Assessing a novel contact heater as a new method of recovering explosives traces from porous surfaces

It can be very challenging to recover explosives traces from porous surfaces, such as clothing and car seats, compared to non-porous surfaces. The contact heater has been developed as a novel instrument designed to recover explosives traces from porous surfaces. Samples are taken by heating and drawing air across a surface, with the air flowing through a sampling cartridge containing adsorbent polymer beads, which act to trap any recovered explosive material. Any collected explosive can then be eluted from this cartridge using a solvent, prior to analysis. This paper outlines work performed to evaluate the usefulness of the contact heater with regards to the recovery of explosives traces from porous materials. Ethylene glycol dinitrate (EGDN) and triacetone triperoxide (TATP) were chosen as two representative explosives for this study. Quantification was performed using GC–MS for EGDN and LC–MS/MS for TATP. Different sampling temperatures, sampling times and elution solvents were investigated. Recovery was trialled from leather, carpet and denim. Recoveries of up to 71% were obtained following optimisation. It was also possible to recover TATP from fabrics exposed to TATP vapour in a vapour-laden jar up to two hours after exposure. The contact heater therefore appears to be a very useful tool for the recovery of explosives traces from porous materials

The stability of TNT, RDX and PETN in simulated post-explosion soils:Implications of sample preparation for analysis

Explosives residues in soils may be a useful source of evidence following the detonation of an improvised explosive device (IED), such as a vehicle-borne IED. Soil samples collected from the vicinity of an explosion scene will often be stored for some time prior to analysis, yet explosives residues in soil samples are susceptible to rapid degradation or transformation. Although some research has assessed the use of different storage temperatures with a view to reducing explosives' degradation over time, further research examining the degradation of explosives in soil when stored under a variety of storage conditions is crucial to determine the optimal sample collection and storage procedures for soil containing explosives residues. In this work, three different soils were spiked with solutions of TNT, RDX and PETN and stored either at room temperature, refrigerated or frozen. Samples were extracted over 6 weeks, with additional samples gamma-irradiated or nitrogen purged prior to storage. Experimental results indicate that TNT underwent very rapid degradation at room temperature, attributed to microbial action, whereas PETN and RDX proved to be more stable. Gamma irradiation and nitrogen purging proved of some benefit for mitigating TNT degradation, with lower storage temperatures ultimately proving the most effective method of mitigating degradation

The Relationship Between Future orientation and Street Substance Use among Texas alternative School Students

Self-reported substance use data were collected from 963 alternative school students in grades 7-12 who were surveyed through the Safer Choices 2 study in Houston, Texas. Data were collected between October 2000 and March 2001. Logistic regression analyses indicated that lower levels of future orientation was significantly associated (OR = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.81-0.97) with thirty-day substance use after controlling for age and gender. In addition, lower levels of future orientation was found to have a significant association with students\u27 lifetime substance use (OR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.87-.99) after controlling for age, race, and gender. While the relationships tested in this study are exploratory, they provide evidence for an important connection between future orientation and substance use among adolescents attending alternative schools

Incidence of emergency department visits for electric rental scooters using detailed ridership data

INTRODUCTION: Electric scooter (e-scooter) rental usage has increased exponentially around the country, expanding to more than 120 cities by the end of 2018. Early attempts to capture the safety effects of widespread adoption of this technology have been hampered by lack of accurate ridership data. Here we describe a 17-month evolution of ridership characteristics in St. Louis, Missouri, and the frequency of e-scooter rental-related injuries serious enough to require an emergency department (ED) visit over this time frame; we also provide estimates of incidence rates of injuries based on company ridership data. METHODS: We performed a combination retrospective chart review and prospective questionnaire-based analysis of adult e-scooter rental-related ED visits in both downtown St. Louis Level 1 trauma centers during the first 17 months of e-scooter rental usage (August 2018-December 2019). The retrospective portion focused on demographics, alcohol use, helmet use, disposition, operative repair, and temporal and severity markers. The prospective portion focused on more detailed crash and rider data. Finally, we used ridership data from both e-scooter rental companies in St. Louis to estimate incidence and temporal trends. RESULTS: A total of 221 patients had e-scooter rental-related ED visits. The median age of our population was 31 years with 58.8% male and 53.8% White. There were no deaths. Ninety-two patients were found to have fractures with 38% requiring surgery. Of the 21 patients diagnosed with head injury, five had an intracranial bleed. Overall incidence of ED visits related to e-scooters was 2.1 per 10,000 trips and 2.2 per 10,000 miles with the number of ED visits by month closely correlated with the number of rides per month (Pearson correlation coefficient = 0.95). CONCLUSION: The number of e-scooter rental-related injuries seen in St. Louis trauma centers was relatively low and correlated closely with overall number of rides. The number of injuries decreased and were less severe from 2018 to 2019 with infrequent intracranial injuries and a large percentage of fractures requiring operative repair

Platelet‐Oriented Inhibition in New TIA and Minor Ischemic Stroke ( POINT ) Trial: Rationale and design

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/99014/1/ijs12129.pd

The Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI)

We demonstrate a novel technology that combines the power of the multi-object spectrograph with the spatial multiplex advantage of an integral field spectrograph (IFS). The Sydney-AAO Multi-object IFS (SAMI) is a prototype wide-field system at the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) that allows 13 imaging fibre bundles ("hexabundles") to be deployed over a 1-degree diameter field of view. Each hexabundle comprises 61 lightly-fused multimode fibres with reduced cladding and yields a 75 percent filling factor. Each fibre core diameter subtends 1.6 arcseconds on the sky and each hexabundle has a field of view of 15 arcseconds diameter. The fibres are fed to the flexible AAOmega double-beam spectrograph, which can be used at a range of spectral resolutions (R=lambda/delta(lambda) ~ 1700-13000) over the optical spectrum (3700-9500A). We present the first spectroscopic results obtained with SAMI for a sample of galaxies at z~0.05. We discuss the prospects of implementing hexabundles at a much higher multiplex over wider fields of view in order to carry out spatially--resolved spectroscopic surveys of 10^4 to 10^5 galaxies.Comment: 24 pages, 16 figures. Accepted by MNRA

Establishment of vaginal microbiota composition in early pregnancy and its association with subsequent preterm prelabor rupture of the fetal membranes

© 2019 The Authors Vaginal bacterial community composition influences pregnancy outcome. Preterm prelabor rupture of the fetal membranes (PPROM), which precedes 30% of all spontaneous preterm births, is associated with high vaginal bacterial diversity prior to rupture. The point at which vaginal bacterial diversity is established before PPROM is unknown. In this study, we use metataxonomics to longitudinally characterize the vaginal bacterial composition from as early as 6 weeks of gestation in women at high (n = 38) and low (n = 22) risk of preterm birth who subsequently experience PPROM and in women delivering at term without complications (n = 36). Reduced Lactobacillus spp. abundance and high diversity was observed prior to PPROM in 20% and 26% of women at low and high risk of preterm births respectively, but in only 3% of women who delivered at term. PPROM was associated with instability of bacterial community structure during pregnancy and a shift toward higher diversity predominately occurring during the second trimester. This was characterized by increased relative abundance of potentially pathogenic species including Prevotella, Peptoniphilus, Streptococcus, and Dialister. This study identifies reduced Lactobacillus spp. abundance and increasing vaginal bacterial diversity as an early risk factor for PPROM and highlights the need for interventional studies designed to assess the impact of modifying vaginal bacterial composition for the prevention of preterm birth

Does milk intake promote prostate cancer initiation or progression via effects on insulin-like growth factors (IGFs)? A systematic review and meta-analysis

$\textbf{PURPOSE}$: To establish whether the association between milk intake and prostate cancer operates via the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) pathway (including IGF-I, IGF-II, IGFBP-1, IGFBP-2, and IGFBP-3). $\textbf{METHODS}$: Systematic review, collating data from all relevant studies examining associations of milk with IGF, and those examining associations of IGF with prostate cancer risk and progression. Data were extracted from experimental and observational studies conducted in either humans or animals, and analyzed using meta-analysis where possible, with summary data presented otherwise. $\textbf{RESULTS}$: One hundred and seventy-two studies met the inclusion criteria: 31 examining the milk-IGF relationship; 132 examining the IGF-prostate cancer relationship in humans; and 10 animal studies examining the IGF-prostate cancer relationship. There was moderate evidence that circulating IGF-I and IGFBP-3 increase with milk (and dairy protein) intake (an estimated standardized effect size of 0.10 SD increase in IGF-I and 0.05 SD in IGFBP-3 per 1 SD increase in milk intake). There was moderate evidence that prostate cancer risk increased with IGF-I (Random effects meta-analysis OR per SD increase in IGF-I 1.09; 95% CI 1.03, 1.16; n = 51 studies) and decreased with IGFBP-3 (OR 0.90; 0.83, 0.98; n = 39 studies), but not with other growth factors. The IGFBP-3 -202A/C single nucleotide polymorphism was positively associated with prostate cancer (pooled OR for A/C vs. AA = 1.22; 95% CI 0.84, 1.79; OR for C/C vs. AA = 1.51; 1.03, 2.21, n = 8 studies). No strong associations were observed for IGF-II, IGFBP-1 or IGFBP-2 with either milk intake or prostate cancer risk. There was little consistency within the data extracted from the small number of animal studies. There was additional evidence to suggest that the suppression of IGF-II can reduce tumor size, and contradictory evidence with regards to the effect of IGFBP-3 suppression on tumor progression. $\textbf{CONCLUSION}$: IGF-I is a potential mechanism underlying the observed associations between milk intake and prostate cancer risk.Funded by World Cancer Research Fund (grant number: RFA 2012/620). SH is a Wellcome Trust Funded PhD student with Grant code 102432/Z/13/Z. Additionally supported by funding from the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit at the University of Bristol (MC_UU_12013/1, MC_UU_12013/2) and a Cancer Research UK (C18281/A19169) Programme Grant (the Integrative Cancer Epidemiology Programme). RMM is supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Bristol Nutritional Biomedical Research Unit based at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Bristol

Clinical Pattern of Tolvaptan-Associated Liver Injury in Subjects with Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease: Analysis of Clinical Trials Database

IntroductionSubjects with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) who were taking tolvaptan experienced aminotransferase elevations more frequently than those on placebo in the TEMPO 3:4 (Tolvaptan Efficacy and Safety in Management of Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease and its Outcomes) clinical trial.MethodsAn independent, blinded, expert Hepatic Adjudication Committee re-examined data from TEMPO 3:4 and its open-label extension TEMPO 4:4, as well as from long-term (>14months) non-ADPKD tolvaptan trials, using the 5-point Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network classification.ResultsIn TEMPO 3:4, 1445 subjects were randomized 2:1 (tolvaptan vs. placebo) and 1441 had post-baseline assessments of hepatic injury. Sixteen patients on tolvaptan and one on placebo had significant aminotransferase elevations judged to be at least probably related to study drug. No association with dose or systemic exposure was found. Two of 957 subjects taking tolvaptan (0.2%) and zero of 484 taking placebo met the definition of a Hy’s Law case. One additional Hy’s Law case was identified in a TEMPO 4:4 subject who had received placebo in the lead study. The onset of a hepatocellular injury occurred between 3 and 18months after starting tolvaptan, with gradual resolution over the subsequent 1–4months. None of the events were associated with liver failure or chronic liver injury/dysfunction. No imbalance in hepatic events was observed between tolvaptan and placebo in lower-dose clinical trials of patients with hyponatremia, heart failure, or cirrhosis.ConclusionsAlthough hepatocellular injury following long-term tolvaptan treatment in ADPKD subjects was infrequent and reversible, the potential for serious irreversible injury exists. Regular monitoring of transaminase levels is warranted in this patient population

Blood lipids and prostate cancer: a Mendelian randomization analysis

Genetic risk scores were used as unconfounded instruments for specific lipid traits (Mendelian randomization) to assess whether circulating lipids causally influence prostate cancer risk. Data from 22,249 prostate cancer cases and 22,133 controls from 22 studies within the international PRACTICAL consortium were analyzed. Allele scores based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) previously reported to be uniquely associated with each of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and triglyceride (TG) levels, were first validated in an independent dataset, and then entered into logistic regression models to estimate the presence (and direction) of any causal effect of each lipid trait on prostate cancer risk. There was weak evidence for an association between the LDL genetic score and cancer grade: the odds ratio (OR) per genetically instrumented standard deviation (SD) in LDL, comparing high- (≥7 Gleason score) versus low-grade (<7 Gleason score) cancers was 1.50 (95% CI: 0.92, 2.46; P = 0.11). A genetically instrumented SD increase in TGs was weakly associated with stage: the OR for advanced versus localized cancer per unit increase in genetic risk score was 1.68 (95% CI: 0.95, 3.00; P = 0.08). The rs12916-T variant in 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGCR) was inversely associated with prostate cancer (OR: 0.97; 95% CI: 0.94, 1.00; P = 0.03). In conclusion, circulating lipids, instrumented by our genetic risk scores, did not appear to alter prostate cancer risk. We found weak evidence that higher LDL and TG levels increase aggressive prostate cancer risk, and that a variant in HMGCR (that mimics the LDL lowering effect of statin drugs) reduces risk. However, inferences are limited by sample size and evidence of pleiotropy