Some nutritional properties of unrefined sugar and its promotion of the survival of new-born rats.

1. The claims that rats fed on diets with ‘brown sugar’ (unrefined muscovado) perform better in a number of ways than do rats fed on refined white sugar (sucrose) have been examined. 2. Male Wistar rats were fed on purified diets from weaning, in which the carbohydrate component was either maize starch or unrefined sugar or sucrose. The sugars produced no differences in growth rate, body composition, or the weights of liver or kidneys. Compared with sucrose, unrefined sugar produced an increase in blood cholesterol and in the activity of hepatic fatty acid synthetase, and a greater increase in blood triglyceride. In confirmation of earlier results, rats fed on either sugar had heavier livers and kidneys, increased activity of hepatic glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.49) and a higher concentration of plasma triglyceride compared with rats fed on maize starch. 3. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were fed on the same three diets as the male rats, and mated when they weighed about 200 g. No difference was seen in their ability to mate, the progress of pregnancies, or the sizes of the litters. Does fed on unrefined sugar produced litters of higher viability than did does fed on starch or sucrose. Survival was between 85 and 100% with unrefined sugar and between 30 and 75% with starch or sucrose. 4. Unrefined muscovado sugar has thus been shown to contain a factor required by female rats for the proper viability of their pups. This may be the same ‘Reproductive Factor R’ as that described by Wiesner & Yudkin (1951). In certain circumstances, unrefined muscovado sugar might therefore contribute to the nutritional value of a human diet, although in what circumstances, in what respect and to what extent it might do so, is by no means clear

Effect of Spent Lubricating Oil on the Composition and Abundance of Arthropod Communities of an Urban Soil

The effect of spent lubricating oil on the composition and abundance of soil arthropods in impacted sites compared with natural control sites was assessed in Benin City, Southern Nigeria. The Modified Berlese-Tullgren Funnel method was used for the extraction of soil arthropod fauna. The results showed that altogether, 476 specimens were collected and sorted into four arthropod groups, namely Acarina, Collembola, Hymenoptera and Myriapoda in successive order of abundance at both sites studied. Soil arthropod taxa and abundance were significantly lower (u(2) = 51, P<0.05) at the impacted sites where 10.92% (52) of the total number occurred compared to 89.08% (424) recorded in the natural control site. Significant differences were detected in pH and total hydrocarbon content (THC) between the impacted and control sites, the values of pH and THC were significantly higher (P<0.05) at the impacted site; inversely, the arthropod faunal abundance were lower at the impacted sites. Basically, Myriapoda were most sensitive while Acarina, Collembola and Hymenoptera showed trends of population fluctuation. In general, abundance and richness of species were negatively affected by habitat transformation caused by spent engine oil application. © JASE

Investigation of hydrophobic moment and hydrophobicity properties for transmembrane α-helices

Integral membrane proteins are the primary targets of novel drugs but are largely without solved structures. As a consequence, hydrophobic moment plot methodology is often used to identify putative transmembrane α-helices of integral membrane proteins, based on their local maximum mean hydrophobic moment (<μH>) and the corresponding mean hydrophobicity (<H>). To calculate these properties, the methodology identifies an optimal eleven residue window (L = 11), assuming an amino acid angular frequency, θ, fixed at 100°. Using a data set of 403 transmembrane α-helix forming sequences, the relationship between <μH> and <H>, and the effect of varying of L and / or θ on this relationship, was investigated. Confidence intervals for correlations between <μH> and <H> are established. It is shown, using bootstrapping procedures that the strongest statistically significant correlations exist for small windows where 7 ≤ L ≤ 16. Monte Carlo analysis suggests that this correlation is dependent upon amino acid residue primary structure, implying biological function and indicating that smaller values of L give better characterisation of transmembrane sequences using <μH>. However, varying window size can also lead to different regions within a given sequence being identified as the optimal window for structure / function predictions. Furthermore, it is shown that optimal periodicity varies with window size; the optimum, based on <μH> over the range of window sizes, (7 ≤ L ≤ 16), was at θ = 102° for the transmembrane α-helix data set

A Review of Causes of Mortality in an Acute Medicine of the Elderly and Acute Stroke Service

The information recorded in medical certificates of cause of death (MCCD) can influence population-based mortality and statistical reviews. Data retrieved from MCCD based studies can inform certain aspects of public health planning, health service delivery and evaluation, and could potentially impact health resource allocation. This study retrospectively reviews a total of 173 consecutive MCCD counterfoil records. This included 71 deaths from an acute stroke unit/ward (ASU), and 102 deaths from acute medicine of the elderly (acute MoE) wards of a tertiary referral hospital in a developed country. Disease/condition classification was based upon the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (Tenth Revision) (ICD-10, WHO). We describe the top five ICD-10 categories of diseases/conditions documented in Parts 1 and 2 of the MCCD during the study period. We also describe the top five underlying primary medical conditions recorded on the MCCD. A review of some other notable diseases/conditions recorded during the study period is also presented.Keywords: Cause of Death; Death Certificate; ICD-10; Medicine of the Elderly; Mortality; Strok

Screening of Cassia singuaena, Commiphora kerstingii, Khaya senegalensis for brine shrimp lethality and antiplasmodium activity

Extracts of Cassia singueana, (twigs), Commiphora kerstingii (stem) and the bark of Khaya senegalensis were screened for antimalaria activity. Brine shrimp lethality assay was also employed as activity guide. Chloroform extracts of C. singueana was found to be the most active in both brine shrimp lethality (BST) and anti-malaria assay. The aqueous extract of K. senegalensis and Commiphora kerstinigii were found to be in-active against brine shrimp larvae. The phytochemical analysis of crude plants under investigation showed presence of saponins, tannins, glycosides and sterols.Keywords: Screening of Cassia singueana, Commiphora kerstingii, Khaya senegalensis, brine shrimp test

Supramolecular polymer networks based on cucurbit[8]uril host-guest interactions as aqueous photo-rheological fluids

A low-mass fraction (≤0.75 wt%) supramolecular polymer network is fabricated as an aqueous photo-rheological fluid (PRF) via cucurbit[8]uril mediated host–guest interactions. UV irradiation can induce the transition from a highly viscous and rigid gel into a Newtonian-like fluid.C.S.Y.T. thanks Ministry of Education of Malaysia and MARA University of Technology for their financial supports. J. L. is financially supported by the Marie Curie FP7 SASSYPOL ITN programme. J.d.B. is grateful for a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (Project 273807). O.A.S thanks the ERC for their funding.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from RSC via http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C5PY01115

Cornering the unphysical vertex

In the classical pure spinor worldsheet theory of AdS5xS5 there are some vertex operators which do not correspond to any physical excitations. We study their flat space limit. We find that the BRST operator of the worldsheet theory in flat space-time can be nontrivially deformed without deforming the worldsheet action. Some of these deformations describe the linear dilaton background. But the deformation corresponding to the nonphysical vertex differs from the linear dilaton in not being worldsheet parity even. The nonphysically deformed worldsheet theory has nonzero beta-function at one loop. This means that the classical Type IIB SUGRA backgrounds are not completely characterized by requiring the BRST symmetry of the classical worldsheet theory; it is also necessary to require the vanishing of the one-loop beta-function.Comment: LaTeX 40pp; v2: explained the relation to the linear dilaton background (Section 6), changes in Introduction and Abstrac

On-demand or Spot? Selling the cloud to risk-averse customers

In Amazon EC2, cloud resources are sold through a combination of an on-demand market, in which customers buy resources at a fixed price, and a spot market, in which customers bid for an uncertain supply of excess resources. Standard market environments suggest that an optimal design uses just one type of market. We show the prevalence of a dual market system can be explained by heterogeneous risk attitudes of customers. In our stylized model, we consider unit demand risk-averse bidders. We show the model admits a unique equilibrium, with higher revenue and higher welfare than using only spot markets. Furthermore, as risk aversion increases, the usage of the on-demand market increases. We conclude that risk attitudes are an important factor in cloud resource allocation and should be incorporated into models of cloud markets.Comment: Appeared at WINE 201

Epidermiology of Hand Injuries Seen at Two Teaching Hospitals in Sothern Nigeria

No Abstract

Multiple sclerosis susceptibility alleles in African Americans.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune demyelinating disease characterized by complex genetics and multifaceted gene-environment interactions. Compared to whites, African Americans have a lower risk for developing MS, but African Americans with MS have a greater risk of disability. These differences between African Americans and whites may represent differences in genetic susceptibility and/or environmental factors. SNPs from 12 candidate genes have recently been identified and validated with MS risk in white populations. We performed a replication study using 918 cases and 656 unrelated controls to test whether these candidate genes are also associated with MS risk in African Americans. CD6, CLEC16a, EVI5, GPC5, and TYK2 contained SNPs that are associated with MS risk in the African American data set. EVI5 showed the strongest association outside the major histocompatibility complex (rs10735781, OR=1.233, 95% CI=1.06-1.43, P-value=0.006). In addition, RGS1 seems to affect age of onset whereas TNFRSF1A seems to be associated with disease progression. None of the tested variants showed results that were statistically inconsistent with the effects established in whites. The results are consistent with shared disease genetic mechanisms among individuals of European and African ancestry