Effectiveness of common household cleaning agents in reducing the viability of human influenza A/H1N1

In the event of an influenza pandemic, the majority of people infected will be nursed at home. It is therefore important to determine simple methods for limiting the spread of the virus within the home. The purpose of this work was to test a representative range of common household cleaning agents for their effectiveness at killing or reducing the viability of influenza A virus

Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System in Children with Crohn's Disease

To assess the criterion validity and responsiveness of Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) in a web-based cohort of children with Crohn’s disease

Red Galaxy Growth and the Halo Occupation Distribution

We have traced the past 7 Gyr of red galaxy stellar mass growth within dark matter halos. We have determined the halo occupation distribution, which describes how galaxies reside within dark matter halos, using the observed luminosity function and clustering of 40,696 0.2<z<1.0 red galaxies in Bootes. Half of 10^{11.9} Msun/h halos host a red central galaxy, and this fraction increases with increasing halo mass. We do not observe any evolution of the relationship between red galaxy stellar mass and host halo mass, although we expect both galaxy stellar masses and halo masses to evolve over cosmic time. We find that the stellar mass contained within the red population has doubled since z=1, with the stellar mass within red satellite galaxies tripling over this redshift range. In cluster mass halos most of the stellar mass resides within satellite galaxies and the intra-cluster light, with a minority of the stellar mass residing within central galaxies. The stellar masses of the most luminous red central galaxies are proportional to halo mass to the power of a third. We thus conclude that halo mergers do not always lead to rapid growth of central galaxies. While very massive halos often double in mass over the past 7 Gyr, the stellar masses of their central galaxies typically grow by only 30%.Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJ. 34 pages, 22 Figures, 5 Table

Development and validation of the DIabetes Severity SCOre (DISSCO) in 139 626 individuals with type 2 diabetes: a retrospective cohort study

OBJECTIVE: Clinically applicable diabetes severity measures are lacking, with no previous studies comparing their predictive value with glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c). We developed and validated a type 2 diabetes severity score (the DIabetes Severity SCOre, DISSCO) and evaluated its association with risks of hospitalization and mortality, assessing its additional risk information to sociodemographic factors and HbA1c. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We used UK primary and secondary care data for 139 626 individuals with type 2 diabetes between 2007 and 2017, aged ≥35 years, and registered in general practices in England. The study cohort was randomly divided into a training cohort (n=111 748, 80%) to develop the severity tool and a validation cohort (n=27 878). We developed baseline and longitudinal severity scores using 34 diabetes-related domains. Cox regression models (adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity, deprivation, and HbA1c) were used for primary (all-cause mortality) and secondary (hospitalization due to any cause, diabetes, hypoglycemia, or cardiovascular disease or procedures) outcomes. Likelihood ratio (LR) tests were fitted to assess the significance of adding DISSCO to the sociodemographics and HbA1c models. RESULTS: A total of 139 626 patients registered in 400 general practices, aged 63±12 years were included, 45% of whom were women, 83% were White, and 18% were from deprived areas. The mean baseline severity score was 1.3±2.0. Overall, 27 362 (20%) people died and 99 951 (72%) had ≥1 hospitalization. In the training cohort, a one-unit increase in baseline DISSCO was associated with higher hazard of mortality (HR: 1.14, 95% CI 1.13 to 1.15, area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUROC)=0.76) and cardiovascular hospitalization (HR: 1.45, 95% CI 1.43 to 1.46, AUROC=0.73). The LR tests showed that adding DISSCO to sociodemographic variables significantly improved the predictive value of survival models, outperforming the added value of HbA1c for all outcomes. Findings were consistent in the validation cohort. CONCLUSIONS: Higher levels of DISSCO are associated with higher risks for hospital admissions and mortality. The new severity score had higher predictive value than the proxy used in clinical practice, HbA1c. This reproducible algorithm can help practitioners stratify clinical care of patients with type 2 diabetes

What drives political participation? Motivations and Mobilization in a Digital Age

The article provides insights into the driving forces that underpin new forms of political participation. Digital technologies offer opportunities for engaging in a wide range of civically-oriented activities, whether liking or sharing political content, joining online political communities or joining discussions, each can contribute to deeper democratic engagement and, for the individual, act as a pathway towards further civic participation. Conventional acts of political participation, demonstrating, petitioning and voting, are argued to be driven primarily by intrinsic motivations relating to self-efficacy and empowerment as the individual feels they can have influence over decision makers. Little research explores whether similar motivations drive participation in less conventional acts, as well as whether mobilisation attempts via social media by peers or political organisations mediate those motivations. Drawing on data from a survey among a representative sample of the UK electorate, we find the offline and online spheres of agency as still fairly distinct. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations both matter but extrinsic motivations, following norms of behaviour within networks and supporting the activities of peers, have the strongest explanatory power independent of the sphere of activity. The mediating effect of mobilisation tactics has a minimal effect on extrinsic motivations, online or offline, but online intrinsic motivations lose their explanatory power. This finding suggests online political acts are carried out due to mobilisation, although as intrinsic factors offer little explanatory power these acts may lack meaning to the individual. We also found that campaign organisations are the most powerful mobilisers perhaps suggesting social media users are most likely to perform simple acts in support of non-contentious causes

Stability analysis of a class of two-dimensional multipolar vortex equilibria

Published versio

Comparative analysis of plastid genomes in the non-photosynthetic genus Thismia reveals ongoing gene set reduction

Heterotrophic plants provide intriguing examples of reductive evolution. This is especially evident in the reduction of their plastid genomes, which can potentially proceed toward complete genome loss. Several milestones at the beginning of this path of degradation have been described; however, little is known about the latest stages of plastome reduction. Here we analyze a diversity of plastid genomes in a set of closely related non-photosynthetic plants. We demonstrate how a gradual loss of genes shapes the miniaturized plastomes of these plants. The subject of our study, the genus Thismia, represents the mycoheterotrophic monocot family Thismiaceae, a group that may have experienced a very ancient (60–80 mya) transition to heterotrophy. In all 18 species examined, the plastome is reduced to 14–18 kb and is highly AT-biased. The most complete observed gene set includes accD, seven ribosomal protein genes, three rRNA, and two tRNA genes. Different clades of Thismia have undergone further gene loss (complete absence or pseudogenization) compared to this set: in particular, we report two independent losses of rps2 and rps18

Potentials of Mean Force for Protein Structure Prediction Vindicated, Formalized and Generalized

Understanding protein structure is of crucial importance in science, medicine and biotechnology. For about two decades, knowledge based potentials based on pairwise distances -- so-called "potentials of mean force" (PMFs) -- have been center stage in the prediction and design of protein structure and the simulation of protein folding. However, the validity, scope and limitations of these potentials are still vigorously debated and disputed, and the optimal choice of the reference state -- a necessary component of these potentials -- is an unsolved problem. PMFs are loosely justified by analogy to the reversible work theorem in statistical physics, or by a statistical argument based on a likelihood function. Both justifications are insightful but leave many questions unanswered. Here, we show for the first time that PMFs can be seen as approximations to quantities that do have a rigorous probabilistic justification: they naturally arise when probability distributions over different features of proteins need to be combined. We call these quantities reference ratio distributions deriving from the application of the reference ratio method. This new view is not only of theoretical relevance, but leads to many insights that are of direct practical use: the reference state is uniquely defined and does not require external physical insights; the approach can be generalized beyond pairwise distances to arbitrary features of protein structure; and it becomes clear for which purposes the use of these quantities is justified. We illustrate these insights with two applications, involving the radius of gyration and hydrogen bonding. In the latter case, we also show how the reference ratio method can be iteratively applied to sculpt an energy funnel. Our results considerably increase the understanding and scope of energy functions derived from known biomolecular structures

Assessing the severity of Type 2 diabetes using clinical data-based measures:a systematic review

Aims To identify and critically appraise measures that use clinical data to grade the severity of Type 2 diabetes. Methods We searched MEDLINE, Embase and PubMed between inception and June 2018. Studies reporting on clinical data‐based diabetes‐specific severity measures in adults with Type 2 diabetes were included. We excluded studies conducted solely in participants with other types of diabetes. After independent screening, the characteristics of the eligible measures including design and severity domains, the clinical utility of developed measures, and the relationship between severity levels and health‐related outcomes were assessed. Results We identified 6798 studies, of which 17 studies reporting 18 different severity measures (32 314 participants in 17 countries) were included: a diabetes severity index (eight studies, 44%); severity categories (seven studies, 39%); complication count (two studies, 11%); and a severity checklist (one study, 6%). Nearly 89% of the measures included diabetes‐related complications and/or glycaemic control indicators. Two of the severity measures were validated in a separate study population. More severe diabetes was associated with increased healthcare costs, poorer cognitive function and significantly greater risks of hospitalization and mortality. The identified measures differed greatly in terms of the included domains. One study reported on the use of a severity measure prospectively. Conclusions Health records are suitable for assessment of diabetes severity; however, the clinical uptake of existing measures is limited. The need to advance this research area is fundamental as higher levels of diabetes severity are associated with greater risks of adverse outcomes. Diabetes severity assessment could help identify people requiring targeted and intensive therapies and provide a major benchmark for efficient healthcare services

Sexuality in the Therapeutic Relationship: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Experiences of Gay Therapists

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health on 17/10/2014 date, available online: DOI: 10.1080/19359705.2014.957882Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) clients have reported experiencing heterosexist/homophobic attitudes from heterosexual therapists, but this has seldom been discussed for gay therapists. Such experiences could impact the therapeutic process and a gay therapist’s willingness to self-disclose their sexuality. Self- disclosure of sexuality can be therapeutically beneficial for LGBTQ or heterosexual clients. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven gay male therapists and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Five themes emerged: affinity for work- ing with LGBTQ clients, heterosexual males’ resistance to the therapeutic process, the impact of homophobia within the therapeu- tic relationship, empathy through shared humanity, and utilizing therapist sexuality as a tool within the therapeutic relationship