A closer look at projects [Case study], pp. 1-4.

This is a case study that looks at two use cases for projects. The first is with Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) who use projects to archive and maintain projects within the institute (and, soon, for sensitive data). The second is with the Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture (MoDA) at Middlesex University who are using projects for individual research projects within the museum

The Importance of Timing in Repeated Traumatic Brain Injury

Repeated closed-head traumatic brain injury (rTBI) can result in serious consequences, such as the development of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and many others. This study characterizes the consequences of injury timing in a Drosophila melanogaster model of rTBI. Specifically, each fly was subjected to 4 strikes with a modified “high impact trauma” (HIT) device. The strikes were separated by either 5 minutes, 2 hours, 4 hours, or 36 hours. These inter-strike intervals theoretically provided an opportunity to study outcomes of repeated brain injury during times of unresolved rTBI mechanisms. Half of the flies were raised on diets supplemented with polyphenols to determine whether this would ameliorate the consequences of rTBI. A series of behavioral tests (climbing abilities, locomotor activity) was administered after the last strike, and the age at which each fly died was recorded. The results demonstrated that traumatic brain injury (TBI) reduced post-injury survival and climbing abilities, a pomegranate juice diet protected against 24-hour mortality, and an ellagic acid + sugar diet shortened lifespan. Regarding inter-injury intervals, 240-minute inter-injury interval flies had an improved lifespan, 2160-minute inter-injury interval flies had the lowest climbing performance, and female flies subjected to the 2160-minute inter-injury protocol had a reduced 24-hour mortality. This study helped to elucidate rTBI consequences by using a fruit fly model of TBI that allowed for subsequent injury during literature-derived windows of primary and secondary TBI injury mechanisms. Research continuing to build on this focus of injury intervals is important for strengthening empirical support for the conceptualization and treatment of the many individuals that sustain a TBI

Fine mapping in tomato using microsynteny with the Arabidopsis genome: the Diageotropica (Dgt) locus

BACKGROUND: The Arabidopsis thaliana genome sequence provides a catalog of reference genes applicable to comparative microsynteny analysis of other species, facilitating map-based cloning in economically important crops. We have applied such an analysis to the tomato expressed sequence tag (EST) database to expedite high-resolution mapping of the Diageotropica (Dgt) gene within the distal end of chromosome 1 in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum). RESULTS: A BLAST search of the Arabidopsis database with nucleotide sequences of markers that flank the tomato dgt locus revealed regions of microsynteny between the distal end of chromosome 1 in tomato, two regions of Arabidopsis chromosome 4, and one on chromosome 2. Tomato ESTs homeologous to Arabidopsis gene sequences within those regions were converted into co-dominant molecular markers via cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) analysis and scored against an informative backcross mapping population. Six new microsyntenic EST (MEST) markers were rapidly identified in the dgt region, two of which further defined the placement of the Dgt gene and permitted the selection of a candidate tomato bacterial artificial chromosome clone for sequence analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Microsynteny-based comparative mapping combined with CAPS analysis of recombinant plants rapidly and economically narrowed the dgt mapping region from 0.8 to 0.15 cM. This approach should contribute to developing high-density maps of molecular markers to target-specific regions for positional cloning and marker-assisted selection in a variety of plants

Засади та історія становлення соціального вчення Українського католицизму

In equine medicine the use of Botox® is experimental. Dosages are determined from human treatment-protocols and limited numbers of equine studies. Determination of target-muscle volume can be helpful to extrapolate human dosages. The aim of the study was to calculate a formula enabling the estimation of the deep digital flexor muscle (DDFM) volume based on distances between anatomical landmarks. Nineteen cadaveric limbs were collected and distance A (top of olecranon to Os carpi accessorium) and B (circumference of limb) were measured. Converting mathematical formulas, C was calculated: π × (((0.5B)/π)(2)) × A. DDFM volume was determined by water displacement. Linear Regression Analysis was used to analyse data. The line best fitting the observed points was: Ln(volume[ml]) = -1.89 + 0.98 × Ln(value C[cm(3)]). Correlation was highest when natural logarithm was applied to both variables and was 0.97. The calculated formula enables estimating DDFM volume of a living horse. This estimated volume can be useful to apply human Botox® treatment-protocols

Vibrations of a Complex System with a Viscoelastic Inertial Interlayer

The paper presents an analytical method for solving problems of free and forced vibrations with damping of complex systems whose loaded layers are made of homogeneous elastic inertial materials, and the middle one is made of viscoelastic inertial material. Small lateral vibrations of the complex systems are caused by distributed and movable loads. A dynamic analysis of laminated structures for a wide range of variation of the geometrical and mechanical characteristics of a layer from viscoelastic inertial material was performed.Предложен аналитический метод решения задач о затухании свободных и вынужденных колебаний сложных систем, несущие слои которых выполнены из однородного упругого, а средний - из вязкоупругого инерционного материала. Малые поперечные колебания сложных систем обусловлены распределенной и подвижной нагрузкой. Выполнен динамический анализ слоистых конструкций в широком диапазоне изменения геометрических и механических характеристик слоя из вязкоупругого инерционного материала.Запропоновано аналітичний метод розв’язку задач щодо згасання вільних та вимушених коливань складних систем, несучі шари яких виконано з однорідного пружного, а середній - з в’язкопружного інерційного матеріалу. Малі поперечні коливання складних систем зумовлені розподіленим і рухомим навантаженням. Виконано динамічний аналіз шаруватих конструкцій у широкому діапазоні зміни геометричних і механічних характеристик шару з в’язкопружного інерційного матеріалу

Effective theories of single field inflation when heavy fields matter

We compute the low energy effective field theory (EFT) expansion for single-field inflationary models that descend from a parent theory containing multiple other scalar fields. By assuming that all other degrees of freedom in the parent theory are sufficiently massive relative to the inflaton, it is possible to derive an EFT valid to arbitrary order in perturbations, provided certain generalized adiabaticity conditions are respected. These conditions permit a consistent low energy EFT description even when the inflaton deviates off its adiabatic minimum along its slowly rolling trajectory. By generalizing the formalism that identifies the adiabatic mode with the Goldstone boson of this spontaneously broken time translational symmetry prior to the integration of the heavy fields, we show that this invariance of the parent theory dictates the entire non-perturbative structure of the descendent EFT. The couplings of this theory can be written entirely in terms of the reduced speed of sound of adiabatic perturbations. The resulting operator expansion is distinguishable from that of other scenarios, such as standard single inflation or DBI inflation. In particular, we re-derive how certain operators can become transiently strongly coupled along the inflaton trajectory, consistent with slow-roll and the validity of the EFT expansion, imprinting features in the primordial power spectrum, and we deduce the relevant cubic operators that imply distinct signatures in the primordial bispectrum which may soon be constrained by observations.Comment: (v1) 25 pages, 1 figure; (v2) references added and typos corrected, to appear in Journal of High Energy Physic

Weighting for the beat: Using a dance cue to facilitate turning in people with Parkinson's Disease and freezing of gait

Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Freezing of gait (FOG) can severely compromise daily functioning in people with Parkinson’s disease. Inability to initiate a step from FOG is likely underpinned, at least in part, by a deficient preparatory weight-shift. Conscious attempts to weight-shift in preparation to step can improve success of initiating forward steps following FOG. However, FOG often occurs during turning, where weight-shifting is more complex and risk of falling is higher. We explored the effectiveness of a dance-based (‘cha-cha’) weight-shifting strategy to re-initiate stepping following FOG during turning. Results suggest that this simple movement strategy can enhance turning steps following FOG, without compromising safety.Parkinson's UK project grant (K-1604)

The effect of a brief action planning intervention on adherence to double-blind study medication, compared to a standard trial protocol, in the Atorvastatin in Factorial with Omega EE90 Risk Reduction in Diabetes (AFORRD) clinical trial: A cluster randomised sub-study

AIMS: Clinical trial patients are highly motivated but may encounter difficulty in taking study medication regularly when treatment burden is substantial. We assessed a brief behavioural intervention, given in addition to a standard trial protocol. METHODS: We performed a two-arm adherence sub-study within a twelve-month randomised controlled drug trial evaluating the impact of statin and/or omega-3 EE90 treatment in 800 patients with type 2 diabetes. Fifty-nine United Kingdom general practices were cluster-randomised to action-planning or control groups. The former delivered an initial written exercise prompting participants to formulate action-plans to take study medication regularly, with brief nurse encouragement to use action-plans at later visits, whilst the latter followed the standard trial protocol. The primary outcome was proportion of days on which study medication were taken as intended measured by electronic medication containers. RESULTS: Adjusted mean (95% CI) proportion of days with medication taken as intended was 79.3% (76.3-82.3%)for the 30 action-planning practices (321 participants), compared with 78.5% (75.8-81.1%) for 27 control group practices (426 participants, with a mean intervention effect of 0.9%, 95% CI -3.1% to +4.9%, p=0.67). Adjusted odds ratios for ⩾80% trial medication adherence for action-planning compared with control practices were 1.29 (0.90-1.84) and 1.38 (0.96-1.99) respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Low-intensity action-planning interventions used alone are unlikely to have a clinically important impact on medication adherence, particularly in a clinical trial setting. These findings, do not exclude their contribution, as part of a multifactorial intervention, to improving treatment adherence. ISRCTN number 76737502.Pfizer Ltd

Features of heavy physics in the CMB power spectrum

The computation of the primordial power spectrum in multi-field inflation models requires us to correctly account for all relevant interactions between adiabatic and non-adiabatic modes around and after horizon crossing. One specific complication arises from derivative interactions induced by the curvilinear trajectory of the inflaton in a multi-dimensional field space. In this work we compute the power spectrum in general multi-field models and show that certain inflaton trajectories may lead to observationally significant imprints of `heavy' physics in the primordial power spectrum if the inflaton trajectory turns, that is, traverses a bend, sufficiently fast (without interrupting slow roll), even in cases where the normal modes have masses approaching the cutoff of our theory. We emphasise that turning is defined with respect to the geodesics of the sigma model metric, irrespective of whether this is canonical or non-trivial. The imprints generically take the form of damped superimposed oscillations on the power spectrum. In the particular case of two-field models, if one of the fields is sufficiently massive compared to the scale of inflation, we are able to compute an effective low energy theory for the adiabatic mode encapsulating certain relevant operators of the full multi-field dynamics. As expected, a particular characteristic of this effective theory is a modified speed of sound for the adiabatic mode which is a functional of the background inflaton trajectory and the turns traversed during inflation. Hence in addition, we expect non-Gaussian signatures directly related to the features imprinted in the power spectrum.Comment: 41 pages, 6 figures, references updated, minor modifications. Version to appear in JCAP. v4: Equations (4.28) and (4.30) and Figures 5 and 6 correcte