The cAMP-producing agonist beraprost inhibits human vascular smooth muscle cell migration via exchange protein directly activated by cAMP

This work was supported by the British Heart foundation (grant FS/11/23/28730). J.S.M. was funded by a British Heart Foundation PhD studentship. Funding to pay the Open Access publication charges for this article was provided by the Charities Open Access Fund (UK).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Dissociation of Action and Object Naming: Evidence From Cortical Stimulation Mapping

This cortical stimulation mapping study investigates the neural representation of action and object naming. Data from 13 neurosurgical subjects undergoing awake cortical mapping is presented. Our findings indicate clear evidence of differential disruption of noun and verb naming in the context of this naming task. At the individual level, evidence was found for punctuate regions of perisylvian cortex subserving noun and verb function. Across subjects, however, the location of these sites varied. This finding may help explain discrepancies between lesion and functional imaging studies of noun and verb naming. In addition, an alternative coding of these data served to highlight the grammatical class vulnerability of the target response. The use of this coding scheme implicates a role for the supramarginal gyrus in verb-naming behavior. These data are discussed with respect to a functional-anatomical pathway underlying verb naming

Evaluation of Performance and Costs of Two Heifer Development Systems

Early weaned (EW) heifers must be developed for a longer period of time usually resulting in increased development costs. Developing EW heifers on native range may reduce these costs. Dried distillers grains plus solubles (DDGS) offers protein and energy that compliment native forages for developing heifers. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance and costs of two heifer development systems in northwest South Dakota. Sixty-five nulliparous crossbred beef heifers were randomly allotted to one of two systems: 1) heifers (n=33) weaned at 132 d of age (461 lb) and developed on range with a DDGS supplement (1.8 to 6.4 lb/hd/d) from Sept. 25 to May 18 (Range); 2) heifers (n=32) weaned at 218 days of age (605 lb) and developed in a drylot with grass hay and a conventional supplement (2.6 to 3.6 lb/hd/d) from Dec. 2 to May 18 (Normal). Supplement levels were established to result in both groups of heifers reaching 65% of mature weight at breeding (863 lb). All heifers were managed similarly after May 18. Heifers were synchronized with a shot of PGF2α and bred natural service beginning June 14. As necessary for target weights to be reached, ADG through the feeding period was greater (P \u3c 0.05) for Range (1.68 lb/d) than (Normal 1.34 lb/d). Range heifers tended (P = 0.12) to be heavier on May 18 (859 and 830 lb, respectively) and were heavier (P \u3c 0.05) at breeding (915 and 834 lb, respectively). Weight differences in May were a result of higher than expected gains by the Range heifers in the spring. From May 18 to June 14, Range heifers gained more (P \u3c 0.05) than Normal (2.07 and 0.32 lb/d, respectively). Synchronized conception and overall pregnancy rates were similar (P \u3e 0.25) between the Range and Normal heifers (58% vs. 50% and 91% vs. 88%, respectively). Supplement and forage costs for the Range system was similar ($122/hd) to the Normal ($117/hd). Range development provides an alternative method for developing early-weaned heifers that reduces daily costs

Project INTEGRATE: Developing a framework to guide design, implementation and evaluation of people-centred integrated care processes

Background: People-centred integrated care is an acknowledged approach to improve the quality and effectiveness of health systems in delivering care around people’s needs and preferences. Nevertheless, more guidance on how to effectively design, implement and evaluate the care process of people-centred integrated care services is needed. Under Project INTEGRATE, a framework was developed to guide managers in the assessment, transformation and delivery of these health service innovations. Methods: The framework is a product of the synthesis of operations, service and project management literature, relevant health care literature, and the analysis of four good practice integrated care case studies analysed under Project INTEGRATE. A first iteration of the framework was developed and then applied to one of the integrated care case studies to test its validity and utility. Results and Discussion: The tool combines a number of important considerations and criteria that have not been previously included in integrated care assessment frameworks, allowing for a pragmatic and comprehensive analysis of the care process. Conclusion: This framework can be used as a stand-alone or combined tool to guide managers to plan and evaluate the care process design of people-centred integrated care services; future work should apply this tool to other settings

Mechanism of action of the tetraflex accommodative intraocular lens

PURPOSE:To investigate the mechanism of action of the Tetraflex (Lenstec Kellen KH-3500) accommodative intraocular lens (IOL). METHODS:Thirteen eyes of eight patients implanted with the Tetraflex accommodating IOL for at least 2 years underwent assessment of their objective amplitude-of-accommodation by autorefraction, anterior chamber depth and pupil size with optical coherence tomography, and IOL flexure with aberrometry, each viewing a target at 0.0 to 4.00 diopters of accommodative demand. RESULTS:Pupil size decreased by 0.62+/-0.41 mm on increasing accommodative demand, but the Tetraflex IOL was relatively fixed in position within the eye. The ocular aberrations of the eye changed with increased accommodative demand, but not in a consistent manner among individuals. Those aberrations that appeared to be most affected were defocus, vertical primary and secondary astigmatism, vertical coma, horizontal and vertical primary and secondary trefoil, and spherical aberration. CONCLUSIONS:Some of the reported near vision benefits of the Tetraflex accommodating IOL appear to be due to changes in the optical aberrations because of the flexure of the IOL on accommodative effort rather than forward movement within the capsular bag

Investigating interfacial electron transfer in dye-sensitized NiO using vibrational spectroscopy

Understanding what influences the formation and lifetime of charge-separated states is key to developing photoelectrochemical devices. This paper describes the use of time-resolved infrared absorption spectroscopy (TRIR) to determine the structure and lifetime of the intermediates formed on photoexcitation of two organic donor–π–acceptor dyes adsorbed to the surface of NiO. The donor and π-linker of both dyes is triphenylamine and thiophene but the acceptors differ, maleonitrile (1) and bodipy (2). Despite their structural similarities, dye 1 outperforms 2 significantly in devices. Strong transient bands in the fingerprint region (1 and 2) and nitrile region (2300–2000 cm−1) for 1 enabled us to monitor the structure of the excited states in solution or adsorbed on NiO (in the absence and presence of electrolyte) and the corresponding kinetics, which are on a ps–ns timescale. The results are consistent with rapid (<1 ps) charge-transfer from NiO to the excited dye (1) to give exclusively the charge-separated state on the timescale of our measurements. Conversely, the TRIR experiments revealed that multiple species are present shortly after excitation of the bodipy chromophore in 2, which is electronically decoupled from the thiophene linker. In solution, excitation first populates the bodipy singlet excited state, followed by charge transfer from the triphenylamine to the bodipy. The presence and short lifetime (τ ≈ 30 ps) of the charge-transfer excited state when 2 is adsorbed on NiO (2|NiO) suggests that charge separation is slower and/or less efficient in 2|NiO than in 1|NiO. This is consistent with the difference in performance between the two dyes in dye-sensitized solar cells and photoelectrochemical water splitting devices. Compared to n-type materials such as TiO2, less is understood regarding electron transfer between dyes and p-type metal oxides such as NiO, but it is evident that fast charge-recombination presents a limit to the performance of photocathodes. This is also a major challenge to photocatalytic systems based on a “Z-scheme”, where the catalysis takes place on a µs–s timescale

Generation and control of non-local quantum equivalent extreme ultraviolet photons

We present a high precision, self-referencing, common path XUV interferometer setup to produce pairs of spatially separated and independently controllable XUV pulses that are locked in phase and time. The spatial separation is created by introducing two equal but opposite wavefront tilts or using superpositions of orbital angular momentum. In our approach, we can independently control the relative phase/delay of the two optical beams with a resolution of 52 zs (zs = zeptoseconds). In order to explore the level of entanglement between the non-local photons, we compare three different beam modes: Bessel-like, and Gaussian with or without added orbital angular momentum. By reconstructing interference patterns one or two photons at a time we conclude that the beams are not entangled, yet each photon in the attosecond pulse train contains information about the entire spectrum. Our technique generates non-local, quantum equivalent XUV photons with a temporal jitter of 3 zs, just below the Compton unit of time of 8 zs. We argue that this new level of temporal precision will open the door for new dynamical QED tests. We also discuss the potential impact on other areas, such as imaging, measurements of non-locality, and molecular quantum tomography.Comment: 11 pages 5 figures and supplemental materials with 12 pages and 7 figure

Evaluation of an open-field autorefractor's ability to measure refraction and hence potential to assess objective accommodation in pseudophakes

Background: To evaluate the accuracy of an open-field autorefractor compared with subjective refraction in pseudophakes and hence its ability to assess objective eye focus with intraocular lenses (IOLs). Methods: Objective refraction was measured at 6 m using the Shin-Nippon NVision-K 5001/Grand Seiko WR-5100K open-field autorefractor (five repeats) and by subjective refraction on 141 eyes implanted with a spherical (Softec1 n=53), aspherical (SoftecHD n=37) or accommodating (1CU n=22; Tetraflex n=29) IOL. Autorefraction was repeated 2 months later. Results: The autorefractor prescription was similar (average difference: 0.09±0.53 D; p=0.19) to that found by subjective refraction, with ~71% within ±0.50 D. The horizontal cylindrical components were similar (difference: 0.00±0.39 D; p=0.96), although the oblique (J45) autorefractor cylindrical vector was slightly more negative (by -0.06±0.25 D; p=0.06) than the subjective refraction. The results were similar for each of the IOL designs except for the spherical IOL, where the mean spherical equivalent difference between autorefraction and subjective was more hypermetropic than the Tetraflex accommodating IOL (F=2.77, p=0.04). The intrasession repeatability wa

Judging distance across texture discontinuities

Sinai et al (1998 Nature 395 497 - 500) showed that less distance is perceived along a ground surface that spans two differently textured regions than along a surface that is uniformly textured. We examined the effect of texture continuity on judged distance using computer-generated displays of simulated surfaces in five experiments. Discontinuities were produced by using different textures, the same texture reversed in contrast, or the same texture shifted horizontally. The simulated surface was either a ground plane or a frontoparallel plane. For all textures and both orientations, less distance was judged in the discontinuous conditions than in continuous conditions. We propose that when a surface contains a texture discontinuity, a small area adjacent to the perceived boundary is excluded from judged distances