Synchrotron x-ray measurement and finite element analysis of residual strain in TIG welded aluminium alloy 2024

Residual strains have been measured in a tungsten inert gas (TIG) butt-welded 2024 aluminum alloy plate using synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Novel two-dimensional strain maps spanning the entire plate reveal steep gradients in residual stress and provide detailed validation data for finite element (FE) analysis. Two variants of a FE model have been used to predict the residual strain distributions, incorporating different levels of plate constraint. The model uses decoupled thermal and elastic- plastic mechanical analyses and successfully predicts the longitudinal and transverse residual strain field over the entire weld. For butt weld geometries, the degree of transverse constraint is shown to be a significant boundary condition, compared to simpler bead-on-plate analyses. The importance of transverse residual strains for detailed model validation is highlighted, together with the need for care in selecting the location for line scans. The residual stress is largest in the heat-affected zone (HAZ), being equal to the local postweld yield stress, though the strength increases subsequently by natural aging. In addition, a halving of the diffraction line width has been observed local to the weld, and this correlates with the microstructural changes in the region

Protein domains and architectural innovation in plant-associated Proteobacteria.

Journal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tCopyright © 2005 Studholme et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.BACKGROUND: Evolution of new complex biological behaviour tends to arise by novel combinations of existing building blocks. The functional and evolutionary building blocks of the proteome are protein domains, the function of a protein being dependent on its constituent domains. We clustered completely-sequenced proteomes of prokaryotes on the basis of their protein domain content, as defined by Pfam (release 16.0). This revealed that, although there was a correlation between phylogeny and domain content, other factors also have an influence. This observation motivated an investigation of the relationship between an organism's lifestyle and the complement of domains and domain architectures found within its proteome. RESULTS: We took a census of all protein domains and domain combinations (architectures) encoded in the completely-sequenced proteobacterial genomes. Nine protein domain families were identified that are found in phylogenetically disparate plant-associated bacteria but are absent from non-plant-associated bacteria. Most of these are known to play a role in the plant-associated lifestyle, but they also included domain of unknown function DUF1427, which is found in plant symbionts and pathogens of the alpha-, beta- and gamma-Proteobacteria, but not known in any other organism. Further, several domains were identified as being restricted to phytobacteria and Eukaryotes. One example is the RolB/RolC glucosidase family, which is found only in Agrobacterium species and in plants. We identified the 0.5% of Pfam protein domain families that were most significantly over-represented in the plant-associated Proteobacteria with respect to the background frequencies in the whole set of available proteobacterial proteomes. These included guanylate cyclase, domains implicated in aromatic catabolism, cellulase and several domains of unknown function. We identified 459 unique domain architectures found in phylogenetically diverse plant pathogens and symbionts that were absent from non-pathogenic and non-symbiotic relatives. The vast majority of these were restricted to a single species or several closely related species and so their distributions could be better explained by phylogeny than by lifestyle. However, several architectures were found in two or more very distantly related phytobacteria but absent from non-plant-associated bacteria. Many of the proteins with these unique architectures are predicted to be secreted. In Pseudomonas syringae pathovar tomato, those genes encoding genes with novel domain architectures tended to have atypical GC contents and were adjacent to insertion sequence elements and phage-like sequences, suggesting acquisition by horizontal transfer. CONCLUSIONS: By identifying domains and architectures unique to plant pathogens and symbionts, we highlighted candidate proteins for involvement in plant-associated bacterial lifestyles. Given that characterisation of novel gene products in vivo and in vitro is time-consuming and expensive, this computational approach may be useful for reducing experimental search space. Furthermore we discuss the biological significance of novel proteins highlighted by this study in the context of plant-associated lifestyles.Gatsby Charitable Foundatio

Self‐reported drug allergy in a general adult Portuguese population

Clin Exp Allergy. 2004 Oct;34(10):1597-601. Self-reported drug allergy in a general adult Portuguese population. Gomes E, Cardoso MF, Praça F, Gomes L, Mariño E, Demoly P. Serviço de Imunoalergologia, Hospital Maria Pia, Porto, Portugal. [email protected] Abstract AIM: To estimate the prevalence of self-reported drug allergy in adults. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey of a general adult population from Porto (all of whom were living with children involved in the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood-phase three), during the year 2002, using a self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: The prevalence of self-reported drug allergy was 7.8% (181/2309): 4.5% to penicillins or other beta-lactams, 1.9% to aspirin or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and 1.5% to other drugs. In the group 'allergic to beta-lactams', the most frequently implicated drug was penicillin G or V (76.2%) followed by the association of amoxicillin and clavulanic acids (14.3%). In the group 'allergic to NSAIDs', acetylsalicylic acid (18.2%) and ibuprofen (18.2%) were the most frequently identified drugs, followed by nimesulide and meloxicam. Identification of the exact name of the involved drug was possible in less than one-third of the patients, more often within the NSAID group (59.5%). Women were significantly more likely to claim a drug allergy than men (10.2% vs. 5.3%). The most common manifestations were cutaneous (63.5%), followed by cardiovascular symptoms (35.9%). Most of the reactions were immediate, occurring on the first day of treatment (78.5%). Only half of the patients were submitted to drug allergy investigations. The majority (86.8%) completely avoided the suspected culprit drug thereafter. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that self-reported allergy to drugs is highly prevalent and poorly explored. Women seem to be more susceptible. beta-lactams and NSAIDs are the most frequently concerned drugs. PMID: 15479276 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

The complete mitochondrial genome of the foodborne parasitic pathogen Cyclospora cayetanensis

Cyclospora cayetanensis is a human-specific coccidian parasite responsible for several food and water-related outbreaks around the world, including the most recent ones involving over 900 persons in 2013 and 2014 outbreaks in the USA. Multicopy organellar DNA such as mitochondrion genomes have been particularly informative for detection and genetic traceback analysis in other parasites. We sequenced the C. cayetanensis genomic DNA obtained from stool samples from patients infected with Cyclospora in Nepal using the Illumina MiSeq platform. By bioinformatically filtering out the metagenomic reads of non-coccidian origin sequences and concentrating the reads by targeted alignment, we were able to obtain contigs containing Eimeria-like mitochondrial, apicoplastic and some chromosomal genomic fragments. A mitochondrial genomic sequence was assembled and confirmed by cloning and sequencing targeted PCR products amplified from Cyclospora DNA using primers based on our draft assembly sequence. The results show that the C. cayetanensis mitochondrion genome is 6274 bp in length, with 33% GC content, and likely exists in concatemeric arrays as in Eimeria mitochondrial genomes. Phylogenetic analysis of the C. cayetanensis mitochondrial genome places this organism in a tight cluster with Eimeria species. The mitochondrial genome of C. cayetanensis contains three protein coding genes, cytochrome (cytb), cytochrome C oxidase subunit 1 (cox1), and cytochrome C oxidase subunit 3 (cox3), in addition to 14 large subunit (LSU) and nine small subunit (SSU) fragmented rRNA genes

Childhood exposure to external ionising radiation and solid cancer risk

The increasing use of ionising radiation for diagnostic purposes has raised concern about potential iatrogenic damage, especially in children. In this review, we discuss some aspects of radiation-induced cancer in relation to age at exposure and measures that should be taken for limiting exposure in this sensitive population

Mammographic screening before age 50 years in the UK: comparison of the radiation risks with the mortality benefits

Mammographic screening before age 50 years is less effective than at older ages and the associated radiation risks are higher. We estimated how many breast cancer deaths could be caused and how many could be prevented by a decade of annual two-view mammographic screening starting at ages 20, 30 and 40 years, respectively, in the UK; for all women, and for women with first-degree relatives affected with breast cancer. We extrapolated from a radiation risk model to estimate the number of radiation-induced breast cancer deaths, and used results from randomised trials, which suggest a reduction in breast cancer mortality of 10–20% in women invited to screening before age 50 years, to estimate the number of deaths that could be prevented. The net change in breast cancer deaths was defined as the number of radiation-induced deaths minus the number of prevented deaths. For all women, assuming a reduction in mortality from screening of 20%, a decade of annual screening was estimated to induce more deaths than it prevents if started at age 20 years and at age 30 years (net increase=0.86 and 0.37 breast cancer deaths, respectively, per 1000 women screened). The corresponding estimate for screening starting at age 40 years was a net decrease of 0.46 deaths/1000 women screened and a zero net change assuming a 10% mortality reduction. Results for women with first-degree relatives with breast cancer were generally in the same direction but, because their background incidence rates are higher, the net increases or decreases were greater. In conclusion, our estimates suggest that a decade of annual two-view mammographic screening before age 40 years would result in a net increase in breast cancer deaths, and that starting at age 40 years could result in a material net decrease only if breast cancer mortality is reduced by about 20% or more in women screened. Although these calculations were based on a number of uncertain parameters, in general, the conclusions were not altered when these parameters were varied within a feasible range

No Evidence for Emotional Empathy in Chickens Observing Familiar Adult Conspecifics

The capacity of animals to empathise is of high potential relevance to the welfare of group-housed domestic animals. Emotional empathy is a multifaceted and multilayered phenomenon which ranges from relatively simple processes such as emotional matching behaviour to more complex processes involving interaction between emotional and cognitive perspective taking systems. Our previous research has demonstrated that hens show clear behavioural and physiological responses to the mild distress of their chicks. To investigate whether this capacity exists outside the mother/offspring bond, we conducted a similar experiment in which domestic hens were exposed to the mild distress of unrelated, but familiar adult conspecifics. Each observer hen was exposed to two replicates of four conditions, in counterbalanced order; control (C); control with noise of air puff (CN); air puff to conspecific hen (APC); air puff to observer hen (APH). During each test, the observer hens' behaviour and physiology were measured throughout a 10 min pre-treatment and a 10 min treatment period. Despite showing signs of distress in response to an aversive stimulus directed at themselves (APH), and using methodology sufficiently sensitive to detect empathy-like responses previously, observer hens showed no behavioural or physiological responses to the mild distress of a familiar adult conspecific. The lack of behavioural and physiological response indicates that hens show no basis for emotional empathy in this context

Moorfields AMD database report 2: fellow eye involvement with neovascular age-related macular degeneration.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) is frequently bilateral, and previous reports on 'fellow eyes' have assumed sequential treatment after a period of treatment of the first eye only. The aim of our study was to analyse baseline characteristics and visual acuity (VA) outcomes of fellow eye involvement with nAMD, specifically differentiating between sequential and non-sequential (due to macular scarring in the first eye) antivascular endothelial growth factor treatment and timelines for fellow eye involvement. METHODS: Retrospective, electronic medical record database study of the Moorfields AMD database of 6265 patients/120 286 single entries with data extracted between 21 October 2008 and 9 August 2018. The data set for analysis consisted of 1180 sequential, 807 non-sequential and 3410 unilateral eyes. RESULTS: Mean VA (ETDRS letters±SD) of sequentially treated fellow eyes at baseline was significantly higher (63±13), VA gain over 2 years lower (0.37±14) and proportion of eyes with good VA (≥70 letters) higher (46%) than the respective first eyes (baseline VA 54±16, VA gain at 2 years 5.6±15, percentage of eyes with good VA 39%). Non-sequential fellow eyes showed baseline characteristics and VA outcomes similar to first eyes. Fellow eye involvement rate was 32% at 2 years, and median time interval to fellow eye involvement was 71 (IQR: 27-147) weeks. CONCLUSION: This report shows that sequentially treated nAMD fellow eyes have better baseline and final VA than non-sequentially treated eyes after 2 years of treatment. Sequentially treated eyes also had a greater proportion with good VA after 2 years

The Moorfields AMD Database Report 2 - Fellow Eye Involvement with Neovascular Age-related Macular Degeneration

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) is frequently bilateral, and previous reports on ‘fellow eyes’’ have assumed sequential treatment after a period of treatment of the first eye only. The aim of our study was to analyse baseline characteristics and visual acuity (VA) outcomes of fellow eye involvement with nAMD, specifically differentiating between sequential and non-sequential (due to macular scarring in the first eye) anti-vascular endothelial growth factor treatment and timelines for fellow eye involvement. METHODS: Retrospective, electronic medical record database study of the Moorfields AMD database of 8174 eyes/120,756 single entries with data extracted between October 21, 2008 and August 9, 2018. The dataset for analysis consisted of 1180 sequential, 413 nonsequential, and 1110 unilateral eyes. RESULTS: Mean VA of sequentially treated fellow eyes at baseline was significantly higher (62±13), VA gain over two years lower (0.65±14), and proportion of eyes with good VA (≥20/40 or 70 letters) higher (46%) than the respective first eyes (baseline VA 54±16, VA gain at two years 5.6±15, percentage of eyes with good VA 38%). Non-sequential fellow eyes showed baseline characteristics and VA outcomes similar to first eyes. Fellow eye involvement rate was 32% at two years, and median time interval to fellow eye involvement was 71 (IQR 27-147) weeks. CONCLUSION: This reports shows sequentially treated nAMD fellow eyes have better baseline and final VA than non-sequentially treated eyes after 2 years of treatment. Sequentially treated eyes also had a greater proportion with good VA after 2 years of treatment. PRECIS Depending on age, fellow eye involvement occurs in 32% of patients with neovascular AMD by two years. Fellow eyes generally maintain better vision, except in cases where late-stage disease in the first eye was untreated

Social interactions through the eyes of macaques and humans

Group-living primates frequently interact with each other to maintain social bonds as well as to compete for valuable resources. Observing such social interactions between group members provides individuals with essential information (e.g. on the fighting ability or altruistic attitude of group companions) to guide their social tactics and choice of social partners. This process requires individuals to selectively attend to the most informative content within a social scene. It is unclear how non-human primates allocate attention to social interactions in different contexts, and whether they share similar patterns of social attention to humans. Here we compared the gaze behaviour of rhesus macaques and humans when free-viewing the same set of naturalistic images. The images contained positive or negative social interactions between two conspecifics of different phylogenetic distance from the observer; i.e. affiliation or aggression exchanged by two humans, rhesus macaques, Barbary macaques, baboons or lions. Monkeys directed a variable amount of gaze at the two conspecific individuals in the images according to their roles in the interaction (i.e. giver or receiver of affiliation/aggression). Their gaze distribution to non-conspecific individuals was systematically varied according to the viewed species and the nature of interactions, suggesting a contribution of both prior experience and innate bias in guiding social attention. Furthermore, the monkeys’ gaze behavior was qualitatively similar to that of humans, especially when viewing negative interactions. Detailed analysis revealed that both species directed more gaze at the face than the body region when inspecting individuals, and attended more to the body region in negative than in positive social interactions. Our study suggests that monkeys and humans share a similar pattern of role-sensitive, species- and context-dependent social attention, implying a homologous cognitive mechanism of social attention between rhesus macaques and humans