Effects of Policies Designed to Keep Firearms from High-Risk Individuals

This article summarizes and critiques available evidence from studies published between 1999 and August 2014 on the effects of policies designed to keep firearms from high-risk individuals in the United States. Some prohibitions for high-risk individuals (e.g., those under domestic violence restraining orders, violent misdemeanants) and procedures for checking for more types of prohibiting conditions are associated with lower rates of violence. Certain laws intended to prevent prohibited persons from accessing firearms -- rigorous permit-to-purchase, comprehensive background checks, strong regulation and oversight of gun dealers, and requiring gun owners to promptly report lost or stolen firearms -- are negatively associated with the diversion of guns to criminals. Future research is needed to examine whether these laws curtail nonlethal gun violence and whether the effects of expanding prohibiting conditions for firearm possession are modified by the presence of policies to prevent diversion

Pharmacological manipulation of L-carnitine transport into L6 cells with stable overexpression of human OCTN2

Abstract.: The high-affinity Na+-dependent carnitine transporter OCTN2 (SLC22A5) has a high renal expression and reabsorbs most filtered carnitine. To gain more insight into substrate specificity of OCTN2, we overexpressed hOCTN2 in L6 cells and characterized the structural requirements of substances acting as human OCTN2 (hOCTN2) inhibitors. A 1905-bp fragment containing the hOCTN2 complete coding sequence was introduced into the pWpiresGFP vector, and L6 cells were stably transduced using a lentiviral system. The transduced L6 cells revealed increased expression of hOCTN2 on the mRNA, protein and functional levels. Structural requirements for hOCTN2 inhibition were predicted in silico and investigated in vitro. Essential structural requirements for OCTN2 inhibition include a constantly positively charged nitrogen atom and a carboxyl, nitrile or ester group connected by a 2-4-atom linker. Our cell system is suitable for studying in vitro interactions with OCTN2, which can subsequently be investigated in viv

Effect of dietary inclusion of Pleurotus tuber-regium on performance and intestinal morphology of growing rabbits

The Pleuroteus mushroom has immense growth and health promoting potentials. However, reports on its utilization in the diet of the rabbit is sparse. Therefore, a 56-day feeding trial was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary inclusion of Pleurotus tuber-regium sclerotium powder (PTRSP) in growing rabbits. Forty–eight crossbred rabbits aged between 7 and 9 weeks with average initial weight of 700±25 g were used for the study. The rabbits were allotted to 4 experimental diets containing 0.0, 25.0, 50.0 and 75.0 g/kg PTRSP, respectively. Each treatment had 4 replicates with three rabbits each in a completely randomised design. Growth performance, serum biochemistry and intestinal morphology were determined. The weight gain and feed conversion ratio were better (P<0.05) in rabbits fed diet containing 50.0g/kg PTRSP. Rabbits fed diet containing 75.0 g/kg PTRSP had lower (P<0.05) serum cholesterol, creatinine and alanine transaminase and higher (P<0.05) total glucose concentration compared to those receiving other experimental diets. Rabbits fed diet with 50.0g/kg PTRSP had higher (P<0.05) caecal apical width than those fed diet containing 0.0 g/kg. Inclusion of 50.0 g/kg of PTRSP in the diets of rabbits is beneficial for improved growth, cholesterol metabolism and intestinal morphology without any adverse effects

A Clinical Profile of Hepatitis a Patients in Jakarta, Indonesia

Background: To determine the incidence of hepatitis A infections and the clinical profiles of adult patients admitted to public hospitals in Jakarta, Indonesia. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study that utilised consecutive secondary data from internal medicine wards of seven public hospitals in Jakarta between 2011 and 2013. Eligibility criteria included patients over the age of 18 years and an ICD-10 diagnosis code of B15, acute hepatitis A. Case proportion was reported per 1000 people by dividing incidence per year to total in-ward patients. Clinical profiles were reported descriptively. Laboratory results were compared and categorised into groups of patients aged below and above 25 years old. Results: Data revealed that hospitalisations of patients with hepatitis A had decreased from 2011 to 2013. 289 patients were studied, the majority were young adults (18-25 years old) and their common chief complaints were nausea (36%), fever (24%), and jaundice (21%). Higher bilirubin levels were seen in older patients. There were 13 patients coinfected with hepatitis B, one patient coinfected with hepatitis C, and one patient coinfected with HIV. Conclusions: The proportion of hepatitis A infection amongst adults admitted to public hospitals in Jakarta was low and had decreased during the study period. Most of the patients reported classical clinical manifestations. This study found that the targeted age group may benefit from receiving routine hepatitis A vaccinations

Kemampuan Empat Jenis Tanaman Dalam Menyerap Cemaran Merkuri Di Media Tailing

This study aims to determine the level of absorption mercury contamination in plants and would like to know which plants are best at absorbing mercury contamination in tailings. plants used were Casuarina junghuniana, Cinnamomum porrectum (Roxb.), Melastoma affine and Dillenia suffruticosa Griff ex Hook. This study uses RCD (randomized completely design) with 8 treatments on plants and each treatment was repeated 5 times. The analysis showed that the Casuarina junghuniana, Cinnamomum porrectum (Roxb.), Melastoma affine and Dillenia suffruticosa Griff ex Hook has the ability to absorb mercury contamination in tailing and the tolerance to mercury contamination. The results showed that the higher the growth rate, the higher the mercury is absorbed in plant tissues. The best types of plants to absorb mercury contamination is Melastoma affine and Dillenia suffruticosa Griff ex Hook because this plant is a plant that tolerance and is a pioneer plant that can grow in soil that has a low nutrient content, has rapid growth and are able to grow in the open and logged over . The analysis showed that the levels of mercury in the tissues of plants and media higher than 0.02 ppm. However, the levels of mercury in the media on the treatment of P3, P5, P6, and P7 contains mercury <0.02 ppm. Keywords : Casuarina junghuniana, Cinnamomum porrectum (Roxb.), Melastoma affine and Dillenia suffruticosa Griff ex Hook, Phytoremediation and Tailings

Perceptually tuned generation of grayscale fonts

A new approach to grayscale font generation improves on the fuzzy characters produced by existing methods by incorporating the expertise of type designers into rules for character-outline weight and phase control. The method we propose for synthesizing high-contrast grayscale characters relies on the set of visual rules that type designers have derived from their many years of manual design. We call our grayscaling method `perceptually tuned font generation', because it is based on human perception-that of both the designer and the reade

Evaluation of harassment of migrating double-crested cormorants to limit depredation on selected sport fisheries in Michigan

Diverse management techniques have been used to mitigate conflicts between humans and double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) including harassment methods supplemented by lethal take. In this study we evaluated impacts or programs to harass spring migrating cormorants on the walleye (Sander vitreus) fishery in Brevoort Lake and the yellow perch (Perca flavescens ) and walleye fisheries at Drummond Island. Cormorant foraging declined significantly (p \u3c 0.05) at both locations subsequent to initiation of harassment programs. Overall harassment deteired 90% of cormorant foraging attempts while taking less than 6% lethally on average at each site. Yellow perch were a predominate prey item in number and biomass at both locations. Walleye made up a small proportion of the diet at both locations. However, both walleye and yellow perch abundance increased significantly (p\u3c0.05) at Drummond Island. Walleye abundance at age 3 increased to record levels in 2008 following 3 years of cormorant management at Brevoort Lake. The estimated cormorant consumption of age 1 walleye in the absence of management at Brevoort Lake during 2005 would account for 55% of the record 2006 age 1 walleye population. These results support the hypothesis, that cormorant predation on spawning aggregations of sportfish was a significant mortality factor and cormorant management reduced sportfish mortality and increased abundance at both locations. Continuation of harassment programs and .fishery assessments will determine whether improvement of targeted sport fisheries through control of spring migrating cormorants is sustainable