Acyclovir for treating varicella in otherwise healthy children and adolescents: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials

BACKGROUND: Acyclovir has the potential to shorten the course of chickenpox which may result in reduced costs and morbidity. We conducted a systematic review of randomised controlled trials that evaluated acyclovir for the treatment of chickenpox in otherwise healthy children. METHODS: MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library were searched. The reference lists of relevant articles were examined and primary authors and Glaxo Wellcome were contacted to identify additional trials. Two reviewers independently screened studies for inclusion, assessed study quality using the Jadad scale and allocation concealment, and extracted data. Continuous data were converted to a weighted mean difference (WMD). Overall estimates were not calculated due to differences in the age groups studied. RESULTS: Three studies were included. Methodological quality was 3 (n = 2) and 4 (n = 1) on the Jadad scale. Acyclovir was associated with a significant reduction in the number of days with fever, from -1.0 (95% CI -1.5,-0.5) to -1.3 (95% CI -2.0,-0.6). Results were inconsistent with respect to the number of days to no new lesions, the maximum number of lesions and relief of pruritis. There were no clinically important differences between acyclovir and placebo with respect to complications or adverse effects. CONCLUSION: Acyclovir appears to be effective in reducing the number of days with fever among otherwise healthy children with chickenpox. The results were inconsistent with respect to the number of days to no new lesions, the maximum number of lesions and the relief of itchiness. The clinical importance of acyclovir treatment in otherwise healthy children remains controversial

Adaptive resonance theory based neural network for supervised chemical pattern recognition (FuzzyARTMAP) .2. Classification of post-consumer plastics by remote NIR spectroscopy using an InGaAs diode array

Contains fulltext : 28847.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Near-infrared imaging spectroscopy (NIRIS) and image rank analysis for remote identification of plastics in mixed waste

Contains fulltext : 28848___.PDF (publisher's version ) (Open Access

NIR - Remote-Sensing and Artificial Neural Networks for Rapid Identification of Post Consumer Plastics

Contains fulltext : 29596.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Comparison of an adaptive resonance theory based neural network (ART-2a) against other classifiers for rapid sorting of post consumer plastics by remote near-infrared spectroscopic sensing using an InGaAs diode array

Contains fulltext : 28849.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

The Great East Japan Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Meltdown: Towards the (Re)Construction of a Safe, Sustainable and Compassionate Society in Japan's Shrinking Regions

Japan’s rural regions have been shrinking for the entire postwar period, and successive efforts to revitalize rural society have failed. This article asks whether the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, and the subsequent meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, present the Japanese state and society with a watershed opportunity to rethink regional revitalization and national energy procurement strategies. The article begins by summarizing the events of March and April 2011, examines possible approaches to the reconstruction of communities in the Tōhoku region, and critiques problems of governance in postwar Japan that the disaster reveals. The article concludes by pulling together the information and analysis presented into a discussion of the prospects for achieving the three point vision for a safe, sustainable, and compassionate society that Prime Minister Naoto Kan set the Reconstruction Design Council

Determination of the number and relative position of tryptophan residues in various albumins.

A technique is described by which both the numbers of tryptophan residues and their approximate locations in the peptide chain of a protein can be determined by cleavage with N-bromosuccinimide followed by polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulphate. The number of new peptide bands appearing in the gel is a function of the number of tryptophan residues, and the relative migration of the bands permits calculation of peptide molecular weights and an estimation of the positions of the tryptophan residues in the peptide chain. The technique uses a sample of about 0.5 mg and is suitable for any protein that contains a small number of tryptophan residues. These are the very specimens that are difficult to assay accurately for tryptophan by spectrophotometric or colorimetric methods. Tryptophan residues which are within about 20 residues of the ends of the peptide chain or of each other would not be detected. The specificity of the cleavage with N-bromosuccinimide was ascertained by utilizing human serum albumin, which is known to have a single tryptophan residue at position 214. The technique was then applied to a comparative study of the numbers and locations of tryptophans in the serum albumins of 16 species, namely 11 mammals, three birds and two amphibians. The number of tryptophan residues were confirmed by an independent colorimetric method. All of the mammalian albumins contained a tryptophan residue near position 213. The three avian albumins examined have no tryptophan. Frog and toad albumins contained two tryptophan residues, which appear to be situated at different positions from those in mammalian albumins