Evaluation of Xpert® MTB/RIF and ustar easyNAT™ TB IAD for diagnosis of tuberculous lymphadenitis of children in Tanzania : a prospective descriptive study

Fine needle aspiration biopsy has become a standard approach for diagnosis of peripheral tuberculous lymphadenitis. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of Xpert MTB/RIF and Ustar EasyNAT TB IAD nucleic acid amplification assays, against acid-fast bacilli microscopy, cytology and mycobacterial culture for the diagnosis of TB lymphadenitis in children from a TB-endemic setting in Tanzania.; Children of 8 weeks to 16 years of age, suspected of having TB lymphadenitis, were recruited at a district hospital in Tanzania. Fine needle aspirates of lymph nodes were analysed using acid-fast bacilli microscopy, liquid TB culture, cytology, Xpert MTB/RIF and EasyNAT. Latent class analysis and comparison against a composite reference standard comprising "culture and/or cytology" was done, to assess the performance of Xpert MTB/RIF and EasyNAT for the diagnosis of TB lymphadenitis.; Seventy-nine children were recruited; 4 were excluded from analysis. Against a composite reference standard of culture and/or cytology, Xpert MTB/RIF and EasyNAT had a sensitivity and specificity of 58 % and 93 %; and 19 % and 100 % respectively. Relative to latent class definitions, cytology had a sensitivity of 100 % and specificity of 94.7 %.; Combining clinical assessment, cytology and Xpert MTB/RIF may allow for a rapid and accurate diagnosis of childhood TB lymphadenitis. Larger diagnostic evaluation studies are recommended to validate these findings and on Xpert MTB/RIF to assess its use as a solitary initial test for TB lymphadenitis in children

Isolation and Identification of an Antimutagenic Phthalate Derivative Compound from Octopus (Paraoctopus limaculatus)

Purpose: To isolate and evaluate the antimutagenic properties of compounds previously identified in octopus (Paraoctopus limaculatus).Methods: Octopus fractions, previously obtained by a sequential thin layer chromatography (TLC) procedure, were subjected to further fractionation by TLC and their anti-mutagenic activity monitored using Salmonella tester strains TA98 and TA100 with metabolic activation (S9) in Ames test. The isolated fractions were subjected to structural studies by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), nuclear magnetic resonance (1H and 13C NMR), and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.Results: Five new fractions were obtained from a previously isolated and reported anti-mutagenic octopus fraction. Fractions RB21321b2 and RB21321b3 inhibited > 80 % of the mutagenicity induced by 500 ng AFB1 on both tester strains and were selected for chemical/structural characterization. Data from IR and 1H and 13C NMR suggested the presence of phthalate type of compounds. GC-MS analysis revealed 278 m/z for both fractions which is consistent with a butyl isobutyl phthalate structure.Conclusion: Based on the findings, the compound responsible for the high anti-mutagenic activity of the isolated fraction from octopus is 1-butyl-2-isobutyl-phthalate.Keywords: Octopus, Anti-Mutagenic, Paraoctopus limaculatus, 1-Butyl-2-isobutyl-phthalat

State-of-the-art energetic and morphological modelling of the launching site of the M87 jet

M87 has been the target of numerous astronomical observations across the electromagnetic spectrum, and very long baseline interferometry has resolved an edge-brightened jet1,2,3,4. However, the origin and formation of its jets remain unclear. In our current understanding, black holes (BH) are the driving engine of jet formation5, and indeed the recent Event Horizon Telescope observations revealed a ring-like structure in agreement with theoretical models of accretion onto a rotating Kerr BH6. In addition to the spin of the BH being a potential source of energy for the launching mechanism, magnetic fields are believed to play a key role in the formation of relativistic jets7,8. A priori, the spin, a⋆, of the BH in M87⋆ is unknown; however, when accounting for the estimates of the X-ray luminosity and jet power, values of |a_{*}| ≳ 0.5 appear favoured6. Besides the properties of the accretion flow and the BH spin, the radiation microphysics including the particle distribution (thermal6 and non-thermal^{9,10}) as well as the particle acceleration mechanism11 play a crucial role. We show that general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations and general relativistic radiative transfer calculations can reproduce the broadband spectrum from the radio to the near-infrared regime and simultaneously match the observed collimation profile of M87, thus allowing us to set rough constraints on the dimensionless spin of M87* to be 0.5 ≲ a⋆ ≲ 1.0, with higher spins being possibly favoured

Field-induced quantum fluctuations in the heavy fermion superconductor CeCu2Ge2

Quantum-mechanical fluctuations in strongly correlated electron systems cause unconventional phenomena such as non-Fermi liquid behavior, and arguably high temperature superconductivity. Here we report the discovery of a field-tuned quantum critical phenomenon in stoichiometric CeCu2Ge2, a spin density wave ordered heavy fermion metal that exhibits unconventional superconductivity under ~ 10 GPa of applied pressure. Our finding of the associated quantum critical spin fluctuations of the antiferromagnetic spin density wave order, dominating the local fluctuations due to single-site Kondo effect, provide new information about the underlying mechanism that can be important in understanding superconductivity in this novel compound.Comment: Heavy Fermion, Quantum Critical Phenomeno

Combined lubricant-surface system perspective: multi-scale numerical-experimental investigation

Frictional losses are one of the main causes of reduced energy efficiency in all machines and mechanisms. In particular, there is mounting pressure upon manufacturers of all forms of vehicle to comply with increasingly stringent legislation and directives with regard to harmful emissions. Therefore, reduction of friction has become an imperative issue. The traditional approach of dealing with surface material and lubricant formulation in isolation has been replaced by a lubricant–surface system approach. This paper presents multi-scale experimentation from nano/meso-scale lateral force microscopy of ultra-thin surface adsorbed films through to micro-scale precision sliding tribometry to investigate lubricant–surface friction optimisation within the mixed regime of lubrication, using lubricants with different organic and inorganic friction modifying species. These affect the parameters of the system, commonly used as input to models for mixed and boundary regimes of lubrication. Therefore, the precise measurement of these parameters at different physical scales is important. The study also makes use of detailed numerical predictions at micro-scale through combined solution of the average Reynolds equation as well as interaction of wetted asperities in mixed and boundary regimes of lubrication. Good agreement is found between the predictions and measurements at micro-scale tribometric interactions. Furthermore, the same trends are observed in testing across the physical scales

Proximity of Iron Pnictide Superconductors to a Quantum Tricritical Point

We determine the nature of the magnetic quantum critical point in the doped LaFeAsO using a set of constrained density functional calculations that provide ab initio coefficients for a Landau order parameter analysis. The system turns out to be remarkably close to a quantum tricritical point, where the nature of the phase transition changes from first to second order. We compare with the effective field theory and discuss the experimental consequences.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

The influence of semantic and phonological factors on syntactic decisions: An event-related brain potential study

During language production and comprehension, information about a word's syntactic properties is sometimes needed. While the decision about the grammatical gender of a word requires access to syntactic knowledge, it has also been hypothesized that semantic (i.e., biological gender) or phonological information (i.e., sound regularities) may influence this decision. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured while native speakers of German processed written words that were or were not semantically and/or phonologically marked for gender. Behavioral and ERP results showed that participants were faster in making a gender decision when words were semantically and/or phonologically gender marked than when this was not the case, although the phonological effects were less clear. In conclusion, our data provide evidence that even though participants performed a grammatical gender decision, this task can be influenced by semantic and phonological factors