Mathematical Model for Ebola Virus Infection in Human with Effectiveness of Drug Usage

In this paper, we formulated a mathematical model of the dynamics of Ebola virus infection incorporating effectiveness of drug usage. The infection free and infection persistence equilibrium points were obtained. The control reproduction number was obtained which was used to analyse the local and global stability of the infectionfree equilibrium. Using the method of linearization, the infection-free equilibrium (IFE) state was found to be locally asymptotically stable if Rc < 1 and unstable if Rc > 1. By constructing lyapunov function, the infection-free equilibrium was found to be globally asymptotically unstable if Rc > 1. Numerical simulation of the model was done. It is observed that, as percentage of effectiveness of drug administration increases, the control reproduction number decreases. This suggests that with the help of drugs usage, the immunes system have the ability to suppress the increase of infected cells, as well as virus load which shown that the virus does not maintain an infection in the system.Keywords: Drug Usage; Ebola virus; Global stability; Immune response; Mathematical mode

Superconductivity up to 29 K in SrFe2As2 and BaFe2As2 at high pressures

We report the discovery of superconductivity at high pressure in SrFe2As2 and BaFe2As2. The superconducting transition temperatures are up to 27 K in SrFe2As2 and 29 K in BaFe2As2, making these the highest pressure-induced superconducting materials discovered thus far.Comment: Accepted in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matte

Implicit Brushes for Stylized Line-based Rendering

International audienceWe introduce a new technique called Implicit Brushes to render animated 3D scenes with stylized lines in real-time with temporal coherence. An Implicit Brush is defined at a given pixel by the convolution of a brush footprint along a feature skeleton; the skeleton itself is obtained by locating surface features in the pixel neighborhood. Features are identified via image-space fitting techniques that not only extract their location, but also their profile, which permits to distinguish between sharp and smooth features. Profile parameters are then mapped to stylistic parameters such as brush orientation, size or opacity to give rise to a wide range of line-based styles

Suppression of extraneous thermal noise in cavity optomechanics

Extraneous thermal motion can limit displacement sensitivity and radiation pressure effects, such as optical cooling, in a cavity-optomechanical system. Here we present an active noise suppression scheme and its experimental implementation. The main challenge is to selectively sense and suppress extraneous thermal noise without affecting motion of the oscillator. Our solution is to monitor two modes of the optical cavity, each with different sensitivity to the oscillator's motion but similar sensitivity to the extraneous thermal motion. This information is used to imprint "anti-noise" onto the frequency of the incident laser field. In our system, based on a nano-mechanical membrane coupled to a Fabry-P\'{e}rot cavity, simulation and experiment demonstrate that extraneous thermal noise can be selectively suppressed and that the associated limit on optical cooling can be reduced.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figure

Global impact of bronchiectasis and cystic fibrosis

Educational aims To recognise the clinical and radiological presentation of the spectrum of diseases associated with bronchiectasis.; To understand variation in the aetiology, microbiology and burden of bronchiectasis and cystic fibrosis across different global healthcare systems.; Bronchiectasis is the term used to refer to dilatation of the bronchi that is usually permanent and is associated with a clinical syndrome of cough, sputum production and recurrent respiratory infections. It can be caused by a range of inherited and acquired disorders, or may be idiopathic in nature. The most well recognised inherited disorder in Western countries is cystic fibrosis (CF), an autosomal recessive condition that leads to progressive bronchiectasis, bacterial infection and premature mortality. Both bronchiectasis due to CF and bronchiectasis due to other conditions are placing an increasing burden on healthcare systems internationally. Treatments for CF are becoming more effective leading to more adult patients with complex healthcare needs. Bronchiectasis not due to CF is becoming increasingly recognised, particularly in the elderly population. Recognition is important and can lead to identification of the underlying cause, appropriate treatment and improved quality of life. The disease is highly diverse in its presentation, requiring all respiratory physicians to have knowledge of the different “bronchiectasis syndromes”. The most common aetiologies and presenting syndromes vary depending on geography, with nontuberculous mycobacterial disease predominating in some parts of North America, post-infectious and idiopathic disease predominating in Western Europe, and post-tuberculosis bronchiectasis dominating in South Asia and Eastern Europe. Ongoing global collaborative studies will greatly advance our understanding of the international impact of bronchiectasis and CF

To wet or not to wet: that is the question

Wetting transitions have been predicted and observed to occur for various combinations of fluids and surfaces. This paper describes the origin of such transitions, for liquid films on solid surfaces, in terms of the gas-surface interaction potentials V(r), which depend on the specific adsorption system. The transitions of light inert gases and H2 molecules on alkali metal surfaces have been explored extensively and are relatively well understood in terms of the least attractive adsorption interactions in nature. Much less thoroughly investigated are wetting transitions of Hg, water, heavy inert gases and other molecular films. The basic idea is that nonwetting occurs, for energetic reasons, if the adsorption potential's well-depth D is smaller than, or comparable to, the well-depth of the adsorbate-adsorbate mutual interaction. At the wetting temperature, Tw, the transition to wetting occurs, for entropic reasons, when the liquid's surface tension is sufficiently small that the free energy cost in forming a thick film is sufficiently compensated by the fluid- surface interaction energy. Guidelines useful for exploring wetting transitions of other systems are analyzed, in terms of generic criteria involving the "simple model", which yields results in terms of gas-surface interaction parameters and thermodynamic properties of the bulk adsorbate.Comment: Article accepted for publication in J. Low Temp. Phy

Effects of active video games on body composition: a randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Sedentary activities such as video gaming are independently associated with obesity. Active video games, in which players physically interact with images on screen, may help increase physical activity and improve body composition. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of active video games over a 6-mo period on weight, body composition, physical activity, and physical fitness. DESIGN: We conducted a 2-arm, parallel, randomized controlled trial in Auckland, New Zealand. A total of 322 overweight and obese children aged 10-14 y, who were current users of sedentary video games, were randomly assigned at a 1:1 ratio to receive either an active video game upgrade package (intervention, n = 160) or to have no change (control group, n = 162). The primary outcome was the change from baseline in body mass index (BMI; in kg/m(2)). Secondary outcomes were changes in percentage body fat, physical activity, cardiorespiratory fitness, video game play, and food snacking. RESULTS: At 24 wk, the treatment effect on BMI (-0.24; 95% CI: -0.44, -0.05; P = 0.02) favored the intervention group. The change (±SE) in BMI from baseline increased in the control group (0.34 ± 0.08) but remained the same in the intervention group (0.09 ± 0.08). There was also evidence of a reduction in body fat in the intervention group (-0.83%; 95% CI: -1.54%, -0.12%; P = 0.02). The change in daily time spent playing active video games at 24 wk increased (10.03 min; 95% CI: 6.26, 13.81 min; P < 0.0001) with the intervention accompanied by a reduction in the change in daily time spent playing nonactive video games (-9.39 min; 95% CI: -19.38, 0.59 min; P = 0.06). CONCLUSION: An active video game intervention has a small but definite effect on BMI and body composition in overweight and obese children

Crystal structure and centromere binding of the plasmid segregation protein ParB from pCXC100

Plasmid pCXC100 from the Gram-positive bacterium Leifsonia xyli subsp. cynodontis uses a type Ib partition system that includes a centromere region, a Walker-type ATPase ParA and a centromere-binding protein ParB for stable segregation. However, ParB shows no detectable sequence homology to any DNA-binding motif. Here, we study the ParB centromere interaction by structural and biochemical approaches. The crystal structure of the C-terminal DNA-binding domain of ParB at 1.4 Å resolution reveals a dimeric ribbon–helix–helix (RHH) motif, supporting the prevalence of RHH motif in centromere binding. Using hydroxyl radical footprinting and quantitative binding assays, we show that the centromere core comprises nine uninterrupted 9-nt direct repeats that can be successively bound by ParB dimers in a cooperative manner. However, the interaction of ParB with a single subsite requires 18 base pairs covering one immediate repeat as well as two halves of flanking repeats. Through mutagenesis, sequence specificity was determined for each position of an 18-bp subsite. These data suggest an unique centromere recognition mechanism by which the repeat sequence is jointly specified by adjacent ParB dimers bound to an overlapped region