Probability distributions of the work in the 2D-Ising model

Probability distributions of the magnetic work are computed for the 2D Ising model by means of Monte Carlo simulations. The system is first prepared at equilibrium for three temperatures below, at and above the critical point. A magnetic field is then applied and grown linearly at different rates. Probability distributions of the work are stored and free energy differences computed using the Jarzynski equality. Consistency is checked and the dynamics of the system is analyzed. Free energies and dissipated works are reproduced with simple models. The critical exponent $\delta$ is estimated in an usual manner.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures. Comments are welcom

Point-of-Care Diagnostics for Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance in Sub-Saharan Africa - A Narrative Review.

INTRODUCTION Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries are severely impacted by antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Due to gaps in access to diagnostics in SSA the true extent of AMR remains unknown. This diagnostic gap affects patient management and leads to significant antimicrobial overuse. This review explores how point-of-care (POC) testing for pathogen identification and AMR may be used to close the diagnostic gap in SSA countries. METHODS A narrative review exploring current clinical practice and novel developments in the field of point-of-care (POC) testing for infectious diseases and AMR. FINDINGS POC assays for identification of various pathogens have been successfully rolled out in SSA countries. While implementation studies have mostly highlighted impressive test performance of POC assays, there is limited data on effect of implementation on clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness. We did not encounter local studies of host-directed POC assays relevant to AMR. Novel POC assays using real-time PCR, isothermal amplification, microfluidics and other technologies are in various stages of development. DISCUSSION Available literature shows that POC testing for AMR applications is implementable in SSA and holds the potential to reduce the diagnostic gap. Implementation will require effective regulatory pathways, incorporation of POC testing in clinical and laboratory guidelines, and adequate value capture in existing health financing models

Patterns of practice of regional nodal irradiation in breast cancer: results of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) NOdal Radiotherapy (NORA) survey†

Predicting breast cancer outcome based on SLN node status without ALND is currently an area of uncertainty in SLN+ patients. These uncertainties influence the decision-making of adjuvant nodal irradiation. The NORA Survey was designed to examine the patterns of RNI practice in Europe to provide a basis for designing future trials in areas of equipoise in clinical decision-making concerning RN

Mobile ad hoc network testbed using mobile robot technology

MANET (Mobile Ad Hoc Network) researchers have shown increased interest in using mobile robot technology for their testbed platforms. Thus, the main motivation of this paper is to review various robot-based MANET testbeds that have been developed in previously reported research. Additionally, suggestions to heighten mobility mechanisms by using mobile robots to be more practical, easy and inexpensive are also included in this paper, as we unveils ToMRobot, a low-cost MANET robot created from an ordinary remote control car that is capable of performing a real system MANET testbed with the addition of only a few low-cost electronic components. Despite greatly reduced costs, the ToMRobot does not sacrifice any of the necessary MANET basic structures and will still be easily customizable and upgradeable through the use of open hardware technology like Cubieboard2 and Arduino, as its robot controller. This paper will also include guidelines to enable technically limited MANET researchers to design and develop the ToMRobot. It is hoped that this paper achieves its two pronged objectives namely (i) to facilitate other MANET researchers by providing them with a source of reference that eases their decision making for selecting the best and most suitable MANET mobile robots for real mobility in their MANET testbeds (ii) to provide MANET researchers with a prospect of building their own MANET robots that can be applied in their own MANET testbed in the future

Differences in genotype and virulence among four multidrug-resistant <i>Streptococcus pneumoniae</i> isolates belonging to the PMEN1 clone

We report on the comparative genomics and characterization of the virulence phenotypes of four &lt;i&gt;S. pneumoniae&lt;/i&gt; strains that belong to the multidrug resistant clone PMEN1 (Spain&lt;sup&gt;23F&lt;/sup&gt; ST81). Strains SV35-T23 and SV36-T3 were recovered in 1996 from the nasopharynx of patients at an AIDS hospice in New York. Strain SV36-T3 expressed capsule type 3 which is unusual for this clone and represents the product of an in vivo capsular switch event. A third PMEN1 isolate - PN4595-T23 - was recovered in 1996 from the nasopharynx of a child attending day care in Portugal, and a fourth strain - ATCC700669 - was originally isolated from a patient with pneumococcal disease in Spain in 1984. We compared the genomes among four PMEN1 strains and 47 previously sequenced pneumococcal isolates for gene possession differences and allelic variations within core genes. In contrast to the 47 strains - representing a variety of clonal types - the four PMEN1 strains grouped closely together, demonstrating high genomic conservation within this lineage relative to the rest of the species. In the four PMEN1 strains allelic and gene possession differences were clustered into 18 genomic regions including the capsule, the blp bacteriocins, erythromycin resistance, the MM1-2008 prophage and multiple cell wall anchored proteins. In spite of their genomic similarity, the high resolution chinchilla model was able to detect variations in virulence properties of the PMEN1 strains highlighting how small genic or allelic variation can lead to significant changes in pathogenicity and making this set of strains ideal for the identification of novel virulence determinant

Accelerating lattice reduction with FPGAs

International audienceWe describe an FPGA accelerator for the Kannan­–Fincke­–Pohst enumeration algorithm (KFP) solving the Shortest Lattice Vector Problem (SVP). This is the first FPGA implementation of KFP specifically targeting cryptographically relevant dimensions. In order to optimize this implementation, we theoretically and experimentally study several facets of KFP, including its efficient parallelization and its underlying arithmetic. Our FPGA accelerator can be used for both solving stand-alone instances of SVP (within a hybrid CPU­–FPGA compound) or myriads of smaller dimensional SVP instances arising in a BKZ-type algorithm. For devices of comparable costs, our FPGA implementation is faster than a multi-core CPU implementation by a factor around 2.12

Varespladib and cardiovascular events in patients with an acute coronary syndrome: the VISTA-16 randomized clinical trial

IMPORTANCE: Secretory phospholipase A2(sPLA2) generates bioactive phospholipid products implicated in atherosclerosis. The sPLA2inhibitor varespladib has favorable effects on lipid and inflammatory markers; however, its effect on cardiovascular outcomes is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To determine the effects of sPLA2inhibition with varespladib on cardiovascular outcomes. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A double-blind, randomized, multicenter trial at 362 academic and community hospitals in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, India, and North America of 5145 patients randomized within 96 hours of presentation of an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) to either varespladib (n = 2572) or placebo (n = 2573) with enrollment between June 1, 2010, and March 7, 2012 (study termination on March 9, 2012). INTERVENTIONS: Participants were randomized to receive varespladib (500 mg) or placebo daily for 16 weeks, in addition to atorvastatin and other established therapies. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary efficacy measurewas a composite of cardiovascular mortality, nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI), nonfatal stroke, or unstable angina with evidence of ischemia requiring hospitalization at 16 weeks. Six-month survival status was also evaluated. RESULTS: At a prespecified interim analysis, including 212 primary end point events, the independent data and safety monitoring board recommended termination of the trial for futility and possible harm. The primary end point occurred in 136 patients (6.1%) treated with varespladib compared with 109 patients (5.1%) treated with placebo (hazard ratio [HR], 1.25; 95%CI, 0.97-1.61; log-rank P = .08). Varespladib was associated with a greater risk of MI (78 [3.4%] vs 47 [2.2%]; HR, 1.66; 95%CI, 1.16-2.39; log-rank P = .005). The composite secondary end point of cardiovascular mortality, MI, and stroke was observed in 107 patients (4.6%) in the varespladib group and 79 patients (3.8%) in the placebo group (HR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.02-1.82; P = .04). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In patients with recent ACS, varespladib did not reduce the risk of recurrent cardiovascular events and significantly increased the risk of MI. The sPLA2inhibition with varespladib may be harmful and is not a useful strategy to reduce adverse cardiovascular outcomes after ACS. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01130246. Copyright 2014 American Medical Association. All rights reserved

Exploiting the Role of Endogenous Lymphoid-Resident Dendritic Cells in the Priming of NKT Cells and CD8+ T Cells to Dendritic Cell-Based Vaccines

Transfer of antigen between antigen-presenting cells (APCs) is potentially a physiologically relevant mechanism to spread antigen to cells with specialized stimulatory functions. Here we show that specific CD8+ T cell responses induced in response to intravenous administration of antigen-loaded bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BM-DCs), were ablated in mice selectively depleted of endogenous lymphoid-resident langerin+ CD8α+ dendritic cells (DCs), suggesting that the antigen is transferred from the injected cells to resident APCs. In contrast, antigen-specific CD4+ T cells were primed predominantly by the injected BM-DCs, with only very weak contribution of resident APCs. Crucially, resident langerin+ CD8α+ DCs only contributed to the priming of CD8+ T cells in the presence of maturation stimuli such as intravenous injection of TLR ligands, or by loading the BM-DCs with the glycolipid α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) to recruit the adjuvant activity of activated invariant natural killer-like T (iNKT) cells. In fact, injection of α-GalCer-loaded CD1d−/− BM-DCs resulted in potent iNKT cell activation, suggesting that this glycolipid antigen can also be transferred to resident CD1d+ APCs. While iNKT cell activation per se was independent of langerin+ CD8α+ DCs, some iNKT cell-mediated activities were reduced, notably release of IL-12p70 and transactivation of NK cells. We conclude that both protein and glycolipid antigens can be exchanged between distinct DC species. These data suggest that the efficacy of DC-based vaccination strategies may be improved by the incorporation of a systemic maturation signal aimed to engage resident APCs in CD8+ T cell priming, and α-GalCer may be particularly well suited to this purpose

Anxiety Disorders in Williams Syndrome Contrasted with Intellectual Disability and the General Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Individuals with specific genetic syndromes associated with intellectual disability (ID), such as Williams syndrome (WS), are at increased risk for developing anxiety disorders. A systematic literature review identified sixteen WS papers that could generate pooled prevalence estimates of anxiety disorders for WS. A meta-analysis compared these estimates with prevalence estimates for the heterogeneous ID population and the general population. Estimated rates of anxiety disorders in WS were high. WS individuals were four times more likely to experience anxiety than individuals with ID, and the risk was also heightened compared to the general population. The results provide further evidence of an unusual profile of high anxiety in WS