggregation, but these coatings can also block access to the surface which would be required to take advantage of their unusual properties. Here, we show that alkyl imidazoles can stabilise Pd, Pt, Au, and Ag NPs, and delineate the limits of their synthesis. These ligands provide an intermediate level of surface protection, for which we demonstrate proof‐of‐principle in catalysis and anion binding

Systemic vascular function, measured with forearm flow mediated dilatation, in acute and stable cerebrovascular disease: a case-control study

BACKGROUND Acute ischaemic stroke is associated with alteration in systemic markers of vascular function. We measured forearm vascular function (using forearm flow mediated dilatation) to clarify whether recent acute ischaemic stroke/TIA is associated with impaired systemic vascular function. METHODS Prospective case control study enrolling 17 patients with recent acute ischaemic stroke/TIA and 17 sex matched controls with stroke more than two years previously. Forearm vascular function was measured using flow medicated dilatation (FMD). RESULTS Flow mediated dilatation was 6.0 ± 1.1% in acute stroke/TIA patients and 4.7 ± 1.0% among control subjects (p = 0.18). The mean paired difference in FMD between subjects with recent acute stroke and controls was 1.25% (95% CI -0.65, 3.14; p = 0.18). Endothelium independent dilatation was measured in six pairs of participants and was similar in acute stroke/TIA patients (22.6 ± 4.3%) and control subjects (19.1 ± 2.6%; p = 0.43). CONCLUSIONS Despite the small size of this study, these data indicate that recent acute stroke is not necessarily associated with a clinically important reduction in FMD.This study was funded by the Centre for Training in Clinical Cerebrovascular and Cardiovascular Research, a National Health and Medical Research Council funded Centre of Clinical Research Excellence

Symptoms into words: how medical patients talk about fatigue

Fatigue, which is the central symptom of CFS/ME, is notoriously difficult to define. We describe an investigation in which we raise two questions. First, does the way people use fatigue-related language reflect distinctive patterns? Second, is there a particular pattern characteristic of CFS/ME? These questions can be asked with various theories of language and meaning in mind, as we discuss. Our orientation is towards the intersubjective realities revealed by language, rather than towards the neurological substrate of fatigue. We created a questionnaire including 105 items connected with the experience of fatigue. We then compared responses in samples of adults fulfilling clinical criteria for three conditions in which fatigue is described: CFS/ME, Parkinson ’s disease, and multiple sclerosis. Principal components factor analysis of the three groups together did suggest patterns that we think reflect different intersubjective realities connected with fatigue-related language. In the CFS/ME group, cluster analysis showed that the pattern of responses differed significantly from the other two diagnostic groups. Cluster analysis does not reveal the nature of differences but the CFS/ME respondents marked a higher number of questionnaire items as ‘exactly how I feel ’. We suggest that the language used by people diagnosed with CFS/ME represents less localised experiences than in the other two diagnoses. In the interpretation of symptoms it is helpful to make a distinction between a generalised feeling and an experience that is more readily localised in time and space

Factors associated with older patients\u27 engagement in exercise after hospital discharge

Objectives: To identify factors that are associated with older patients\u27 engagement in exercise in the 6 months after hospital discharge. Design: A prospective observational study using qualitative and quantitative evaluation. Setting: Follow-up of hospital patients in their home setting after discharge from a metropolitan general hospital. Participants: Participants (N=343) were older patients (mean age ± SD, 79.4±8.5y) discharged from medical, surgical, and rehabilitation wards and followed up for 6 months after discharge. Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Self-perceived awareness and risk of falls measured at discharge with a survey that addressed elements of the Health Belief Model. Engagement and self-reported barriers to engagement in exercise measured at 6 months after discharge using a telephone survey. Results: Six months after discharge, 305 participants remained in the study, of whom 109 (35.7%) were engaging in a structured exercise program. Multivariable logistic regression analysis demonstrated participants were more likely to be engaging in exercise if they perceived they were at risk of serious injury from a fall (odds ratio [OR] =.61; 95% confidence interval [CI], .48–.78; P Conclusions: Older patients have low levels of engagement in exercise after hospital discharge. Researchers should design exercise programs that address identified barriers and facilitators, and provide education to enhance motivation and self-efficacy to exercise in this population

Clinically Relevant Characterization of Lung Adenocarcinoma Subtypes Based on Cellular Pathways: An International Validation Study

Lung adenocarcinoma (AD) represents a predominant type of lung cancer demonstrating significant morphologic and molecular heterogeneity. We sought to understand this heterogeneity by utilizing gene expression analyses of 432 AD samples and examining associations between 27 known cancer-related pathways and the AD subtype, clinical characteristics and patient survival. Unsupervised clustering of AD and gene expression enrichment analysis reveals that cell proliferation is the most important pathway separating tumors into subgroups. Further, AD with increased cell proliferation demonstrate significantly poorer outcome and an increased solid AD subtype component. Additionally, we find that tumors with any solid component have decreased survival as compared to tumors without a solid component. These results lead to the potential to use a relatively simple pathological examination of a tumor in order to determine its aggressiveness and the patient's prognosis. Additional results suggest the ability to use a similar approach to determine a patient's sensitivity to targeted treatment. We then demonstrated the consistency of these findings using two independent AD cohorts from Asia (N = 87) and Europe (N = 89) using the identical analytic procedures

Dementia in residential care: education intervention trial (DIRECT); protocol for a randomised controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is scope to improve the quality of life (QOL) of people with dementia living in residential care facilities (RCF). The DIRECT study will determine if delivery of education to General Practitioners (GPs) and care staff improves the quality of life of residential care recipients with cognitive impairment.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>A prospective randomised controlled trial conduced in residential aged care facilities in the metropolitan area of Perth, Western Australia. Participants are care facility residents, aged 65 years and older and with mini-mental state examination scores less than 25. GPs and care facility staff have been independently randomised to intervention or control groups. An education programme, designed to meet the perceived needs of learners, will be delivered to GPs and care staff in the intervention groups. The primary outcome of the study will be quality of life of the people with dementia, measured using the QOL-Alzheimer's Disease Scale (QOL-AD) and Alzheimer Disease Related QOL Scale (ADRQL), 4 weeks and 6 months after the conclusion of the education intervention.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Recruitment of 351 people with dementia, cared for by staff in 39 residential facilities and 55 GPs, was undertaken between May 2007 and July 2008. Collection of baseline data is complete. Education has been delivered to GPs and Care staff between September 2008 and July 2009. Follow- up data collection is underway.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The study results will have tangible implications for proprietors, managers and staff from the residential care sector and policy makers. The results have potential to directly benefit the quality of life of both patients and carers.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>These trial methods have been prospectively registered (ACTRN12607000417482).</p

Responsibility Analysis by Abstract Interpretation

Given a behavior of interest in the program, statically determining the corresponding responsible entity is a task of critical importance, especially in program security. Classical static analysis techniques (e.g. dependency analysis, taint analysis, slicing, etc.) assist programmers in narrowing down the scope of responsibility, but none of them can explicitly identify the responsible entity. Meanwhile, the causality analysis is generally not pertinent for analyzing programs, and the structural equations model (SEM) of actual causality misses some information inherent in programs, making its analysis on programs imprecise. In this paper, a novel definition of responsibility based on the abstraction of event trace semantics is proposed, which can be applied in program security and other scientific fields. Briefly speaking, an entity ER is responsible for behavior B, if and only if ER is free to choose its input value, and such a choice is the first one that ensures the occurrence of B in the forthcoming execution. Compared to current analysis methods, the responsibility analysis is more precise. In addition, our definition of responsibility takes into account the cognizance of the observer, which, to the best of our knowledge, is a new innovative idea in program analysis.Comment: This is the extended version (33 pages) of a paper to be appeared in the Static Analysis Symposium (SAS) 201

Erratum: Sequence data and association statistics from 12,940 type 2 diabetes cases and controls.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/sdata.2017.179