Flight of the dragonflies and damselflies

This work is a synthesis of our current understanding of the mechanics, aerodynamics and visually mediated control of dragonfly and damselfly flight, with the addition of new experimental and computational data in several key areas. These are: the diversity of dragonfly wing morphologies, the aerodynamics of gliding flight, force generation in flapping flight, aerodynamic efficiency, comparative flight performance and pursuit strategies during predatory and territorial flights. New data are set in context by brief reviews covering anatomy at several scales, insect aerodynamics, neuromechanics and behaviour. We achieve a new perspective by means of a diverse range of techniques, including laser-line mapping of wing topographies, computational fluid dynamics simulations of finely detailed wing geometries, quantitative imaging using particle image velocimetry of on-wing and wake flow patterns, classical aerodynamic theory, photography in the field, infrared motion capture and multi-camera optical tracking of free flight trajectories in laboratory environments. Our comprehensive approach enables a novel synthesis of datasets and subfields that integrates many aspects of flight from the neurobiology of the compound eye, through the aeromechanical interface with the surrounding fluid, to flight performance under cruising and higher-energy behavioural modes

Annual report on surveillance of respiratory infectious diseases 2013, the Netherlands

Het griepseizoen (influenza) 2013/2014 was erg mild, na de uitzonderlijk langdurende epidemie in het seizoen 2012/2013. Ook was het een mild seizoen wat betreft het aantal mensen dat een longontsteking (pneumonie) opliep. In 2013 waren er geen grote uitbraken van de meldingsplichtige luchtweginfectieziekten legionellose (308 meldingen), papegaaienziekte (psittacose; 51 meldingen), Q-koorts (19 meldingen) en tuberculose (848 meldingen). Deze aantallen waren in het verslagjaar vergelijkbaar of lager dan het aantal meldingen in voorgaande jaren. Dit blijkt uit de jaarlijkse surveillance luchtweginfectieziekten 2013 van het RIVM. Griep en longontsteking leiden tot veel ziekenhuisopnames en sterfte in Nederland, waardoor het RIVM ze actief volgt. In vergelijking met griep komen de meldingsplichtige luchtweginfecties in Nederlands maar weinig voor. Ze zijn meldingsplichtig, omdat tijdige maatregelen, zoals de besmettingsbron opsporen, belangrijk kunnen zijn om uitbraken of verdere verspreiding van de ziekte te voorkomen. Het RIVM volgt ook potentieel gevaarlijke nieuwe luchtweginfecties die elders in de wereld voorkomen. In mei 2014 werden voor het eerst in Nederland twee patiënten gediagnostiseerd met het MERS coronavirus. In het seizoen 2013/2014 lag het aantal mensen dat met griepachtige klachten bij de huisarts kwam begin 2014 gedurende vier weken boven de grens waarmee een griepepidemie wordt geduid. Bij de patiënten met griepachtige klachten kwam naast influenzavirus vaak RSV (respiratoir syncytieel virus) en neusverkoudheid (rhinovirus) voor. Er kwamen minder mensen met een longontsteking bij de huisarts dan voorgaande seizoenen, maar het aantal longontstekingpatiënten in verpleeghuizen bleef gelijk.The 2013/2014 influenza season was extremely mild in the Netherlands, compared to the exceptionally long-lasting epidemic in 2012/2013. In addition, the number of pneumonia patients and overall mortality, possible complications of influenza, were low. In 2013, no major outbreaks of the notifiable respiratory infectious diseases legionellosis (308 notifications), psittacosis (51 notifications), Q-fever (19 notifications) and tuberculosis (848 notifications) occurred. These incidences are either comparable to or lower than preceding years. These are the outcomes of the annual report: 'Surveillance of respiratory infectious diseases 2013, the Netherlands', published by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). Influenza and pneumonia are an important cause of hospital admissions and death in the Netherlands, a reason for the RIVM to actively monitor these diseases. In comparison to influenza, notifiable respiratory infectious diseases only rarely occur. These diseases are notifiable, as timely measures like source finding, are important for preventing outbreaks and/ or ongoing transmission of the disease. The RIVM also monitors potential threats to public health from new (worldwide) respiratory infections. In May 2014, the first two cases of MERS coronavirus were diagnosed in the Netherlands. During the 2013/2014 influenza-season, the number of patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) consulting a general practitioner, was above the threshold set for an influenza epidemic for four weeks at the beginning of 2014. In nose and throat samples of ILI-patients, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) and rhinovirus were found in addition to the influenza virus. During the 2013/2014 influenza-season, fewer patients consulted the general practitioner for pneumonia than in previous years, however the number of pneumonia patients in nursing homes was similar.Ministerie van VW

Oral symptoms and functional outcome related to oral and oropharyngeal cancer

Purpose This study aimed to assess: (1) oral symptoms of patients treated for oral or oropharyngeal cancer; (2) how patients rank the burden of oral symptoms; (3) the impact of the tumor, the treatment, and oral symptoms on functional outcome. Methods Eighty-nine patients treated for oral or oropharyngeal cancer were asked about their oral symptoms related to mouth opening, dental status, oral sensory function, tongue mobility, salivary function, and pain. They were asked to rank these oral symptoms according to the degree of burden experienced. The Mandibular Function Impairment Questionnaire (MFIQ) was used to assess functional outcome. In a multivariate linear regression analyses, variables related to MFIQ scores (p a parts per thousand currency signaEuro parts per thousand 0.10) were entered as predictors with MFIQ score as the outcome. Results Lack of saliva (52%), restricted mouth opening (48%), and restricted tongue mobility (46%) were the most frequently reported oral symptoms. Lack of saliva was most frequently (32%) ranked as the most burdensome oral symptom. For radiated patients, an inability to wear a dental prosthesis, a T3 or T4 stage, and a higher age were predictive of MFIQ scores. For non-radiated patients, a restricted mouth opening, an inability to wear a dental prosthesis, restricted tongue mobility, and surgery of the mandible were predictive of MFIQ scores. Conclusions Lack of saliva was not only the most frequently reported oral symptom after treatment for oral or oropharyngeal cancer, but also the most burdensome. Functional outcome is strongly influenced by an inability to wear a dental prosthesis in both radiated and non-radiated patients

Comparison of normalisation methods for surface-enhanced laser desorption and ionisation (SELDI) time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry data

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mass spectrometry for biological data analysis is an active field of research, providing an efficient way of high-throughput proteome screening. A popular variant of mass spectrometry is SELDI, which is often used to measure sample populations with the goal of developing (clinical) classifiers. Unfortunately, not only is the data resulting from such measurements quite noisy, variance between replicate measurements of the same sample can be high as well. Normalisation of spectra can greatly reduce the effect of this technical variance and further improve the quality and interpretability of the data. However, it is unclear which normalisation method yields the most informative result.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this paper, we describe the first systematic comparison of a wide range of normalisation methods, using two objectives that should be met by a good method. These objectives are minimisation of inter-spectra variance and maximisation of signal with respect to class separation. The former is assessed using an estimation of the coefficient of variation, the latter using the classification performance of three types of classifiers on real-world datasets representing two-class diagnostic problems. To obtain a maximally robust evaluation of a normalisation method, both objectives are evaluated over multiple datasets and multiple configurations of baseline correction and peak detection methods. Results are assessed for statistical significance and visualised to reveal the performance of each normalisation method, in particular with respect to using no normalisation. The normalisation methods described have been implemented in the freely available MASDA R-package.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In the general case, normalisation of mass spectra is beneficial to the quality of data. The majority of methods we compared performed significantly better than the case in which no normalisation was used. We have shown that normalisation methods that scale spectra by a factor based on the dispersion (e.g., standard deviation) of the data clearly outperform those where a factor based on the central location (e.g., mean) is used. Additional improvements in performance are obtained when these factors are estimated locally, using a sliding window within spectra, instead of globally, over full spectra. The underperforming category of methods using a globally estimated factor based on the central location of the data includes the method used by the majority of SELDI users.</p

The Formation and Evolution of the First Massive Black Holes

The first massive astrophysical black holes likely formed at high redshifts (z>10) at the centers of low mass (~10^6 Msun) dark matter concentrations. These black holes grow by mergers and gas accretion, evolve into the population of bright quasars observed at lower redshifts, and eventually leave the supermassive black hole remnants that are ubiquitous at the centers of galaxies in the nearby universe. The astrophysical processes responsible for the formation of the earliest seed black holes are poorly understood. The purpose of this review is threefold: (1) to describe theoretical expectations for the formation and growth of the earliest black holes within the general paradigm of hierarchical cold dark matter cosmologies, (2) to summarize several relevant recent observations that have implications for the formation of the earliest black holes, and (3) to look into the future and assess the power of forthcoming observations to probe the physics of the first active galactic nuclei.Comment: 39 pages, review for "Supermassive Black Holes in the Distant Universe", Ed. A. J. Barger, Kluwer Academic Publisher

Social Competitiveness and Plasticity of Neuroendocrine Function in Old Age: Influence of Neonatal Novelty Exposure and Maternal Care Reliability

Early experience is known to have a profound impact on brain and behavioral function later in life. Relatively few studies, however, have examined whether the effects of early experience remain detectable in the aging animal. Here, we examined the effects of neonatal novelty exposure, an early stimulation procedure, on late senescent rats' ability to win in social competition. During the first 3 weeks of life, half of each litter received daily 3-min exposures to a novel environment while the other half stayed in the home cage. At 24 months of age, pairs of rats competed against each other for exclusive access to chocolate rewards. We found that novelty-exposed rats won more rewards than home-staying rats, indicating that early experience exerts a life-long effect on this aspect of social dominance. Furthermore, novelty-exposed but not home-staying rats exhibited habituation of corticosterone release across repeated days of social competition testing, suggesting that early experience permanently enhances plasticity of the stress response system. Finally, we report a surprising finding that across individual rat families, greater effects of neonatal novelty exposure on stress response plasticity were found among families whose dams provided more reliable, instead of a greater total quantity of, maternal care

Primary care nurses struggle with lifestyle counseling in diabetes care: a qualitative analysis

Contains fulltext : 89605.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: Patient outcomes are poorly affected by lifestyle advice in general practice. Promoting lifestyle behavior change require that nurses shift from simple advice giving to a more counseling-based approach. The current study examines which barriers nurses encounter in lifestyle counseling to patients with type 2 diabetes. Based on this information we will develop an implementation strategy to improve lifestyle behavior change in general practice. METHOD: In a qualitative semi-structured study, twelve in-depth interviews took place with nurses in Dutch general practices involved in diabetes care. Specific barriers in counseling patients with type 2 diabetes about diet, physical activity, and smoking cessation were addressed. The nurses were invited to reflect on barriers at the patient and practice levels, but mainly on their own roles as counselors. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. The data were analyzed with the aid of a predetermined framework. RESULTS: Nurses felt most barriers on the level of the patient; patients had limited knowledge of a healthy lifestyle and limited insight into their own behavior, and they lacked the motivation to modify their lifestyles or the discipline to maintain an improved lifestyle. Furthermore, nurses reported lack of counseling skills and insufficient time as barriers in effective lifestyle counseling. CONCLUSIONS: The traditional health education approach is still predominant in primary care of patients with type 2 diabetes. An implementation strategy based on motivational interviewing can help to overcome 'jumping ahead of the patient' and promotes skills in lifestyle behavioral change. We will train our nurses in agenda setting to structure the consultation based on prioritizing the behavior change and will help them to develop social maps that contain information on local exercise programs

Search for CP violation in D+→ϕπ+ and D+s→K0Sπ+ decays

A search for CP violation in D + → ϕπ + decays is performed using data collected in 2011 by the LHCb experiment corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1 at a centre of mass energy of 7 TeV. The CP -violating asymmetry is measured to be (−0.04 ± 0.14 ± 0.14)% for candidates with K − K + mass within 20 MeV/c 2 of the ϕ meson mass. A search for a CP -violating asymmetry that varies across the ϕ mass region of the D + → K − K + π + Dalitz plot is also performed, and no evidence for CP violation is found. In addition, the CP asymmetry in the D+s→K0Sπ+ decay is measured to be (0.61 ± 0.83 ± 0.14)%

Study of Bc+B_c^+ decays to the K+K−π+K^+K^-\pi^+ final state and evidence for the decay Bc+→χc0π+B_c^+\to\chi_{c0}\pi^+

A study of $B_c^+\to K^+K^-\pi^+$ decays is performed for the first time using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb experiment in $pp$ collisions at centre-of-mass energies of $7$ and $8$ TeV. Evidence for the decay $B_c^+\to\chi_{c0}(\to K^+K^-)\pi^+$ is reported with a significance of 4.0 standard deviations, resulting in the measurement of $\frac{\sigma(B_c^+)}{\sigma(B^+)}\times\mathcal{B}(B_c^+\to\chi_{c0}\pi^+)$ to be $(9.8^{+3.4}_{-3.0}(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.8(\mathrm{syst}))\times 10^{-6}$. Here $\mathcal{B}$ denotes a branching fraction while $\sigma(B_c^+)$ and $\sigma(B^+)$ are the production cross-sections for $B_c^+$ and $B^+$ mesons. An indication of $\bar b c$ weak annihilation is found for the region $m(K^-\pi^+)<1.834\mathrm{\,Ge\kern -0.1em V\!/}c^2$, with a significance of 2.4 standard deviations.Comment: All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lhcbproject.web.cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/LHCbProjectPublic/LHCb-PAPER-2016-022.html, link to supplemental material inserted in the reference

Search for supersymmetric particles in scenarios with a gravitino LSP and stau NLSP

Sleptons, neutralinos and charginos were searched for in the context of scenarios where the lightest supersymmetric particle is the gravitino. It was assumed that the stau is the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle. Data collected with the DELPHI detector at a centre-of-mass energy near 189 GeV were analysed combining the methods developed in previous searches at lower energies. No evidence for the production of these supersymmetric particles was found. Hence, limits were derived at 95% confidence level.Comment: 31 pages, 14 figure